Lifeguards For Life
Forum Deputy Chief
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While the question staged above is not necessarily my views on EMS all the time, I still think it deserves some intelligent debate. What leads any of us to believe EMS to be a legitimate profession?
A profession can be defined as a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science. I believe we satisfy that particular requirement. I have long heard many members of the forum rallying to promote advancement of the profession, a profession that is not regarded as a hobby, a profession that can be done with minimal amount of training on nights or on the weekends. Some point to Volunteers as the root of our professionalism dilemma. But I think that view in itself is self limiting to our said profession and as far away from the true basis of our problems as possible.
I am of the belief that our problems stem from the first day one walks into EMT school. Even at the Paramedic level we have Instructors with out degrees teaching "advanced skills", who would not be qualified to teach elementary school art. I'm sure some of them are wonderful paramedics, but can hardly be called educators. My EMT class was alot of scare tactics, about how not everybody can do this every day, the instructor told alot of self glorifying stories, and passed people i wouldn't trust with my mechanical pencil, let alone my life. The NREMT was a joke at best, it took 17 minutes to complete.
I've nearly completed my first semester of paramedic school, and have not been impressed or challenged thus far. I can also say the number of paramedics i have met on numerous clinicals that i felt confident in their abilities, I can count on 2 fingers. I've seen "great" paramedics treat patients like dirt. I've seen the "sweetest, most caring medics you'll ever meet" make disasterous decisions and lose their patches.
This thread is not meant to offend anyone. “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.” As of late, I am beginning to wonder if prehospital emergency medicine is the way to go. Can someone please explain to me what makes this a "real" profession. Can someone please account for all the shortcomings that I'm sure many of you see in the field on a day to day basis.
Maybe I'm just in a flawed system. Maybe I'm just sleep deprived as i havent slept through the night since friday. Maybe I'm just goin off on a poorly though out rant (probably).But I'm not trying to instigate anything, hopefully someone can make EMS make some sort of sense again.
A profession can be defined as a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science. I believe we satisfy that particular requirement. I have long heard many members of the forum rallying to promote advancement of the profession, a profession that is not regarded as a hobby, a profession that can be done with minimal amount of training on nights or on the weekends. Some point to Volunteers as the root of our professionalism dilemma. But I think that view in itself is self limiting to our said profession and as far away from the true basis of our problems as possible.
I am of the belief that our problems stem from the first day one walks into EMT school. Even at the Paramedic level we have Instructors with out degrees teaching "advanced skills", who would not be qualified to teach elementary school art. I'm sure some of them are wonderful paramedics, but can hardly be called educators. My EMT class was alot of scare tactics, about how not everybody can do this every day, the instructor told alot of self glorifying stories, and passed people i wouldn't trust with my mechanical pencil, let alone my life. The NREMT was a joke at best, it took 17 minutes to complete.
I've nearly completed my first semester of paramedic school, and have not been impressed or challenged thus far. I can also say the number of paramedics i have met on numerous clinicals that i felt confident in their abilities, I can count on 2 fingers. I've seen "great" paramedics treat patients like dirt. I've seen the "sweetest, most caring medics you'll ever meet" make disasterous decisions and lose their patches.
This thread is not meant to offend anyone. “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.” As of late, I am beginning to wonder if prehospital emergency medicine is the way to go. Can someone please explain to me what makes this a "real" profession. Can someone please account for all the shortcomings that I'm sure many of you see in the field on a day to day basis.
Maybe I'm just in a flawed system. Maybe I'm just sleep deprived as i havent slept through the night since friday. Maybe I'm just goin off on a poorly though out rant (probably).But I'm not trying to instigate anything, hopefully someone can make EMS make some sort of sense again.