Halfway through Paramedic school. Just some ramblings...

[OKparamurse]

So as the title states, I'm halfway through my 18 month paramedic program being provided through a local CC. As we recently reached the halfway point, I had a few thoughts, realizations, and questions I thought I'd share/ask to the members of EMTLife.

1. I've gained a lot of knowledge in the last 9-10 months. And I mean a lot, I really feel I've expanded my knowledge base considerably and now not only am beginning to understand the actions, but the reasoning behind the actions. However, I still feel like there's so much more I need to learn. Now I realize I am only halfway through, but I feel like I should know more. Is this common for paramedic students?

2. Cardiology is not near as hard as most paramedic students make it out to be. However, cardiology is not in any way easy or simple.

3. I miss sleep and my bed.

4. There's no doubt you should be sharp coming out of paramedic school, but how much knowledge did you really gain and retain? As opposed to years of experience in the field, taking CE's, conversations with other healthcare professionals, etc.

I guess my main question is, how confident should you be halfway through paramedic, at the end of paramedic school,

 

[OKparamurse]

^your first day working as a medic? Are my thoughts normal for a paramedic student or am I missing something here?
(For some reason I guess the end of the last sentence decided not to post)

 

[Akulahawk]

So as the title states, I'm halfway through my 18 month paramedic program being provided through a local CC. As we recently reached the halfway point, I had a few thoughts, realizations, and questions I thought I'd share/ask to the members of EMTLife.

1. I've gained a lot of knowledge in the last 9-10 months. And I mean a lot, I really feel I've expanded my knowledge base considerably and now not only am beginning to understand the actions, but the reasoning behind the actions. However, I still feel like there's so much more I need to learn. Now I realize I am only halfway through, but I feel like I should know more. Is this common for paramedic students?

2. Cardiology is not near as hard as most paramedic students make it out to be. However, cardiology is not in any way easy or simple.

3. I miss sleep and my bed.

4. There's no doubt you should be sharp coming out of paramedic school, but how much knowledge did you really gain and retain? As opposed to years of experience in the field, taking CE's, conversations with other healthcare professionals, etc.

I guess my main question is, how confident should you be halfway through paramedic, at the end of paramedic school,
your first day working as a medic? Are my thoughts normal for a paramedic student or am I missing something here?
(For some reason I guess the end of the last sentence decided not to post)

1. Paramedic School teaches you the minimum necessary to become a safe beginning Paramedic. It's incumbent upon you to increase your knowledge base beyond the minimum.
2. Basic cardiology isn't too bad. If it was easy, there wouldn't be a need for Cardiologists...
3. I did too.
4. If you use the material frequently, you'd be amazed what you learn and retain...

 

[Gurby]

When you get out to your hospital clinical time and spend some time shadowing the docs you'll realize how little you actually know. You're right that there is so much you need to learn. And you really do need to learn it.

Medic school gives you a baseline amount of knowledge, but I think I've learned more from my own research. Any time I encounter something unfamiliar I make a note of it, go home later and learn all about it on wikipedia, and make flashcards and review them regularly to make sure that the knowledge stays in my head.

 

[mgr22]

I almost quit medic school halfway through. It was harder than I expected. I started to doubt that being a paramedic is what I really wanted to do. Getting through it was definitely a confidence booster, but I made the mistake of thinking I knew more than I did. That all got straightened out, sometimes unpleasantly, during my first job.

If I had it to do over, I would have had more respect for what I didn't know, instead of what I did know, when I finished school. I would have had more confidence in my ability to learn and less in my ability to do.

 

[gotbeerz001]

I almost quit medic school halfway through. It was harder than I expected. I started to doubt that being a paramedic is what I really wanted to do. Getting through it was definitely a confidence booster, but I made the mistake of thinking I knew more than I did. That all got straightened out, sometimes unpleasantly, during my first job.

If I had it to do over, I would have had more respect for what I didn't know, instead of what I did know, when I finished school. I would have had more confidence in my ability to learn and less in my ability to do.

Pretty much good advice for life.

 

[joshrunkle35]

When you say cardiology wasn't hard:

I found it to be hard...sort of. My school was 8 months long instead of 18 months long. That meant that I had two weeks to learn everything about cardiology. The material was easy to understand and easy to apply. The problem, however, was the sheer volume of information in a small amount of time. I remember barely sleeping for two weeks.

 

[Angel]

I think how you feel is normal. I got my first medic job within 3 months of being licensed and it is a huge learning curve (I had never done 911 before, aside from internship). Not just the "medic stuff" but the culture of the company where you work. The different equipment, how they prefer you do things vs how you want to or how you should.

Then once you're off training FTO it's a whole other feeling of fear.
Have high expectations for yourself and constantly study and review. Don't be afraid to ask for help or someone to keep an eye on you. I think we (I) feel judged being new and living up to the expectation that we should know it all.
We (you) don't and you won't.
Again, never stop learning and never let your guard down(get complacent), but also understand mistakes WILL happen and you WILL live.
Hopefully that helps.