I have moved the thread to the education forum from the ALS discussion area…
Now then, I’ll bite. The biggest things that have helped me during my own journey in my healthcare education was actually something that should have been done by now for you too and that’s getting a good foundation in Anatomy and Physiology. I would say Anatomy is important but Physiology is much more so as that can help you make decisions about the care you provide, and more importantly, the care you “withhold” from a patient. The next biggest thing is to understand how you learn. Everyone has a way that they learn material the most concretely and quickly. Paramedic school can be quite the volume of knowledge shoved at you so you have to know how to best absorb the pearls from all that.
Along the way, you should not forget that you’re first an EMT. When you get on scene, your first thought is “how do I leave.” It can be important because you might just have to scoop and run. Much of the ALS stuff that you learn can be done during transport. There will be times that your time is better spent doing stuff right there on the scene, but you’ll get a better idea about when that is necessary as you go through P-school.
As far as what you should really get to know is that you really should get to know the medications you will likely be giving. Not just indications and contraindications, but also HOW they work. Get to know some meds by class because some medication class information extends to all the other similar meds and later if you need to use something that’s not exactly on your local list you’ll have a good idea what else might work that is available.
Get to know the cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary systems well. A lot of the emergencies you’ll learn about will involve those two systems in some manner. As to the rest of the body’s systems, do get to know them but you don’t have to be an amazing diagnostician with them. You just have to know them well enough to determine that a problem exists and then what facilities are available that can deal with those concerns. As Paramedicine advances and gets more and more responsibility for evaluating specific problems, make sure you keep up with those trends and with your education so that you can be ready to take on those challenges as they arise.
As to specific skills, don’t worry about that. Skills are just a “thing” that can be taught to nearly anyone. What you need to know about “skills” is actually when NOT to use them, not just why they’re used. Also “skills” are something that can be shifted up and down the levels of responders so do not get too tied up in what skills you can do vs some other level of responder. The EDUCATION behind it all is what will make or break you in what kind of provider you are, whether you’re an EMT, Paramedic, Nurse…
On that note, I’ll close with this: the moment you think you have learned EVERYTHING there is to know about being (in your case) a Paramedic, that is the day you should quit being a Paramedic because that’s the day you become dangerous. There is always something to learn and improve upon. Always.
