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Hi there, newly branded EMT-Basic here to discuss and hopefully receive some advice for a road to take.
As the title indicates, I have passed my written exam (84%) and my practical exam to be given the status of EMT-Basic in my state. The problem is, I feel like I still know very little in terms of what to do in many scenarios.
The course I took was an accelerated course. It was only 8 weeks long and it felt like we skimmed over most of the material. Don't even get me started on actually practicing the skills. Don't get me wrong, I understand that I should take it upon myself to practice the skills, but doing something yourself only does so much compared to doing it with an instructor and people who are willing to learn beside you. I also worked part time during my schooling, so I really didn't have that much time at all to practice my skills. That, on top of the extremely accelerated course, I feel like I'm sitting here with a bunch of general information but not enough to be able to control and manage every situation that you should expect an EMT to do.
You may be thinking, "but you passed your written examination with an 84%, while that isn't ideal, you generally know your stuff."
Not really. Let me tell you something about the written exam, it's a joke. I say whilst only getting an 84% because I truly feel like the questions on there don't prepare you for real life situations. I mean hell, some of my tests in class where harder than the state test. They even asked some of the same questions multiple times which left me at a loss. Why would you ask me the same questions twice? If I know the answer to it correctly the first time, obviously I know the material why give me another free point? If I answer it incorrectly both times, why does that matter? There's more material to cover is it really important to make sure I don't know the answer to a single question TWICE? Perhaps they're trying to figure out if you're guessing or if you actually knew the material but honestly there's just too much information out there to be throwing away questions like that. People who are taking this class aren't fiddling around guessing at answers, we want to see what we know.
TLDR; the state test is imo too easy. Some of the people in my class passed it and I'm pretty sure based off the classroom experience they shouldn't have.
Now for the practical. Holy ****, was this a joke.
I'm not trying to say that any of the people there are bad people or whatever, but it kind of felt like they really didn't care too much if we actually knew what we were doing or if we were kind of fumbling around and guessing at the next steps.
I actually ended up failing two stations, medical and backboarding. On Medical I didn't specify that I was transporting my patient who was having breathing issues because of asthma upright. (I just assumed that we wouldn't be lying her down due to more pressure being put on her already struggling lungs). I knew she was supposed to be upright, but I didn't verbalize it because we weren't actually forced to go through any motions, it was all verbal. On the backboarding I literally went full retard and forgot to apply the cervical collar before log rolling her onto the board. I had someone holding manual stabilization but the nerves got to me since it was my third time actually boarding someone.
I mean holy ****, my random station was bleeding control/shock management, they literally just had me verbally say "I'm going to apply direct pressure to the wound, if the bleeding doesn't stop I'm going to elevate it, and then if it still doesn't stop I'm going to apply a tourniquet and transport my patient on high flow oxygen and make sure he's kept warm". I didn't even have to move. It was weird.
TLDR; I felt like people were really there to kind of follow state guidelines and do their job for the day. It felt like they really didn't care so much how refined our skills where. I felt like I was at church when I was a kid and how no one really seemed too into the whole thing they were just kind of all... there.
TLDRR; I passed both and have my EMT-Basic certification and truly do want to get into the field and work, but don't yet possess the skills and ability to do so. How do I get more experience without having people be like: "You have your certification you should fly through all this". Also is it just me or does anyone else feel like they kind of just shoe you along in terms of the testing both written and practical?
As the title indicates, I have passed my written exam (84%) and my practical exam to be given the status of EMT-Basic in my state. The problem is, I feel like I still know very little in terms of what to do in many scenarios.
The course I took was an accelerated course. It was only 8 weeks long and it felt like we skimmed over most of the material. Don't even get me started on actually practicing the skills. Don't get me wrong, I understand that I should take it upon myself to practice the skills, but doing something yourself only does so much compared to doing it with an instructor and people who are willing to learn beside you. I also worked part time during my schooling, so I really didn't have that much time at all to practice my skills. That, on top of the extremely accelerated course, I feel like I'm sitting here with a bunch of general information but not enough to be able to control and manage every situation that you should expect an EMT to do.
You may be thinking, "but you passed your written examination with an 84%, while that isn't ideal, you generally know your stuff."
Not really. Let me tell you something about the written exam, it's a joke. I say whilst only getting an 84% because I truly feel like the questions on there don't prepare you for real life situations. I mean hell, some of my tests in class where harder than the state test. They even asked some of the same questions multiple times which left me at a loss. Why would you ask me the same questions twice? If I know the answer to it correctly the first time, obviously I know the material why give me another free point? If I answer it incorrectly both times, why does that matter? There's more material to cover is it really important to make sure I don't know the answer to a single question TWICE? Perhaps they're trying to figure out if you're guessing or if you actually knew the material but honestly there's just too much information out there to be throwing away questions like that. People who are taking this class aren't fiddling around guessing at answers, we want to see what we know.
TLDR; the state test is imo too easy. Some of the people in my class passed it and I'm pretty sure based off the classroom experience they shouldn't have.
Now for the practical. Holy ****, was this a joke.
I'm not trying to say that any of the people there are bad people or whatever, but it kind of felt like they really didn't care too much if we actually knew what we were doing or if we were kind of fumbling around and guessing at the next steps.
I actually ended up failing two stations, medical and backboarding. On Medical I didn't specify that I was transporting my patient who was having breathing issues because of asthma upright. (I just assumed that we wouldn't be lying her down due to more pressure being put on her already struggling lungs). I knew she was supposed to be upright, but I didn't verbalize it because we weren't actually forced to go through any motions, it was all verbal. On the backboarding I literally went full retard and forgot to apply the cervical collar before log rolling her onto the board. I had someone holding manual stabilization but the nerves got to me since it was my third time actually boarding someone.
I mean holy ****, my random station was bleeding control/shock management, they literally just had me verbally say "I'm going to apply direct pressure to the wound, if the bleeding doesn't stop I'm going to elevate it, and then if it still doesn't stop I'm going to apply a tourniquet and transport my patient on high flow oxygen and make sure he's kept warm". I didn't even have to move. It was weird.
TLDR; I felt like people were really there to kind of follow state guidelines and do their job for the day. It felt like they really didn't care so much how refined our skills where. I felt like I was at church when I was a kid and how no one really seemed too into the whole thing they were just kind of all... there.
TLDRR; I passed both and have my EMT-Basic certification and truly do want to get into the field and work, but don't yet possess the skills and ability to do so. How do I get more experience without having people be like: "You have your certification you should fly through all this". Also is it just me or does anyone else feel like they kind of just shoe you along in terms of the testing both written and practical?
