A couple questions about course material

[premedtim]

Okie, the first one is pretty cut and dry and I'm assuming the answer is because in California every ambulance has a medic and an EMT so the medic could administer them, but I'm kind of wondering why EMTs apparently can only administer oxygen and oral glucose in Cali? My medic student friend said it depends on the county (but it's the same there so maybe it's in most of Cali) and it's kind of annoying because I understand I still have to know this stuff for national registry even though I can't use it. But, um, yeah I'm guessing it's because each ambulance has a medic so if the patient needs albuterol, epinephrine, whatever then they can just start a line.

The other one is concerning textbook differences and what the instructors say in class. The new Brady edition has all these different pulse, resp rates etc. for diff age groups such as 12-14, 6-9, etc. etc. but the instructors just teach the resp/pulse rates for adults, adolescents, and infants....so for national registry, do I need to know all that stuff in the Brady text or do they go by adult, adol & infant and that's it?

Guess that's about the only questions I can think of. Finishing up the second week of class and already learned the anatomy, initial assessment, medical & trauma assessments, ongoing, vital signs & SAMPLE (that acryonym is so easy to remember, I love it), OPQRST, DCAP-BTLS, etc. etc. Uh, oh yeah and got 90% on my first quiz so guess I'm doing alright so far. The question I missed was kind of odd though...don't remember it exactly but I think it was "If a patient is found dead at the scene, and has a terminal disease, how many days must it have been since he has seen his doctor before he is considered a coroner's case?" Not quite sure how that relates to EMS but meh. So far I'm having fun though!

I think EMS instructors take the cake for making lecture/lab entertaining...especially when one having an assessment demonstrated on him gives the instructor doing the assessment a bunch of crap and the one doing the assessment mutters how he should have demonstrated an unresponsive patient. oh yeah and one of the other instructors offering said person this really f***ing bright, large mag lite to check the pupils was classic.

 

[Ridryder911]

Congrat's on your class...

First all EMT text books are based upon the National Standard Curriculum for EMT's from NHTSA. They have to be... Now, the how they describe and differences in teaching it is dependent upon the author.

There is no way each text can teach on specifics on your local state, county, etc.. is set up. Again, they use the national standard. Majority of the states are not like California. As well it is better to have too much in a text and allow the instructor to define what is allowable in one's region than not enough.

You question about a death case, is simple. Many times you will respond to cardiac arrest to find out they are already dead. Some areas allow EMT's to determine with local LEO if M.E. should be notified or not, as well if this is a case for an required autopsy ( the point of the question). It is part of the job.

The differential in pulse rates is all approximation, so if your instructor say 120 and the text says 124 etc.. it is all dependent upon the text they were taught or refer to. It is hard to remember each text specifics when teaching, if one uses multiple ones over the years. So get used to generalizations in certain areas.

Again good luck and study hard!

R/r 911

 

[premedtim]

Congrat's on your class...

First all EMT text books are based upon the National Standard Curriculum for EMT's from NHTSA. They have to be... Now, the how they describe and differences in teaching it is dependent upon the author.

There is no way each text can teach on specifics on your local state, county, etc.. is set up. Again, they use the national standard. Majority of the states are not like California. As well it is better to have too much in a text and allow the instructor to define what is allowable in one's region than not enough.

You question about a death case, is simple. Many times you will respond to cardiac arrest to find out they are already dead. Some areas allow EMT's to determine with local LEO if M.E. should be notified or not, as well if this is a case for an required autopsy ( the point of the question). It is part of the job.

The differential in pulse rates is all approximation, so if your instructor say 120 and the text says 124 etc.. it is all dependent upon the text they were taught or refer to. It is hard to remember each text specifics when teaching, if one uses multiple ones over the years. So get used to generalizations in certain areas.

Again good luck and study hard!

R/r 911

Rid, thanks for the info! That explains it about the coroner's case question because I was kind of confused on why it was relevant to what an EMT-B does. I suppose I'll make sure I read through every part of the textbook then even if we don't cover the material in class.

Either way, I'm definitely going to use a national registry exam study prep book or whatever they have on the market before I take the test. Thanks though, I'm going to study my arse off in this class!

 

[fm_emt]

Okie, the first one is pretty cut and dry and I'm assuming the answer is because in California every ambulance has a medic and an EMT so the medic could administer them, but I'm kind of wondering why EMTs apparently can only administer oxygen and oral glucose in Cali? My medic student friend said it depends on the county (but it's the same there so maybe it's in most of Cali) and it's kind of annoying because I understand I still have to know this stuff for national registry even though I can't use it.

