Is there room for a 19 year old in the EMT world?

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bmgrosso

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Hey guys what up. My name is Brian and im a freshman at Boston University. Right now im studying to be a doctor one day and I thought it would be a great idea to train to be an EMT. My plan was to take a two credit class at my school that prepares me to take the test and then I would try to get a job somewhere at home in New York over the summer. I see this as a great opportunity for experience in the field, something to put on my med school application, a good job etc. My parents on the other hand, see it as risking there money for the class, and something to distract me from my more important classes being that I didnt so good first semester. I guess Im just looking to get some more information on what its like to be an EMT and if it would even be something worth pursuing considering my age and lack of experience. Would I be able to get a steady job for the summer? Is this a good idea? Who else should I talk to about this? Thanks!
 
Focus on getting good grades in college. EMT Experience doesn't make up for a poor GPA.
 
Thats exactly what my parents say, but it was my first semester of college. I wasnt exactly expecting to do great. Im pretty confident ill be able to handle my classes and the EMT work now that Ive settled in to the whole college atmosphere.
 
Being a paramedic led me to want to be a doctor. If you already know you want to be a doctor, focus on that, especially if already a couple classes didn't go so well. Look for volunteer opportunities or ways to get involved on campus to fill your time.

Plus, I hate to play devil's advocate, but, if you are having troubles with just first semester classes, you're going to have to turn something around in a hurry. The classes do not get easier and you need the good foundations from the general classes to be able to do well in the more advanced classes. If you don't get some concepts or didn't do good in a class, take the time to go over the concepts or take the class again before you move on, or you'll be in a world of hurt.
 
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bmgrosso said:
Thats exactly what my parents say, but it was my first semester of college. I wasnt exactly expecting to do great. Im pretty confident ill be able to handle my classes and the EMT work now that Ive settled in to the whole college atmosphere.
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Then do another semester of college, and prove to yourself (and your parents) that you CAN handle college. Then worry about enrolling in an EMT class.
 
If you already know you want to be a doctor, then get your pre-med and go to med school. Don't take a detour that can possibly last 10+ years on accident.
 
I planned on using the EMT work as a way to start getting experience for the future and for med school, as well as a way to start meeting people in the field and making connections.
 
bmgrosso said:
I planned on using the EMT work as a way to start getting experience for the future and for med school, as well as a way to start meeting people in the field and making connections.
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You can make your own decisions, but again, the grades for your core classes are what's important for medical school. Yes, experience in the medical field will look good, but it won't matter if you have EMT-B on your application with a 3.2 GPA.
 
bmgrosso said:
My parents on the other hand, see it as risking there money for the class, and something to distract me from my more important classes being that I didnt so good first semester.
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The question you should be asking is the exact opposite. "As a premed, is there enough room in my life for EMS?" If you are already struggling in your course work then you need to keep an eye on the prize, medical school. As such, you need to understand just how competitive it is to get into a US medical schools.

Approximately half of the students who apply to allopathic (MD) medical schools will not get in every cycle. The average GPA is in the 3.5 range and climbing. The average MCAT score for accepted applicants is in the 30-32 range. As a comparison, the average grade on the MCAT is a 21 (each section is standardized to an average score of 7 and there are 3 sections) and the average applicant is in the 27-28 range. US osteopathic (DO) medical schools aren't quite as hard, but you're still looking at an average GPA in the 3.3-3.4 range and MCAT in the 27-28 range. Regardless of the tradition of medicine (MD and DO schools in the US have essentially the same curriculum and MDs and DOs have the same practice rights in all 50 states), it isn't uncommon for an individual medical school to have 5,000 or more applicants, interview around 700 applicants, accept around 400-500 students, and end up with a class in the 100-200 student range. Similarly, the big 4 Caribbean schools (Saint George, Ross, American University of the Caribbean, and SABA) graduate students that are granted practice rights in all 50 states (SABA might not be accepted in a few states, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of anything after it), however these shouldn't even be considered as a backup at this point in the game for you for a variety of reasons (residency match difficulties, living conditions, etc). Any other Caribbean medical school is essentially a scam.

While clinical experience is definitely helpful, it won't make up for poor scores. You can be a glowing applicant, but if you don't survive the GPA and MCAT screen for interviews or secondary applicants then no one will know about it. Working in EMS at any level is not considered anything ground breaking by admission committees. There are of thousands of applicants who have obtained an EMT-B certification and plenty of those (although by no means all) have worked on an ambulance or in an emergency room. It is, by no means, a novel premedical experience.

Additionally, no place worth their weight will hire someone on just for summer. Weekends? Sure. Summers only? Beware. In fact, probably most places wouldn't find it worth the trouble and cost to field train someone who is only going to be there for 3 months.

You definintely need to read this thread also over at Student Doctor Network. Pay attention to posts 2 and 5.

Disscussion: Will EMS Help My Medical School Application

-JPINFV, MS, NREMT-B
First year medical student, Western University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific.
 
