AAOS - Paramedic Anatomy and Physiology - Review

[AnthonyM83]

I bought this (rather expensive for a thin soft cover) book to help prepare for medic school. I THINK this might be the worst most annoying EMS text I've ever read (only at chapter 3, right now). What makes it worse is that it has such strong potential!

It seems to be written as an intro to A&P, yet the explanations are so incomplete. For example, when discussing sarcomeres it just shows a picture and a corresponding diagram with I bands and Z lines. That's it. No explanation in the text or caption. If I hadn't taken previous biology courses, I would be clueless.

Also, often (especially in the skeletal section), it will throw out a bunch of bolded terms and technically be correct in telling you their definition, but it doesn't explain what it's purpose is. Student is forced to just memorize it without actually knowing it.

At one point it starts talking about "the olecranon"...I'm trying to figure out WTF an olecranon is....flip back pages and find a quick mention "The proximal portion of the ulna consists of the hooked olecranon process and the coronoid process"...then moves on. THAT'S IT. No picture. Of course, I had no idea what it was when mentioned later.

What also bothers me about this (and the AAOS EMT book) is that it's written so technically. It often has long and complex sentences structures and busts out words like "volitional", yet it can't get in-depth enough to explain actin and myosin.

If you had a smart person read the book without a prior class and asked them about actin and myosin they would not sound like a well-educated healthcare professional. Freshman bio in high school explained it better.

Something I really like are these pathophysiology boxes that relate what you're reading to a disease, field assessments, treatments, procedures in the ER (though sometimes unclear about which are ER and which are medic field procedures...like when it mentions that rectal tone must be checked).

I'm trying to find an A&P class, but no one seems to be offering one until next fall and they're usually two quarter classes...which would delay medic school almost a year. I'm a biology major, but we only had "Vertebrate Physiology" without in-depth anatomy.

[Dustdevil]

Bummer. I haven't looked at any of these A&P for medics books, so I wasn't sure how they were. I know that even the biggest one is about a third as large as a standard college Human A&P textbook is, so I didn't really have much faith in them.

I'm trying to find an A&P class, but no one seems to be offering one until next fall and they're usually two quarter classes...which would delay medic school almost a year. I'm a biology major, but we only had "Vertebrate Physiology" without in-depth anatomy.

That's exactly why I disagree with those who say that future EMS degree programmes should follow a pre-med type curriculum. Pre-med is PREPARATION for medical education. But A&P is an integral part of the medical education of those in nursing, EMS, and the other health sciences. General Biology is terribly inadequate for us. Human A&P is a must for full understanding.

When did you start looking for the courses? Too late for this semester? I've never seen a community college that didn't offer several A&P classes every semester to satisfy the demand by nursing and health occupations students.

[AnthonyM83]

I started looking last quarter. Most true A&P classes (with lab and everything) seem to be two or three parters, setup on a specific schedule. For example Part A in Fall and Part B in Spring...Must taken in order (though I'm seeing it'd be possible not to). The ones that do have shorter classes (usually over a dozen sections) have been packed since Fall (and continuing students tend to get priority in class registration dates).

I'm going to look at some other schools, but the ones I've heard have the better reps seem to be filled up or have classes I need to take in order.

[frontcrawl]

Dust,

What other courses would you want to see as part of this curriculum? Microbiology? Pathophysiology? Sort sort of chemisty?

[Dustdevil]

What other courses would you want to see as part of this curriculum? Microbiology? Pathophysiology? Sort sort of chemisty?

As an absolute minimum for entry level practice, I would require these support courses:

• Anatomy & Physiology I and II, each with lab.

Microbiology with lab

Intro Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Intro Sociology

General Algebra

English Composition

Technical or Scientific Writing

Intro Communications

• Chemistry I and II with labs

Physics I and II with labs

Statistics

Abnormal Psychology

Logic

Ethics

Exercise Physiology

Intensive Conversational and Medical Spanish

• All that amounts to about two years of full-time education by itself. Throw in History, Government, and fine arts elective requirements that most states have for graduation, and a year of full-time, focused medical education, and you have a BS in Paramedicine, which ideally would be my preferred entry level education.

[lemming12]

I took all my Medic prereq's while i was in pre nursing, so all of my stuff was designed for nursing students towards a bachelor's degree, which were a lot more in depth than the A&P for EMS at the 2 year college that was the required class.

Another class that i found helped a lot, and it really stems off of Psych and Sociology is human growth/development. It has really helped me in my techniques with dealing with patients from different age or developmental stages, to people with different backgrounds and cultures. It has really helped with how i deal with the pediatrics or scared, frightened, or just plain resistive patients.

It was amazing how much that class taught me that i now notice in people, and how to work with it at the same time so I can help the patient can come to their own acceptable decision and be happy about it.

@};-