# How many clinical hours did you get while training for EMT?



## Niesje (May 6, 2013)

My school that I start tomorrow boasts about all the clinical hours thery do and claims that we'll do the same rotations as first year med students. According to the teacher, the state only requires 57hours while they require 500. How does this compare to your education?


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## firecoins (May 6, 2013)

that's a lot for an EMT class. Good,


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## chester33 (May 6, 2013)

24 hours for my class


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## wanderingmedic (May 6, 2013)

That is freaking amazing. If you dont mind me asking, can you post a link to your school or pm one to me?


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## EpiEMS (May 6, 2013)

500? Woah.

I did 10...I'd like to see Registry require, say, 40 hours.


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## Akulahawk (May 6, 2013)

Back when I did EMT, (1996 or 97?) we only had to do something like 24 hours ride time. Two whole 12 hour shifts. I think the County (State?) only needed something like 12 hours.


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## AtlasFlyer (May 6, 2013)

500 hours?!

At Ivy Tech in Indiana this spring semester, for my EMT-B class, I did 16 hours. 8 hours in a Level II ED and 8 hours on an ambulance shift.


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## Achilles (May 6, 2013)

I believe my school only required 84 hours but I did 96 
If you don't mind me asking, can you provide the link to the school. Or the link to where it says 500 hours of clinical time?


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## ExpatMedic0 (May 6, 2013)

Niesje said:


> My school that I start tomorrow boasts about all the clinical hours thery do and claims that we'll do the same rotations as first year med students. According to the teacher, the state only requires 57hours while they require 500. How does this compare to your education?



Those are Paramedic clinical hours lol. Why not just take a Paramedic class?


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## Anjel (May 6, 2013)

Damn. I'm doing a little over 500 for my medic class.

I did 60 for EMT.


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## Medic Tim (May 6, 2013)

EMT B was 48 plus 10 hours community service(2 Er and 2 ambulance shifts)
EMT I was 500 plus 20 hours community service and min skills
Medic was 750 plus 30 community service hours and min skills
These were the minimum clinical hours.


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## medicsb (May 6, 2013)

Niesje said:


> My school that I start tomorrow boasts about all the clinical hours thery do and claims that we'll do the same rotations as first year med students. According to the teacher, the state only requires 57hours while they require 500. How does this compare to your education?




The above is a conflicting.  Most first year medical student have very limited clinical time (nowhere near 500).  Third year med students put in up to 3000 hours.


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## jagonz5413 (May 6, 2013)

My emt class in Oklahoma requires 40. I did 80.


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## Marques951 (May 7, 2013)

The school I am going to attend is a 2 1/2 month program and they only require 24 hours of clinical.  They offer three different classes, all day, evenings and weekends.  Also they have online too, I did not think something like EMT could be done online.


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## Christopher (May 7, 2013)

All of the programs in the area of Lebanon, TN have 60 or 72 hours of clinicals noted (VolState and TN Tech). I cannot find any EMT-B program in TN with more than that.


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## Tigger (May 7, 2013)

We were required to do 16 hours in an ED and 24 on an ambulance. I ended up doing 24 in the ED, 24 on the ambulance, and 12 with ALS fire, which a few in my class also took advantage of.


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## hogwiley (May 7, 2013)

We had to do 20 in the ER and 20 on an ALS ambulance. Most people did more because the school had objectives like taking 100 sets of vital signs, perform 10 patient assessments, backboard 3 patients, use a NRB, bag a patient, use a combi tube or king airway etc, and not getting those objectives signed off meant you could be prevented from graduating. 

In the end if we didn't get an objective they just had us demonstrate it, answer questions on the skill and then write a report on it. It was a lot easier to just DO THEM during clinicals than go through all that crap.


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## Ace 227 (May 8, 2013)

Holy hell. I did a single 12 hour ER shift for my EMT. That was like 5 years ago.


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## DesertMedic66 (May 8, 2013)

48 hours and 10 patient contacts with 10 complete PCRs filled out (no identifying info). 

State requires 12 hours and college insurance won't let us exceed 48 hours. Shifts can all be done on a fire engine, Ambulance, Trauma/burn Center hospital, or a mix of all the above. 

If students don't get the 10 patient contacts they get insurance extended however many hours they need until they have the 10 patient contacts.


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## Marques951 (May 8, 2013)

When you guys went out to do your clinicals, did you ever have it to where the medic or whoever you were with would not let you do anything?  The first time I was in the EMT program we had students who said they were not allowed to do anything other than observe and others were able to do everything.


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## chaz90 (May 8, 2013)

Marques951 said:


> When you guys went out to do your clinicals, did you ever have it to where the medic or whoever you were with would not let you do anything?  The first time I was in the EMT program we had students who said they were not allowed to do anything other than observe and others were able to do everything.



