Paramedic Programs in SOCAL.

[RandoMedic]

I am currently looking around for paramedic programs that I do hope to attend next year or in 2019 since I do want to save up as much as possible to avoid getting a big loan or a loan alone.

I live in LA County but I would be willing to go as far as Bakersfield College since I heard they have a pretty good program. There are schools like MT. SAC, UCLA, PTI, and I think there is one in Ventura. I also heard of University of Antelope Valley by Palmdale/ Lancaster.

Has anyone attended any of these schools? If so, what was the experience but most importantly, costs of the program and if possible, what is the scheduled days if any?

 

[NPO]

My personal opinions: skip mtsac, UCLA, PTI and NCTI. Each has made good medics. But I've heard a lot of complaints from each.

Ventura and Bakersfield have great programs. Ventura has requirements including verified 911 EMT experience, and academic prerequisites including biology, chemistry, math, anatomy and physiology. You will get an associates degree.

Bakersfield is a 1 year didactic program and will get you everything (less general education) for an associates. Only entry requirement EMT and CPR certification.

If money is an issue, as it was for me. Hall Ambulance will pay for you school. There are lots of threads on Hall. Message me for details or use the search function.

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[Qulevrius]

1) MtSac - AAS in Prehospital Medicine. Cons - somewhat hard to get into.
2) NCTI - avoid at all cost.
3) Ventura - avoid. I've spoken to several people who went through their programme and the consensus was that it's a death-by-Power Point, you-make-your-own-programme type of deal.
4) UCLA - it's a LAFD medic mill. Pros - the medic programme will count as academic credits for West LA/Santa Monica colleges. Cons - very limited # of seats for non-FD applicants.
5) Bakersfield - good programme all around. Cons - have to either move to Bako or commute. HALL has a good reputation, but getting sponsored is not guaranteed.
6) Antelope Valley - avoid. It's a few multitude of times worse than Ventura.
7) Victorville - good programme. Cons - same deal as with Bako, only without HALL.

These are the ones people usually apply to. I'm sure I missed a couple.

 

[RocketMedic]

Y'all should try Houston.

 

[DesertMedic66]

If you are able to commute I would consider giving Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa a look. They offer an AAS in Emergency Medical Services. It's around $4,000 from your first payment till the time you have your state medic license in hand.

It's 3-4 days a week for 10-12 months depending on which program you are in (full time or part time). They have never had any student wait for more than a week to get a preceptor for internship. They have no contracts with ambulance companies or fire departments so everyone is on the same level. There is no "we have 15 spots for county fire and the rest are for anyone".

The cons are right now the program is going thru some staffing changes so there will be some new faces in the department.

 

[CALEMT]

It's 3-4 days a week for 10-12 months depending on which program you are in (full time or part time).

Its all the same now. 3 days for 4 months and around finals is when you start going 4 days a week. If the OP is still watching the tread theres a couple dudes in my medic class at crafton that commute from LACo.

 

[LACoGurneyjockey]

I'd steer you towards bakersfield college if money is an issue. It's a good program, typically Mon-Wed with a few Thursdays, and if I remember correctly it's less than $1000 and that's before financial aid. They have good clinical and internship sites. Every year theres a few people in class who will be commuting from LA so carpooling and splitting a motel room isn't an issue. I went thru a couple years back and know a few people in the most recent class if you have any other questions.
I'll second what everyone else has said about ncti, ucla, and ventura. And I've got a coworker at Victor valley college right now who says it's a fairly good program.

 

[DesertMedic66]

I'd steer you towards bakersfield college if money is an issue. It's a good program, typically Mon-Wed with a few Thursdays, and if I remember correctly it's less than $1000 and that's before financial aid. They have good clinical and internship sites. Every year theres a few people in class who will be commuting from LA so carpooling and splitting a motel room isn't an issue. I went thru a couple years back and know a few people in the most recent class if you have any other questions.
I'll second what everyone else has said about ncti, ucla, and ventura. And I've got a coworker at Victor valley college right now who says it's a fairly good program.

Less than $1,000. Is that a typo?

 

[LACoGurneyjockey]

Not unless i got something mixed up. It was 5k for tuition when i went through. And they drastically reduced the cost a year ago, but that's just tuition (doesn't include uniforms, books, backgrounds etc). But unless the last 3 guys i talked to who went through the last program were bullshitting me, yeah, it's stupid cheap. I remember one of them paid $600 out of pocket for tuition.

