[18m almost 19m] I'm freaking out.

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lolwhatarewedoing

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I'm about to start my EMT course. I've done 65 questions on pocket prep (am broke as a joke lol) and scored around a 72%. This was an expensive course and the 80% requirement on the final is scaring the everliving crap out of me. I've downloaded an app called "EMT" that is NREMT prep which is rating me at "safety."

I'm not a bad student by any means (I just finished freshman year of undergrad, premed, and got Dean's List with High Honors last semester. First semester we really shouldn't talk about, but I'll chalk that up to me adjusting to the college lifestyle). I got a 1510 on my SATs and finished high school with a 3.9 GPA. I decided to come back home and do an EMT course because I've been wanting to do emergency med for a hot minute now.

I'm a CNA and tbh, I struggled in that program. It's really hard to remember all the steps for all the multistep skills. I've already pre-learned the skills for NREMT for the checkoff (not well but still). I really need to pass as this was an expensive course and.. ugh. I'm scared y'all. I understand working in fear is simply part of this profession, but this fear is different. My gut is screaming that I'm walking right into failure which is just not a nice feeling.
 
I disagree that "working in fear is simply part of this profession." Being scared all the time at work should be a sign of needing to find other work.

Someone with your high school record shouldn't have much trouble passing an EMT course. Maybe fear is getting in the way more than academics. What scares you about EMS?
 
mgr22 said:
I disagree that "working in fear is simply part of this profession." Being scared all the time at work should be a sign of needing to find other work.

Someone with your high school record shouldn't have much trouble passing an EMT course. Maybe fear is getting in the way more than academics. What scares you about EMS?
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I think it's a mixture of "fear of the unknown" and "omg what if I fail and have just wasted 1.6k dollars on absolutely nothing" if that makes sense. My course hasn't even started yet and I've been studying like a madman for the NREMT for the past week or so. I've downloaded upwards of 7 apps for EMS and have taken practice tests on all of them. I've also downloaded my own skill sheets and have been practicing a tiny bit on my dog (lmao).

I asked my girl about this (she's premed but not certified in anything quite yet), and she said smth like "well that's something you'd have to learn as an EMT, no? how to work in fear? a patient is dying in front of you, you have to keep your cool or you're going to lose a patient. just take a deep breath and you'll be fine."

Every time I see someone failing the exam, I feel sick to my stomach and say "what if that's me? what if i wake up and see a fail? what if i don't even pass the course? what if i don't even get a chance to take the exam?"
 
"The unknown" can be a pretty exciting place. Even working on a dying patient doesn't have to feel scary. If you've ever challenged yourself and succeeded, that should give you some confidence. So would EMS experience.

I understand about the money. Do you have a better use for it right now?
 
mgr22 said:
"The unknown" can be a pretty exciting place. Even working on a dying patient doesn't have to feel scary. If you've ever challenged yourself and succeeded, that should give you some confidence. So would EMS experience.

I understand about the money. Do you have a better use for it right now?
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funding the really expensive college I'm going to for premed, but other than that not really.. the cost kinda pales in comparison to the cost of the college anyway lol
 
mgr22 said:
"The unknown" can be a pretty exciting place. Even working on a dying patient doesn't have to feel scary. If you've ever challenged yourself and succeeded, that should give you some confidence. So would EMS experience.

I understand about the money. Do you have a better use for it right now?
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i feel like i don't know if i will pass which is frightening me. maybe the unknown is an exciting place, but right now (when i don't even have an inkling of insight into my likelihood of passing the course and the NREMT), idk how to feel besides terrified.
 
lolwhatarewedoing said:
i feel like i don't know if i will pass which is frightening me. maybe the unknown is an exciting place, but right now (when i don't even have an inkling of insight into my likelihood of passing the course and the NREMT), idk how to feel besides terrified.
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Sounds like you need to step away from the NREMT and EMS for a bit and consider how realistic it is to pursue something voluntary that terrifies you. Maybe you should focus on college for now.
 
lolwhatarewedoing said:
I'm about to start my EMT course.
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Well there's your problem for not knowing enough material to pass the final... you haven't actually been taught the material yet! Most courses don't expect you to walk in the door on day 1 knowing everything and being able to immediately sit for the final, I mean, that's literally the entire reason for the expensive course in the first place... so they can teach you.

Calm down, take a breath, make sure you pay attention in class, take notes, do your studying, and chances are you'll be fine in a few months when you actually are scheduled to take the final
 
My advice is to take a few deep breaths, delete ALL the apps that you've downloaded and put away the skill sheets, and just stop worrying. There's no reason to be neurotic or stress yourself out about acing the final of a course that hasn't even begun yet.

If you are scoring in the 70's without even having taken the course, scored in the high 90th percentile on the SAT's and made Dean's list taking pre-med courses, what makes you think you won't be easily scoring well into the 80's (at least) after you've actually been to class for several months?

Just relax, go to class, pay attention to your instructors, study the chapters and skill sheets as they are assigned, and you won't have a problem passing.
 
You are putting the cart before the horse.
As has been said, take the class first, then test.
 
Pretty much ALL of us here have been in your shoes. You haven't even STARTED the course and you're scoring in the 70's? That's actually not bad at all.... Now all that being said, put away ALL of those apps and don't even THINK about touching those until you're at least 1/2 way through the course. The course work will present to you the information and skills you will need to use to pass the exam. The stuff you'll be presented is going to be relatively BASIC stuff, you won't have to overthink it... and overthinking is easily possible and can lead to failing an exam.

Some of us have taken coursework that was actually far more in-depth than what you'll get... and then we got into EMS and had to learn NOT to do stuff because it was too advanced for the cert we were testing for. Given today's testing system, I probably would have failed my first go-round because of overthinking. By the way, I easily passed EMT, Paramedic, and (10-ish years ago) RN by NOT allowing myself to overthink the questions presented by the exams. It could easily have gone the other way... seriously.

Just take the course, study what they tell you to study, and then take the exam. Otherwise you'll just get too anxious about it all.
 
As others have said, it sounds like you are doing fine for going through the material on your own before the actual class. I got my EMT cert via a 2-week boot camp where I was able to buy the textbook a couple months ahead of time. I was able to go through the whole book on my own before the class, which made taking the class go a lot smoother. I did not "know" all the material before the class, but being exposed to it and getting a first pass at the A/P material made going through the material a 2nd time in the actual class go well. I graduated at the top of that class, passed the NREMT on my first try the next week and got my first EMT job the following week.

Having said that, here are a couple questions for you:

** How are you at memorizing things? As you are probably starting to appreciate, EMS material (and medical school material) involves a *lot* of memorization. I developed and learned a number of useful techniques for memorizing material during my prep for and taking the EMT class. You should work on that skill as part of your studying, IMO.

** What kind of patient contacts have you had so far? Have you done any volunteering at medical clinics or big sporting events in the First Aid tent? Are you currently certified in CPR/AED? How did you feel about your patient contacts so far, especially with any difficult patients? Getting patient contacts early in your EMS/Medical career is very important, IMO. First, if you find you really don't enjoy the Pt contacts, you still have time to change to a different set of career goals. It would really suck to get all the way to your MD clinicals and then find out that you really don't like having to deal with patients. Second, actually using your Pt Assessment skills and treating real Pts helps to solidify your understanding of the protocols and procedures. The first time you have a Pt in severe respiratory distress who really needs your help, you will understand why everything you've been learning is so important.
 
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