If anyone has any info I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm kind of stuck, I know what I want to do but I don't know the best way to get there. I'm currently an emt and have two months left of paramedic school. I want to be a FF/medic and also get an RN license and work full time at a firehouse and part time RN. I realize RN requires a degree, should I just focus on that degree and not any ems/fire related degrees? Thanks for any info.
Best degree(s) to get to be paramedic/FF/nurse
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akflightmedic
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Finish your paramedic training since you only have two months left. The get back in school and knock out the RN. Working as a paramedic and obtaining RN degree is not impossible but will be a challenge. Good luck!
NysEms2117
ex-Parole officer/EMT
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Listen to Ak. Hes got the right answer IMO!
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AK is right on. Gain EMS experience and make some beer money by working as a paramedic while you are earning your BSN. Get some fire training along the way, if you can. Maybe between semesters? Easy peasy.
Well, not easy, but pretty straightforward.
PS: don't let your nursing instructors know that you are a paramedic.
Well, not easy, but pretty straightforward.
PS: don't let your nursing instructors know that you are a paramedic.
akflightmedic
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Absolutely they would!!!!
Many of my former colleagues have gone through nursing school and they were all treated differently the moment they disclosed their level of education. I can only accept their experiences as fact but these were from different time periods, different instructors and different schools...yet they all said the same.
Weird, eh?
Many of my former colleagues have gone through nursing school and they were all treated differently the moment they disclosed their level of education. I can only accept their experiences as fact but these were from different time periods, different instructors and different schools...yet they all said the same.
Weird, eh?
akflightmedic
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Relaying stories here...harder on them, less patience with them, over correcting them, discrediting/discounting any experiences or knowledge they offered in open dialogue sessions...this was all during the classroom portion. Once on clinicals, non-issue.
I have no reason to dispute the credibility of their perceptions...they are all and have been nurses now for 10+ years and quite happy Traveling, making big $$$ and never looked back!
Just stay silent, pay the dues, get it done and then move on!
Being a paramedic ironically is what allowed them to go straight to ER, ICU and then to travel soon after.
I have no reason to dispute the credibility of their perceptions...they are all and have been nurses now for 10+ years and quite happy Traveling, making big $$$ and never looked back!
Just stay silent, pay the dues, get it done and then move on!
Being a paramedic ironically is what allowed them to go straight to ER, ICU and then to travel soon after.
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Just like some people in EMS would make life harder for nurses in EMS training, either by holding them to a higher standard or just for the sake of inter-profession rivalry, some in nursing might relish making life harder for EMS folks.
To be clear, that was never my experience. Most nurses who I encountered early in my career either couldn't care less about my EMS background, or thought it was interesting and impressive. But there are plenty of jerks out there.
akflightmedic
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I think it is a human thing and not a medicine thing. I am quite confident nearly every career/profession can say exact same thing about their own because they are in it. There are some very proud and very good garbage men out there who take pride in their work, their job...and I am sure more than once they have said "I really love being good at what I do, but garbage collecting sure attracts some of the worst people".
Haha I think that's a good point. You could make the argument that people don't die because the garbage men can't get along though
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My wife was discounted on a pretty regular basis whike students that disclosed they were CNA's were treated like golden children.
Ultimately she gained a lot of respect from her instructors during clinical time but if she had to do it again she wouldnt have said anything.
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akflightmedic
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Unsure how your statement applies to the post being discussed...
It doesn't really, sorry for getting off topic
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akflightmedic
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OK, just checking...I can be dense.
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They'll know you have learned some skills somewhere and that you're not a complete noob to patient care. That being said, don't flaunt it. If you do, you'll find that your instructors will expect far more from you than your peers. There's quite a bit of skill overlap between nursing and Paramedic. The application and rationale for why those skills are applied will sometimes be different between the two fields. What's left is for you to do two big things: Learn to "think like a nurse" and the other is to learn to multi-task/prioritize the things you do. Part of "thinking like a nurse" is absorbing the knowledge (textbook stuff) from school and learning to apply that knowledge. That'll be key when it comes to taking the NCLEX.
I'm actually considering returning to the field within the next year or so, part time. Partly this is to regain my Local Accreditation (lost it in 2012) and partly this is to bring in some extra relatively easy cash. Why do I say "relatively easy"??? It's primarily because I would only work on ONE patient at a time for less than an hour. I talked to a medic last night about his shift so far and while he was busy, at least he only had one patient at a time. I was hopping from patient to patient for the first 9 hours last night. If it had stayed that busy, I would have had >20 patients... because things slowed down generally last night, I only ended up taking care of around 12.
The college id be attending for nursing offers a "transition program" for like paramedic to rn, lpn to rn, etc. So I feel like it'd come up as to what everyone does but I'd definitely keep it to myself if they're going to treat paramedics different. Thanks everyone for the help.
akflightmedic
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The typical transition program "Medic to RN" means you skip the first semester of core NURS classes...after that you are in the same group as everyone else. My colleagues all did the transition program in FL. The instructors thought the medics were short cutting their way through the program.
Thanks for the info. I'll definitely keep my mouth shut, that's ridiculous.