Characteristics of quality paramedic schools?

[medichopeful]

Does it really matter who takes what?, and how many units this and that are?,

Actually, yes it does.

I am mean really for $12.00 per hour who cares.

If everybody had an increase in education, maybe that rate would go up.

All the units in the world are not going to pay my mortgage. The truth is we all go were the money is and if some of us can't get there and you know who you are, we like to whine about how much more education there should be when really how much can we do in the field anyways.

You can't be serious.

And on a side note, if there was an increase in the amount of education, the scope of practice could go up.

 

[Summit]

For a job that pays 12-15 dollars an hour at best? An associates with pre-reqs equal to Bio, A/P, Med Term, Comp and Pharm prior to entering the EMT phase is plenty while still making a much better Medic in the end.

Not sure how you mean that.

If you mean why have a program like that? Apply it to the whole system, increase the scope along with it a little, pay increase would quickly follow as EMS changed from a technician level care system to a educated provider based system like all the other Allied Health Fields have (except EMS).

If you mean why would I do that? Because I don't want to be an EMT forever. I now have an AS-Biology and an AS-Chemistry. I'll be appyling to P school and BSN programs starting right about... now.

 

[rescue99]

Not sure how you mean that.

If you mean why have a program like that? Apply it to the whole system, increase the scope along with it a little, pay increase would quickly follow as EMS changed from a technician level care system to a educated provider based system like all the other Allied Health Fields have (except EMS).

If you mean why would I do that? Because I don't want to be an EMT forever. I now have an AS-Biology and an AS-Chemistry. I'll be appyling to P school and BSN programs starting right about... now.

Sooo..you really want to be a nurse then..not a Medic. An associates in EMS is no different than a 2 year RN.

 

[Summit]

Sooo..you really want to be a nurse then..not a Medic. An associates in EMS is no different than a 2 year RN.

I want a career. I'm going to P school whether I do it before or after BSN depends on who lets me in. Lots of HEMS personnel hold dual qualifications in paramedicine and nursing.

But don't try to mischaracterize my motivations and aspirations:

I started taking bio and then A&P *IMMEDIATELY* after my EMT because I thought the level of education in EMT was pathetic and I wanted to understand why I was doing what I was doing. I had no aspirations to be a nurse then, just to be a better EMS provider. I wrote that curriculum idea when I had no idea I'd be going to P school, much less nursing school. My educational background before EMS was nuclear engineering and IT.

Only when I looked at where the vocation of Paramedicine dead ends in its current form did I look at nursing. Why does EMS dead end? Lack of educational standards. Period. End of story.

Some days I dream about moving to Canada or NZ where they have *real* careers in EMS... good skiing too! Sometimes I dream that we'll be like that. Then EMS will be my career.

 

[Kookaburra]

Exactly Summit - I want paramedicine to be my career, but with the state of education in the US, it really /can't/ be. I don't /want/ to have to give up working in the field (I haaaaate working indoors in one place all the time) but if I have to in order to be a respected medical professional, I will.