Denver EMT/Paramedic Schools

[jrmoore]

Hi,

My wife and I are moving to Denver and I want to obtain my EMT-B and then paramedic license. Health One EMS and St. Anthony's EMS school have both caught my eye. Does anyone recommend one vs the other.

Thanks

 

[gillysaurus]

I have heard very good things about Health One from everyone I know who went there. Both my instructors from EMT-B class as well as several of my preceptors on the ambulance are graduates of the Health One program, and they are all very competent, intelligent paramedics.

A close friends of mine did his EMT-B through Health One, and said it wasn't very comprehensive compared to what he witnessed in my EMT-B curriculum. They were supposed to have weekly spelling tests but didn't, he missed four full days of class and was late to countless others and still passed, they weren't held to the standards on turning in homework... But that is one person, and he could very well be stretching the truth a little :glare:

Dennis Edgerly is the Paramedic Education Coordinator at Health One, and he's really nice and open to all questions. I would highly recommend dropping him and e-mail with questions you have about the program.

If you feel up to the journey, you should check out Aims Community College in Greeley, Co. They have a 250 hr. EMT-B program with a 95% first time NREMT pass rate, as well as countless volunteer, community outreach, and internship possibilities to learn as much as you want. /end shameless plug

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to ask around. Good luck!

 

[LucidResq]

A close friends of mine did his EMT-B through Health One, and said it wasn't very comprehensive compared to what he witnessed in my EMT-B curriculum. They were supposed to have weekly spelling tests but didn't, he missed four full days of class and was late to countless others and still passed, they weren't held to the standards on turning in homework... But that is one person, and he could very well be stretching the truth a little :glare:

I wonder who his instructor was.... our curriculum was much more in depth compared to the programs my friends went through.

I went through HealthONE for my EMT-B and IV approval. I had an awesome experience. All of the instructors are very experienced and clearly love teaching. There's a lot of focus on hands-on learning - with scenario rooms made up to be bedrooms, restaurants, bathrooms, etc, a mock indoor ambulance and an actual training ambulance. We landed a medical helicopter, cut up cars with a local FD for an extrication lab, had an MCI day where we ran around running scenarios and tagging people, and a peds day where everyone brought in their kids.

About 60 hours of clinical work is required, and there's a minimum of 180 classroom hours.

I like that HealthONE EMS offers almost every EMS course imaginable - from CPR to PALS to ACLS - and they offer instructor and refresher courses for all of them too.

They also have a good variety of schedule options available - My class met every Sat. from 8-5 for 6 months, but they have weekday options and accelerate 3-month courses.

http://healthoneems.com/

I don't know how Aurora Community College's program actually is, but they've had a lot of attention from the media lately due to their shiny new state-of-the-art skills lab with a Sim-Man.

As for St. Anthony's program - they used to have a great reputation as one of the best paramedic schools in the state but I've heard from a few people that the program is going down the tubes for some reason. May just be rumors though.

 

[gillysaurus]

I wonder who his instructor was.... our curriculum was much more in depth compared to the programs my friends went through.

I went through HealthONE for my EMT-B and IV approval. I had an awesome experience. All of the instructors are very experienced and clearly love teaching. There's a lot of focus on hands-on learning - with scenario rooms made up to be bedrooms, restaurants, bathrooms, etc, a mock indoor ambulance and an actual training ambulance. We landed a medical helicopter, cut up cars with a local FD for an extrication lab, had an MCI day where we ran around running scenarios and tagging people, and a peds day where everyone brought in their kids.

That's more the kind of program I expected my friend to be talking about when it came to Health One, Lucid. I think he's just nuts ^_^