Need to know....

[marineman]

FF894 I hear what you're saying and to a point see it happening in my school. In my opinion my teacher is an excellent instructor and I haven't been able to come up with a question yet that he didn't have an answer for (with references). The problem with my school is in the administration. They are the ones that want to make the class easy enough that everybody passes to boost their public image which actually brings the school name down among experienced medics.

Our teacher though is opposite of how you describe. He sees the people with the minimalist attitude that are only there so they get hired at a fire department and spends little time helping them learn anything beyond the national curriculum and exactly what's on the NR test. He also sees those of us who are there that put in a true effort and really want to learn everything and anything he can possibly teach us and for us he comes up with extra assignments and throws out several critical thinking type trivia questions that aren't answered in our book each class period. I happen to be part of the second group and appreciate that he takes extra time and effort to help me learn not how to pass a test but how to save a patient as I only have to pass the test once, the latter I hope to do at least twice in my career.

 

[mycrofft]

FMA08, here's another angle...

No matter how perfectly you practice, someone will ding you for your documentation. No matter how perfect your paperwork and practice, someone will criticize your driving, or haircut, or demeanor, or just plain lie about you then try to use it to whipsaw you. That is one type of people drawn to medicine because since we strive for perfection, we will let those who use it as fighting stilts go on, especially if they are grinding our own axe for us. Not to say you should totally ignore even gratuitous and nitpicky "tuneups", for even they can bring you wisdom, if only by accident.

Learn what they have to teach and what it takes to pass, go on to learn more as time goes on, and don't freeze because you feel you are under-prepared. Nothing personal, but you will always be underprepared, when you get comfy is when your arse gets the bite. If you stop learning you are missing something.

 

[fma08]

I hear ya mycrofft. People do make mistakes. That was one fact that I accepted early on. I never felt under prepared after school until coming on here, and I know that many of the people on here have been doing this plus extra schooling for a very long time, so obviously they are going to know more than me. The program I took was 11 months to get the cert, and if you had an additional 30 credits in college in certain areas you could get the A.A.S degree (which I had already so I did). How can one thoroughly teach the paramedic curriculum, plus a good A&P lecture in just 9 months (which is how long the didactic actually went)? Let alone these places out there that are doing it in 6 months or less? How can they do that and think that they are producing quality medics? When they try to cram everything in like that then they get the exact problem I'm venting about where the students quit trying to learn everything and focus on what they need to know for the test that's coming up in a day or two over 6-7 chapters that the teacher covered in 3 days. Don't get me wrong, I know exactly what you are saying, the smartest person in my class always felt under prepared, even at the end of school when she knew the material better than anyone of us. So yeah it's a very natural feeling to have fresh out of school.