Should I take a high school Biology equivalency course at my college?

[Liam618]

Hey there,

I've recently been looking into becoming an EMT(PCP) in Alberta, Canada. Only thing is I took chemistry all through high school, last time I was studying the human body was in grade 9 honours science, I'm 19 now turning 20 in June of 2018, is it worth it for me to take general biology and upgrade at my local college or just take the EMR course and hope they teach me enough before I have to do EMT training? Also is it worth it for me to work as an EMR(the 120 hour training one here) on the rigs before becoming an EMT? There's tons of entry level EMR jobs out here right now. I know I'll be able to learn about the human body, but if they assume we all know about it and don't bother to teach us I'll be kind of hooped when it comes down to things. I had one EMT tell me to just get anatomy and physiology flash cards. 

[Just Plain Ruff]

There is a huge difference of opinions on this subject, even if you do a search on this type of subject here you will find many differing opinions.  

 

My thoughts are this,  the better prepared with the basics the better you will be in the advanced stuff. 

I advocate for people to at least take A&P and then move to the other courses such as biology.  

 

Some people even advocate you take a bio-chem course. 

The other thing I advocate is for you and anyone else reading this, take at least 1 if not two semesters of English Comp.  Writing a understandable and grammatically correct report is so important and it will definately make you a better provider.  

No one wants to read a report that reads like a 2nd grader wrote it.  And if you went to court you would be destroyed by the other side's lawyer. 

 

I also advise you every semester to utilize the schools gym and get in shape if you can.  The stronger you are and the stronger your back is, the longer your career in EMS will last.  

 

As for your question on the EMR - I don't have an opinion on them.  Unless they are like the driver of a ambucab/vanbulance where you are taking pt's back and forth to the doctors office and appointments, that's not where experience is gained.  Driving experience yes, but only non-emergency driving experience so you cannot really use that to say you have driven emergency. Transfer vans have their place in EMS but if you want experience, stick with waiting until you get your EMT and then look into EMT jobs.  

Now the flip side of it would be if the EMR jobs would move you directly to an EMT level job in a service that has those but most of the van services in my area are not run by the big EMS companies.  they are run by nursing homes and such where you just drive the nursing home patients around.  That is not EMS experience.