OK so i have lots of questions

[NRPinNEPA]

i dont care about pay i want to get my hands dirty, gain exp and earn my money i live in a tiny little state all hospitals are a max 30min out driving at normal pace

like i said i want to be a paramedic so anything i can do to help me gain knowledge along the way will be huge (sorry if that sounded rude its not in anyway i promise)

Paid BLS is the way to go for you then. That way you'll be in the back with the medics and can watch them/pick their brains.

[Dustdevil]

Paid BLS is the way to go for you then. That way you'll be in the back with the medics and can watch them/pick their brains.

My info may be outdated or mistaken, but it is my impression that there simply aren't many paramedic level services in RI. They're into half-steps there, because they don't need real paramedics. I think the chances of this guy finding an ALS EMS job are slim to none.

Your best bet is to go to wherever it is you plan to go, and then attend EMT through Paramedic school straight through without a break. Although, you should get your college foundational courses done before attempting either one of them. And do NOT move anywhere until you have absolutely confirmed, beyond any doubt whatsoever, that there are a LOT of jobs for n00b EMTs and medics in EMS (real EMS, not transfer driving) there. Texas has more opportunity than most, in that respect. But it's still pretty slim pickins in most metro areas, where firemen do all the sexy work.

What school are you looking at here?

Edited December 30, 2009 by Dustdevil

[rdhdemt]

Being relatively new at this (less than two years) I don't have anything to compare. I work in a rural setting and love it. Our service has three ALS that we work with. One of them will take over and you basically are along for the ride if you let him. I'm a bit of a control freak so I wouldn't back down. Now he puts me to work. Hopefully you will be working with a hospital that will let you help in the ER also. Maybe that isn't the norm out there but our ER docs are more than willing to let us help and teach us while they work on a patient. They are all docs from the war in Iraq and trauma centers from across the country. They welcome the opportunity to teach. Read, listen, watch, ask questions. Good luck!

[Mario1105]

My info may be outdated or mistaken, but it is my impression that there simply aren't many paramedic level services in RI. They're into half-steps there, because they don't need real paramedics. I think the chances of this guy finding an ALS EMS job are slim to none.

Your best bet is to go to wherever it is you plan to go, and then attend EMT through Paramedic school straight through without a break. Although, you should get your college foundational courses done before attempting either one of them. And do NOT move anywhere until you have absolutely confirmed, beyond any doubt whatsoever, that there are a LOT of jobs for n00b EMTs and medics in EMS (real EMS, not transfer driving) there. Texas has more opportunity than most, in that respect. But it's still pretty slim pickins in most metro areas, where firemen do all the sexy work.

What school are you looking at here?

its called the National EMS academy they just opened up shop in Austin tx

http://nationalemsacademy.com/index.html

tell me what you think i apped for some info but nothing got sent back yet

[Dustdevil]

tell me what you think i apped for some info but nothing got sent back yet

Meh... that's just Acadian's in-house shake n' bake school. Certainly better than some, but nowhere near the standards I would aspire to. Their job is not to educate the future generation. It's just to keep a ready pool of unemployed rookie medics who are ready and willing to work for peanuts, because the last batch already got tired of it and left. You'll get great reviews from n00bs, but then again, all n00bs think their school was teh aw3some. Most who have been around for awhile though seem to feel the education was inadequate, with a heavy emphasis on monkey skills and meaningless nonsense.

[DwayneEMTP]

i dont want to wait till school to find out and i dont have anyone else to ask so here goes.

1. do emt-b's get to get there hands dirty after school or do we just transport mostly.

Ill have more later but this one is my most important question i cant wait as u can tell im verry excited.

I hear you man. But here's the catch. If you truly want to get your hands dirty, if you really, really want to be a good EMT/Paramedic, then start today. Use spellcheck.

Noobs rarely want to hear this, but let me try and make my point this way....

Those that responded, most noted Ventmedic and Dust are terribly competent and experienced. Do you see the difference between their posts and yours? Did you get a feeling for the value of their opinions and advice simply by reading their posts? I'll bet you did. That is what you need people to see of you. Not the 3rd grade posting you've done here.

Use punctuation, capitalization, paragraphs, proper spelling. Show those that take the time to respond to you the respect of at least rereading your post before you post it.

Intelligent presentation of your ideas counts here. Not always perfect presentation, but something that shows that you can be bothered to spend at least two minutes looking for the information you need.

Not to mention that you'll be spending the rest of your career writing untold numbers of reports should you choose this path.

So far you've presented as a young, "Show me the guts! Oh, and which way is it to the fire station??" kind of guy. I have a feeling that there is more to you than that...give folks a chance to see it, OK?

I'm not sniping, simply trying to give you some information that is often too long coming.

Good luck to you.

Dwayne

[Mario1105]

Meh... that's just Acadian's in-house shake n' bake school. Certainly better than some, but nowhere near the standards I would aspire to. Their job is not to educate the future generation. It's just to keep a ready pool of unemployed rookie medics who are ready and willing to work for peanuts, because the last batch already got tired of it and left. You'll get great reviews from n00bs, but then again, all n00bs think their school was teh aw3some. Most who have been around for awhile though seem to feel the education was inadequate, with a heavy emphasis on monkey skills and meaningless nonsense.

So what do you recommend i do. I'm already locked into the EMT-B course I'm taking.\

Where would you recommend I go from here.

Edited December 31, 2009 by Mario1105

[Richard B the EMT]

Perhaps I have been too indoctrinated, but as a BLS providing EMT, I always get my hands dirty, trying to keep the Paramedics available for those calls that actually need ALS. This is not to say I have not requested their higher level of training on some assignments.

[treaux]

First off, kudos to Dwayne for bring up the spell check/grammar issue. Being that documentation is a large part of our business, start working immediately on being clear and concise with what you write. Take a class if you have to. I've seen patient care reports that look like a third grader wrote them and it makes me wonder if their medicine is on par with their writing.

As far as "getting your hands dirty" goes you should remember that you're in an education-only mode right now. "Getting your hands dirty" right now should mean appreciating any patient you get to see (even if they're not your own) and researching their medical hx until you understand it. You have a long way to go before you can perform medical treatments that will make a difference in the lives of these patients. If BLS transport is the only way to go initially, then pride yourself on doing a good job of it. Many BLS transfer EMTs don't perform assessments due to the monotony of dragging patients back and forth from facilities on a daily basis. If you do a full assessment on these patients, you will get used to being hands on and you will also be surprised at what you find sometimes.

Your curiosity and eagerness are a good value, but realize that you are on the last molecule of the tip of the iceberg and you need to direct that eagerness to the most basic of education.

I say this as I feel like I'm still on the tip of iceberg myself and I've been doing this for 6 years now.