# Start EMT-B tomorrow...



## Sineath02 (Oct 2, 2006)

AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im going to choke on the first day!


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## MedicPrincess (Oct 2, 2006)

NO you won't.  You go in there telling yourself your going to do poorly and you will.  Guaranteed.

Go there, tell yourself your going to do fine, you have a lot to learn and you'll do what you need to in order to learn it.

Good luck.  It only gets better from here.


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## Ridryder911 (Oct 2, 2006)

Not tomorrow, maybe later...LOL

R/r 911


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## emtwannabe (Oct 2, 2006)

I lived through my first day........I think.....

I just paid $77.04 for my first book:wacko: ....and I found out that an AED works just fine...... 

Good luck to all of my fellow new students!!!

Jeff


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## Tincanfireman (Oct 2, 2006)

emtwannabe said:


> ....and I found out that an AED works just fine......


 
There *has* to be a story here...  =)


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## emtwannabe (Oct 2, 2006)

Once I found out how friggin' expensive the books are at my college bookstore, I had a minor (major) bout of sticker shock.....I had 18 other newbies want to go back to the classroom and test the school's AED's out on me....

I politely declined......^_^ 


Jeff


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## Ridryder911 (Oct 2, 2006)

I'll trade you costs... although that might seem steep, mine is $800 a credit/hr. so my next semester is $12,000 alone and the books are about $2500.00 for that semester... so it can always be worse. Anyone want to adoopt me ?... Or if you see my pic on the containers at the register... even loose change is appreciated....LOL

Hang in there....

R/r 911


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## EMTalex (Oct 2, 2006)

Ridryder911 said:


> I'll trade you costs... although that might seem steep, mine is $800 a credit/hr. so my next semester is $12,000 alone and the books are about $2500.00 for that semester



Bloody hell!!!! thats expensive. I got my books online for about $70 alltogether.....think my class cost $200 but we also had to buy a uniform....that cost bout $100

First day is great mate! kinda boring though, you want to start getting into the real stuff. Good luck mate


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## SwissEMT (Oct 2, 2006)

My EMT-B school cost over 2300 dollars, SO ALL OF YOU STOP COMPLAINING!!!


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## EMTalex (Oct 2, 2006)

bloody hell! dang everyone lucked out compared to me


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## fm_emt (Oct 3, 2006)

SwissEMT said:


> My EMT-B school cost over 2300 dollars, SO ALL OF YOU STOP COMPLAINING!!!



What?! Dude, you got hosed!!


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## brinagirl (Oct 3, 2006)

You'll do fine. After your first few days you'll settle in, make some new friends,and start having a little fun with it. I'm on my third week and so far things are great ,although,( as a guinnea pig) I had my face rolled into some guys crotch while strapped in a KED and a spine board. :blush:


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## SwissEMT (Oct 3, 2006)

fm_emt said:


> What?! Dude, you got hosed!!



I sometimes wonder. I mean, the school is quite well known in the EMS world, But honestly? I don't think I got my money's worth in terms of education nor did it truly stand out. 

Sure the price stood out, but the instruction really didn't. 
There was little practical curriculum in that we rarely had practicals, and instead we spent most of our time either in class, taking BPs or going out into the hallway and going through the procedure of pt assessment. There were no real world example given, no real world situations simulated.

Basic school is just to short to be worth :censored::censored::censored::censored:, seriously. We should just make Paramedic a degree, standardize and that'll get EMS the respect it deserves.

Sorry for the rant!


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## wolfwyndd (Oct 3, 2006)

SwissEMT said:


> Basic school is just to short to be worth :censored::censored::censored::censored:, seriously. We should just make Paramedic a degree, standardize and that'll get EMS the respect it deserves.


Not really sure if I agree with that.  Primarily because I do it as a VOLUNTEER part time thing.  Not sure if this is still true, but I read a couple of months (or a year) ago that over 75 percent of EMT's, and firefighters are volunteer.  While almost 90 percent of departments have all, or mostly volunteers.  I know I, personally, could not afford to pay for my own paramedic course.  I doubt if most departments would be willing to shell out the money for a paramedic course just as a volunteer.  The current social status of the 'public safety' working (IE, police, fire, EMS) is pretty low in the US and has been for . . . . . . . . LONG time.  I highly doubt that will ever change.  Even after 9/11 and people really do understand how important we are, most people either don't want too, or can't afford to pay more for the services we provide.  I believe most departments use us volunteers because we're cheap and in some cases (not all) we care more about what's going on.  It's not 'just a job' for us.  

I guess what I'm saying is that if we set PARAMEDIC as the minimum standard, I doubt if a lot of us volunteers would continue what we do.  It's a nice thought, in theory, but in reality I just don't think it would work.


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## Epi-do (Oct 3, 2006)

wolfwyndd said:


> ...and in some cases (not all) we care more about what's going on.  It's not 'just a job' for us.



I honestly am not trying to start a debate here, but this just hit me the wrong way.  I have been doing this for over 7 years.  My first year, I was a volunteer.  My second year I began working full-time as an EMT for a private service, and then a hospital based 911 service, while continuing to volunteer.  (I had a 2 year obligation to the volley FD in return to paying for my class.)  For the last 5 years I have been employed full-time as an EMT-B for private services, a doctor's office, and (most recently) a FD.  Burn-out is a big enough problem with those of us that do care and want to be here that anyone who thinks this is "just a job" or doesn't really care about what is going on won't last long in this business.

The pay sucks, the hours are long, and we occassionally see things that most people can only begin to imagine and then hope they never have to witness.  Anyone that is in EMS for the long haul and makes a career out of it most definately cares about what is going on and knows better than to think it is "just a job".

That being said, this is the best job in the world.  I love what I do and wouldn't want to ever do anything else.


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## fm_emt (Oct 3, 2006)

SwissEMT said:


> I sometimes wonder. I mean, the school is quite well known in the EMS world, But honestly? I don't think I got my money's worth in terms of education nor did it truly stand out.
> 
> Sure the price stood out, but the instruction really didn't.
> There was little practical curriculum in that we rarely had practicals, and instead we spent most of our time either in class, taking BPs or going out into the hallway and going through the procedure of pt assessment. There were no real world example given, no real world situations simulated.
> Sorry for the rant!



No problem. I was just teasing you anyway.  I went through my course at a local community college. It was taught by a couple local old school fire captains with decades of experience between them. They both did a pretty good job of noting textbook vs real world. Both the teachers and the proctors did a great job of setting up scenarios and having us go through them.
Our school also had you take (and pass) the Red Cross First Responder  prerequisite course first.
I wish we got more ride-along hours first. I think that my time in the ER was kind of wasted because I ended up doing mundane stuff like changing bedsheets instead of getting much patient interaction. While I realize that's part of the ER tech gig, it didn't have much to do with what I was there to learn. I think it would have been great to get more ride-along hours with AMR.


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## Sineath02 (Oct 5, 2006)

Ahh I have class again today, first day of class was pretty awesome but sitting through a 4 hour class is ruff, thank goodness for coffee! I beleive me driving with a private ambulance company has helped me out a little and will continue to help me out in the long run.


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