Crafton Hills Paramedic

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TripleA94

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Hey guys, I am going to be applying to the the Crafton Hills paramedic program very soon. I am comfortable with my Basic knowledge and my A&P but I'm nervous for the oral interview. I've heard they give you scenarios and have you orally go through your assesment with a time limit. Is this true? What can I expect when I walk through the door?
 
TripleA94 said:
Hey guys, I am going to be applying to the the Crafton Hills paramedic program very soon. I am comfortable with my Basic knowledge and my A&P but I'm nervous for the oral interview. I've heard they give you scenarios and have you orally go through your assesment with a time limit. Is this true? What can I expect when I walk through the door?
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Yes. You have 15 minutes to assess, treat, and manage 5 patients. I just finished the oral interview 2 days ago and am waiting to hear if I passed or not.

PM me if you would like more information on the whole process. Main thing is make sure all of your blood work is done for the entrance application.
 
Very cool! I was there doing skills evaluation for the refresher course, so we probably crossed paths at one point. I'll send you a PM with some more questions!
 
TripleA94 said:
Very cool! I was there doing skills evaluation for the refresher course, so we probably crossed paths at one point. I'll send you a PM with some more questions!
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More than likely we did. I was one of the many people wearing a suit. There is both an A&P test (roughly 126 questions covering pretty much all aspects of A&P) and then an EMT test (it was craftons EMT test from 3 years ago. It's 200 questions).
 
Apparently i cant PM because i haven't posted enough.. but could you give some insight on what kind of scenarios they throw at you? (are they basic or meant to trick you) and are they separate or all occurring simultaneously? Did you use the the study guides online and did they prove helpful?
 
TripleA94 said:
Apparently i cant PM because i haven't posted enough.. but could you give some insight on what kind of scenarios they throw at you? (are they basic or meant to trick you) and are they separate or all occurring simultaneously? Did you use the the study guides online and did they prove helpful?
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The scenarios are anything from traumas to chest pain to OBs. They are not meant to tick you at all. You assess and treat the patient to the BLS level. All the symptoms are straight forward. You have to also give a diagnosis of what you think is going on with the patient (appendicitis, MI, Croup, etc).

They read you some information. Then they read you the first scenario. After they finish reading it your 15 minutes starts. Your time does not stop until you are done with all 5 scenarios (or you reach the 15 minute mark). So all of the scenarios occur simultaneously.

The study guides are very helpful and cover everything on the tests (to the most part). For the EMT test learn how to calculate drip rates for IVs.
 
And this is strictly about handling the patient, its not a BSI, PENMAN, Scene Safety kind of test? Seems very interesting.. No questions like "Why do you want to be a Paramedic?" or "Tell me about yourself?"
 
TripleA94 said:
And this is strictly about handling the patient, its not a BSI, PENMAN, Scene Safety kind of test? Seems very interesting.. No questions like "Why do you want to be a Paramedic?" or "Tell me about yourself?"
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You get to state what all BSI, PENMAN, SAMPLE, OPQRST means before you start. So as your going thru the assessment you can just say what is my SAMPLE and they will give it to you.

If you follow the NREMT Skill sheets then you will do fine. Certain things are worth points and others are not. So if you have a SOB patient Airway and Breathing may give you a couple of points but Circulation may not give you any points at all. So you have to do a full assessment on all the patients because you don't know where the points are at.

The assessments are 10 points each. So a total of 50 points possible. You must get at least 40 to pass.

It's not so much as an oral interview as an oral judgement.
 
They way the interview is set up is: you pick a time you want to interview. You don't have to dress nicely but it's common and almost expected (everyone that I saw was in full suit and tie).

You arrive 15 minutes or more before your interview time to check in. You are then placed in a staging area where the director of the program will come in and talk to everyone. He will then take you back when it's your time to the testing area. Normally they have 3-5 interviews all going at the same time.

The testing area is all in one room with dividers set up. There are 2 people who are doing the interview. One will talk to you and read all the scenarios. The other one will just write down everything that you say or state during the interview. You will hear all the other interviews going on so it's pretty easy to get confused (they wanted to design the process like that). After you are done with the last assessment or your time runs out, you will be demised and are escorted out of the building by the director.

As he is escorting you out he will tell you when you will know if you pass or not. You are to leave campus immediately and not talk to anyone about the scenarios.
 
Thanks a lot for the information. It has definitely calmed my nerves a bit, even though i wont be interviewing until spring. As long as i have a strong assessment everything else should fall into place! I'll have to ask my Medic to let me asses more often :P
 
TripleA94 said:
Do you know how many applicants you had to compete against?
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I don't know how many applicants took the AP and EMT test.

I know we had 29 pass. If all 29 passed the interview then the program would be able to take all of us. Generally the medic class has less than 17 students. This years full time program has 12 students I believe.
 
We just had a Crafton student fail his internship in the high desert.....zero field experience, only ER. :sad:
 
Addrobo said:
We just had a Crafton student fail his internship in the high desert.....zero field experience, only ER. :sad:
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From past experience with Crafton medic students my guess would be the student knew the skills and the info but was unable to apply them to the field setting?
 
Interview

Good luck on your interview. They do not expect you to know everything, but they want to make sure your have the attributes required to successfully complete the program. Medic school is challenging!
 
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