Paramedic school transfer credits..? & P1 to AEMT question

[notverycreative]

Hey guys, new here..

First off, I'd like to apologize if I'm beating a dead horse. I have searched, but it's possible I'm not searching the right thing.

So anyway, I did paramedic school in FL, but did not complete it due to relocating to TN for personal reasons. (Although I do plan to redo and complete medic through PERCOM.) But EMT & Medic left me with 40 something credits that transferred to Western Kentucky University as General Electives and my question is can these be applied towards anything? Maybe even a Emergency management degree? I did call my school, and pretty much all they told me is that in order to apply them towards a degree (or as a pre-req) I would need to basically go in front of them and prove how it applies.. Has anyone done anything similar? It would be nice to skip some of the ridiculous, unrelated yet somehow ($$$) required classes..

Also a side question: They have AEMT here, Can P1/P2 be used to challenge or jump through the hoops to take the NR-AEMT? It seems it is required to take EMT-P through PERCOM.

Thanks for any and all information!

 

[wanderingmedic]

When I was with PERCOM you would challenge P1 by taking the P1 final exam if you were already an AEMT. Be aware that the P1 final is extremely hard, and many people FAIL who were not P1 PERCOM students!

Getting your coursework in EMS couted at any four year university of repute will be an uphill battle. The best advice I can offer is to get in touch with somone in the program you are looking to complete, and ask for the criteria they use for evaulating transfer credits.

 

[notverycreative]

I'll keep that in mind for the AEMT to P2 option. Much cheaper to do it locally, but it seems the benefits between getting acquainted with their online system doing the AEMT through them before paramedic online would make for a smoother transition and then with the higher success rate challenging their P1 after completing their AEMT course may be worth it in the long run. Although having done P1 & P2 at a different school, on top of doing an AEMT program soon for a bit of a refresher, I feel I may have a chance if done in the traditional route..Guess I have some thinking to do either way. Appreciate the feedback!! I'm going to message you with a few other questions, hope you don't mind.

 

[notverycreative]

Well I was going to PM you a few questions about your experience, but it appears we can only post to walls & it may help someone else lurking anyways.

When I was with PERCOM .

Were you a student or instructor? I'm an audio & hands on learner. Reading doesn't do much for me and I am curious to how it compares to traditional lectures/in class work etc. Also, how long did it take you or someone you know to get through either/both AEMT and EMT-P? I am assuming AEMT could be done in two or three months, and P2 could be done in a semester if doing full time hours, is that far off track? Curious about saving time. I know that's a bit taboo and a huge No-No for medic school, but having already been through the ringer for all but the last semester of medic, I'm not looking to suffer for long lol.

So it's clear what i'm working with...
If i went back to FL medic would only take 13 months and I would not need AEMT.
If i get my AEMT, NC and a colorado school have a 6 month medic course (which again, I have learned most of the material already otherwise wouldn't even THINK about it)
Here in TN and surrounding areas you must take AEMT first, then medic is an additional (but appropriate for non experienced EMT's) TWO YEARS.
TN doesn't make financial sense for me because nursing would take the same exact time, the pay would be better, I's have more options, and here in TN we actually have Pre-hospital RN's!

Anyway, sorry to bombard you with drawn out questions lol... Thanks again!

 

[wanderingmedic]

As a Paramedic graduate of PERCOM's Medic program, I'm happy to answer any questions I can. For specific questions I'd highly recomend just getting in touch with PERCOM (You might need to be persistant with your phone calls and emails). They will be able to help you evaluate the best options with them, i've been out of PERCOM for almost three years now.

It probably took me about a year and a half to complete everything in PERCOM's P1 & P2. P1 & P2 could certainly be done in a calendar year if you really buckled down to get it done. But, know that PERCOM is no walk in the park. You will be expected to perform at a high level and demonstrate clinically competent critical thinking. My Medic education at PERCOM was far more comprehensive than the education my peers who attended traditional brick and mortor programs received.

Since I was a PERCOM graduate, my first Medic state license came from TX. I now have Medic Licenses in several states via reciprocity and have never had a problem getting licensed elsewhere.

Edit: Since graduating PERCOM I've served as a Paramedic FTO and worked on a Mobile Intensive Care Unit/CCT Unit. Most of my patients are vented and critically ill coming from an ICU and going to a tertiary care center. The education PERCOM provided me gave me the ability to manage these patients well. I started my career as a Medic well above where most of my peers started because PERCOM prepared me.

 

[wanderingmedic]

I wrote the below review a while ago, but I'll repost it here for you since I cant find where it is on the forums anymore.

