Medic School is like hell...with lunch breaks...

[Number1Monkey]

Yap, I'm at around week 7 and It's getting insane! Our first practice assessments ended with every pt. dying! Seriously, any EMTs planning on going, make sure you want to do this 100% first! It definitely has it's fun moments, but it's hands-down the hardest thing I have ever tried to do. (I suggest that no one works a full time EMT job while in school either...it's rough) Anyway, I posted this in hopes that some people had some good online resources for medic stuff. Right now I'm talkin' Cardiac, Pharmacology and assessment stuff. Drugs and protocols vary drastically from one county to another, but any good sites with solid info would be cool. I'm just trying to absorb as much as I can. My brain might very well explode. I'm off to rifle through the forum for info. See ya on the big one, PEACE!!

 

[TransportJockey]

Yes it is hell. Yea you will be zombified during it. But it should be worth it in the end. I'm working a FT job, 3 PRN jobs, comuting 70 miles each way for class, clinicals, and internships sites, and still doing ok. Just keep your head in it and don't let them play any mindgames with ya!
Good luck man!

 

[Number1Monkey]

Thanks man. Ya, mind games are definitely a part of it all. They make it harder than it has to be, but for a reason I presume.

 

[8jimi8]

no pressure in online school. i teach myself. I love learning

 

[Shishkabob]

It will be done before you know it.


Difficult? Yea. Hardest thing I've ever had to do? No. That honor would go to doing my best not to go insane at Marine boot camp.



I failed.

 

[HotelCo]

Hardest thing I've ever had to do? No. That honor would go to doing my best not to go insane at Marine boot camp.

This.

 

[DCAP-BLS-TIC]

I'm in medic school as well, and it *is* hard, I spend almost every waking minute of every day studying. It'll be worth it, though, when I finish next year.

 

[skills82]

Oh Linuss, boot camp wasn't as bad as being in Iraq and bullets flying inches from your head. That was the hardest thing to deal with. The unkown of where your life is headed.

 

[Tommerag]

Awe come on guys, Medic School is like a field of flowers, its just so fun and wonderful and stress free.*


*Please note that the above statement was sarcasm

 

[Phlipper]

Hell with lunch breaks. That sums it up.

In an 11 month course in which the instructor has no time to teach, only to read thru the bullets on the power point slides. He said up front you have to basically teach yourself everything except clinical/practical. Which wouldn't be so bad except the latest "Big Red Book" is so hard to read/follow and the generated tests can hit literally every sentence in the book, no matter how far removed from the actual practice of being a paramedic. Started with 30 registered and down to 14 already, with two more likely gone this week.

Yep ... hell with lunch breaks.

 

[Veneficus]

In an 11 month course in which the instructor has no time to teach, only to read thru the bullets on the power point slides. He said up front you have to basically teach yourself everything except clinical/practical..

Take note, that is either a sign of a very poorly developed program or a misrepresentation of what the instructor was trying to say.

Reading bullets off of powerpoints is not the instructor's purpose. The purpose is to impart on you the understanding of the basic elements of a concept so that you can go and read the details on your own without making an error in interpretation of the bigger pictures.

With the current science requirements being out of sync with the instructor qualifications, I suspect that many instructors will resort to reading bullets they themselves do not understand.

Medic class is hard for most people becase they do not have the proper background which makes it much easier. Something I discovered myself having a large part of my science education after medic class.

Which wouldn't be so bad except the latest "Big Red Book" is so hard to read/follow and the generated tests can hit literally every sentence in the book, no matter how far removed from the actual practice of being a paramedic.

That is not true. Those details are the core of what becomes the ability to make logical clinical decisions. Look at some of the posts on this forum, they are not made by people who only understand how to start and IV or intubate somebody during an ACLS algorythm.

However, test generators are not something I am fond of. They lead to laziness.

Started with 30 registered and down to 14 already, with two more likely gone this week.

That is the mark of an extremely bad program. If yo can get your money back in full or in part, go somewhere else.

Yep ... hell with lunch breaks.

Hell is sometimes said to be the "impossibility of reason."

 

[medicRob]

Yap, I'm at around week 7 and It's getting insane! Our first practice assessments ended with every pt. dying! Seriously, any EMTs planning on going, make sure you want to do this 100% first! It definitely has it's fun moments, but it's hands-down the hardest thing I have ever tried to do. (I suggest that no one works a full time EMT job while in school either...it's rough) Anyway, I posted this in hopes that some people had some good online resources for medic stuff. Right now I'm talkin' Cardiac, Pharmacology and assessment stuff. Drugs and protocols vary drastically from one county to another, but any good sites with solid info would be cool. I'm just trying to absorb as much as I can. My brain might very well explode. I'm off to rifle through the forum for info. See ya on the big one, PEACE!!

Try RN school. EMT-P school was like vacation compared to 7 days a week nursing school.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

A common conversation that took place in my class...

"I would (insert intervention here)."

"You just killed your patient."

"Why tonight, sir?"

