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your opinion on a manditory 2 year degree for paramedic


2 year degree, good or bad?  

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So let me see if I can get this straight .. college education or just certification...hmm, which would I hire.... Geez that's a no-brainer.. then of-course I did go to college... If you can afford it or have the chance I highly recommend it to everyone. You should not complain about pay in your profession if there is no minimal education requirements.

Most say no pay difference... true for right now, the same happened in nursing .. there used to be diploma nurses.. that changed & so did the pay.

Also, education can be applied later to either promoting yourself or another career. With the low pay of EMS most EMT's can apply for student aid.. check with counselor for assistance.

vs-eh .. Associate Degree is basically a 2 yr degree with minimal general education requirements attached. Some states do not recognize it as a official degree; however sometimes can be applied to a undergraduate degree.

Be safe,

Ridryder 911

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I have friends who have AAS Degrees in EMS and I have friends who have BS and MS Degrees in other areas and they are all EMT-P's and they all get paid the same.

Can someone please explain to me exactly how an AAS Degree is going to benefit someone with a Bachelors or Masters Degree? The bottom line is that it is not!

Before you guys go pushing for an AAS Degree, stop and think about the Rural and Volunteer EMT's in the US!

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Well, I must admit that since I've been born and raised in Ontario and Ontario is where I'm undergoing my BLS training, my feelings about EMS education don't differ much from vs-eh? ....

And, just as a sidenote: rouleaux formation typically occurs around the end of stage 2 of shock. As acidosis increases and pH falls, the red blood cells cluster together and this is where stage 3 usually begins for DIC.

Zach

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Before you guys go pushing for an AAS Degree, stop and think about the Rural and Volunteer EMT's in the US!

As a rural volunteer EMT in the US, I think my background in this field has made me even MORE a staunch advocate of increasing the educational requirements. I'd personally like to yank the certifications of roughly one-third of the EMT's and medics I know or have worked with for lack of intelligence or an ability to function effectively. It's time that before you advocate holding the field back to keep the numbers of new people high, then perhaps you should look at a qualitative measure of the personnel in rural America, as opposed to being concerned with simply maintaining warm bodies on the rigs- otherwise, you are likely to continue to see the number of cold bodies arriving at the hospital in those rigs not change much.

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I never understand the "Well I am paying for school, why would I pay for more education and end up getting paid like sh*t?"

Be lucky that at least there is a demand in the pre-hospital field.

In Ontario university and college are seperate entities...

University requires a 4 year degree undergrad. College varies from a short cert. to a 2-3 year diploma. University requires you to do "well" in highschool. College, well, you can do marginal and still get into most general admission college programs that don't require pre-admin testing/criteria pretty easily. Paramedicine is a college program (there is one new university program) but it has high entrance standards, and is very difficult to get into. Again, well over half my class had university undergrads before entering.

When I graduated from highschool, in my school, it was basically a "You are not going to university? You suck".

University tuition costs ballpark $5000CAN per year, all-in with rez and everything probably averages at minimum double/triple that. College tuition is $1000-2000 a year. I would say generally speaking people don't live on a college campus, they commute.

University vs. College can generally be summed up as theory vs. practical.

So a student graduating from a university program, doing the standard rez and all thing is probably 40 grand in debt after 4 years. A college student is probably 2-4 after 2-3 years. A university educated undergrad student IMHO probably has far less of a chance at getting a job than a college grad. Why? That whole theory vs. practicality.

So you have 4 years of university education in some bullsh*t B.A. Congrats, you are working at THE GAP, serving me coffee or as a bank teller (no offense) or something. You need a M.A. or PhD. now a days usually. I saw the PhD. looking in my face and that's why I quit. College grads now have a much better chance IMO graduating into real jobs, real money, real careers.

Primary Care paramedics completing the 2 year college diploma here probably start on average at $40k+ a year. PCP is BLS. I would wager the vast majority of university undergrads can only hope for that starting out. And I was offered a job basically as I tossed off my cap and gown...

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It's time that before you advocate holding the field back to keep the numbers of new people high, then perhaps you should look at a qualitative measure of the personnel in rural America, as opposed to being concerned with simply maintaining warm bodies on the rigs- otherwise, you are likely to continue to see the number of cold bodies arriving at the hospital in those rigs not change much.

Sorry I missed that Steve, a tear come's to my eye...

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That's reminds me off the FedEx commercial when the guy informs the mail clerk that he has a MBA. She then tells him she'll have to show him how to do it. Classic. :lol:

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Someone enlighten me on what an associate's degree entails. And what the difference is between that and a certification.

Associates degree in US is equivalent to a 2 year diploma in Canada.

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