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PCP student direct to ACP


Jeremie_T

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95 of 100 working ACPs will tell you that you NEED road experience. Their are reasons for this. If you feel that working in Greenstone area (as you have previously posted) for 1400 hours prepares you for ACP class, then good luck. Greenstone had like 650 code 4's in a YEAR between 3 bases! thats less than one emerg call a station every three days!!

Their are also very few services that will hire ACPs direct to FT. Most unions have clauses that prevent services from hiring external ACPs until all union members have been offered the opportunity to train to ACP. Out of eleven ACP schools in Ontario-only ONE allows you to enter without experience in a decent call volumne setting. Could it be that Durham College wouldn't be able to fill Their ACP class if they put an experience requirement in place? I would think that is the case!

Feel free to take the ACP class, when you are done, let me know how the job search goes. If you can get a job with a service (not including the private flight SOA operators) than I will congratulate you!

*shrug*

We'll see. Everyone has their own opinion on this and I don't regret getting my ACP in the least. I'm not the only one in my class who is in this situation.

Those statistics are for 2006 and for some reason in 2007 our call volumes were generally higher. Atleast at Longlac base where I did most of my time.

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  • 1 month later...

More and more PCPs are going straight to ACP. Rather than "Zero to Hero" its more like "No Job to Job". Services demanding experienced ACPs are getting squat 'cause there are not that many available. The response is to take the green ACP and get them the road hours/calls asap. (it's calls that count - not hours!)

The writing is on the wall for PCP programs. Within a few years, I'm betting that Ont colleges will do a 3 year ACP program and PCP programs will go away. Let's face it. Unless you want to work rural jobs, no one wants PCPs anymore.

As for the arguement that experiennce between PCP and ACP is beneficial - sure it is. Take any profession - engineering, teaching, medicine. If anyone in an education program could take a year or two in the field before they return for their final year would this make them a better practioner? Sure it would. Why don't they then? It's because its faster/cheaper for employers to ramp the newbies up to speed than to hold out only for experienced people and todeal with two levels of employee. Basic economics.

my 2 cents worth.

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More and more PCPs are going straight to ACP. Rather than "Zero to Hero" its more like "No Job to Job". Services demanding experienced ACPs are getting squat 'cause there are not that many available. The response is to take the green ACP and get them the road hours/calls asap. (it's calls that count - not hours!)

The writing is on the wall for PCP programs. Within a few years, I'm betting that Ont colleges will do a 3 year ACP program and PCP programs will go away. Let's face it. Unless you want to work rural jobs, no one wants PCPs anymore.

As for the arguement that experiennce between PCP and ACP is beneficial - sure it is. Take any profession - engineering, teaching, medicine. If anyone in an education program could take a year or two in the field before they return for their final year would this make them a better practioner? Sure it would. Why don't they then? It's because its faster/cheaper for employers to ramp the newbies up to speed than to hold out only for experienced people and todeal with two levels of employee. Basic economics.

my 2 cents worth.

Thank you for that very good post :)

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With regards to the colleges moving towards a three year program which you come out of as an ACP, I know here at Durham the program co-ordinator is trying to move towards a 4 year program in which you get PCP, ACP and a BSc or similar from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology on the same campus. There are people here in my class that came specifically for the reason that no PCP experience is required for the ACP program. In my opinion though, I think that working as a PCP would definitely be of benefit to your success in the ACP program, as long as you keep up on the knowledge that you learned in PCP school (and of course the working would help with the $13,000 price tag).

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  • 1 month later...

well from the sounds of it, i am the only one here that did a 'zero-to-hero' program. yes, indeed, i am a medicine hat graduate.

i found the program suited me very well, and it had plenty of places for people to opt out if they felt the absolute need to work at lower levels before getting their ACP (one went to nursing, some stayed at a basic level, a couple left entirely).

with the design of the program, many of my classmates, including myself, students from the years ahead and behind me, were able to get jobs at the PCP level, while finishing off ACP requirements.

i cannot underscore enough the benefits of PCP experience prior to ACP education and registration. sure, i had ACP education when starting as a PCP, but i learned alot in the time before i got my medics.....from being on car.

also, i'm not sure how it works in ontario, but in alberta, if you find the right places, they will help you out with your ACP financially with a little commitment from you, as you work with your PCP registration between classes/practicum/etc.

one word of advice: dont go on practicum where you work. dont repeat various levels of practicums at the same place. go out, explore. see different companies/protocols, rural vs urban. this will help you to find places you really want to work in!

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we got to write our top 3 choices on a practicum selection sheet...didnt guarentee you got any one of the places you wrote down, but the majority of people got one of their three. i got all of my top 1's.

it all comes down to where you are, and how your school does it. most places it's you go where you're told. a number of schools also have contracts with local hospitals and ems services

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