Calgary & Edmonton ( EMR, EMT ) TRAINING ADVICE

[Mike4123]

Hello Everyone:


I am a complete beginner in the field.
It is a goal and a dream for me to be apart of the EMS crew.
As a newbie.. I need all the advice I could get...

Here is a list of institude that I am planning to attend:

St. John Ambulance CPR: C
St. John Ambulance EMR ( 2 week course Starting January 09 )
Alberta College of Paramedic ( Hopefully being able to get my EMR certificate )

Looking for work as an EMR.... this a hard one for me...
I don't have any paramedic friends.... so it's more difficult to find information about jobs.
Will my institude reccomend me to a work place if my grades are outstanding?
Will there be a list of opportune work places for me to choose from?

As for EMT training, which I have been searching for an earlier start date other than : September09(sait) or November09(nait *Im not too sure b/c an EMT training class is being hosted this first month of NOV 08)


What are my chances as an EMR of being hired from Mar 09 - Aug 09?
For starters it's not easy to find work in the city, is this correct?
If I am missing something in my future planning, PLEASE ADVICE...


Thank You for reading,
Hope for some great replies.

 

[fortsmithman]

After you pass the ACoP exams then you could get employment working in the oil fields as an EMR. The ACoP web site has employment listings.

 

[Mike4123]

I have one more question.

After I am done with my EMR training in ACP, am I eligible for transferring into B.C's JIBC for EMT training? Or do I start at the beginning or go through with more testing?

Thank you

 

[Mike4123]

Last question..

Which institude in Edmonton would provide the most efficient program; as for becoming a firefighting paramedic?


I know this and the above question contradicts with each other, but it would really help me to make decisions.


Thank You

 

[fortsmithman]

If I were you I'd go to Portage College in Lac La Biche for the EMT course.

 

[Kendall]

As an EMR, there are plenty of places to work in and around Edmonton!

Alberta Paramedical Services
Inter-Hospital Ambulance Service
Epcor

...to name a few. Check out the ACP website under "Employment" to check out some of the opportunities available. There are a number of rural services currently looking for EMR's, which is great experience.

I personally would stray away from oilfield... Sure the money's great but you would really not get a lot of experience at all... 10 on 4 off scheduling in ridiculously remote locations and no support is not a great way to get positive experience under your belt.

As for your education, SJA is a great place to start off with First Aid training, and EMR is okay - provided you have a firm grasp on everything you learned in first aid. I can speak from experience - I did my EMR there as well.

Choosing which school you go to is really important - there's a lot of subtleties you have to keep in mind. PM me if you want more details.

For EMT - NAIT has a great program, but unfortunately its only offered part time - if that suits you, great!

There is also a school in Sherwood Park by the name of Emergency Services Academy, they do Fire and EMS training there, offer full time programs and a more integrated instruction between the two fields - which is great if you want FF/EMT.

As for BCJI... Hard to say. The BC scope of practice is all wonkey in comparison to Alberta's, but from what I understand the BC EMR is roughly the same as Alberta's, minus a skillset here or there. You'd have to investigate that with the BC justice institute.

 

[Kendall]

Oh and I should mention... There is a distinct possibility that Paramedic-Fire fighters in Alberta will become a thing of the past as a result of the new Provincial Ambulance service coming into effect on April 1, 2009 (barring industrial sites). There's a lot of speculation and ruffled feathers about this - one just has to keep their ear to the ground to get any details.

BC also has a Provincial service and no integrated Fire/EMS opportunities, excluding industrial.

 

[jochi1543]

I did my EMR at Alberta Health and Safety Training Institute in Calgary. I am starting my EMT there on Monday. They have an accelerated program, 3 months in class and then however long it takes for you to do the practicum (2 months is a guideline). The next start date should be April 10th for EMT, so you should have lots of time to prep. Admission is fairly competitive - 5-6 people per spot - but they do like to take their own students, so having done EMR there will give you a bit of an edge over other applicants.

You can check out their website at safetyed.ca and post here or PM me with any questions about the school.

 

[jochi1543]

Oh, and to act impartial - there IS another school in Calgary that has an accelerated EMT program, it's called Professional Medical Associates (PMA). I don't know much about them, though. I was pretty confident I'd make it into EMT at AHASTI, so I decided to save my money and not apply there. However, unlike with SAIT, I have not heard anything bad about them, so they should be a good school.

 

[jochi1543]

What are my chances as an EMR of being hired from Mar 09 - Aug 09?
For starters it's not easy to find work in the city, is this correct?
If I am missing something in my future planning, PLEASE ADVICE...

