Kinda wrestling with this question, here's a brief background.
I'm a EMT-B, which I got through the military. I'm currently a medic in the National Guard. Went through medic school in 2007 and have been working in the field, although not specifically as an EMT, since then. Started out doing non-emergency transports (bleh) before moving over to a level 2 trauma center. Did that a couple of years and now I'm working in a small emergency clinic. On the military side, I've been a medic instructor for both 68W stuff and EMT. FWIW, I've also been a BLS instructor since 2009.
So, with that in mind, I'd like to bump up my certifications and contacted a local college that offers EMT and paramedic classes. Because I have my EMT-B, they gave me the option of sitting in on the A portion of the EMT class or skipping it altogether and going straight to paramedic.
As a military medic, obviously, our focus is on trauma and far less time is spent on the medical side. Working in the ER, of course, I worked a bunch of codes, so I do have a little experience with it outside of the training I received. Same with peds and geriatrics...not the focus of my military training and experience, but have gotten a lot of patient contacts on the civilian side.
I did look at the courses for the EMT-A portion and it seems like stuff that I'm pretty familiar with, but I don't want to set myself up for failure by skipping it and wishing I hadn't when I'm in over my head in the paramedic course.
TL;DR I'm a military medic with some good civilian experience...should I go for my EMT-A or go right to paramedic?
I'm a EMT-B, which I got through the military. I'm currently a medic in the National Guard. Went through medic school in 2007 and have been working in the field, although not specifically as an EMT, since then. Started out doing non-emergency transports (bleh) before moving over to a level 2 trauma center. Did that a couple of years and now I'm working in a small emergency clinic. On the military side, I've been a medic instructor for both 68W stuff and EMT. FWIW, I've also been a BLS instructor since 2009.
So, with that in mind, I'd like to bump up my certifications and contacted a local college that offers EMT and paramedic classes. Because I have my EMT-B, they gave me the option of sitting in on the A portion of the EMT class or skipping it altogether and going straight to paramedic.
As a military medic, obviously, our focus is on trauma and far less time is spent on the medical side. Working in the ER, of course, I worked a bunch of codes, so I do have a little experience with it outside of the training I received. Same with peds and geriatrics...not the focus of my military training and experience, but have gotten a lot of patient contacts on the civilian side.
I did look at the courses for the EMT-A portion and it seems like stuff that I'm pretty familiar with, but I don't want to set myself up for failure by skipping it and wishing I hadn't when I'm in over my head in the paramedic course.
TL;DR I'm a military medic with some good civilian experience...should I go for my EMT-A or go right to paramedic?