 

[NPO]

Not even a little. They drastically reduced the cost a year ago, and that's just tuition (doesn't include uniforms, books, backgrounds etc). But unless the last 3 guys i talked to who went through the last program were bullshitting me, yeah, it's stupid cheap.

Yep. It's now an accredited program so the unit prices are set by the state. It's about $1500 if I recall for a one year program. That should include both clinicals and internship I believe.

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[LACoGurneyjockey]

I had my internship paid for by my employer, but all of our interns from BC have been paying for an internship site out of pocket. The school arranged a site for them, just didn't pay for it. So that's another 2-3k easily. But even so, way cheaper than anywhere else nearby.

 

[CahoonHollow]

I thought the UCLA program was great. I went to it last year as a private (non-Fire) student, so most of the instructors I had are probably still there. The lead instructor is a former ground and flight paramedic from Illinois, program director worked on a ground ambulance and as a medic at a small community hospital in Colorado, and most of the instructors are current LAFD medics or work for AMR in San Bernardino or Riverside. All of the instructors are medics. Didactic was engaging and in depth - Wheeler, the lead lecturer, was as interesting a professor I ever had in 4 years of college. He and the other lectureres went in-depth into the pathophys and treatment for real patients commonly and uncommonly encountered in the field and I can still vividly recall some of the lectures (in contrast to one of the above posts that called one of the programs "death by powerpoint"). We had a full cadaver lab as part of the initial A&P unit. The testing was rigorous and high stakes with failing out a real possibility if you scored less than 80% on 2 block exams or 10 daily quizzes.

People like to trash talk LA County prehospital medicine for its limited scope of practice, pretty universally short transport times, and other critiques that I don't really agree with. The program taught and tested a national registry scope of practice, even despite the groans from some LACo firemen who lamented the fact that they'd never need to know some of the stuff since it'd been taken out of their scope. I had busy internship shifts, treated a lot of critical patients. Got tubes, ROSC, got to pace and needle-T, treated anaphylaxis, breathers, overdoses, suicides, homicides, hypoglycemia, strokes, STEMI, seizures, sepsis, MVAs, pedestrians struck, auto vs. bicyclists thrown, GSWs and stabbings. My clinical rotations started on time and there were ample shifts available to schedule as it was practical to me. I got to rotate through busy emergency rooms and every kind of specialty center, got paired up with cool anesthesiologists in my OR rotations who actually let me intubate - it blows my mind when some people say they only get to observe in the OR. My internship started on time as well, and the school facilitated the whole process without putting it on me to find a preceptor.

I've talked to other medics whose programs dragged on for *well* over a year due to gaps between didactic, clinicals and internship, and that astounded me. The UCLA program lasted just over 9 months. It was essentially full time - 36 hours most weeks 0800-1700 Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri and sometimes Wednesdays during didactic. Clinicals lasted 5 weeks or so, and internship was 20-30 24 hour shifts (2-3 months) with one of the ALS fire ambulances in the county. It was expensive - over $12,000 from the deposit to getting my CA EMT-P card after everything including books, uniform, tuition, and testing fees. I basically went for broke and spent all my savings making it through that year, but I feel it was totally worth it. I totally recommend it. There's limited spots for private students, and its a requirement that you take their paramedic prep program, but I applied once and got lucky that the next session had 9 or 10 private students.

 

[CALEMT]

It was expensive - over $12,000 from the deposit to getting my CA EMT-P card after everything including books, uniform, tuition, and testing fees. I basically went for broke and spent all my savings making it through that year, but I feel it was totally worth it. I totally recommend it. There's limited spots for private students, and its a requirement that you take their paramedic prep program, but I applied once and got lucky that the next session had 9 or 10 private students.

I'm sorry but this is just absurd. I don't doubt that UCLA has a great program but why go broke just to go to UCLA? A p-card is a p-card is a p-card. It's still the same regardless if you went to UCLA, RCC, Crafton, IVC, NCTI, VVC... etc. Why pay so much for only limited spots? I'm paying less than half of what you paid to go to medic school. Mine is about 12 months and I have/had no problems in didactic, no problems with shifts in clinicals, and nobody in the class before me has had trouble finding preceptors for internship. Save money and go to a JC, the curriculum is all the same in CA and people tend to forget that every paramedic program doesn't teach protocols. They teach national registry standards.