Yeah, you won't find anything municipal as an EMR. I got REALLY lucky and found a municipal service to take me, but it's well outside of Calgary. However, with my EMT course running 4 days on, 4 off, the oilfields are not really a workable option, anyway, so it was either not work or go municipal in the countryside.

The ACP website, as others mentioned, is brimming with oilfield jobs. Schedules and locations are crappy, but the money's not bad - you can make like 4 grand a month, which is not bad for a 2-week accelerated course that only requires a HS diploma and CPR C/FA to start.

 

[Kendall]

Yeah, you won't find anything municipal as an EMR.

That depends what you're looking for. If your looking for an emergency ambulance service its slim pickings unless you go fairly rural (Barrhead, Gibbons/Bon-Accord, Flagstaff County, etc...).

If you want to stick with Edmonton and area, Inter-Hospital Ambulance Service is always looking for EMR's for their BLS section and STS. The pay is decent, too - in the neighborhood of $17/h to start if I'm not mistaken.

I work for a standby service called Alberta Paramedical Services. We have more contracts than you can shake a stick at and are in desperate need of EMR's, EMT's and Medics. If you want details PM me. (Don't mean to solicit, but this is the topic!)

 

[jochi1543]

That depends what you're looking for. If your looking for an emergency ambulance service its slim pickings unless you go fairly rural (Barrhead, Gibbons/Bon-Accord, Flagstaff County, etc...).

Heh, yeah, I may or may not be working for one of these services...h34r:

 

[Mike4123]

That depends what you're looking for. If your looking for an emergency ambulance service its slim pickings unless you go fairly rural (Barrhead, Gibbons/Bon-Accord, Flagstaff County, etc...).

If you want to stick with Edmonton and area, Inter-Hospital Ambulance Service is always looking for EMR's for their BLS section and STS. The pay is decent, too - in the neighborhood of $17/h to start if I'm not mistaken.

I work for a standby service called Alberta Paramedical Services. We have more contracts than you can shake a stick at and are in desperate need of EMR's, EMT's and Medics. If you want details PM me. (Don't mean to solicit, but this is the topic!)

Great replies !!I am more confident of my decisions now. As for Kendall, thankx for the opportunity referral; when I get my EMR I will contact you. Furthermore, are there any complementary courses that are able to help me through EMR & EMT? Anything from going to an adult night school class, or being a volunteer for a bonus on my EMS journey down the road? Course names or event names would be very helpful.

Thank you all!!

 

[jochi1543]

Great replies !!I am more confident of my decisions now. As for Kendall, thankx for the opportunity referral; when I get my EMR I will contact you. Furthermore, are there any complementary courses that are able to help me through EMR & EMT? Anything from going to an adult night school class, or being a volunteer for a bonus on my EMS journey down the road? Course names or event names would be very helpful.

Thank you all!!

I took A&P before my EMR, and it made life easier. A lot of people found it to be the hardest part of the program, but I breezed through it. Anatomy/physiology in EMR is very basic, the stuff I've seen in our EMT pre-reading so far is more in depth, but nothing I don't already know. I still do the reading as a refresher, but I can just skim through it instead of having to read it multiple times.

As far as volunteering or something...yes, it will give you good experience, and if anything, I think you need to do a ride-along if you haven't done so already, just to confirm that this is for you. However, the only catch is that things in the field are sometimes done differently than they want you to do in class or the licensing exam. For example, I was told to NEVER use a nasal cannula as the method of oxygen delivery on the EMR exam with AB College of Paramedics. In the meantime, on my ride-along, they used it for all but 1 calls. In a scenario, they always want a blood sugar taken, even if the guy had his arms and legs ripped off in a car accident, but in real life, it could be skipped on occasion. Basically, it's educational, but be careful to distinguish between how things are done in the field and how you will need to do them on the exam - don't pick up bad habits from the people you are working with.


I was a volunteer at a clinic (not EMS-related work), and my employer had a very positive opinion of it, given that I was a brand new EMR, so I had no EMS work experience - they both said that just being familiar with the medical environment and having patient interaction experience is important, even if it wasn't in an emergency setting.

You can volunteer at the Caroline Ambulance in Central Alberta (I think they are somewhere near Red Deer), they pay smth like $50 a day to cover your gas and food. However, you will need to be ACP-registered before you can do that, so you can't start until you're done with the EMR class and submit the registration paperwork for your temp reg or pass the provincial licensing exam and get regular registration.