Dominion300

I agree with the above on experience. If anything in my opinion it's more beneficial to NOT work as an EMT. As I put in on another forum there are people in my class with 10+ years experience as an EMT and they have a hard time getting into that paramedic mind set. They know the material but can't seem to put themselves in the shoes of a medic. Myself, having less than 1 year of experience, is doing great. I know and understand the material, I do well on my evaluations and scenarios, and just generally seem ot be getting it. I have 3 years of college level courses in biology (I have not had biochem or A&P specifically yet), 3 semesters of english courses, math courses, a psychology course, a medical ethics course (I took this for a nursing school pre-req before I decided to not go to nursing school) Once I graduate from this class I plan on going to a local community college and taking a&p, biochem, etc. That's a long round about way of saying, no I suggest you go for it. If you're book smart, get the basics and you'll learn the rest during your clinical s and ride times.

Cause I'm bored going to add my two cents to the discussion of street experience vs. education. I personally have less than 1 year (about 6 months total in a non-911 system) experience and am currently enrolled in paramedic school. I had the luxury of being in two really great programs for my basic and now my paramedic. My basic class was long and focused on the students comprehension and ensuring not only could we pass the written and practicals but also that we understood the WHY and the HOW of everything we did. Now in my paramedic course we're doing the same thing in a 12 month didactic and 8 month clinical course. As someone who has had less than a year experience I've got a 95 in class averaged from test grades, homework assignment, ride time (basic ride time to observe and assist the medic on als calls), etc; i'm not lost, I have a good grasp on pharma, cardiac, my A&P, etc. I don't feel lost except for covering new concepts until I've had time to absorb and understand the material. Again there are 4 other students in my class that have less than 1 year, and they're doing GREAT. We had one guy who had 15 years experience as a basic who flunked out. So again this shows that experience isn't everything, it's education. Street smarts can be learned and to an extent that's what ride time is for and is a reason why my class had a BASIC ride time. We had to do 150 hours of basic ride time and during those times we had some pretty stringent passing requirements. One last reason I can think of is that in many situations with people with more than 5 years experience they have a hard time getting into paramedic mode and thinking like a paramedic. There are several in my class who after pharma, cardiology, all the basic a&p, etc still can't answer questions about how a paramedic would treat a scenario.

I'm going to agree here. To sue over an injury you obtained on the job is BS. You knew this job was dangerous when you started it and you have no grounds to sue a patient over an injury you obtained. As in your other scenario two people lifting a large patient. This also a scene consideration, when you show up and see a patient that might be too big for you, go ahead and call for assistance. I've refused to leave a scene before while waiting for assistance on a 550lbs patient. Well technically it was the medic I was working with, large patient coded. We had ourselves (a BLS truck) a medic backup in fly car, and we waited till fire was there to get her in the truck. We worked it while we waited. Everything you do in this job is a risk, and if anything this should be sussed out between you and your workmans comp. Atleast in my experience with a couple good friends on workmans comp, they got enough to pay their essential bills and had to cancel some of their luxury items (TV, etc) but were ok on medical, rent, insurance, etc.

My favorite portion of my basic class was the ride times. The service I rode with were all EXTREMELY friendly and very helpful. I didn't get to do too much (mainly because of low call volumes) but I did a full patient interview, assisted with all vitals, and other grunt work. Overall was a great experience, after my ride times I went back to the house and bought the crew dinner as a thank for letting me ride with them and teaching me as much as they did. Now I've taken my NREMT-B test and look forward to working for a service for awhile to get my feet wet then entering medic school, one step at a time though

This was not in an ambulance but was pretty funny. Before I recently moved I was working as a Double Agent for the Best Buy Geeksquad. For those that don't know the double agents are the ones who ride around in the painted bugs, for any body that works at the geeksquad our uniform is black slacks, black shoes, white dress shirt and black tie (think stereotypical mormon). This is what the car I drove looks like, in addition to the look our cars had a small geeksquad sign hanging on the back hatch (was an orange LED board that said Geeksquad, please visit our website at www.geeksquad.com or visit your local best buy!) that looked kinda like a lightbar when it was off. In the front of the car we had a window mounted GPS unit. Anyways I'm driving along the interstate, doing the speed limit (If caught driving fast fired immediatly) and listening to the radio at a fairly high volume. When I drive on the interstate I tend to get kinda into the zone and the flow of traffic and never look in my mirrors unless I'm changing lanes. All of a sudden I hear a siren, so I look and pull over into the right lane to let the cop pass, he gets behind me. I look down at my speed and the cruise was set at 54-55 so I knew I wasn't speeding. I think maybe somethings wrong with my lights or maybe the tags of the car. So I pull over the next thing I see is another officer pulling up behind the first and both coming to my car. Both cops are PISSED and demand that I get out of the car, so I do so and they escort me to the rear of the car. They are yelling at me because they had been following for 3 exits and I didn't pull over, then they lay into me for impersonating a police officer and that I wasn't allowed to have light bars in my vehicle etc. So after getting beratted I finally get a chance to show that the sign isn't a light bar and the one in the front is a GPS. I also show them all the info as well as my Geeksquad ID...which just so happens to be a badge that resembles a police badge. They flip out again about the badge and I'm written several tickets and sent on my way. Fast forward 3 months I'm doing my ride times at a station near where I was pulled over and guess who came in! Yep our friendly police officer, this time he was much more friendly and was joking with me and said "What now, you impersonating an EMT?!" we had a good laugh over it. Water under the bridge. As far as my job, I just gave the tickets to my manager and they took them to legal, they were taken off my record and thrown out in court. Although they made us get rid of the sign from the back of our cars.