About me before PERCOM

Before PERCOM, I attended a traditional EMT program at a community college and passed the NREMT the first time. I stayed a Basic for about three years and worked as a clinic tech and did some EMS standby, but did not have any 911 or IFT experience. PERCOM appealed to me because I was in a four year degree program, and the traditional brick and mortar programs around me had schedules that would have prevented me from finishing my degree. I applied to PERCOM’s EMT to Medic program as an out of TX student, and traveled to TX and AZ for clinical rotations and skills training.

The Program

Logistics
PERCOM will issue you a clinical uniform. If you are in EMS or healthcare you probably have everything you need. Tuition did include books (verify this with them, it has been a few years and may have changed). They are mailed to you at no cost, and include an access code for the online book. I have never used the online book though.

Clinical rotations can be done at a site you request within PERCOM’s clinical rotation site network. If you are out of state, PERCOM has a network of clinical sites across the US, so you might get lucky and be able to do most of your clinicals from wherever you call home. There are lots of clinical sites in Texas. I did my clinical rotations in Texas at Abilene Regional Medical Center, South Taylor EMS, and with Rural Metro/PMT.

If you have completed any clinical rotations in any other healthcare program, or currently work in healthcare, PERCOM can count some of that experience towards your required hosptial rotations.

The Syllabus

PERCOM breaks their EMT to Paramedic program into three courses. Everyone follows this basic flow:

1. Anatomy and Physiology for the Paramedic (you can be exempted from this if you submit a college transcript with an A&P class). This is a basic anatomy and physiology course. It was probably the easiest part of the program, and did not take a whole ton of time or effort. This is really the only part of the program where you can get away with just reading the textbook and taking the exams.

2. EMT 300 (Paramedic 1) - This class covers the didactic and skills requirements for AEMT, plus some paramedic stuff. After completion of this course students are eligible to take the NR-AEMT psychomotor and practical exam, and apply for licensure as an AEMT in Texas.

Once you complete the Pharmacology lessons of Paramedic 1, you are eligible to start the skills and clinical portion of the course. You attend two sessions of skills training (2 days each), and then another session of NR skills testing (2 days). To be eligible to start clinicals you must complete one of the skills training sessions first. Clinicals for EMT 300 are ~30 days, and include L&D, RT, ED, Anesthesiology, and EMS rotations.

You can wait to do your clinicals in one big block after you are eligible in EMT 400. Clinicals are not required to be completed for EMT 300 before you are eligible to start didactic coursework in EMT 400. BUT you cannot license as an AEMT without EMT 300 clinicals completed.

3. EMT 400 (Paramedic 2)- This class builds off what you learned in EMT 300 (Paramedic 1), and prepares you to be a Paramedic. This class includes more advanced cardiology and pharmacology.

Paramedic 2 Skills and Clinicals - You can start EMT 400 clinicals once you complete the cardiology and EKG portion of EMT 400. You attend two skills sessions (4 days total) of skills training and then another session of NR skills testing. To be eligible to start clinicals you must complete one of the skills training sessions first. Clinicals are ~15 days, and the last 92hrs are spent with you acting as the lead medic on a truck.

After completing EMT 400, the student must pass a final exam, and then an exit interview with the Program Medical Director. The Program Medical Director interview consists of several scenarios in which the medical director assesses the student’s competency. Upon successful completion, the student graduates from PERCOM and is eligible to take the NRP exams and become licensed in the state of Texas as an EMT-P.

Program Ends Here

Quality of Instruction

Program has been good. Best advice I can give is communicate communicate communicate with your instructor. If anything over-communicate with them. It was hard to get used to having to communicate with a teacher via email. Remember, apart from what you tell them, they have very little idea about how you are feeling about the material, so its hard for them to help unless you reach out first. IT IS WORK! Don't expect to get off easy because its online.

PERCOM has a 100% NREMT-P pass rate for a reason. It is WORK. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!

 

[notverycreative]

Awesome review/write up! Very informative!! & I honestly expect online to be more difficult for me than easier.. I don't think Paramedic school is to be taken lightly regardless of school, even the ones designed for firefighters You really gotta put in work no matter where you go & being online adds an extra variable to the difficulty if anything.

As far as the breakdown, I have A&P, Clinical hours from last years paramedic school if I read that correctly, should help. And the cardiology/EKG portion should be more of a relief, or time to focus on areas I'm struggling with since it's quite literally my bread and butter, I've been working telemetry over the last year in the ICU, Which my sister has worked in until last month, I've been fortunate enough to learn and be shown things I otherwise probably wouldn't have. She started as a combat medic/EMT and just finished her NP. Not to brag, but she's a machine.. I basically have a human textbook on anything from the small stuff I may have forgotten in EMT school to breaking down the psychopathology on a disease I hadn't heard of haha.