Completely depends on who you're working with, the impression the student makes on them, and the patient. Do your best to show that you're competent and willing to learn, and hopefully the person you're working with isn't a jerk.


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## Cody1911 (May 9, 2013)

chaz90 said:


> and hopefully the person you're working with isn't a jerk.



I am hoping I get nice folks during mine...

I will be doing 10 hours in the ER and 10 hour with the fire dept who keeps pretty busy here. (certain stations) I think there is 22 stations total here? They choose which station though.

I am excited... I just hope like you said I am not stuck with someone who is like that. I have lots of field experience so it's not the end of the world if I just watch. I would hope I could do stuff though because that's how you learn.


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## hogwiley (May 9, 2013)

Cody1911 said:


> I am hoping I get nice folks during mine...
> 
> I will be doing 10 hours in the ER and 10 hour with the fire dept who keeps pretty busy here. (certain stations) I think there is 22 stations total here? They choose which station though.
> 
> I am excited... I just hope like you said I am not stuck with someone who is like that. I have lots of field experience so it's not the end of the world if I just watch. I would hope I could do stuff though because that's how you learn.



What field experience do you have, were you an MFR?

Its usually the ER that people complain about, such as snotty nurses or whatever, but I found its not really an issue if you are in a decent sized ER, if you have a precepter or Nurse that ignores you, then find another Nurse or tech who seems willing to let you see and do stuff and answer questions, you can usually find one. 

Ride alongs can be a problem though, because you are usually with the same crew the whole time, so if you wind up with an a hole for a precepter it can make for a long shift.


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## Marques951 (May 9, 2013)

When I did my ER shift, the RN let us do everything and just kept an eye on us.  I was there from midnight to four in the morning so it was not too busy, but it was a good experience.  Also when I did my OB clinical, that was by far the best one.  The doctor there let me observe everything he did and when he had down time he was quizzing me on the entire OB chapter in my text book and showing me things that were not in the book too.


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## Niesje (May 18, 2013)

ExpatMedic0 said:


> Those are Paramedic clinical hours lol. Why not just take a Paramedic class?


You can't just be a paramedic here. You have to take the EMT course first.


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## Niesje (May 18, 2013)

medicsb said:


> The above is a conflicting.  Most first year medical student have very limited clinical time (nowhere near 500).  Third year med students put in up to 3000 hours.


Idk, I just know that's what I was told.


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## Niesje (May 18, 2013)

Christopher said:


> All of the programs in the area of Lebanon, TN have 60 or 72 hours of clinicals noted (VolState and TN Tech). I cannot find any EMT-B program in TN with more than that.


I'm not going to school ion lebanon, I'm going to school in Nashville.http://www.southeasterninstitute.edu/gform/micro/program-detail.php?program_id=7


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## Mariemt (May 18, 2013)

Our program quit going with hours and went with patient contacts. They found some students on a slow day would get 2 patients in a 12 hour shift.
We had to have 10 medical patient contacts and 5 trauma.
Mine took 42 hours, but I didn't stop at 15. I had such good preceptors I kept wanting to go back.


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## Mariemt (May 18, 2013)

Christopher said:


> All of the programs in the area of Lebanon, TN have 60 or 72 hours of clinicals noted (VolState and TN Tech). I cannot find any EMT-B program in TN with more than that.



Wrong link sorry


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## troymclure (May 18, 2013)

we had 2 mandatory 12 hour shifts, 1 ridealong with the fd(all paras) and 1 ed clinical. they offered more, but nobody took them up on the offer.


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## medic2100 (May 18, 2013)

I went to Columbia State in Columbia, TN, we had 96 clinical hours, 500 is ridiculous IMO for EMT-IV. Southeastern is known for overdoing everything. Did I mention my EMT-IV class was a summer semester and costed about 2,000. I can imagine that you are paying almost 10,000 for this program.


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## Anjel (May 18, 2013)

medic2100 said:


> I went to Columbia State in Columbia, TN, we had 96 clinical hours, 500 is ridiculous IMO for EMT-IV. Southeastern is known for overdoing everything. Did I mention my EMT-IV class was a summer semester and costed about 2,000. I can imagine that you are paying almost 10,000 for this program.



According to their site it is over 15k. And they have had no graduates yet.

My medic program only cost 4k


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## Niesje (May 18, 2013)

medic2100 said:


> I went to Columbia State in Columbia, TN, we had 96 clinical hours, 500 is ridiculous IMO for EMT-IV. Southeastern is known for overdoing everything. Did I mention my EMT-IV class was a summer semester and costed about 2,000. I can imagine that you are paying almost 10,000 for this program.



I'm paying over 16k, but I feel like I'm getting a better education than Columbia and Vol State. I liked the idea of getting more clinicals and I've heard really good things about their paramedics and they have the same teachers. So far, I'm really enjoying the class and I feel like I'm learning a lot. They haven't had the AEMT program for long, the class that's a semester ahead of me is the first. They'll graduate in July I think.


