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CSULB has an EMT basic course, full day Saturdays for three months coming up soon. Just under $1k plus uniform for clinicals and livescan, which is in range of the others. All the other messages sound like what I've heard from LA/OC

For reference, the health care version linked above includes extra work on partners in two person cpr and BVM with oxygen. As near as I can remember. My basic course required this because our clinical site did. But really, it does no harm to call HR and ask about the specifics just to be sure...

Since I'm a game developer in my day job, I'll see what I can do to come up with something less... painful to play than what you've all described here =)

Start the paper trail with the police, document every interaction. Someone with erratic behavior and recent track marks cannot be trusted to be rational. Not only for you, but it sets a really bad precedent when EMS gives the purposefully thought out threats of the violent a free ride. Yeah...

Heck, I've had mrsa twice acquired in the wild. But the truth is that noscomial infections cost hospitals real money and for the inconvenience of gloves I think that safety is worth the trouble. Where I did my clinicals it was always gloves in the ER for any patient contact. The rig, too, for...

Sounds like performance anxiety. I get past mine with rehearsing scenarios (thanks scenario forum) and visualizing procedures so that I have a memory of having done it before to fall back on.

Like others say, read up on medical terminology and anatomy&physiology if you can. Once class starts pre-read the book. Ask questions early and often, the most important question being "why?" Volunteer for demonstrations. When doing practicals and scenarios don't rush but think them through...

Yes, but having gone through two bouts of MRSA that took a lot of work to get beat I think that it is good to have a fallback. I agree that caution in it's use is vital.

The reasoning around these parts is that basics stop short of invasive procedures and a stick is invasive.

Sneaky, that won't be in a book =)

For me it's a potential sideline. I always had a deep interest in biomed but never could indulge, when I turned 50 I decided to :) I'm not actively employed as an EMT right now, but I'm keeping up to date with activities like next month I'm a casualty in a disaster exercise with some of my...

If you're from IT you'll have an easier time with assessment algorithms =) speaking from the standpoint of a programmer who just did this. But I had a background in bio and pre med so I emphasize any advice to work on vocabulary and acronyms as being your biggest ROI here.

You can go straight from an EMT-b to a medic program? Or do you already have some practical medical background? Either way, best of luck to all of you moving forward =)

I will put one on my car soon. At 50 I'm proud to have broken back into school and done so well, at a subject that's always interested me. I'll volunteer soon, I'm happy to leave the whackering to others.

Bingo. This.

Game programmer most of the day, as soon as I can find a service that'll take an old and inexperienced basic who only wants to EMS on weekends... then that =)

On my ride alongs the FTO and partner used nothing that didn't come with the rig, and in hospital ER everything but personal stethoscopes was from the hospital shelves.

Ditto here. We were taught to splint in place for support as long as distal pulse is there, else try small adjustments to restore pulse and high tail it to trauma. Or so says class learning

This is why the #1 answer to "I'm taking my test, help" threads is... Don't Forget To Breathe. Everyone is nervous, until they're not =) Visualize beforehand, take your time, get the steps down and the nerves will go away. Trust in me, I was a wreck during my first week of assessments. By the...

This is all about practicing the script, you need to get comfortable with the assessments and hands on with gear. Later you will be play acting for and assessing other students to get used to interacting on top of the script/algorithm you're working on now. Short answer: take the opportunity...