As a Paramedic graduate of PERCOM's Medic program, I'm happy to answer any questions I can. For specific questions I'd highly recomend just getting in touch with PERCOM

I'll definitely be giving them a call tomorrow! Buuut since It's 03:00 and I'm bored at work, you think you could go a little in depth on what the classes were like?
I'm guessing you did mostly self studying.. But what about the other small, but important...ish stuff they probably wouldn't want to go into like:

How was pharmacology done? I'm thinking we had it easy compared to others, self learning two a week to test on..We basically had to remember 3 indications/contraindications depending on the med, 3 side effects, nausea and headache didn't count lol and then of course adult doses (peds was third/final semester I didn't learn any of those). Obviously you should know them all, to be fair though, this was for testing purposes & never stopped coming up in lab/on tests, pharm also wasn't separate from other requirements, we we're still cramming stuff every day.

Are you required to write a lot of papers? We really didn't do any of that at my last program, it was 1 paper, 2 discussion board topics, 1 presentation.

Do lecture videos cover most of the material that you test on? Or do you mostly rely on reading the text book?

Can you watch/listen to lecture videos as many times as you need?

Do they have "handouts" before tests for study guides, or is it all computer generated out of the book at random?

Are they mostly fill in the blank, or multiple choice?

Are the two day skills 1 day training, 1 day test out?

Anything sort of other odds and ends things you can think of that might help? I'm basically trying to feel out what kind of teaching/testing style it is in case I jump in and it doesn't fit my learning needs as I'm a little wee todd ed in the academic portion of things..Fortunately the good lord blessed me with some common sense or I'd be screwed.

If any or all of this is too specific or just plain tedious & annoying, obviously feel free to ignore..

 

[wanderingmedic]

Are you required to write a lot of papers? We really didn't do any of that at my last program, it was 1 paper, 2 discussion board topics, 1 presentation.

Yes, there is a lot of writing overall. You will be required several papers of substantial length during the program, about one per major unit if I remember correctly (and if things havent changed).

How was pharmacology done? I'm thinking we had it easy compared to others, self learning two a week to test on..We basically had to remember 3 indications/contraindications depending on the med, 3 side effects, nausea and headache didn't count lol and then of course adult doses (peds was third/final semester I didn't learn any of those). Obviously you should know them all, to be fair though, this was for testing purposes & never stopped coming up in lab/on tests, pharm also wasn't separate from other requirements, we we're still cramming stuff every day.

Do lecture videos cover most of the material that you test on? Or do you mostly rely on reading the text book?

Pharmacology was a large unit that required competency across the field of pharamacology. I remember having to know indications, classes, doses, and specific model medications for a TON of meds. PERCOM wants you to know more than just the standard paramedic drug box formulary. You'll be expected to know the common medications patients are perscribed, and what their indications are so you can deduce a possible Hx from a med list. PERCOM places a big emphasis on critical thinking, so they don't want you to just memorize line items. Instead, they'll want to see that you can apply knowledge in a way that demonstrates clinical competency through critical thinking.

Do lecture videos cover most of the material that you test on? Or do you mostly rely on reading the text book?

[/QUOTE]Can you watch/listen to lecture videos as many times as you need?[/QUOTE]

[/QUOTE]Do they have "handouts" before tests for study guides, or is it all computer generated out of the book at random?[/QUOTE]

[/QUOTE]Are they mostly fill in the blank, or multiple choice?[/QUOTE]

Are the two day skills 1 day training, 1 day test out?

Anything sort of other odds and ends things you can think of that might help? [/QUOTE]

Lectures cover what you need to know but the exams will require you to not only to have read the textbook, but to also have read current literature on evidence based practices. Most of the exams were very challenging, but were open book and open note/internet. Most of the exams took me several hours to complete. The finals and major exams are closed book and proctored.

When I went through the program there weren’t a huge amount of lecture videos online. Instead, most of the lectures were posted powerpoints with audio and video supplemental material. I remember hearing somewhere that this changed recently and that PERCOM moved to more of a narrated powerpoint lecture, but I could be wrong.

There are a good amount of handouts and supplemental readings provided within the course.

The exams are five answer multiple choice.

The skills sessions were two whole days of repetition and training. The testing session is a separate two whole days.

The only other thing that I can think of right now is that you should over communicate with your instructor, and be prepared to work hard. I have a four-year degree from one of the most highly ranked universities in the nation, and I can say that PERCOM's difficulty and expectations were along the lines of my 400-600 level undergraduate coursework.

 

[notverycreative]

Sorry for the late reply, have been out of town. But I appreciate all of the information you've offered! Doesn't sound like I would be up to par with the program honestly. May just need to go back to FL and finish the program I started while I'm still within the two year limit to start where I had left off. Thanks again, homefully this will at least answer some questions for others searching as well.