I was able to talk to the director of the paramedic program through email. He said the first two years of the bachelors degree is the traditional two year associates paramedic degree. He said after you finish the first two years you take your national registry, and then can start working as a paramedic. After you finish your national registry you continue to talk classes to obtain credits towards your bachelors degree - and this is all health sciences like how the body works and what not. He said you do not need to be an EMT entering into the program, but you get extra credits coming in as one. He did not say anything about age. I am guessing you probably have to be 18 by the time you start getting your field experience. I am going to ask them that.
I may do that, so then I would have a bachelors degree in case if in the future I wish to continue my education on to something else in the health care world.
I was just wondering about the hemostatic agent because anyone can buy it and use it. As an EMR I can't help someone with it, but not as an EMR I can help someone with it if they request it, just like if I were a bystander. Is the bystander option ever optional? or with the EMR card you are stuck as an EMR and you have to follow EMR protocol until your card expires? It's not like I will be in a situation by myself where a patient is hemorrhaging so much that he or she needs a hemostatic agent anyway. It's just out of curiosity.
But is there ever a time where you can have a "time out" of being an EMT, and just act as a bystander to help them with whatever? As an EMR I am allowed to open a medication bottle, hold a cup or straw and whatever the patient needs. I just can't shove it down their mouths for them or make them swallow the medication, I can't also put the medication in their mouths. But if you are in bystander mode, then there is not protocols stopping you from helping them with the medication. That's just what I don't currently understand and find confusing.
I have thought about nursing. My mom is a NP so there was a lot of encouragement to take nursing from my mom. If I were to ever to get my BSN I wouldn't stay as one for long. I would probably advance to a CRNA program after the required years of nursing by the program. I found that working in the ambulance and right at the scene of an emergency is really I sort of want to be. I want to be the first person on the scene to help the patient in the best way possible and be able to transfer them to the advanced proper care they need.