Any advice?

[LyndseyJ]

Hey all,
Just a quick question that I'm asking for opinions on. My ultimate goal is to be a flight nurse. However I cannot decide if I want to go to Paramedic school (I'm an AEMT) and then bridge to RN, or if I should just go ahead and go into the RN program. Any advice?
Thanks!

 

[Gastudent]

Hi there, I have had a few friends do the bridge program and it only takes off two semesters of RN school. You would still need all the same core classes no matter if you were a paramedic or not.

I also have a question for you, its a little off topic. You are one of the few AEMT's that I have seen on this forum, so I just wanted to ask you what was the biggest difference between the NREMT B exam, and the NREMT AMET exam? I am going to finish up AMET school in a few months, and I have heard nothing but horror stories about the exam. Any info you could give me about it would be very much appreciated thanks.

 

[Akulahawk]

Hey all,
Just a quick question that I'm asking for opinions on. My ultimate goal is to be a flight nurse. However I cannot decide if I want to go to Paramedic school (I'm an AEMT) and then bridge to RN, or if I should just go ahead and go into the RN program. Any advice?
Thanks!

I would have to say that if your ultimate goal is flight nurse, you should probably look for getting into a nursing program rather than a paramedic program. I would suggest that while you are completing the prerequisites for nursing school that you should continue working as an AEMT, because that will mean that you will most likely begin seeing correlations between what you learn in class and what you see in the field. In effect, you will be learning the why behind the what you see. Then once you start nursing school, stop working as an AEMT because you will need to learn how to do things in the "nursing way" and after graduation, work towards getting into an ICU because you will need that foundation for flight nursing. Once you have a nursing job, then you can return toand return to the field and perhaps than bridge over to paramedic. Then work as both a nurse and a paramedic, even though it will mean that your life will be extremely busy for a few years. Working as both may not necessarily get you a job as a flight nurse any quicker, however, it will probably ease your transition from hospital nurse to field nurse.

In my case, I may choose to go after a flight nurse job in the future, however, I became a paramedic long before I decided to become a nurse. Had I known I wanted to be a nurse back when, I would have skipped paramedic school and gone straight for nursing. I'd have been an RN for close to 15 years, had I gone nursing instead of paramedic. On the flip side of things, I would have probably had a more difficult time in the classroom...

 

[Handsome Robb]

+1 for what akula said.

Paramedic is NOT a stepping stone to nursing.

If you want to be a nurse go to nursing school. If you want to be a paramedic go to paramedic school.

Bridging from medic to RN isn't going to save you any time and honestly would probably hurt you in the long run trying to get a good ICU/ER job to get the 5 years of experience you're going to need to be competitive when applying for flight nurse spots. Also most HEMS services are going to want to see at least a BSN.

Flight nursing is a very competitive field to get into. They get many extremely qualified, capable, applicants so they can be extremely picky about what certs/education/experience they want.

 

[Bullets]

If you are dying to work the truck on your off days, its easy to challenge the MICU test as an RN and work as a MICN in any system. As a medic you still have to take the RN courses

 

[Handsome Robb]

If you are dying to work the truck on your off days, its easy to challenge the MICU test as an RN and work as a MICN in any system. As a medic you still have to take the RN courses

That's a can of worms you really don't want to open here. Also, not all states have PHRNs/MICNs outside of CCT services.

Just my opinion but if I can't take a class and challenge the NCLEX with my 2000 hours of EMS education, a smattering of CC and University level general education and continuing education classes then why should it be the same for nurses? I'll say it again, if you want to work as a paramedic go to paramedic school. If you want to work as a nurse go to nursing school. They're two different worlds. That's all I'll say since this thread covers it pretty well: http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=33913&highlight=bridge

This one is a good one as well: http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=33957&highlight=stupid+nurses

I'll leave it at that in hopes that this thread will stay on topic.

Edited to add another link and rephrase my statement.