Some counties will allow you an "expanded scope of practice" - usually the more rural counties up north. I am not sure of exactly which ones. Around here the answer seems to be "If you want to do more, go to Paramedic school." Kind of a lame answer.

And not every ambulance has a medic & an EMT.

I've heard that they might actually add the expanded scope of practice to this county fairly soon.

As far as the National Registry, just remember to download that DOT EMT curriculum PDF file!

 

[premedtim]

Some counties will allow you an "expanded scope of practice" - usually the more rural counties up north. I am not sure of exactly which ones. Around here the answer seems to be "If you want to do more, go to Paramedic school." Kind of a lame answer.

And not every ambulance has a medic & an EMT.

I've heard that they might actually add the expanded scope of practice to this county fairly soon.

As far as the National Registry, just remember to download that DOT EMT curriculum PDF file!

Well, not too lame of an answer since there's a good reason to go to medic school if you stay in the EMS field since medics in Cali make about $70,000 starting. *shrugs* Yeah I know there's certain special types of EMTs in some counties such as EMT-Ds....hmm, if I bought a national registry exam prep, wouldn't it have the DOT EMT curriculum in it?

 

[fm_emt]

Well, not too lame of an answer since there's a good reason to go to medic school if you stay in the EMS field since medics in Cali make about $70,000 starting. *shrugs* Yeah I know there's certain special types of EMTs in some counties such as EMT-Ds....hmm, if I bought a national registry exam prep, wouldn't it have the DOT EMT curriculum in it?

Oh, I was just calling it lame because I would LOVE to quit my full time job and go to medic school, but I have a dilemna - I need to pay rent and bills and stuff. heh. There are only 2 schools in the county, and one of them is $15,000 and has a mediocre reputation. ;-)
I know that Rid might disagree with me, but I think that it would be nice to at least have the opportunity to learn the expanded scope. I don't want to take an 'accelerated' medic course. I'd rather it be *longer* so I'd have the time to fully absorb the information.

The NR prep books have a lot of information, yes, but the DOT EMT curriculum is a free download and has the same information.

 

[Ridryder911]

I don't disagree with expanded scope for Paramedics if there was such. NREMT exam review is not the same as the D.O.T. curriculum. It is an review of the D.O.T.

If you want the DOT in a book form, watered down to 5'th grade reading level. .. try the late Nancy Caroline's Emergency Care in the Streets text.. It even has the anatomy of cardiac pathways as a story of Sidney Sinus ... like a bed time story... Amazing, (she had the initial contract for the DOT) and re-wrote the DOT in a easy kiddy format and made millions.

R/r 911

 

[premedtim]

Well if the NREMT exam review is different than the DOT cirriculum, should I just do what FM suggests and download the cirriculum and skip the exam review? I don't mind it being at an advanced reading level though since I've been reading at the college level or higher since I was 10 or so. Not too worried about that.

 

[Ridryder911]

A review is basically a synopsis or outline and questions. The curriculum which is several hundred pages is more detail and wrote in chapter format in text book form/

Again, all texts, Brady, Mosby, AAOS, etc.. are basically all the same. The may have better interpretation or better graphics, or more in-depth portions but they all are based upon the NHTSA (DOT) Basic EMT Curriculum. Which is written at about junior high or so.

There are several review manuals out there, some may be better than the other. With the new (computer) tests and new written questions, no one really knows how, what, might be more expected than normal. It will be a year or so before a true review manual will display any reference to the test. Even then test will continuously be re-written over and over until the tests are stabilized.

Good luck in the studies and tests,

R/r 911

 

[fm_emt]

Well if the NREMT exam review is different than the DOT cirriculum, should I just do what FM suggests and download the cirriculum and skip the exam review? I don't mind it being at an advanced reading level though since I've been reading at the college level or higher since I was 10 or so. Not too worried about that.

It really depends on what works for you. For me, the DOT curriculum in PDF format worked great. For others, they like the review books.

 

[Medic519]

NREMT-I 99 Written Exam

Just out of curiosity: Has anyone ever posted or seen a forum out in the internet world of a compiled list of questions remembered from the NREMT-I 99 exam? About 8 years ago when I took my EMT-B written exam, I came across a forum (somewhere) with nothing but questions that a bunch of people, whom had just taken the exam, had put together of nothing but questions that they could remember seeing on the EMT-B written exam. I studied those questions (along with my other books and material, of course) and I aced that exam. Just about every question that I had studied was on the written exam.

