Ideal paramedic internship locations

OREMT

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Hello everyone. I'm currently in medic school and am looking ahead to my internship phase, which will begin next June. My question to you: Anyone have any recommendations for a service that might take me as an out-of-state student intern?

I think I'm going to work in Oregon (where I'm from) in the future, but I was hoping to complete an internship in a different system so that I could have just a little more perspective on EMS. Ill take recommendations for urban systems, rural systems, or whatever else.

If I hear of a great place from you folks I can work with our internship coordinator to start setting something up in the next couple of months.

Thanks in advance for the help.
 

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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As my paramedic coordinator told me when he discussed internships, your internship should be a place where you want to work; ideally, you learn their protocols, learn how they do things, and then once you graduate, they offer you a job.

So my recommendation to you would be, pick a place where you want to work after you graduate, and go intern there. If you find a place that fits what you are looking for, pick up the phone or email them and ask if they accept out of state interns. If they do, then have your internship coordinator call that agency and do what needs to be done. But you need to take the first step.
 
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OREMT

OREMT

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DrParasite, thanks for the advice. I'll definitely take the first steps. Point taken on interning where I'd want to work.

To you and the rest of the forum - do you think there's any value to doing an internship in an unfamiliar system where you may not be employed afterwards?
 

PotatoMedic

Has no idea what I'm doing.
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Yes and no. Yes because you get to learn how others do medicine. Which might be good or bad. No because it won't help you get a job where you want.
 

NPO

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Do you and the rest of the forum - do you think there's any value to doing an internship in an unfamiliar system where you may not be employed afterwards?

It depends where you are and how the systems are set up.

Where I used to work there was one large service that covered 90%+ of the county (the other 2 small companies were not viable options for different reasons). The nearest alternative provider was to the north at least an hour, or to the south an hour to be with a pseudo-ALS service where FD runs the show. There was ZERO benefit to me interning anywhere else.

Contrast that with where I am now. In the Midwest counties are much smaller, and thus there are more services. Within an hour from my house there are at least 10 different services varying from private, to hospital based and third service. My agency is a slower service, and I recommend our employees who do internship do some of their time at a busier service in the nearby metro area. (Paramedic students here aren't restricted to one preceptor or service, in fact that would be abnormal for a student here to have only one preceptor.) I make this recommendation so they can get a variety of experience and bring that back with them to our agency.
 

Tigger

Dodges Pucks
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AMR Colorado Springs takes interns from all over though I think the school has to have an agreement with the op ahead of time. It's a great system for interns because it's quite busy and has varied geography. The majority of calls happen in urban/suburban Colorado Springs but AMR also covers a huge swath of rural/frontier county. Great guidelines too so you can actually use the interventions you learned and not just get quizzed on them.
 
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