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## NomadicMedic (May 18, 2013)

16k? Holy debt to earning ratio Batman!


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## troymclure (May 18, 2013)

i paid $2000.00! and i will be working as soon as the state finishes my paperwork. less than 2 months total.


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## Niesje (May 18, 2013)

DEmedic said:


> 16k? Holy debt to earning ratio Batman!



It's not so bad. I qualify for plenty of financial aid and ended up paying about what it would cost to go to other nearby schools and get less training.


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## Momma4 (Jun 1, 2013)

*Wowsers!*

We are bound to 80 total for EMT-B.  500+ blows my mind!:blink:


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## jefftherealmccoy (Jun 1, 2013)

When I got my emt-b in Utah in 2006 you didn't have to do any clinicals.  Just the written and practical.  Same with EMT-I.  Pretty sure it's at 24 hrs now though.


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## milehimedic (Jun 5, 2013)

We did 1 Fire shift, 1 ALS, 1 BLS, and 2 ED shifts. I guess that's about 50 hours. I liked the ED shifts so much that I decided to scribe FT instead, and volunteer PT in EMS.


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## jrarnold243 (Jun 5, 2013)

*Tarrant County College*

We were required to get 24 hours in ED and 48 on ambulance. I got quite a bit more since I signed up for extra.


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## dC0m (Jun 5, 2013)

Going through everyone's clinical hours made me feel under-trained..

My local community college has a requirement of 8 hours minimum of clinical experience in the ED and another 8 hours minimum in the back of the ambulance. We also had to make at least 10 patient contacts in the ED, and another 3 in the ambulance.

I put in 12 hours on the ambulance (it was a 12H shift rig and I didn't want them to make a detour just to drop me off), and another 12 in the ED. Made about ~17 pt contacts between the ED and ambulance.


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## ctemsnewbie (Jun 7, 2013)

I was required to do 18. I actually did 30 hours. Worth every minute of it!


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## chaz90 (Jun 7, 2013)

dC0m said:


> Going through everyone's clinical hours made me feel under-trained..



Probably because most of us are painfully under trained and educated.


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## Fire51 (Jun 7, 2013)

For my basic class we did only 16 hours all together, the ambulance is ER based so it counted for both. For my AEMT which is in a different place then my basic we had two 12s for ED and two 12s for the ambulance so 48 hours total. Neither had the certain amount of patient contacts you need for them.


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## ChanelCinq (Jun 8, 2013)

Niesje said:


> I'm paying over 16k, but I feel like I'm getting a better education than Columbia and Vol State. I liked the idea of getting more clinicals and I've heard really good things about their paramedics and they have the same teachers. So far, I'm really enjoying the class and I feel like I'm learning a lot. They haven't had the AEMT program for long, the class that's a semester ahead of me is the first. They'll graduate in July I think.



Sorry but that is completely insane.  All the private programs in the San Francisco Bay Area are about 2,500 to 3,000.  No less and no more.  But you could go to one of the community college programs for a few hundred USD.

Sorry but I spent 18,000 on a 2 year, accelerated second Bachelors in Nursing at a private university.  And you are paying a bit less for an EMT program.  That is completely wacked!


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## dC0m (Jun 9, 2013)

Niesje, 

Are you doing an EMT-B program or EMT-IV? I clicked on your click and it looks like the school is offering EMT-IV? That would justify the additional hours + tuition cost..


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## CPRinProgress (Jun 9, 2013)

In Jersey my clinical were a joke.  I needed 10 hours and I couldn't ride with the medics because you had to be 18.  So I went to the nearest level 2 trauma center.  For the first hour I watched a working code which I didn't mind but I didn't do much and they weren't even ventilating, intubating etc.  He had a AAA so I think they were giving up on him.  But then for the next two I followed around a tech who was doing EKGs.  Then for the next 7 hours I was in triage taking a bp with an automatic machine and slapping a pulse ox on them.  And while all of this was going on the hospital had a medevac come in with a baby who was arresting after he was ejected from his car that was in an accident because his idiot parents didn't put him in a car seat.  I found that I didn't learn a thing.  Riding with the medics would have been more beneficial.


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## chaz90 (Jun 9, 2013)

CPRinProgress said:


> In Jersey my clinical were a joke.  I needed 10 hours and I couldn't ride with the medics because you had to be 18.  So I went to the nearest level 2 trauma center.  For the first hour I watched a working code which I didn't mind but I didn't do much and they weren't even ventilating, intubating etc.  He had a AAA so I think they were giving up on him.  But then for the next two I followed around a tech who was doing EKGs.  Then for the next 7 hours I was in triage taking a bp with an automatic machine and slapping a pulse ox on them.  And while all of this was going on the hospital had a medevac come in with a baby who was arresting after he was ejected from his car that was in an accident because his idiot parents didn't put him in a car seat.  I found that I didn't learn a thing.  Riding with the medics would have been more beneficial.



