Curious- Immediate Experience or Paramedic School?

[irishboxer384]

Why bother waiting to stay an EMT if people think its about gaining experience- that's what clinicals and interships, then being supervised in your job are for.

I'm not knocking being an EMT- but there is no reason whatsoever to stay one if your goal is paramedic and you have the financial ability to do so.

@SandpitMedic experience on everything you said is valuable of course- but course pre-requisites should be designed to rule out the immature/incapable of even attending the course (key word 'should).

 

[EMSComeLately]

Get an EMT job while going to medic school. I started medic without a job because the market was bad. I think some services like hiring medic students as EMTs especially if they are always strapped for medics under the assumption you'll stay on once certified. Now that I'm an EMT, I've slowed my medic class pace a bit and delayed start of my clinicals to gain more BLS comfort. I want to get the most out of my medic clinical and not have to come up to speed with getting comfortable with assessment flow and patient contact.

 

[Christopher]

There are actual two levels of education:

1. First Aid
2. Paramedic

Don't make the mistake of conflating the skills aspect with the educational aspect. The education you receive in EMT school is insufficient to be a strong clinician. The educational component of paramedic school is the bare minimum. It is the absolute bare minimum to get by.

You do not need to spend time practicing your first aid skills before going to paramedic school. The only paramedic schools that require EMT experience are those that are a cut below the rest. Sub par even. You should receive adequate clinical experience and training during Paramedic school. If not, find another school.

 

[NomadicMedic]

You do not need to spend time practicing your first aid skills before going to paramedic school. The only paramedic schools that require EMT experience are those that are a cut below the rest. Sub par even. You should receive adequate clinical experience and training during Paramedic school. If not, find another school.

The UW Seattle Medic One program is subpar?

 

[CALEMT]

There are actual two levels of education:

Don't make the mistake of conflating the skills aspect with the educational aspect. The education you receive in EMT school is insufficient to be a strong clinician. The educational component of paramedic school is the bare minimum. It is the absolute bare minimum to get by.

You do not need to spend time practicing your first aid skills before going to paramedic school. The only paramedic schools that require EMT experience are those that are a cut below the rest. Sub par even. You should receive adequate clinical experience and training during Paramedic school. If not, find another school.

So UCLA requiring 6 months EMT experience in a pre hospital setting makes it subpar?

 

[Christopher]

The UW Seattle Medic One program is subpar?

I've never agreed with their entrance requirements, but I find it hard to believe they do this to supplement their educational program. In fact clearly they do not, considering they use ~3000 hours of schooling (3 times most programs).

So UCLA requiring 6 months EMT experience in a pre hospital setting makes it subpar?

Why do they require 6 months experience? What could you possibly learn in 6 months that would benefit you for Paramedic school? That number is either arbitrary or simply specious. If they actually thought it mattered the number would not be 6 months.

The point is there is no quality control for the hours, days, months, or years of experience as an EMT. There is no magical number that produces skilled EMT's that magically become better paramedics. Your time in as an EMT will not affect your ability to become a paramedic in a good educational program. Programs which rely on this fact are not good programs.

 

[CALEMT]

Why do they require 6 months experience? What could you possibly learn in 6 months that would benefit you for Paramedic school? That number is either arbitrary or simply specious. If they actually thought it mattered the number would not be 6 months.

The point is there is no quality control for the hours, days, months, or years of experience as an EMT. There is no magical number that produces skilled EMT's that magically become better paramedics. Your time in as an EMT will not affect your ability to become a paramedic in a good educational program. Programs which rely on this fact are not good programs.

I get what you're saying and I understand your point of view. However like someone pointed out only a handful of people absorb curriculum like a sponge and can apply it in the field. I like the 1,000 hours or 6 months experience as a EMT, because most people (including me) can't learn something straight out of a book and be proficient at it. I have to learn it then practically do it in the field, thats how I learn. I also like it because you can get your "sea legs" as a EMT and understand how the emergency system works, plus if you screw up the consequences are far less severe at the basic level then at the medic level. If you screw up at the medic level you can royally jack someone up. Just because school A doesn't require experience doesn't make it any better than school B that requires experience. Im not trying to change your opinion (everyone is entitled to one) I'm just trying to show you that having experience does help people before medic school.

 

[Christopher]

Just because school A doesn't require experience doesn't make it any better than school B that requires experience. I'm not trying to change your opinion (everyone is entitled to one) I'm just trying to show you that having experience does help people before medic school.

My opinion is not that you should not be able to spend time as an EMT before paramedic school. My opinion is that arbitrary entrance requirements are not the right approach.

Why aren't paramedic programs enabling students to get their sea legs underneath them?

Why aren't they ensuring that graduates can function Day 1? (we'll ignore the silly parts like radio operations, etc)

Or perhaps the other question, why are they allowing students graduate who can't function on Day 1?

 

[triemal04]

My opinion is not that you should not be able to spend time as an EMT before paramedic school. My opinion is that arbitrary entrance requirements are not the right approach.

Why aren't paramedic programs enabling students to get their sea legs underneath them?

Why aren't they ensuring that graduates can function Day 1? (we'll ignore the silly parts like radio operations, etc)

Or perhaps the other question, why are they allowing students graduate who can't function on Day 1?

And this is the heart of the problem when the topic of experience/no experience comes up.*

I'd guess that nationally there are few, VERY few schools that have a truly appropriate amount of both clinical hours (to be spent in a hospital), and field internship time. Few as in less than 5. Maybe only 1.

Nobody has ever, in the history of American EMS, made a decision on how much time should be spent in the field during school based on any real empirical data, or even observational data. It's nothing more than an arbitrary number that is far, FAR to small.

Hell, a lot of time it's even less than it used to be 30 years ago. This despite the major changes in medicine that have come across since then, and the changes in what even the most simple-minded paramedic can do.

What's the current requirement for clinical and field time now? 200 hours of each? 400? Wow...how strict. How wonderful. How stunning that someone can spend the equivalent of less than 2 months fulltime work in the field and become a newly minted, fully qualified paramedic. Even if they'd never seen, much less interacted with a patient or the general pubic before their internship.

Pathetic.

And yet there seems to be this consensus that all that is required is a few weeks of ride time and a few weeks of shadowing in a hospital (calling it shadowing is given it more credence than it often has).

Maybe someday every school will have a really appropriate amount of time spent working with patients and actually putting into practice everything that is learned. But that is a very big maybe. And until that happens, the debate about getting experience or not before paramedic school will continue.

*For the record, getting experience or not is a very individual decision that needs to be made taking into consideration multiple different things specific to both the area, and the person. Some can do fine without it, some may need it.