I agree with the study and science analogy. As a person in your shoes I study for my tests and have never had a problem. All of the tests in my class were designed to be as difficult and in some cases more difficult than the NREMT and I was usually the first - third one done with the test because I studied. You will either know the answer or you won't...focus on the test and don't let your mind float away from ya. Best advice I could give...and good luck, I take my test this Wednesday, my skills test is tomorrow

People who burn out, quit, get fired, etc. I should also say my class size has been 3 times a year 30 people in 25ish out average for the past few years. They check up on everyone later on and of course we come back for CE's.

Hrm....well in response to that all I have to say is =D>. You are right I do underestimate the people that come in here to post. Although sometimes you are an ass

There is a difference between getting constructive criticism and being an ass. I have seen dust post constructive criticism and I've seen him be an ass. I was tired when I made the last post do I don't think I got my point across very well. And I agree with you, I'd rather be told "whoa buddy, you really do that? You need to change now!" than coddled. However comments I've seen from dust (and occasionally other members) while they are trying to be constructive come across as more negative than anything. How do you expect a newbie to learn if you chase them away before they even get started. Who knows they may end up the best paramedic in the country or they may sink like a rock and do transfers on a sub-par service the rest of their life, or even drop out. By saying things like I've seen dust say, these people are being pushed away. I guess what I'm trying to say is there are better ways to go about showing people the light without coddling and without insulting them. Insulting people gets you no where, and I hope no one reads this post as an insult or to call anyone out. I try to hold my tounge, but this latest comment was an indirect insult to me and anyone who has a city running some BLS....we all have to get our feet wet somehow and with quality training like we have in my area, it's a good venture to do so with BLS service. 90% of the people who take our classes go on to paramedics. 5% like working BLS and 5% burn out. (rough estimates from numbers the last few years) With that said, that's my last comment. I really do enjoy these boards and I mostly lurk, but I find a ton of good information and won't stop surfing just because of a few people. I just had to get this off my mind.

I'm sorry for the following rant, but I've held my tounge long enough. Where do you get off thinking your shit don't stink? I'm sick of seeing nearly every single post you make bashing anyone who is not of a paramedic level. As for your comment about systems that suck enough to only have lower trained members I take that as an insult personally to my City and everyone in Basic class preparing to take their nationals in the next couple weeks. While I agree to an extent that Basics education should be extended and upgraded, I don't go around bashing every single person who is in the process or has obtained an -B level. As in every profession in the freaking world there is poor training and people who slip through the cracks. You automatically assume that everyone who is starting out is going into it for the wrong reasons or doesnt know what they are doing. The person who made the topic put up a valid question for someone who does not understand the EMS system. Before I ever really started researching what I needed to do to get into this career I had the same dumb questions. I didn't understand exactly how things worked, all I knew is from watching TV programs. I learned soon enough that I wanted to go through the basic to become a paramedic eventually. Again due to not knowing everything about the system even before I started I wanted to be a flight medic. I again looked around and saw that to be a flight medic it's recommended to also be an RN and have experience in both fields. So I applied to nursing school. Now I'm finishing up my Basic tests in a couple weeks and have been accepted to one of the best nursing schools in my area. Without the knowledge of how things work and what needed to be done I had the same questions rush is posing. I kinda got off track, but why don't you take a minute, take a bottle of chill pill, and calm the f down. Everyone should be entitled to experience a career before they choose that career. Sometimes it's just a bit harder to get into and experience.

Well as we are winding down and preparing to take our final tests and begin preparing for our practicals, I must say that things mellowed out. I've really enjoyed my time in this class, I've learned alot, coming from knowing nothing, and I feel confident in everything I've been taught so far. The instructors were great, they aimed to make you know yourstuff but would quickly shoot you down if you messed up or suffered from a big ego. Keeping everyone grounded in the class about expectations and having us ride more than what was required and in some cases we rode more than expected with local services. Look forward to getting my numbers and hopefully moving to paramedic school sometime next year Also, sorry to raise a dead topic

Website for a couple that takes EMS, Police, Fire and Rescue pictures and distributes them freely for use in textbooks and such. Near to where I lived, thought it was interesting. http://www.code3images.com/

So based on what you said, my instructer who has been in it since the late 70's and writes his tests (confirmed with students who are renewing) that are designed to be harder than the NR would be a good thing then. Your right, it is my money (450 I think, not sure if thats a good choice or what) and I want to make sure I'll have placement, which apparently is pretty good with this institution. good to hear

Heh, well hopefully they will calm down, we are still pretty early in class, just everytime written is brought up we are reminded about that.

Ok I'm a little bit nervous about my course. They all seem to be good and knowledgable, but of course I don't know anything. My question is I have heard of alot of places braging about their scores and all that but were a bit shady on how they reported them. The guys I'm learning under brag they have an 89% pass rate on the Written and 100% on practicals. It's something that is brought up fairly often and I know when your good it's nice to brag about it, but I'm afraid it's more of a who can be best contest than turning out good emts contest. The guys I'm currently learning with are life-savers.org if anyone has heard of em. Like I said though, they seem knowledgable =/

In my class we're using AAOS. He began class when we recieved them by saying our course syllabus said Brady but he was switching because the past few classes that used brady they had seen a steady decline in grades since switching. Personally I like AAOS so far, seems very straight forward in getting hte info out and across clearly.