I'm about to test for my NREMT-I in a couple of months and I have bought just about every study guide out there. But I was just wondering if anybody knew of any type of forum or site out there similar to the one I found years ago. Or better yet, could this be the start of one? I know a couple of questions seen on the NREMT-I from friends whom just took it. Any help, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Ridryder911]

Couple of things...

First study and learn the material. You are hurting three things the patient and yourself and the system.

I have no respect for cheaters and yes.. that is what that is. Credibility of a test is important if it is especially to test medical knowledge. As well anyone caught giving information and distributing information related upon the test, is violation of the NREMT and legal laws. I would never even chance such or discuss it.

Other thing, the test is now computerized with over 3000 test bank questions, that are randomly pulled and almost all have been rewritten. The more you miss on one question the more it will pull up questions related to that subject. There is no longer a 70% passing rate, it is all based upon point system on the type and degree of a question. Therefore some pass at 78 questions and others at 90 etc.. as well as some may fail at 78 questions.

Study hard, be prepared for any question with honesty and integrity .. I am sure you will do well.


R/r 911

 

[Medic519]

I am sorry. Perhaps my question/posting came across the wrong way. I am NOT asking for a "copy of the test". There are numerous books out as well as websites that claim they have the questions taken from the test, for study material before taking the test. Other words they claim that the questions you see in their book/website are the questions you can expect to find on the written exam. I have already purchased just about every book out there with these study questions, and yes there are literally thousands of questions in each book. Perhaps I should have wrote my first posting with different wording. So I'll try again:

Before taking my EMT-B test several years ago, I purchased many similar books and software for preparation for the EMT-B test. I studied that material over and over. I got together with a small group of friends that had previously taken the test, but had to retest, and they came up with a list of questions that they remembered seeing on the test. Of course, everyone had a different test too. We went through the books that I had, and we found one book out of about 4 that seemed to be pretty accurate with the test questions. When we found out that the list of questions they could remember was pretty close (not word for word either) to the questions in the book, I studied that book hard. Sure enough, when I took the exam, just about everything I had studied was there on that test.

Now, my question is (worded differently this time): What is the best recommended "book" of study questions, that I could expect to see on the NREMT-I written exam. Again, I have several (And I do mean several! I'm probably Barnes & Noble's best customer) that I have studied and looked through and all seem to be different. I'm asking this from someone whom has already taken the test.

I know that I have to study hard, and I have been. I study my EMT-I book everyday, as if it was a Bible. I am currently working as an EMT-B, and I take my job very seriously. I understand very well the concept of "Do no harm". Once I pass this EMT-I test, I will also be the "only" ALS provider for my county. I will also know that I worked very hard to get there, and I would certainly hope that anyone on my squad that follows after me, would have studied and worked just as hard as I did, to get there.

I do not wish to cheat, nor am I asking to cheat or "break any violations". If my first posting came across to ANYONE in that way, please accept my apologies. I work very hard and I am not a cheater, nor do I wish to be called one. Any more helpful advice, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Medic519]

Also, RidRyder911, what do you mean by "There is no longer a 70% passing rate, it is all based upon point system on the type and degree of a question"?

I know that the test is computerized now, but I'm not sure exactly what you mean about the point system as far as pass or fail.

My weakest area of study, is the cardiac area. So does that mean if I'm starting to fail a lot of questions related to cardiac, that the test bank will keep throwing cardiac questions at me?

Thanks.

 

[futuretoledoemt]

Either way, I'm definitely going to use a national registry exam study prep book or whatever they have on the market before I take the test. Thanks though, I'm going to study my arse off in this class!

I recommend the Kaplan book as a great review book... Just make sure that whatever book you choose it has the updated guidelines for CPR. I just spent 40 bucks on a Medic review book that has old guidelines in it for ACLS.

Good luck to you
April

 

[Medic519]

Thank you April. I will definitely check that out. Good luck to you as well.

 

[Airwaygoddess]

I recommend the Kaplan book as a great review book... Just make sure that whatever book you choose it has the updated guidelines for CPR. I just spent 40 bucks on a Medic review book that has old guidelines in it for ACLS.

Good luck to you
April

Hey April, very good point! I sure hope you can return that book and get your money back!