A day in triage can be FAR more beneficial for the new provider than a day on the truck. Recognizing acuity of patients quickly is a subtle art that needs to be mastered. It doesn't seem like it, but that probably taught you more (unless you were completely close minded) than watching a trauma arrest would have. Triage is much more than slapping a BP cuff and pulse ox on people.


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## Clipper1 (Jun 9, 2013)

CPRinProgress said:


> In Jersey my clinical were a joke.  I needed 10 hours and I couldn't ride with the medics because you had to be 18.  So I went to the nearest level 2 trauma center.  For the first hour I watched a working code which I didn't mind but I didn't do much and they weren't even ventilating, intubating etc.  He had a AAA so I think they were giving up on him.  But then for the next two I followed around a tech who was doing EKGs.  Then for the next 7 hours I was in triage taking a bp with an automatic machine and slapping a pulse ox on them.  And while all of this was going on the hospital had a medevac come in with a baby who was arresting after he was ejected from his car that was in an accident because his idiot parents didn't put him in a car seat.  I found that I didn't learn a thing.  Riding with the medics would have been more beneficial.



You probably saw a lot more than you would have with Paramedics. Too bad you didn't take the initiative to ask questions.
What was being done for the code? Did you make it known that you knew CPR? The staff would probably have welcomed a fresh set of hands. Why no intubation? What were the signs and symptoms of the AAA? How many patients did you and the ECG tech interact with? How was privacy maintained?  What questions were asked in triage? Did you manually check a pulse at least to assure accuracy of the values given on the pulse ox and BP machine?  I do acknowledge that you were limited because of your age which might even have restricted you from access to many procedures and even access to some medical records. But if your state says you are old enough to take an EMT class, then you will have to take some of the responsibility on yourself to make the most of these clinicals. It probably won't be any different with a Paramedic if you don't make it known that you are willing to learn and do more.


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## medicrd (Jun 9, 2013)

For my EMT we had to do 72 hours. For paramedic, it was nearly 900 hours!


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## Summit (Jun 9, 2013)

OP: 16K is 2-4X as much as you should be paying for an EMT and AAS Paramedic together.


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## dC0m (Jun 9, 2013)

chaz90 said:


> A day in triage can be FAR more beneficial for the new provider than a day on the truck. Recognizing acuity of patients quickly is a subtle art that needs to be mastered. It doesn't seem like it, but that probably taught you more (unless you were completely close minded) than watching a trauma arrest would have. Triage is much more than slapping a BP cuff and pulse ox on people.



Couldn't have been said any better. If I the opportunity to choose between more time on a rig or in a ED doing triage, I would pick ED + triage. There is so much more to learn from triage. Sure, you might not be doing any crazy interventions, but the education/experience you pickup in triage is priceless. 



Clipper1 said:


> You probably saw a lot more than you would have with Paramedics. Too bad you didn't take the initiative to ask questions.
> What was being done for the code? Did you make it known that you knew CPR? The staff would probably have welcomed a fresh set of hands. Why no intubation? What were the signs and symptoms of the AAA? How many patients did you and the ECG tech interact with? How was privacy maintained?  What questions were asked in triage? Did you manually check a pulse at least to assure accuracy of the values given on the pulse ox and BP machine?  I do acknowledge that you were limited because of your age which might even have restricted you from access to many procedures and even access to some medical records. But if your state says you are old enough to take an EMT class, then you will have to take some of the responsibility on yourself to make the most of these clinicals. It probably won't be any different with a Paramedic if you don't make it known that you are willing to learn and do more.



Agreed. I think your clinical experience is solely based on how you make of your experience. If you make the most out of it, you will definitely enjoy/ learn from it. If you stand there and watch, of course it will be boring. I don't think age matters, if you're taking a EMT course, you should be expected to know the basics (CPR, ventilation, etc.). Hell, I've seen 12 year olds do some great compressions and ventilations! 

During my clinical at the ER, I was bored for the first few hours (it was a smaller Level II trauma center). But I quickly realized, it's MY clinical experience. The RNs and ED techs could care less about me. That's when I started going from room to room, doing patient assessments (even though the RNs and ER Doc already conducted their own assessments), and generally offering my assistance in any way possible. It was a great experience; I was able to interact with a bunch of different patients, all of which loved my presence. By the end of the day, I had assisted a ER doc with stitching of a lacerated lip, mastered the placement of 12 leads, and picked up a few things or two when assessing an AMS patient. 

It also helps to interact with the staff. I picked up a lot of knowledge from my preceptor (she was the ED tech on duty; former paramedic) that I wouldn't have otherwise in the classroom / ride-along.


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