Anyone going for their paramedic certification next year?

[TheBuffOP]

I think it's time I go for my paramedic certification and hopefully it goes alright. I'm thinking of going for the one year program instead of two. Any tips?

 

[mgr22]

Just curious -- why one year instead of two?

 

[TheBuffOP]

Just curious -- why one year instead of two?

I was advised by some medics the faster the better (some new graduates said hell no lol). I'm also a pre-med who is in his 20s and I need hop back on my regular studies later on. I am going to take sometime off from my regular courses for a while to pursue my current passion, EMS.

 

[teedubbyaw]

If you have the financial means to pull off a 1 year program, go for it. It's a full time gig, hell 2 years is a full time gig.

 

[TheBuffOP]

If you have the financial means to pull off a 1 year program, go for it. It's a full time gig, hell 2 years is a full time gig.

It's not gonna be easy. More like working night shift and doing day school. Some of my buddies who work on the truck would get off a shift at 7AM and go to school at 8:30AM.

 

[Gurby]

I'm also a pre-med who is in his 20s and I need hop back on my regular studies later on. I am going to take sometime off from my regular courses for a while to pursue my current passion, EMS.

You do you man, but I'll just leave this here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/should-a-pre-med-student-go-medic.238346/#post-3077481

This post is directed at the OP, but applies to traditional undergrads as well. Anyway,
I'm assuming you're an EMT-B already, since that is usually a mandatory pre-requisite to becoming a paramedic (though this might be different in other states). Great, you got a head start on your med school hopeful peers, you don't really know too much as an EMT-B so you still have a healthy appreciation that you don't know very much about medicine. Believe it or not this is a wonderful place to be. I strongly advise you to stop right there (at EMT-B) and devote yourself entirely to becoming a physician.

Here's why:
EMS is a bit of a trap, you can get all caught up in it, because you are enjoying what you are doing, helping others, taking care of emergencies, etc. It's a good high when things go really right. Then you meet a paramedic, and think to yourself: boy can this guy take care of business, I'd really love to be able to do all that great stuff too! But there is really not that much to being a paramedic. Unfortunately nobody really tells you this. IN your world, all these new skills are exciting and impressive, So then things start to take a turn in your life. Let me tell you a little about what I mean:

Paramedics are funny people, they are experts in a very, very, narrow slice of medicine. In fact, when it comes down to the business of prehospital emergency care, nobody does it like a medic. WOW, I think I want to do this medic thing, I'm going to go for it, atleast for now, until I go to med school next year. BUT, you can easily get all caught up in the ALS pre-hospital care scene. Because you are doing life saving interventions you may feel like you fast forwarded yourself to "doctor" or at least the preconceived notion you had of doctors before you ever got involved in medicine. So anyway, there you'll be doing all these great skills, and soon you'll start to think that gee-whiz look at all the great things that I can do as a medic (ha! nurses my ***, they can't do this stuff!). Heck, all that other stuff in medicine really is not as important as this stuff I'm doing right now (IVs, intubation and pacing oh my!), and that's when you start to make a very big mistake. All of a sudden you really stop caring about all the other things that medicine has to offer, so you stop learning about anything that doesn't have anything to do with the "important stuff". Now depending on how long this lasts you can piss away 4,5,6 years doing EMS work and be totally satisfied. But then something happens, it can be some job that went bad on you or you come across something you've never been prepared to deal with, or any other number of things that cause you to become reflective about yourself as a professional. So then you start to read again and you once again rediscover that there is a whole world of medical knowledge out there you weren't aware of as a medic. So now you're studying again and learning about the things you didn't know, but you are never able to do it in any coherent way. The sheer volume of the material is intimidating and you have no real way of knowing if you are making any progress. Plus you are surrounded by your peers, fellow paramedic professionals who tell you things like who the heck cares about temporal arteritis, that's not important and what the heck is so important about this pancreatic psuedocyst you speak of??? So now you start to get frustrated, and you look around at the people around you who are very content with being medics and knowing what medics know, and incorrectly equating their skill proficiency with medical knowledge. But not you. You start to remember that you wanted to be a doctor, and you look back and say, how the **** did I get here, this isn't what I wanted for myself professionally or personally. This whole medic thing was supposed to be a stepping stone to becoming a physician. You become, really frustrated, pissed off, burnt out and then to add insult to injury you start to realize that you are wildly underpaid for the work you are doing. Nurses don't have to put up with 1/2 the crap that I do and they get paid 3 times as much, plus I know a hell of alot more! That's the last straw, F-this you say, I'm going back to school. Only now you are well into your mid- late 20's, (in your case, mid-late 30's) maybe you got a mortgage, a big monthly car payment, who knows maybe a wife and kids in private school, your Golden Opportunity to become a physician is now well past you. You now must suffer in new and interesting ways to get to where you wanted to be in the first place. So sacrifices and painful choices are made and finally 7-8 years later you are back on track for the MD, older, a little more worn out, less enthusiastic, but hopefully a little wiser. Maybe.

