Wanting to become an EMT/Paramedic, some suggestions please?

[CJA]

Hello,

I'm new to world of EMS, but have always been interested in helping the general public. I have an education background in Law Enforcement training, but decided it wasn't for me. My wife is a full time medical school student and is getting ready to start her third year and medical rotations. Discussing her everyday studies and stories from mentoring in local emergency rooms has really made me want to get back out and do something with my life instead of working just another job to pay the bills.

I have a BA in Law & Society from Purdue University and an AS in Law Enforcement from Vincennes University. I know these degrees wont land me a job, but I'm hoping that they will help me in down the road for an EMS education/certification as far as general studies go. I do know I will most likely have to take Anatomy courses though.

We are moving to the Indianapolis region next month and so far I have no jobs lined up and have decided to start working part time and go back to school or get training to become an EMT and further that education to get a degree in Paramedics. Both IUPUI and Ivy-tech offer EMT/Paramedic degrees, but I've read where some of the hospitals also offer education.

In other words, what would be my best course of action be in becoming an EMT?

Would I need to become Professional CPR certified first or will I receive this training through school?

Is it possible to self teach EMT principles and take the certification test on your own?

I'm sorry if this has been posting hundreds of times, but I couldn't get much use out of the search function on this forum.

Thanks

[Asclepius]

In other words, what would be my best course of action be in becoming an EMT? Would I need to become Professional CPR certified first or will I receive this training through school?

Welcome! Tis a noble profession that you've chosen to pursue.

You will need to become American Heart Association CPR certified, but many of the EMT programs include that in their curriculum. Not all do, but many do. So wait until you find a program. It can't hurt you to take an anatomy and physiology class. As you progress in levels of training, each level will teach you more about A&P, but I have found -having been an EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate and now an EMT-Paramedic - that none of the EMT level A&P classes are as in depth as an acutal college level A&P class.

Is it possible to self teach EMT principles and take the certification test on your own?

I always recommend becoming Nationally Registered as an EMT at any level. Most states require NREMT for reciprocity and initial licensing. At any rate, the answering to your question is no. You must attend an approved EMT program, complete the clinical and field internship, take a written and a practical examination to challenge any level of EMT test. For Indiana, if you go here, it will help you locate programs in the Indy area. Wishard has an ambulance service and if you contact their EMS educator, I am sure they will be happy to help you find a great class in the Indy area as well.

I live and work outside of Indiana, but I was raised near Ft. Wayne. If I can be anymore help to you please let me know.

Your fellow Hoosier!

http://www.stvincent.org/education/ems/emtcert.htm

http://education-portal.com/emt_certification_indiana.html

http://degreedirectory.org/articles/EMT_Classes_in_Indiana_Which_Indiana_Schools_Offer_EMT_Certification_and_Training.html

Just a few I found with a quick Google search.

[CJA]

Thank your very much, your comment was more than helpful! I'm going to try calling a few of the hospitals tomorrow to see what kind of programs they have and go from there. Thank you very much.

Welcome! Tis a noble profession that you've chosen to pursue.

You will need to become American Heart Association CPR certified, but many of the EMT programs include that in their curriculum. Not all do, but many do. So wait until you find a program. It can't hurt you to take an anatomy and physiology class. As you progress in levels of training, each level will teach you more about A&P, but I have found -having been an EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate and now an EMT-Paramedic - that none of the EMT level A&P classes are as in depth as an acutal college level A&P class.

I always recommend becoming Nationally Registered as an EMT at any level. Most states require NREMT for reciprocity and initial licensing. At any rate, the answering to your question is no. You must attend an approved EMT program, complete the clinical and field internship, take a written and a practical examination to challenge any level of EMT test. For Indiana, if you go here, it will help you locate programs in the Indy area. Wishard has an ambulance service and if you contact their EMS educator, I am sure they will be happy to help you find a great class in the Indy area as well.

I live and work outside of Indiana, but I was raised near Ft. Wayne. If I can be anymore help to you please let me know.

Your fellow Hoosier!

http://www.stvincent...ems/emtcert.htm

http://education-por...on_indiana.html

http://degreedirecto...d_Training.html

Just a few I found with a quick Google search.

[HellsBells]

I'm sorry if this has been posting hundreds of times, but I couldn't get much use out of the search function on this forum.

CJA brings up a good point, I also find the search function here to be terribly difficult to navigate through. It seems to be far to inclusive, and returns way too many results. There have been a few occasions where I've given up in frustration after sifting through results that have seemingly no relation to my search query. Is there anyone else who has encountered this issue? Is there a way to narrow the search I'm not aware of?

[DwayneEMTP]

Is there a way to narrow the search I'm not aware of?

Yeah, I go to Google, type in my query and the relevant pages on the City will come up. Only the relevant pages. My betters tell me that the City search function works great, but I have the same issue as you. I most often have trouble finding any relationship to my query in the returned links.

CJA, welcome to the City!

If you could self teach yourself EMS I don't believe that you'd want to, at least if you want to become a competent provider as opposed to simply trying to win a patch. There is simply too much of prehospital medicine that isn't intuitive. Also, EMS is very much a team sport at the EMT-B level, and even more so at the Paramedic level, so you might as well train in a team environment from the start.

There are short courses, online courses, courses that train simply to pass the National Registry, so your questions regarding the best path are certainly good ones. I got both my basic and medic at a community college and feel that I recieved a pretty good education. Most important, and God bless our fire fighter brothers and sisters, you do not want to get any part of your education that is fire based, or centered around educating fire. The fire services simply do not take EMS education,(in most cases, there are certainly some glaring, stellar exceptions) seriously.

And you need to be aware that, certainly at the basic level, you will be following your dream only as you will be providing very little support for your household. If you're good with that, awesome, but I don't want you to be caught unaware.

Good luck brother, let us know if we can help further.

Dwayne