New EMT-Basic, Need some advice....

[Wild-atheart]

I passed my national registry test last month, now I am certified in Michigan to work as an EMT. I really want to work in emergency medicine. The problem is that I have a very flexible and fairly good paying job as a lab tech in one of michigan best hospitals. I am enrolled in paramedic courses for this coming semester. How important is it that I work as an EMT before I become a medic? I would like to just work at my current position while attending my classes, but I have been getting overwhelmed by so many people that I know who are currently in the profession, who suggest that I have to have at least a year of Basic experience before becoming a decent medic. Everyone also suggests volunteering; but thats really not an option for me as I work too much and I need to have some time come September for studying.

Thank you

[EchoDBravo]

Do you have ANY field experience? If your employer is THAT flexible, maybe do some shift swaps, so you can pull a part time gig as an EMT. Even those nonemergency transfers result in patient contact, and the way you talk to a patient and care for a patient will make you or break you as the paramedic you want to become. I wouldn't want you to be the guy at the station who people think of as a crappy medic. I know some medics who went straight from EMT school to paramedic school back in the 80s, and i can assure you that they weren't golden when they first got the EMS job. The BLS part time gig will either show you, or shove it coldly in your face, how to ask questions in the RIGHT way, giving time for old people to answer, and give you hairy situations to make you think.

Yes, having some prior EMS experience will help you. But you start class in september. You say you work alot. Stop working all the extra hours as the Lab Tech, and pull that extra time over at the Fish & Bone Ambalance Service. Get your 'stupid' questions out of the way as an Part-Timer. Learn/Put to use a myriad of styles of Total Body Lifts, Sheet pulls, and the management of certain scenes they may or may not have covered at EMT School. Get patients who need C-Spine Immob. out of bathtubs. Get used to Ambulance Operations.

You only have a few months, so I would advise to get as much experience as possible. If not for the patient contact, then for the experience with operations and patient care reports.

1 more question: how does your pay as a lab tech fall with the pay of a paramedic in your area?

Evan

[speedygodzilla]

See about working at the ER as a tech. It is a whole another side of EMS but it is experience. That is what I do, and I believe it to be good for a very new EMT-B. I am planning on going out to the field someday, but I feel much more prepare now by working in the ER. The ER is a great place to work. You may not get to see paramedics at work but the nurses do some of the same things just in a whole other setting.

You'll learn a lot from the experience, and it will beneficial to getting a paramedic job later.

[Dustdevil]

I passed my national registry test last month, now I am certified in Michigan to work as an EMT. I really want to work in emergency medicine. The problem is that I have a very flexible and fairly good paying job as a lab tech in one of michigan best hospitals.

As in degreed MT? :shock:

My answers to the rest of your question depends on your answer to that one. However, I will say that experience as an EMT-B is pretty much irrelevant to your ultimate success as a paramedic student or as a paramedic. I wouldn't recommend anybody waste their time on it. Most people who parrot that old, worn out line of "advice" are idiots just repeating what they heard from other idiots. There is really only one value to getting experience as an EMT-B, and that is to give you enough exposure to the field to either convince you of, or deter you from making EMS a career choice. A whole lot of people come into EMS with a wholly unrealistic idea of what it is like. If you wait until you've already invested in over two years of education before you take your first job and figure out that the field is really not going to meet your needs or expectations, then that's a terrible waste of your time and money. But, in reality, darn few people who are hell bent on being a medic are ever deterred, no matter how much reality they see.

I don't think -- and most truly knowledgeable veterans would agree -- that EMT-B experience is highly recommended before enrolling in paramedic school. In fact, a great many of us would recommend against it in most cases. It has as much chance of hurting you as helping you. But, if you can actually get a part-time gig in EMS (absolutely NOT a non-emergency ambulance job) that gives you a little professional exposure before and during paramedic school, then that would be a good thing for you. It would be a really good thing if it slapped you across the face with the realisation that it is a really silly career move for you (assuming you are an actual degreed MT), lol.

This nonsense about non-experienced new grad paramedics not being as good as those who were EMT-Bs before hand is just so much irrelevant BS. It's back arsewards too. So what if they come out with a little more confidence and operational knowledge? It took them time to get that edge. It will take you that same time (probably a lot less if you are an MT), so they didn't get anything done any faster than you. And only an idiot (usually basics) expects a new grad to be "golden." And the top four best medics I ever worked with in thirty-four years of practice were all new grads who went straight from EMT to medic with no experience.

Only a system that sucks would even think of putting a new grad out there alone anyhow, no matter how much time he spent as a basic. I have seen WAY too many new-grad medics let loose on their own because they had EMT experience, and they usually sucked worse than those with no experience. Being a medic and being an EMT are not even close to being the same thing. And a good bit of a quality paramedic programme is spent trying to beat the EMT mentality out of you. All that so-called "experience" just gave them a false sense of confidence and bad habits. You're usually better off if you never got it in the first place.

Good luck!