So the question is, are you absolutely, positively sure that being a medic is what you want? Think long and hard about this, this is your life afterall. That being said, you gotta do what you gotta do, if you are supporting your whole family or you are on your own out there I can understand. But think about this seriously think about this. This is a long post, but I did not make all of this stuff up, I speak to you from my experience. There are alot of other things I can go into, all sorts of crazy stuff that you'll be banging your head against, but I think I'd be writing for days and days. Anyway best of luck, you can always drop me a PM if you have any specific questions.

 

[TheBuffOP]

You do you man, but I'll just leave this here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/should-a-pre-med-student-go-medic.238346/#post-3077481

I'll look into it, but I think I know what you might be trying to tell me. I'm living this motto where I want to do what makes me happy at the moment. I'll share a bit about myself. I have this problem where I'm terrified of my own mortality and this year I had two tumors removed (they were benign ), so this little scary moment in my life made me realize to do what brings excitement and joy to my life. My fallback career is ff/medic/tactical (if I were not to finish my degree). It's like I'm doing my life plans in reverse. I don't mind starting medical school in my early 30s.

 

[Gurby]

I'll look into it, but I think I know what you might be trying to tell me. I'm living this motto where I want to do what makes me happy at the moment. I'll share a bit about myself. I have this problem where I'm terrified of my own mortality and this year I had two tumors removed (they were benign ), so this little scary moment in my life made me realize to do what brings excitement and joy to my life. My fallback career is ff/medic/tactical (if I were not to finish my degree). It's like I'm doing my life plans in reverse. I don't mind starting medical school in my early 30s.

Having a healthy appreciation of your own mortality is not a problem, I think. Sounds like a good thing to me, if it's motivating you to follow your dreams and take care of bucket-list items. Carry on!

 

[MS Medic]

While I don't agree with or appreciate the "dumb *** paramedic" tone of the linked thread, the message is valid. I've known a few guys who went to medic school with the intention of it being a stepping stone to medical school. These guys have 5-10 year careers in EMS and to date not one has gone to medical school. If you want to be a MD or DO, don't waste time chasing a flavor of the month. Just knuckle down and get into medical school. Bear in mind this advice is coming from someone who's been doing this a while and is still happy with his job.

 

[Flying]

While I don't agree with or appreciate the "dumb *** paramedic" tone of the linked thread, the message is valid. I've known a few guys who went to medic school with the intention of it being a stepping stone to medical school. These guys have 5-10 year careers in EMS and to date not one has gone to medical school. If you want to be a MD or DO, don't waste time chasing a flavor of the month. Just knuckle down and get into medical school. Bear in mind this advice is coming from someone who's been doing this a while and is still happy with his job.

What he said. A person on this forum a while ago compared the EMS world to Hotel California, seems fitting.