On another note, whether you make good grades or pass NREMT or whatever, the idea of just hopping up to New York over the summer and just getting a job for a few months is grossly over simplifying the matter.

There are many EMTs who want to make EMS their career who can't find a job. The idea that an employer would hire someone for a few months who isn't even interested in staying long term may be worth taking into consideration...
 
Honestly man, if you already know you want to be a doctor then I really think you should just concentrate on finishing your degree and your pre-med courses. I really think that going through EMT school will just be a waste for you and working as an EMT will just be a pointless distraction. The only real opportunity for employment for someone in your situation will likely be a private ambulance company and most of these places are operated by people who are "not nice" or very accommodating for people who don't want to have to put in 50+ hours/week for them. Furthermore, I'm not even sure the experience you'd get as an EMT would be worth all the effort.

It took me until I became a paramedic to suddenly develop a desire to become a physician, and going to school for EMT and paramedic added an extra 2.5 years to my time in college.

If I could do it all over again, I would have just gotten a normal college kid job at, like, Starbucks or something and concentrated on school. Don't get me wrong, many people go from EMS to becoming a doctor, but going this route will add years to the process.
 
Go bu!!
 
There is always room for good people who want to help others.

To put into words what is like, well, that is rather difficult. Sometimes its real simple, and otehr times it races at the speed of light. Sometimes is a high unlike any other, and other times it can break your heart. Like any other job, it has it's ups and downs; you will have days where you want to do nothing else, others where you wonder why you ever chose it as an occupation, and days where you feel somewhere in between. Just know it is rewarding, and there is no shortage of things you never dreamed existed or were possible. You will most likely meet some of the most interesting people you will ever meet here, you make make freinds for life, and you will have experiences where none of your freinds will believe you when you talk to them.

There is the dwon side however. You will see tings that might make you question your faith, your logic, and your personal conictions. There will be calls you never forget, and those will break your heart.

You will see things that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you mad as a wet hen, and make you uncertain, but through it all you will make a difference to someone, somewhere, and chances are they will not forget the good you did, and how much it meant to them.

I graduated my first class several years ago, adn although I have volunteered ever since, I had differant jobs. This one, by far, is more meaningful and gives me more purpose then any other occupation I have ever done.


I too am on my way to med school, and I wish you luck.

PS. You say you have no experience? None of us did either once upon a time. There is only one way to get it, and it seems you are well on your way. Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you.
 
What they all said. Work on your grades a quarter, then do it if your grades are great. Be careful if you do it. EMS is great at sidetracking people who know they want to be doctors. I know a few who fell in love with it, and only got back on track for medschool in their late 20's or 30's. Experience as a basic, for the record, really won't help you all that much on your application.

As for the age, 19 really isn't all that young to get started. One of my services has basics as young as 16. You'll prove yourself based on how you perform, not your age.
 
Addendum to my previous post...while I think becoming an EMT does have its advantages to someone looking to become a physician, I would not dismiss what thegreypilgrim said.

It really depends on you and what you want to do. He is right, it will take a lot longer this way, and so I would listen to him as well.
 
Jeffrey_169 said:
Addendum to my previous post...while I think becoming an EMT does have its advantages to someone looking to become a physician, I would not dismiss what thegreypilgrim said.
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The problem is that if you screw up (either by getting falling into the 'EMS Trap'), or worse, mess up your grades, the pain caused by EMS will be much greater than any change. You really, really, really don't want to be 30, married with kids, and just starting medical school. Several of my classmates fall into that category and I honestly don't know how they are able to give the proper attention to all involved. Medical education (both medical school and residency) are long, hard, and time consuming.
 
I too am 19 and a Freshman in college and just got my basic in MA (although i go to school in Louisiana). Im not just in it to go to med school. As a matter of fact I'm not yet sure if i want to go to med school yet but i would do it regardless. I havnt had a real job yet since i wanted to focus on my first semester and get settled in but i will be looking to start up this spring and summer.
 
The 'EMS Trap' post that I mentioned earlier. Since I brought it up, I'll post the entire post so that people who don't want to click the link can see what I'm talking about. However, it goes a little further and talks specifically about becoming a paramedic instead of becoming a basic.

Originally Posted by ???
This post is directed at the original poster, but applies to traditional undergrads as well. Anyway,
I'm assuming you're an EMT-B already, since that is usually a mandatory pre-requisite to becoming a paramedic (though this might be different in other states). Great, you got a head start on your med school hopeful peers, you don't really know too much as an EMT-B so you still have a healthy appreciation that you don't know very much about medicine. Believe it or not this is a wonderful place to be. I strongly advise you to stop right there (at EMT-B) and devote yourself entirely to becoming a physician.