 

[GMCmedic]

I'm sorry but this is just absurd. I don't doubt that UCLA has a great program but why go broke just to go to UCLA? A p-card is a p-card is a p-card. It's still the same regardless if you went to UCLA, RCC, Crafton, IVC, NCTI, VVC... etc. Why pay so much for only limited spots? I'm paying less than half of what you paid to go to medic school. Mine is about 12 months and I have/had no problems in didactic, no problems with shifts in clinicals, and nobody in the class before me has had trouble finding preceptors for internship. Save money and go to a JC, the curriculum is all the same in CA and people tend to forget that every paramedic program doesn't teach protocols. They teach national registry standards.

This.

Anything less than 2 years is practically unheard of in my area. I took a hybrid year long self study/lecture course. In that year i had maybe 30 days of classroom time.

You know what happened? I got the same paramedic license as everyone else and nobody cared where I took my course, They care more about how good of a medic you are. I spent half the money the 2 year students spent at the community college.

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[Qulevrius]

Not 100% relevant, but Rio Hondo is planning on creating a medic programme within few years. And, most likely, they'll have the same type of deal with CARE as BC has with HALL.


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[VentMonkey]

Rio Hondo is planning on creating a medic programme within few years. And, most likely, they'll have the same type of deal with CARE as BC has with HALL.

Interesting. "Come be an IFT-paramedic until you get your dream FFPM gig. Either way, you won't need your paramedic know-how".

Ha, sorry couldn't resist. IIRC, Rio Hondo's Fire Academy was a paramilitary hotbed of retired, and active LACoFD goons "molding" the next generation of oh-so-humble fyreMEN.

Sincerely,
One Former Often Abused LA AMR EMT.

 

[Qulevrius]

Interesting. "Come be an IFT-paramedic until you get your dream FFPM gig. Either way, you won't need your paramedic know-how".

Ha, sorry couldn't resist. IIRC, Rio Hondo's Fire Academy was a paramilitary hotbed of retired, and active LACoFD goons "molding" the next generation of oh-so-humble fyreMEN.

Sincerely,
One Former Often Abused LA AMR EMT.

Funny in a sad kind of way Just a few points - CARE is already partnered with Rio Hondo (both academically and clinically), and they don't have exclusivity with the paramilitary crap. Other than that, bienvenido al sur de california.


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[VentMonkey]

Funny in a sad kind of way Just a few points - CARE is already partnered with Rio Hondo (both academically and clinically), and they don't have exclusivity with the paramilitary crap.

One of my first, and most truly knowledgeable EMT partners cousin/ roommate did his police academy there and would echo the sentiments to us weekly.

Rio Hondo Paramedic Program-aka-PTI...East.

Bienvenido al sur de california.

Claro que sí.

 

[Qulevrius]

For the record, I was talking about the Rio Hondo College. They actually offer all CARE hires a whooping 4 transferrable credits (UC) after 300 approved work hours on a rig. That's their EMT290, and the programme director did say in a non-uncertain way that they're trying to expedite their medic programme. But yes, everything else (i.e. fire cadre) applies.


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[VentMonkey]

For the record, I was talking about the Rio Hondo College. They actually offer all CARE hires a whooping 4 transferrable credits (UC) after 300 approved work hours on a rig. That's their EMT290, and the programme director did say in a non-uncertain way that they're trying to expedite their medic programme. But yes, everything else (i.e. fire cadre) applies.

I knew what you were implying (for those who didn't). It's just so remarkable how nothing will ever change in, and around my stomping grounds. At times it makes me sad, but only flashes in the pan...

Anyhow, I'd seen something somewhere about CARE offering some ties to an EMT program for EMT students, so that makes sense.

Maybe it's just the bitter old fogie in me who can recall as if it was yesterday the cocky brodozer-driving, giant-white-Broakley-glasses-wearing EMT who had life all figured out. None of which included anything more than chasing badge bunnies, and nowhere in that equation were the words "prehospital medicine" massaged into their brotein-guzzling minds.

Yeah, it may crank out the occasional solid paramedic-to-be, and to them I say "fight the fight", and know there are systems, jobs, and higher learning opportunities abound. Don't get swallowed in the sea of merit-badge-medicine and "cool stories".

-Mono del Vent