 

[TheBuffOP]

While I don't agree with or appreciate the "dumb *** paramedic" tone of the linked thread, the message is valid. I've known a few guys who went to medic school with the intention of it being a stepping stone to medical school. These guys have 5-10 year careers in EMS and to date not one has gone to medical school. If you want to be a MD or DO, don't waste time chasing a flavor of the month. Just knuckle down and get into medical school. Bear in mind this advice is coming from someone who's been doing this a while and is still happy with his job.

Some stay with the job others go for RN and some actually go to medical school. Over at the SDN forums I'm talking to two paramedics who are currently going to medical school interviews. It really depends on the individual's motivation. One of the medics that I'm talking to is also a cop and he is going to end up with 2 degrees before he starts medical school. The list goes on also on doctors on SDN who claimed they were medics before.

 

[StCEMT]

I have no experience with the med school side of things since I have no desire to have an MD associated with my name. I am interested in PA school down the road though, but I am going medic because there are other things I want to do in life first.

That being said, I am in a 1 year medic program. Some days it is awesome. Some days it just blows. For the most part, I have not had an issue with the work load, although I have had to sacrifice sleep on many occasions. I also only have a light part time work load, so that helps. If you put in the effort, the pace is manageable, although there are days where it feels a bit overwhelming and you need to slow things down. Learn to work efficiently, that will come more as you get comfortable with the class and get a feel for it. On the other hand, you definitely aren't bored. Between class/work/clinicals, there are times where I have had to go all day for 12/14 days to get everything done. Take breaks, I usually prep for a test 2-3 weeks out so I am pretty burnt out by the time I get home on test days and we have had some pretty intense tests. A few days off to unwind is needed, especially if you want to get it done in a year. Keep on top of things, because medic is a lot more in depth than basic and there are a lot more requirements to manage during the class. Then there is the standard stuff that applies to pretty much anything. Ask people who are smarter than you for help. Go make your self look like an idiot and figure out why you were an idiot. Pay attention to people who are on top of their **** and what they do. Actually try to care about what you are learning and put in the effort to improve every single day. That's about it.

Really though, it isn't that bad (usually lol). It goes fast, real fast. Just gotta keep on keepin on and things will get done.

 

[TheBuffOP]

I have no experience with the med school side of things since I have no desire to have an MD associated with my name. I am interested in PA school down the road though, but I am going medic because there are other things I want to do in life first.

That being said, I am in a 1 year medic program. Some days it is awesome. Some days it just blows. For the most part, I have not had an issue with the work load, although I have had to sacrifice sleep on many occasions. I also only have a light part time work load, so that helps. If you put in the effort, the pace is manageable, although there are days where it feels a bit overwhelming and you need to slow things down. Learn to work efficiently, that will come more as you get comfortable with the class and get a feel for it. On the other hand, you definitely aren't bored. Between class/work/clinicals, there are times where I have had to go all day for 12/14 days to get everything done. Take breaks, I usually prep for a test 2-3 weeks out so I am pretty burnt out by the time I get home on test days and we have had some pretty intense tests. A few days off to unwind is needed, especially if you want to get it done in a year. Keep on top of things, because medic is a lot more in depth than basic and there are a lot more requirements to manage during the class. Then there is the standard stuff that applies to pretty much anything. Ask people who are smarter than you for help. Go make your self look like an idiot and figure out why you were an idiot. Pay attention to people who are on top of their **** and what they do. Actually try to care about what you are learning and put in the effort to improve every single day. That's about it.

Really though, it isn't that bad (usually lol). It goes fast, real fast. Just gotta keep on keepin on and things will get done.

PA, nice. You should end up with a lot of clinical hours for what the PA schools ask for. I'm definitely excited to learn things more in depth, I'm always refreshing my knowledge. I have some friends who just did a one year program too and it can get tough (they worked on the truck). Thanks for the tips.

 

[ViolynEMT]

Where are you thinking about studying? You're in Az, right?

 

[TheBuffOP]

Where are you thinking about studying? You're in Az, right?

Hey! Going to PM you.

 

[Jane]

I'll be starting medic school Fall 2016. Our program is only 3 semesters.