Here's why:
EMS is a bit of a trap, you can get all caught up in it, because you are enjoying what you are doing, helping others, taking care of emergencies, etc. It's a good high when things go really right. Then you meet a paramedic, and think to yourself: boy can this guy take care of business, I'd really love to be able to do all that great stuff too! But there is really not that much to being a paramedic. Unfortunately nobody really tells you this. IN your world, all these new skills are exciting and impressive, So then things start to take a turn in your life. Let me tell you a little about what I mean:

Paramedics are funny people, they are experts in a very, very, narrow slice of medicine. In fact, when it comes down to the business of prehospital emergency care, nobody does it like a medic. WOW, I think I want to do this medic thing, I'm going to go for it, atleast for now, until I go to med school next year. BUT, you can easily get all caught up in the ALS pre-hospital care scene. Because you are doing life saving interventions you may feel like you fast forwarded yourself to "doctor" or at least the preconceived notion you had of doctors before you ever got involved in medicine. So anyway, there you'll be doing all these great skills, and soon you'll start to think that gee-whiz look at all the great things that I can do as a medic (ha! nurses my ***, they can't do this stuff!). Heck, all that other stuff in medicine really is not as important as this stuff I'm doing right now (IVs, intubation and pacing oh my!), and that's when you start to make a very big mistake. All of a sudden you really stop caring about all the other things that medicine has to offer, so you stop learning about anything that doesn't have anything to do with the "important stuff". Now depending on how long this lasts you can piss away 4,5,6 years doing EMS work and be totally satisfied. But then something happens, it can be some job that went bad on you or you come across something you've never been prepared to deal with, or any other number of things that cause you to become reflective about yourself as a professional. So then you start to read again and you once again rediscover that there is a whole world of medical knowledge out there you weren't aware of as a medic. So now you're studying again and learning about the things you didn't know, but you are never able to do it in any coherent way. The sheer volume of the material is intimidating and you have no real way of knowing if you are making any progress. Plus you are surrounded by your peers, fellow paramedic professionals who tell you things like who the heck cares about temporal arteritis, that's not important and what the heck is so important about this pancreatic psuedocyst you speak of??? So now you start to get frustrated, and you look around at the people around you who are very content with being medics and knowing what medics know, and incorrectly equating their skill proficiency with medical knowledge. But not you. You start to remember that you wanted to be a doctor, and you look back and say, how the **** did I get here, this isn't what I wanted for myself professionally or personally. This whole medic thing was supposed to be a stepping stone to becoming a physician. You become, really frustrated, pissed off, burnt out and then to add insult to injury you start to realize that you are wildly underpaid for the work you are doing. Nurses don't have to put up with 1/2 the crap that I do and they get paid 3 times as much, plus I know a hell of alot more! That's the last straw, F-this you say, I'm going back to school. Only now you are well into your mid- late 20's, (in your case, mid-late 30's) maybe you got a mortgage, a big monthly car payment, who knows maybe a wife and kids in private school, your Golden Opportunity to become a physician is now well past you. You now must suffer in new and interesting ways to get to where you wanted to be in the first place. So sacrifices and painful choices are made and finally 7-8 years later you are back on track for the MD, older, a little more worn out, less enthusiastic, but hopefully a little wiser. Maybe.

So the question is, are you absolutely, positively sure that being a medic is what you want? Think long and hard about this, this is your life afterall. That being said, you gotta do what you gotta do, if you are supporting your whole family or you are on your own out there I can understand. But think about this seriously think about this. This is a long post, but I did not make all of this stuff up, I speak to you from my experience. There are alot of other things I can go into, all sorts of crazy stuff that you'll be banging your head against, but I think I'd be writing for days and days. Anyway best of luck, you can always drop me a PM if you have any specific questions.
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http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=6000003&postcount=2
 
I'll be in a similar situation soon. But my dilema is that I am pretty sure I am more interested in EMS than becoming a physician (not because of school, because of the nature of the job) and if there wasn't such a money difference, I would not even think about med school. There are a few problems though. My parents, who are far from rich, already pay 10grand a year for me to be in one of the best high schools in the state. If I went and took EMT-Basic and Paramedic courses right out of high school, I would be the first graduate from my school not to go on to a formal college course in many years. So I have been wondering a lot.

I thought about going to the general four year college course (whatever thats called), then certifying, then working in EMS for like a year then med school. But there are some problems with that too. For one, this is what my cousin did. He is now in his mid thirties and just starting med school. I'm not sure if that's for me. Also, I am pretty confident that I wouldn't be able to do EMS for just a year, and would wind up staying for a while.

I then thought about getting EMT-B certified in my senior year-summer of senior year (which is what will most likely happen regardless) and taking my medic class in college (ehich I hear is overwhelming)but then when would I go into med school? I run into the same problem here. I guess I could work EMS and go through med school at the same time but that sounds like a task for a superhuman, and I'm not a total genius anyway, it takes a lot of studying for me to do good on any test.

So I guess I run into deciding if I want to do what I want and make less money, or do something that I can tolerate so I can have a lot of money. Or if I want to end up not letting my life kick off until I'm thirty. But I know for sure that I want to at least get to paramedic certification some day.

And then I realized I didn't want to think about any of this for a few more years.

OP: A summer of some EMT-B job really won't look all that impressive on an application.

Sorry to steal your thunder.


EDIT: JPINFV, that post...wow, just wow. That really put it in perspective, I don't know what to think...
 
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