Flightorbust
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Im waiting on my state but doubt Ill find a rig job very quickly so I was wondering, When your not actively working how to you keep your skills sharp?
how do you keep sharp?
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Honestly it took me four months to get a job and twelve to get on an actual ambulance. I don't think my "skills" really degraded that much. Lets be real here, anything we learn as a basic is just not that complicated. Most of its common sense, and the more tricky things like traction splints or what have you are tricky because there are different types. Since you won't know what type you'll be working with, there's not much to practice.
What really dies are assessment skills, and it's not really because you forget them. Yea you might screw up the order at first, but until you get out assessing real patients you aren't able to develop any sort of flow to them, and you aren't going to be thinking about what your finding and that's what really counts. I think scenarios are helpful to a degree in that they get you thinking about what signs and symptoms are indicative of what illness, but most scenarios are trying to lead you to one answer (at least in the textbooks). As we all know, real patients are often more complicated than that, and many patients have more than one significant issue that may or may not need to be addressed.
I found this site helpful in making me think about my own practice before I got on a truck, but only to an extent. I was also in a local FD's good graces from a high school job shadow program and they let me ride a couple shifts over the summer before I started, but honestly I did it more because it was a good time and I was bitten hard by the "EMS bug" and really wanted to run some 911 calls. But even if you can find a crew that's cool with this, you can't hope to get enough shifts to get confident without becoming a burden.
So with that, I say put your effort into getting a job and volunteer if there are departments around. Also, relax. You'll remember more than you think. Once you get hired it might be worth going back and reviewing the nuts and bolts like age specific vital signs ranges, your medications, and anything you think has disappeared from your memory
What really dies are assessment skills, and it's not really because you forget them. Yea you might screw up the order at first, but until you get out assessing real patients you aren't able to develop any sort of flow to them, and you aren't going to be thinking about what your finding and that's what really counts. I think scenarios are helpful to a degree in that they get you thinking about what signs and symptoms are indicative of what illness, but most scenarios are trying to lead you to one answer (at least in the textbooks). As we all know, real patients are often more complicated than that, and many patients have more than one significant issue that may or may not need to be addressed.
I found this site helpful in making me think about my own practice before I got on a truck, but only to an extent. I was also in a local FD's good graces from a high school job shadow program and they let me ride a couple shifts over the summer before I started, but honestly I did it more because it was a good time and I was bitten hard by the "EMS bug" and really wanted to run some 911 calls. But even if you can find a crew that's cool with this, you can't hope to get enough shifts to get confident without becoming a burden.
So with that, I say put your effort into getting a job and volunteer if there are departments around. Also, relax. You'll remember more than you think. Once you get hired it might be worth going back and reviewing the nuts and bolts like age specific vital signs ranges, your medications, and anything you think has disappeared from your memory
legion1202
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^^ good info.
I've been out of medic school for a bout 6mos. I`m in the process of moving states but I've been working for a company for a few mo's just to keep things fresh until I jump. As tigger has stated you retain a lot at least i did. What really helped me was studying for so many damn tests. I had to take a state and then went after my NREMT-P and now studying for the MA medic test
h34r:. What I've done to keep up on my skills is practice or go over it with a friend, you tube, etc. As a emt most of the skills are like riding a bike and you don't forget besides a few you barely touch. Like the traction splint and actually any splint in my case. But again you can always practice at a local department, watch videos,etcs
What helps me the best is to talk to one of my friends that are in the field and have them give me the details of a call that they had last shift or make one up. Then just tell them step by step what you would have done and why.. And then find out what they did and why.. Just don't judge the person if you find out they had a 72 female with history of COPD with CP and they made the pt walk down stairs to the rescue =)...
I've been out of medic school for a bout 6mos. I`m in the process of moving states but I've been working for a company for a few mo's just to keep things fresh until I jump. As tigger has stated you retain a lot at least i did. What really helped me was studying for so many damn tests. I had to take a state and then went after my NREMT-P and now studying for the MA medic test
h34r:. What I've done to keep up on my skills is practice or go over it with a friend, you tube, etc. As a emt most of the skills are like riding a bike and you don't forget besides a few you barely touch. Like the traction splint and actually any splint in my case. But again you can always practice at a local department, watch videos,etcsWhat helps me the best is to talk to one of my friends that are in the field and have them give me the details of a call that they had last shift or make one up. Then just tell them step by step what you would have done and why.. And then find out what they did and why.. Just don't judge the person if you find out they had a 72 female with history of COPD with CP and they made the pt walk down stairs to the rescue =)...