[ccmedoc]

Being a medic and being an EMT are not even close to being the same thing. And a good bit of a quality paramedic programme is spent trying to beat the EMT mentality out of you. All that so-called "experience" just gave them a false sense of confidence and bad habits. You're usually better off if you never got it in the first place.

Very true. Being a good basic isn't good for much more than being a good basic. It would most often be better if the basics went directly to a paramedic program without being spoiled, as he kinda said.. :wink:

It is simply a waste of time trying to get "experience" for a paramedic program as a basic..even in an ALS system, as most medics are not the ones to garner any information from.. :roll: for numerous reasons. If you want to be a paramedic, just get into a program as soon as you are out of basic class..and I use that term loosely :twisted:

[cosgrojo]

I'm getting a bit tired of this all or nothing, go big or go home mentality. Not everything is black and white in this world. You just can't say that being a basic first is going to retard your ability to be a medic, no more than you can say that being a basic is invaluable. It is all about the individual attempting to be a medic. If you have the ability, the mental capacity, the drive, and the desire to become a good medic, then you will become one. Some people need the structure of knowing the job first. Some people need to get the jitters out of their system by being a basic and attempting to do EMS without a safety net. Others naturally have the ability to quantify what is going to happen and will be able to handle it as it comes.

Overall, I disagree with Dust. I think that being a good basic is invaluable for the majority of EMS providers that want to become paramedics. Notice I did not say ALL providers. Let's face it, the mean age of EMS providers is ridiculously low. If you are over the age of 24 these days you are considered a veteran of EMS. Most of these kids coming into EMS have no practical experience in ANYTHING, let alone EMS. For a lot of these kids that found graduating high school a challenge, I want them to get some quality field experience first before they try and become a Medic.

Dust, stop seething here, I do not mean that paramedicine is beholden to basic skills. I am fully aware that the level of understanding between the different levels of EMT's is immense. I know that in medic school they are trying to rip most of the things out of your head that they tried to put into your head as a basic. I am interested in the majority of people who want to become medics get a good foundation under their belts. If you can't do a quality basic assessment for a non-emergent transfer, and accurately portray that information to the receiving facility and staff, what chance do you have of being good at doing an advanced assessment and giving an emergency patch to a waiting trauma team that you just activated?

The most important job of a basic (as I see it) is to ask every question you can (even stuff that you may not understand), and relay that information in a calm, organized, and efficient manner to staff members at medical facilities. This information may help further along a plan of care for a patient that may need it. By doing this on all calls a a basic you further your understanding about how things work. When you make it obvious to the staff that you are good at your job and you portray a bit of proficiency, they usually go out of their way to make sure that you are involved in things and teach you more. There should be no such thing as a taxi driver basic, and there is no shame in being a long-term basic if you continue to learn and get better. There are very few things in this world that saves tunnel-visioned medics more, than a competent basic with a lot of extra knowledge.

If you think you have the ability to go straight to medic school without any experience as a basic, go for it. Quality and competency will always win out over EMS dogma. But lets stop saying that there is no possible benefit to these kids by learning how to be a good basic.

[Dustdevil]

But lets stop saying that there is no possible benefit to these kids by learning how to be a good basic.

Don't misquote me, bro.

I didn't say there was no posible benefit. I said that if there is any benefit, it is negligible in the long run. You get that same benefit from basic practice during or after medic school as you do by getting it before enrolling. After all, you should have about two years during medic school to get plenty of experience, should you so desire.

Conversely, the negatives you get from spending time as a basic before enrolling in medic school are almost universally applicable. At the very least, you end up wishing you had gone to medic school a lot sooner once you do it.

Again, in my observations I have seen that most new medics without basic experience tend to be better than their experienced peers.

[cosgrojo]

At the very least, you end up wishing you had gone to medic school a lot sooner once you do it.

I'll concede the point, but is it because hindsight being what it is, with experiences gained you forget all the things you may have learned as a basic and assumed that you always knew them? I think maybe that you have just never had the benefit of working with a truly good basic. When you come back from playing pseudo-soldier over there, come to NH... maybe I can teach you a few things...

[Dustdevil]

I think maybe that you have just never had the benefit of working with a truly good basic.

I dunno.

Can you define "truly good basic" for me? A little qualitative and quantitative criteria by which to judge who is "truly good" and who is not?

(perhaps start a new thread for this purpose)

[rayemtjax77]

It is not a requirement to be an EMT with any field experience to become a medic, but is sure helps out alot. In medic school here in Florida, even with field experience, its hard to take in all the things that are thrown at you. I can only imagine if you had no field experience.

I passed my national registry test last month, now I am certified in Michigan to work as an EMT. I really want to work in emergency medicine. The problem is that I have a very flexible and fairly good paying job as a lab tech in one of michigan best hospitals. I am enrolled in paramedic courses for this coming semester. How important is it that I work as an EMT before I become a medic? I would like to just work at my current position while attending my classes, but I have been getting overwhelmed by so many people that I know who are currently in the profession, who suggest that I have to have at least a year of Basic experience before becoming a decent medic. Everyone also suggests volunteering; but thats really not an option for me as I work too much and I need to have some time come September for studying.

Thank you