13 year old, aspiring EMT

[jremt886]

Hey Guys! Im Jay. I'm 13 and interested in FD/EMS and emergency medicine. I have BLS for Healthcare Providers and First Aid from AHA. I am probably way too young to take EMT-B nor do I have the time (School, Sports, Friends). So the First Responder course caught my eye. Around 24-40 hours around where I live. Nothing too invasive (no meds ect.). Does anyone know any in the Boston area? There are hard to find considering that the Police always do it in the academy. And all the FD's have to be at least basics. I'm looking for some Volunteer Opportunities in my area. Unfortunately after a town meeting with local PD/FD, they decided not to do Fire Explorers

Anybody got any tips? Also, if you don't have something nice to say, please don't say it.

Thx, Jay

[munky]

Im not sure if you have asked the city but you should be able to do ride alongs with the fire department in your area. That is a good way to get your foot in the door.

[mikeymedic1984]

At 13, I doubt you will find any department that will let you do ride alongs, but that does not mean the door is shut. You can "volunteer" in an ER, where you may see more in one week than you might in one year with a volunteer fire department, you can probably also volunteer in nursing homes on the weekend. You can take classes like CPR and first-aid. So hang in there.

[island emt]

Check with the Red Cross in the area. They do offer first responder and other courses.

At 13 you will not be able to do ride a longs due to liability issues

[paramedicmike]

Welcome, Jay.

Yes. At 13 you're too young to do ride alongs. You might even be too young to take the first responder course. You'll have to check with local training agencies. Massachusetts requires one to be 18 to be an EMT. I didn't see anything specific about EFR certification minimum age requirements, though. So it may still be an option for you. Keep asking people in your area. Unfortunately, all of my Boston area contacts are, well, no longer Boston area contacts.

You're off to a good start. You have CPR and First Aid. Have you considered taking a lifeguarding course? That might at least offer some opportunity to expand your knowledge base and help give you some experience you can use as a foundation for further development and education. You could try to volunteer at your local hospital if they'll accept you. Honestly, though, while your enthusiasm is noble, you said it yourself: you're 13. You're probably going to have trouble finding volunteer opportunities that will give you the exposure that it sounds like you want.

It also sounds like you have a pretty busy schedule already.

I fully understand your desire to get things moving. This sounds like something you want. Keep after it. Just don't forget to enjoy being 13 (and 14, and 15, and 16 et cetera). This might not mean much to you right now but it is *VERY* easy to grow up too fast, too soon in this industry. There is such as thing as too much. I'd hate for your enthusiasm to do something good to be burned out at too early a point in your life.

If nothing else, you're welcome to stick around here and ask us questions. We'll help if we can.

[jremt886]

Thanks Mike (:

I found a Medical Reserve Corps unit nearby me. They take Non-Medical Volunteers. They do a lot of Event First Aid. So hopefully I can get in (;

[island emt]

Sounds like a good place to get your feet wet and see if it's what you really want to do when you do grow up into adulthood.

Stay safe and listen carefully to what your trainers have to say.

[Caduceus]

It's also a really good idea to chat up the paramedics at football games. They're really eager to help and can give you contact info for people w/ volunteer opportunities. Also, check with your local Red Cross organization. They often help kids in middle school, high school, and even grade school form Red Cross clubs teaching disaster preparedness and first aid. That would be a good way to get experience and meet people who share similar interests.

[BEorP]

Welcome, Jay. It is wonderful to hear of your enthusiasm. What I would suggest might not sound as exciting, but it will make you a better EMT or paramedic in the future if you're really looking for some concrete way to take a small step in the direction of your desired profession. I would suggest that rather than worrying about a first responder course at this stage (when you won't be able to be in a position where you could use any of your skills), focus for now on learning the science. So many qualified EMTs and paramedics lack a solid knowledge of anatomy and especially physiology that can be so important to understanding what is going on in our patients (and figuring out how to best help them).

So this isn't probably the type of thing you were thinking of, but I'd suggest working on learning about anatomy and physiology bit by bit. Much of what we deal with is shortness of breath and chest pain (possible heart attacks), so learning a lot about how the heart and lungs function in health will make it much easier to learn about how they function in disease at some point down the road.

Unconventional, I know (and I'm sure someone else will call me out if it is a bad suggestion), but if you were to go ahead with it I'm sure that someone could recommend a good textbook and that there would be lots of help from the forums if you had questions about anything you're reading. (On second though, it is 2013 so you could probably just use things like Khan academy videos to learn about this stuff... though a traditional textbook is still nice to have!)

Good luck!