PuzzlePiece

Thank you, Quicksilver. You're right... questions are questions and all help is appreciated.

Thank you kkidder. The website is pretty kewl.

I searched this site and did a general search on the internet for scenarios. I failed my first attempt at my written exam :oops: and was wondering if any of you have come across some FREE test scenarios for EMT-B. I live in KS and understand that we have some of the hardest written exams in the union, and I think that I may have had my downfall in two categories. One: Scenarios and Two: the PTL Airway (which we never covered in class). I only missed passing by one percentage point and am very disappointed in myself. I found a place on the internet that will let me do "flashcards" of specific information... but I'm really looking for something that will allow me to test in scenario form. Any advice is appreciated.

One thing you are going to need is thick skin.

If your easily offended, you will need to work on this.

What's funny is that IN PERSON I have terribly thick skin. Maybe I'm just portraying myself in the wrong light. Maybe lack of sleep is making me punchy and bitchy. They cancelled my practice for boards... which just means that I'm missing out on that which I need most, which is two quality hours of doing assessments. I only paid $805 for the class... no biggie.

Get used to being judged. Its the only constant in this field. It sounds like you are a very dedicated student, and thats a good thing, but don't go the "I'm the bestest hardest working student out there EVER" route.

My only question is what the crew that you were working with was doing while you pulled off the save. Did they go out for coffee and let you run the show? Just curious.

Relax.

I don't mind being judged in the field... I mind being judged here... where I wanted to go to get support. I have no problem with judgement in the field... it's what makes me better at what I do.

As far as what the crew was doing, I was with a paramedic and another EMT-B. and the EMT-B was doing crowd control, screaming hysterical wife control and the paramedic was intubating while I did compressions and breaths. The 58-year-old gentleman went home two days later. No, I'd never felt ribs crack and separate from a sternum on my test dummies either. It was an eye-opener but it solidified my desire. I'm carrying my assessments with me everywhere and studying them diligently. My test dates were moved back, so I have more time to study and practice.

Crap huh?..thats a great way to view an important-critical aspect of our profession. Im wondering just how you would actually be on the streets with your drama queen demeanor..(Sorry AK). Do yourself and those you may harm (if you pass) a favor.

Assess yourself for any future in this most noble work. Would you be better off as a cosmetologist, telemarketer, or used car sales person, or any job with out the EMS stress?

Also assess yourself academically and level with yourself on if you have the intellectual capacity to constanly seek new information, training, and education. I personally have been in EMS/Military medicine for 19 years combined and Im still a student in this field.

This field may not be for you. I hope you dont kill anyone or get yourself and your partner killed before you come to realize this.

With every best wish,

Somedic

First of all... yes, BOARDS are crap. I have signed for extra ride-alongs, I LOVE the job, I have a save under my belt and I'm a STUDENT. Don't preach to me that I can't handle the stress... both of the supervisors that I have worked with have commented on my calm... even when someone coded right in front of me on my second call EVER. I am currently a dispatcher for a federal police department and if I don't keep my cool, the people I dispatch for WILL die. I currently have a 98% in my EMT-B class and am the most dedicated student you or anyone else will EVER have. I WANT this job, I'm just f*cking freaking out that if I f*ck up my BOARDS, I won't be able to do what I want... which is to be in the field. I'm the first to get dirty and the last to leave. Don't judge me on some flippant comment I made... you don't even KNOW me. I came here for support, not to be judged.

I am an EMT-B student and my Boards aren't until Dec 17, but I'm freaking out. How will I ever remember all the steps to doing a Patient Assessment? There's two pages of crap to remember and I know I don't have to remember them in exact order, but cryst!! I've taken so many deep breaths I'm hyperventilating. I go on my rides tomorrow and Sunday and then I do my clinicals on Tuesday. What if I forget everything? Good gawd. I'm not freaking out about the rides and clinicals so much as I'm worried about Boards. Any advice on mnemonic devices to remember everything? :oops:

Then, of course, there's always part-time EMT.... my area has bike medics too... and I'm an avid cyclist. I could help fill in with "events" and such. See???? Every 30 seconds.

Thanx paramedicmike! My mind is changing every 30 seconds or so. Giving up the benefits that I receive with the government are hard to give up... I'm not sure what I want to do. I'm not giving up on the EMT thing, at the very least I will be a certified EMT-B in the end. Another experience... another certificate.

Barf

Do you know the difference between an EMT and a large pizza?

A large pizza can feed a family of four.

If EMS is your "calling" (which many of us will contend is BS), then spend the next two years becoming a paramedic and then go find a career position that pays you a living wage. EMT is not a career. It's a job. And you are correct; only an idiot would trade a GS position for a simple low-paying job with no future.

Then color me Idiotic and full of BS. I am sick of the governmental bureaucracy and all the mind-screwing they do on a daily basis. I really appreciate everyone's input and will probably go the route of Medic/RN. I know that the RNs at the hospital I work at make significant amounts of change and they are SCREAMING for any nurses, LPN or RN, to jump on board with a big fat enlistment check (to the tune of $5,000). Even though I also know of the crap that nurses take too. I have too many acquaintances that are nurses and they are ALL burnt out. My sister even gave up her RN career because she never saw her kids.

It's food for thought... even though I would like to be in the back of the ambulance yesterday. Patience was never my strong suit.

are you precluded from working elsewhere while employed by the fed dispatch center? If so then volunteer might be the best option but maybe going on to paramedic school might be a better option. Does the government provide educational assistance?

No. Only if it involves bettering my current position, which they didn't approve. No, I'm not precluded from working elsewhere... I will find out tomorrow if AMR hires part-time EMT-Bs. I hope so, because I don't want to give this up... I love it too much and feel like it's my calling.

Here's my dilemma: I want to do EMS... really bad. I'm in the middle of EMT-B training, I don't intend to stop. The thing is this... I am making $11+/hour at my current position (I am a federal police dispatcher) and if I were to become an EMT-B here (the local company is AMR) I would be taking a 50% cut in pay. I can't take that kind of a cut. I'm the only person in my family that makes CONSISTENT money and with federal benefits... so I'm stuck. I REALLY want to be in EMS... but Paramedics in my area don't make as much as I do as a dispatcher. I'm really just looking for guidance and advice. Thanx in advance!!

I started yesterday!! Yay!! I'm such a nerd, though. I was the overenthusiastic medicine nerd.... I was so embarrassed, though. On my first day, I started class feeling fine... no problems. Then my b.p. dropped and I had a migraine. The medic that is teaching the class pulled me off to the side and asked me if I was okay and when I told him my dilemma, he asked me if I wanted a ride to the hospital. I declined but I was thinking "What an ass I would be, first day of class and my bp bottoms out and I pass out from a migraine." Luckily, he was cool enough to stop the class an hour early because by that time, I'd hurled. Funny, but it left me feeling sooooo stupid. :oops: