How Long before going to Paramedic school?
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Foxbat
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It is frowned upon by some, but not all, people in the field. Most people who work or volunteer with me, both EMTs and medics, strongly recommended me to get experience first; institution where I got my EMT-B and where I may later study to be a medic "strongly recommends" at least 1 year of experience as an EMT; some schools won't even accept your application without EMT experience.
But, as you can see from this thread, some people have opposite view and, as some of them stated in other threads, may be reluctant to accept people with too much EMT experience to their program.
AJ Hidell
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Yet another frequently asked question that should earn a lifetime ban for asking. 
How long do you want to remain at an EMT-B level doing very basic skills with a very limited knowledge base for assessments?
Patients don't always come with complaints that are designed for just the EMT-B. That is why other healthcare programs quickly move you along during a 2 or 4 year program so you can start thinking like an advanced provider. You can work with a Paramedic for 20 years but unless you have similiar education and knowledge, you will just be parroting what he/she does. One way to embarrass yourself in the ED is to say something "Could it be x because I once saw something like that and that is what a Paramedic told me he thought it was". It demonstrates you have very little assessment ability and no clue about the disease processes to even begin to know what to look for or form any type of differential diagnosis.
We have enough examples on this forum in the BLS and scenario forums. I don't mean to pick on anyone but it definitely illustrates the thought process from BLS and ALS. Now, if these EMTs were in school taking A&P and other sciences or even in the Paramedic program, those posts would probably be much different.
I definitely don't want to discourage anyone from posting their questions but rather to show the importance of having a decent educational foundation should even be required before EMT-B.
examples:
Again, it would be nice if all patients were just defined as "ALS" or "BLS".
While at the "BLS" level, all of the questions are appropriate but it also demonstrates that the BLS and ALS mentality has hurt this profession. People providing care to a patient in an emergent situation should be thinking in advanced level terms. They should not be thinking solely in the terms of someone who knows how to take a BP or put on a few splints. Medicine is more than a few skills.
The one skill that should be perfected at the EMT-B level isn't much of the time. That skill is BP. On the forums we again have many basic questions about taking a BP that should have been taught in class but rarely is. The same for HR and pulse. Too many rely just on the electronic gadgets to do their work. Some also rely on a pulse ox to tell them if the patient is short of breath. Maybe it is thought that the technology can make up for the lack of education.
Quite possibly, for most of the patient care experience that you would get in one year on an ambulance you could get in 1 week shadowing a CNA in a busy hospital. You would probably do as many if not more BPs during that time as you might on an ambulance in 1 year and on many more different patient. You would also have someone who could tell you the proper way to do BPs on dialysis and cancer patients. You would also learn the proper way to move and transport many more patients with many different illnesses, injuries and equipment. That would definitely be helpful especially when some don't realize how frail and brittle some patients are in the LTC facilities. Some can work on an ambulance for 10 years and will still dump an elderly patient with rheumatoid arthritis into the bed like a sack of potatoes. It is possible that they don't know what the disease is or the long term effects. Is it lack of education or because they just don't care? Bad habits and mentors?
So again I stand by a NO for being an EMT-B any longer than it takes one to finish Paramedic school. Continue your education while the EMT-B class is still fresh and use what you are learning in the advanced classes to understand what you are doing as an EMT-B. As well, as I also stated, there should be a long list of prerequisites prior to EMT-B. Then, this thread would not have had to exist. The importance of continuing one's knowledge for patient care would already be evident.
Patients don't always come with complaints that are designed for just the EMT-B. That is why other healthcare programs quickly move you along during a 2 or 4 year program so you can start thinking like an advanced provider. You can work with a Paramedic for 20 years but unless you have similiar education and knowledge, you will just be parroting what he/she does. One way to embarrass yourself in the ED is to say something "Could it be x because I once saw something like that and that is what a Paramedic told me he thought it was". It demonstrates you have very little assessment ability and no clue about the disease processes to even begin to know what to look for or form any type of differential diagnosis.
We have enough examples on this forum in the BLS and scenario forums. I don't mean to pick on anyone but it definitely illustrates the thought process from BLS and ALS. Now, if these EMTs were in school taking A&P and other sciences or even in the Paramedic program, those posts would probably be much different.
I definitely don't want to discourage anyone from posting their questions but rather to show the importance of having a decent educational foundation should even be required before EMT-B.
examples:
Again, it would be nice if all patients were just defined as "ALS" or "BLS".
While at the "BLS" level, all of the questions are appropriate but it also demonstrates that the BLS and ALS mentality has hurt this profession. People providing care to a patient in an emergent situation should be thinking in advanced level terms. They should not be thinking solely in the terms of someone who knows how to take a BP or put on a few splints. Medicine is more than a few skills.
The one skill that should be perfected at the EMT-B level isn't much of the time. That skill is BP. On the forums we again have many basic questions about taking a BP that should have been taught in class but rarely is. The same for HR and pulse. Too many rely just on the electronic gadgets to do their work. Some also rely on a pulse ox to tell them if the patient is short of breath. Maybe it is thought that the technology can make up for the lack of education.
Quite possibly, for most of the patient care experience that you would get in one year on an ambulance you could get in 1 week shadowing a CNA in a busy hospital. You would probably do as many if not more BPs during that time as you might on an ambulance in 1 year and on many more different patient. You would also have someone who could tell you the proper way to do BPs on dialysis and cancer patients. You would also learn the proper way to move and transport many more patients with many different illnesses, injuries and equipment. That would definitely be helpful especially when some don't realize how frail and brittle some patients are in the LTC facilities. Some can work on an ambulance for 10 years and will still dump an elderly patient with rheumatoid arthritis into the bed like a sack of potatoes. It is possible that they don't know what the disease is or the long term effects. Is it lack of education or because they just don't care? Bad habits and mentors?
So again I stand by a NO for being an EMT-B any longer than it takes one to finish Paramedic school. Continue your education while the EMT-B class is still fresh and use what you are learning in the advanced classes to understand what you are doing as an EMT-B. As well, as I also stated, there should be a long list of prerequisites prior to EMT-B. Then, this thread would not have had to exist. The importance of continuing one's knowledge for patient care would already be evident.