# What to study prior to starting paramedic school



## mrg86 (Jun 4, 2012)

Hello, I am looking to get a head start on paramedic school and was wondering if anyone has advice on what to start studying early or what to brush up on. I will have about a month and a half between a summer A&P class and the start of the paramedic program. Any advice would be great!


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## STXmedic (Jun 4, 2012)

Hammer A&P. If you've got that down from your class, start looking at rhythm interpretation (Rapid Interpretation by Dubin is a good one), or start working on Pharm (Jeffrey Guy's Prehospital Pharm is supposed to be pretty good).

Just my 2¢


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## Handsome Robb (Jun 4, 2012)

PoeticInjustice said:


> Hammer A&P. If you've got that down from your class, start looking at rhythm interpretation (Rapid Interpretation by Dubin is a good one), or start working on Pharm (Jeffrey Guy's Prehospital Pharm is supposed to be pretty good).
> 
> Just my 2¢



Agreed. Both helped quite a bit to get the basics down so you can build on it.


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## terrible one (Jun 4, 2012)

If you've already completed A&P I'd say Chem & Micro helped the most. If you don't have time for that medical terminology would be useful.


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## lightsandsirens5 (Jun 4, 2012)

For sure A&P.... study till you think you have it, then study again. not having to struggle with A&P will be a HUGE benefit. 

Also, see if you can find a book with drug calculations and hit them good and hard. Unless you are already a genius at math.........


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## Hunter (Jun 5, 2012)

Like everyone says A&P, or start memorizing medications, knowing fishes, indications and contraindications, even though you might not know exactly what it means helps a lot. Medics is a lot of bls with medications and electricity and some advanced air way (a bit over simplified).


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## EMT John (Jun 5, 2012)

Drug cards!!! Know them inside and out. I think that was the hardest part for me. Being able to read each card and know everything that was on that card for a test. There are a lot of them too. 
Class:
Name:
Indication:
Contraindications:
Adverse effects: 
Adult Dose
Ped dose:
Safety/monitoring:


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## NomadicMedic (Jun 5, 2012)

*Drug calculations*: http://www.gaems.net/download/drugcalc.pdf

It'll put you ahead of the game.

*Acid base balance*: http://acid-base.com/

A good head start.


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## mrg86 (Jun 5, 2012)

Thanks for the help!


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## Sasha (Jun 5, 2012)

Study ALL the things!


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## DrankTheKoolaid (Jun 5, 2012)

If your going to a reputible program I would actually just advise you to spend time with your friends and family, get your yard in order and anything else that you will end up neglecting while in school.


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## beandip4all (Jun 5, 2012)

Email the program coordinator at your school and ask them specifically what they recommend you work on.


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## NomadicMedic (Jun 6, 2012)

I know what program he's attending, it's one of the better ones. I still suggest med math, acid/base and Dubin's book. 

It's a great way to get a head start on the program and avoid the "I'm overwhelmed" feeling.


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## Christopher (Jun 6, 2012)

mrg86 said:


> Hello, I am looking to get a head start on paramedic school and was wondering if anyone has advice on what to start studying early or what to brush up on. I will have about a month and a half between a summer A&P class and the start of the paramedic program. Any advice would be great!



A great pathophysiology book that is concise and easy to understand, yet provides an amazing depth for the provider is Samuel Galvagno's Emergency Pathophysiology: Clinical Applications for Prehospital Care.

For pharmacology I recommend a dual purpose reference guide and field guide from Richard Cherry and Bryan Bledsoe, Drug Guide for Paramedics (spiral bound). It has almost every medication you'd give as a paramedic (albeit some of the more progressive meds will be missing) plus it is small enough to fit in your EMS pants for studying during clinicals.

_Please, please skip Dubin_, it'll start you down the wrong road for understanding cardiology. Tomas Garcia's 12-Lead ECG: The Art of Interpretation is the book you want for understanding 12-Leads. His companion text, Arrhythmia Recognition: The Art of Interpretation is also well worth your money.

All of these books will continue to pay dividends well beyond your Paramedic class. Good luck!


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## STXmedic (Jun 6, 2012)

Christopher said:


> _Please, please skip Dubin_, it'll start you down the wrong road for understanding cardiology.


Please elaborate?

Another great pathophys book is Pathologic Basis of Diseases. However, to really understand what's going wrong, you need to have a good understanding of how it's supposed to work right.


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## Christopher (Jun 6, 2012)

PoeticInjustice said:


> Please elaborate?



Dubin (and other books like it) fail to teach the core principles and instead teach tricks and rely on memorization rather than understanding. I look at Dubin as the fast path to passing ACLS rather than actually establishing a fundamental understanding.

Having evaluated and helped teach paramedic students from programs which both use and don't use Dubin, those that don't use it have stronger ECG interpretation skills when applied in the field. They're also less likely to be thrown by odd looking ECG's in the field.

If folks are looking for a substitute book which possess the quick reference qualities along with a decent amount of core material, I suggest Dr. Ken Grauer's pocket guide.


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## STXmedic (Jun 6, 2012)

Fair enough. I didn't use Dubin as my initial learning material, so I can see how that could be an issue. My biggest complaint of Dubin's was the lack of practice 12 leads, where Garcia's has plenty. Which reminds me, I still need to replace my Garcia's; it was "borrowed" a while back :glare:


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## mrg86 (Jun 7, 2012)

I got the book list for class and we will be using Garcia's books.


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## Melclin (Jun 9, 2012)

+1 on the A&P stuff. Hammer it hard. To the extent you can rattle it off blind drunk, underwater, standing on your head with mouth full of marbles. 

I'd focus on clotting/inflammation/ischaemic cascade. They're all sort of interrelated and pretty much at the heart of every disease process that is important to us. 

The only other thing I'd say is figure out some strategy to make learning fun. I don't mean doing medically themed crossword puzzles. 

For me its getting to the bottom if a question (that and a profound fear of failure). When I was at uni, I'd watch some medically themed show. Grey's anatomy and house were my poison. I'd try and pull them apart because apparently I got a kick out of feeling more knowledable about medicine than a TV writer  Then I'd become interested in the topic and jump from resource to resource following the intellectual rabbit hole, much like how you click on wikipedia links bouncing around between topics. I'd spend hours and hours doing this. It never felt like I was studying but at the end I'd know buckets about whatever topic was involved, because not only did I need to learn the info, but I needed to put it all together to form an argument as to why the TV show got it wrong. When you need to argue a point by explaining something, you learn it a lot better. Which brings me to the second way I learnt well. I used to teach my mum whatever topic I needed to learn. Teaching being a good way to learn something yourself, it really helped sitting there trying to wrap my head around it in such a way as to be able to explain it perfectly in a number of different ways such that my mum (a medical lay person) could understand it properly, from basic science to state of the art. 

Figure out what your version of this is and you'll barely need to "study".


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