 

[EMS49393]

I don't know what kind of paramedic schools you people are attending. I can't share in this experience. I really enjoyed paramedic class.

Although I will admit, I already had English I and II, college algebra, human (generic) biology, A&P I and II, general chemistry, and a couple of non-sense classes that I took because I wanted to. I also scored pretty high on the entrance exam for the class, probably because I had all those college credits behind me.

I had a great, interactive instructor. Sure he killed our "patients" pretty frequently, but at least he was fair about our kills. We spent mornings in lecture and afternoons in scenarios. I ended up doing a little over 1200 hours in clinicals by the time it was over.

I'd do it again, but only with that instructor. I had a lot of fun in medic class and I never felt like I was in hell. Plus we got an hour for lunch each day and we'd all get together at the Mexican Villa down the street for lunch.

Come to think of it, I actually miss paramedic school. Now I'm sorta wishing I would have failed so I could do it again.

 

[Veneficus]

I don't know what kind of paramedic schools you people are attending. I can't share in this experience. I really enjoyed paramedic class.

Although I will admit, I already had English I and II, college algebra, human (generic) biology, A&P I and II, general chemistry, and a couple of non-sense classes that I took because I wanted to. I also scored pretty high on the entrance exam for the class, probably because I had all those college credits behind me.

I had a great, interactive instructor. Sure he killed our "patients" pretty frequently, but at least he was fair about our kills. We spent mornings in lecture and afternoons in scenarios. I ended up doing a little over 1200 hours in clinicals by the time it was over.

I'd do it again, but only with that instructor. I had a lot of fun in medic class and I never felt like I was in hell. Plus we got an hour for lunch each day and we'd all get together at the Mexican Villa down the street for lunch.

Come to think of it, I actually miss paramedic school. Now I'm sorta wishing I would have failed so I could do it again.

I think the reason you had so mch success is 2 fold.

1. A better program with better instructors obviously. Most people only ever go to paramedic school 1 time and are only ever affiliated with that specific one until much later in their career, they have no idea a good one from a bad one.

2. All collages I have seen give paramedic class the designation of sophmore level work. Which in academia assumes you have had the requisite freshman classes. Of course if you have never been to college before, jumping into second year classes is going to set you way behind, which will increase the workload and learning curve substantially.

Because it is possible to enroll in paramedic class in a variety of ways, in all types of institutions, to subvert doing these "basic" science classes, people always have and continue to struggle.

We talk about higher degrees for paramedics, when you think about it, By the time you take 1 year of biology and lab,(for science majors) 1 year of general chemistry (for science majors) and lab. 1 Year of Physics and lab. (same as above) 1 year of A&P/lab, a semester English, a semester of math, and 2 semesters of humanities, you are already nearing 34 credit hours of work and paramedic class hasn't even begun. EMT usually a semester at 8 credits, Call it a year at 24 credit hours for paramedic class, and you are at 66 credit hours.(1/2 to a bachelor's) Start adding in pharm classes, psych classes, biochemistry and the like, and BS isn't really that far off.

As was pointed out, having all that basic science really makes paramedic class easier. I have noticed that people who take General Chemistry prior to paramedic class do even better than people who take A&P prior to it.

Imagine that.

 

[terrible one]

I agree with Veneficus. I'm not sure why people struggle with paramedic school? Is it difficult? Ya OK, it's no walk through the park but it is by no means the hardest thing on earth. Hell I felt more challenged with college chem and micro.
Good luck to those that are in as soon as you're done you'll probably see how weakly structured your program was compared to other medical careers. Especially if youre near a teaching hospital. Talk to those students in their clinicals to get an idea of hell with lunch breaks

 

[Veneficus]

If I got lunch breaks, it wouldn't be hell.

 

[Rykielz]

It all depends on the school. I went to Riverside Community College and that was a difficult program, but by no means was I studying all night and a walking zombie like some people say. However, there are schools like *cough* Mt. SAC *cough* which pride themselves on failing 20-25/30 students and teaching non-applicable information. In that case, sure I can see why their saying it's the hardest thing they've ever done.

(I'd say Riverside Communities Fire Academy is the hardest thing I've ever done. They have some instructors that can run for miles and hours at a time...and guess what? You better keep up)

 

[MrBrown]

Of course its going to be hard, you are trying to cover a depth and breadth of complex information that has been molested and watered down to a couple of PowerPoints without the cognitive background required to form a comprehensive framework for uptake and reention of information in your mind.

Now, come here where it takes six years to become an Intensive Care Paramedic, then you can complain.

Good luck mate.

Oh, be thankful that you even get a lunch break

 

[NomadicMedic]

I agree with Veneficus. I'm not sure why people struggle with paramedic school? Is it difficult? Ya OK, it's no walk through the park but it is by no means the hardest thing on earth. Hell I felt more challenged with college chem and micro.
Good luck to those that are in as soon as you're done you'll probably see how weakly structured your program was compared to other medical careers. Especially if youre near a teaching hospital. Talk to those students in their clinicals to get an idea of hell with lunch breaks

This! Paramedic school was a lot of work, but by no means difficult.