Working while in Medic School

VentMonkey

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The program is at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA, for anyone wondering. It seems like it was established in late 2017, interesting.
I only browsed the thread posts. Are you enrolled, or looking into Mt. Sac?

It’s no longer a program, it’s now an academy. It sounds like a lot has been restructured since I last stepped foot on, or around that campus.
https://www.mtsac.edu/newsroom/news/posts/2017-05-22-paramedic.html

The faculty appears to have undergone a major overhaul. The paramedics I know that graduated from their formal program did not do so under this faculty. That to me, is interesting.
 
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Virgil

Virgil

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That's not bad at all. It seems like maybe they squeeze clinicals into that time? If so, that's a great program that leaves plenty of time for P/T work.

That's just didactic iirc. The clinicals and field externship is after, and can be rather random so that's why they say students graduated around 8 months. I'm definitely going to try and work P/T, sitting on a rig gives me time to study too.

I only browsed the thread posts. Are you enrolled, or looking into Mt. Sac?

It’s no longer a program, it’s now an academy. It sounds like a lot has been restructured since I last stepped foot on, or around that campus.
https://www.mtsac.edu/newsroom/news/posts/2017-05-22-paramedic.html

The faculty appears to have undergone a major overhaul. The paramedics I know that graduated from their formal program did not do so under this faculty. That to me, is interesting.

Just looking into currently, I'm finishing my GE at another community college close by. There aren't many reviews on the new academy, but I've heard good things. I'll definitely give sitreps during and after the academy so we can all get up to speed here.
 
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Exam Vs Bad Touch

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I bounced at the strip club during didactic in paramedic school. Worked a BLS IFT Ambulance during Clinicals and internship. It was rough, and internship was soul crushing. But if I can do it, you can too.
 

Akulahawk

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I just browsed their site and the first 16 weeks is likely to be the toughest part of trying to blend FT work into it. Their program is M-F from something like 0800 - 1700 for 16 weeks straight. Once you're done you then progress to doing hospital clinicals for 6 weeks and then on to a 10-12 week field internship. Sounds easy enough, right? If everything works out exactly right, you can be done in about 8 months. If there are any delays in placement at your internship sites or if your schedule is lengthened due to preceptor availability or whatever else, that will extend your completion time beyond 8 months. Academy style programs are not easy to do if you must work and attend the program. If you absolutely must work, try to schedule that stuff during your weekends "off" from school and the majority of your funds that you save now will likely be used for that first 16 weeks because it's just not going to be very easy.

I attended a similar program, but ours went 4 days instead of 5 for didactic, and toward the end of that, we dropped a day or two of didactic time and we'd do a day or two of clinical internship time. We were all 100% ready for our field internships at the 6 month mark. The tough part for many of us was there weren't a lot of preceptors to take all of us at once so some of us had to wait for a while. The last of us completed the program 13 months after starting it. I worked basically FT during that time but thankfully that was "only" a 24 hour shift or two... and/or a 12 hour.

Now then skip ahead a few years (quite a few, actually) and I had left EMS for security work (needed and got awesome bennies) and then went back to school for nursing. That was not easy either. That was 4 days/week for 2 years (Summers off), and that was considered full-time. I also worked full time as well. Security work was what allowed me to do it... I could study while at work and my work hours conveniently were after my school hours... but it occasionally made for some very long days (14-16+ hours) even with studying at work. I also had a family...

Time management, actually being or becoming good at it was necessary, and it'll be necessary for anyone that wants to, or has to, work while going to Paramedic school, Nursing school, or any other "school" where you have lots of inflexibility at school and lots of time/work to be devoted to learning. There are people that manage to work for a time while going to PA school, Med school... and much more... but they have to really get good at time management and they have to know/learn how to be able to afford to do it because with those programs, there comes a time when you can't work because the demands are just too great (and inflexible).
 

CANMAN

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Worked full-time and part-time while in P school. U can do it (in Adam Sandler voice).
 

CANMAN

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I bounced at the strip club during didactic in paramedic school. Worked a BLS IFT Ambulance during Clinicals and internship. It was rough, and internship was soul crushing. But if I can do it, you can too.

Bounced at the strip club, sounds like a job full of bad decisions. I like it.
 

Exam Vs Bad Touch

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Bounced at the strip club, sounds like a job full of bad decisions. I like it.
There was tons of drugs. So, as long as you steer clear of that and keep your head on straight. I did have a lot of fun, A lot of the other bouncers could not Handle it, and get themselves hooked with the drug culture, and hard partying. I had my fun, But never did drugs, never stole, never was drunk or did anything to **** up my future. But most importantly, I knew when and how to walk away.
 

CbrMonster

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mt sac is a very strict program, from fellow coworkers it's not something you can do while working. i'm in a part time program 2 days a week and work 3-4 12hr shifts a week that usually get extended to well past 15hrs. i feel like part time programs and working full time is hard i couldnt imagine a full time program and working at all.
 

DrParasite

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mt sac is a very strict program, from fellow coworkers it's not something you can do while working. i'm in a part time program 2 days a week and work 3-4 12hr shifts a week that usually get extended to well past 15hrs. i feel like part time programs and working full time is hard i couldnt imagine a full time program and working at all.
What is your definition of a full time program?

mine was 4 hours every monday and wednesday, with the occasional saturday for a year. almost everyone in the program (except a few unemployed people or students) had full time jobs.
 

CbrMonster

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What is your definition of a full time program?

mine was 4 hours every monday and wednesday, with the occasional saturday for a year. almost everyone in the program (except a few unemployed people or students) had full time jobs.

i thought mt sac was mon-fri 9-5 program. so that see is very difficult as there's no real study time if you're also working ontop of that.
 

johnrsemt

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My program was two 8 hour class days and 24-48 hours a week of clinicals (depending on what you scheduled; but at least 1200 clinical hours in 14 months) and I worked 36/48 in two weeks at FT job, and 24-36 hours a week at PT job. It hit the point I could sleep standing up and study anywhere
 
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