Dustdevil Posted December 29, 2007 Share Posted December 29, 2007 I hope to complete my EMT-B training in March/April and then look for part-time work, possibly at a hospital. I don't know for sure what I want to do, but I thought that before I invest 3 years and thousands of dollars into nursing school, I should first find out if I enjoy and am cut out for helping patients. Sounds like a good plan. EMS and Nursing are indeed EXTREMELY different fields which really cannot be compared, apples to apples. The head it takes to succeed in one is not the same as that required for the other. Very different personalities involved. Because of that, it is indeed useful for a nurse to have EMT training. Having attended both, I can assure you that nursing school gives you almost none of the "first aid" training you get in EMT school. And likewise, both EMT and Paramedic school cover very, very little of what nursing school covers, because again, they are entirely different fields. Unfortunately, the general public tends to expect nurses to know all those little skills they teach in EMT school, so it's definitely a good thing for nurses to have behind them. I would say, however, that taking EMT training AFTER nursing school is a much, much better way to go than before hand. EMT school is much more beneficial to somebody who has a medical educational foundation to build on than to Joe Public. As I mentioned in the other topic about your school, yes, I would probably have to say that your choice to do that online thing was a mistake. About the only thing of any benefit you get from an EMT-B course is the skills. You can't get those online. It takes hands on practice, over and over, and lots of it, over time, to burn it into your brain as second nature. There is simply no way you will get that in a weekend boot camp and retain it for any length of time. I guarantee you that you will get to your first job and feel absolutely and completely lost and inadequate. Most traditional EMT students do too, and you will be much worse off than them. Good luck. Definitely don't screw around with medic or I school if nursing is what you want to do. As I said, I wouldn't even waste time on EMT for that matter. Every silly little first aid course you take is taking away time you should have spent taking your nursing prerequisites. They are much more important to you, and certainly a lot cheaper than that $750 dollar EMT course that won't do you any good. Get started on those ASAP, even if only part-time. As for making a living as an EMT while going to nursing school, I dunno where you live, or what the employment prospects there are, but I wouldn't count on it. To make a living as an EMT, you have to work about double time, meaning around 80 hours a week. How in the world are you going to complete difficult science courses like microbiology while working 80 hours a week, and maintain a GPA that will get you into nursing school? Take honest inventory of yourself. Are you really that super smart, mature, devoted, and disciplined that you can pull that off? Remember, you are going to be competing against 18 year old girls, still living with daddy, and only a few months out of taking biology, chemistry, and calculus in high school, for that seat in class. They have all the advantages. You have to be something really special, intellectually and discipline wise, to work full time or more, take care of adult commitments, and pull down the grades they are going to make. Again, I wish you the best of luck, and that is why I have to say that your very best route is to pick ONE single goal, and commit to it one-hundred and ten percent, and forget any and all other distractions like EMT or paramedic school. You can always go back to those after the hard work of nursing school is done. EMS isn't going anywhere. We'll still be here in four years. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mperkel Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I have looked into these "accelerated" programs because I am planning on getting my EMT-B certification. I'm currently a full-time student, and signed up for an "accelerated" program over my spring break. The course consists of 13 days with 13 hours per day (9am-10pm). I doesn't seem like it would make a different, me doing it all together vs. doing a community college over summer for 8-10 weeks. So I've decided on this one. I am a Psychobiology major with pre-medicine, so i don't think it will be too difficult, plus I'm totally committed to doing this because i want to do it part-time during school and over summer. Just some questions: What benefits would EMT-I give me? How long does that take to achieve? Thanks for any help you can give. Also thanks to JPINFV for the course information. -Marc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Plain Ruff Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I have looked into these "accelerated" programs because I am planning on getting my EMT-B certification. I'm currently a full-time student, and signed up for an "accelerated" program over my spring break. The course consists of 13 days with 13 hours per day (9am-10pm). I doesn't seem like it would make a different, me doing it all together vs. doing a community college over summer for 8-10 weeks. So I've decided on this one. I am a Psychobiology major with pre-medicine, so i don't think it will be too difficult, plus I'm totally committed to doing this because i want to do it part-time during school and over summer. Just some questions: What benefits would EMT-I give me? How long does that take to achieve? Thanks for any help you can give. Also thanks to JPINFV for the course information. -Marc So with 13 hours a day, when do you have time to study and sleep? Sounds like a lot of sacrifice. Now if you are strictly using the EMT boot camp(think Gulag) in order to get into the next paramedic class, then all righty then, but if you are taking the boot camp because you want to get it over and become an emt asap then you are feeding the coffers of these people. I'm not saying that you won't make a good emt but I'm saying that you will not get the education experience that you deserve. I don't understand why we tolerate these puppy mills in our field anyway. Are we the only field that has these type of classes to get our certs. Emt boot camps are not the underlying problem but medic mills are. You just get the basics in a boot camp if you ask me. Even the military boot camp is called Basic training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPINFV Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 What benefits would EMT-I give me? How long does that take to achieve? The EMT-Intermediate level is essentially not used in California (it's several restricted [considered "Limited ALS"] and they're trying to move it towards modular additions to the EMT-B level). In California nomenclature, an EMT-I stands for "EMT-One" and is the same as an NREMT-B. Intermediates go by the term EMT-II which stands for "EMT-Two." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mperkel Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 The EMT-Intermediate level is essentially not used in California (it's several restricted [considered "Limited ALS"] and they're trying to move it towards modular additions to the EMT-B level). In California nomenclature, an EMT-I stands for "EMT-One" and is the same as an NREMT-B. Intermediates go by the term EMT-II which stands for "EMT-Two." okay, that make sense and helps me out. For Orange County, where I would practice, I need to get a special license for that county. They call them EMT-Is there. It confused me, i thought i needed intermediate status to work. Do you need to apply for a separate license for every county you plan to work in? Mainly for California, I'm asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustdevil Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 okay, that make sense and helps me out. For Orange County, where I would practice, I need to get a special license for that county. They call them EMT-Is there. It confused me, i thought i needed intermediate status to work. Yeah, it's a Roman numeral one, not the letter I. Kalifornia just has to be different. Do you need to apply for a separate license for every county you plan to work in? Mainly for California, I'm asking. Yes, you do. And only in Kalifornia is this the case, as far as I know. State cert is nothing by itself. Each county licenses you to practise, making up their own rules. Quite bizarre. Where exactly do you plan to get a medic job in Orange County? Have you got the inside track on the elusive and coveted firefighter job? That's really about your only option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyM83 Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Actually, you just need to get your EMT cert in one county and that will make you certified to practice in any county in the state (just be careful if you live by county borders, know the differences in protocols). But like Dust said, there's no state certification/licensing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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