Paramedics in the tier 2 system, what do you think of EMT-B's.

Sorry if you feel that came off a bit jack assey, but I'm beyond the point of apologizing for what I believe.

Paramedics don't know much. EMTs know even less. Convincing yourself that 120 hours of basic first aid makes you a competent care provider for anything other than the simplest of cases ... Well, I'll let you figure it out.
 
DEmedic said:
Sorry if you feel that came off a bit jack assey, but I'm beyond the point of apologizing for what I believe.

Paramedics don't know much. EMTs know even less. Convincing yourself that 120 hours of basic first aid makes you a competent care provider for anything other than the simplest of cases ... Well, I'll let you figure it out.
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What are you saying? No one knows anything?
 
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MackTheKnife said:
What are you saying? No one knows anything?
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In EMS we are in the shallow end of the kiddy pool as far as medical care goes. For an EMT program it's about 120-200 hours which is not much at all. Even a paramedic program at around ~1,000 hours still is no where near enough time
 
MackTheKnife said:
What are you saying? No one knows anything?
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In the grand scheme of things...yes. Both Paramedics and EMTs are woefully undereducated. We're one of if not the last "allied health professions" that doesn't require a degree.

Hell you have to have a degree to be a rad tech...and shoot x-rays or other radiological assessments and that's about all they do. What's wrong with that picture?

Are there educated Paramedics and EMTs out there? Yes, but they're few and far between. If I had a nickel for every time I had to explain to an EMT why they couldn't attend a call because they don't know what they don't know I'd be a rich man and I'm a medic that generally will let an EMT who's interested practice to their entire scope and gladly teach them but don't argue with me that about attending the pediatric who ate 3 grams of amitriptyline 45 minutes ago and then get mad at me when I say no then eat your words when I'm bagging that patient when you open the back doors at the hospital, for example.
 
Wow. Some of these responses seem to be very negative towards PMs and EMTs. Very self-negative. As for EMTs not attending a call, I'm not see sure if you mean staying in the back with the pt or not coming along at all. I had an EMT partner and on ALS calls, they drove and I rode in the back. It was SOP and everyone understood. If all calls that shift were BLS, we rotated every call between driving and riding in the back. As for degrees, in the early days, there weren't any. Now there are. Degrees have made getting certified longer and more expensive. I did my PM in 7 months at night while working f/t in EMS.
 
MackTheKnife said:
Wow. Some of these responses seem to be very negative towards PMs and EMTs. Very self-negative. As for EMTs not attending a call, I'm not see sure if you mean staying in the back with the pt or not coming along at all. I had an EMT partner and on ALS calls, they drove and I rode in the back. It was SOP and everyone understood. If all calls that shift were BLS, we rotated every call between driving and riding in the back. As for degrees, in the early days, there weren't any. Now there are. Degrees have made getting certified longer and more expensive. I did my PM in 7 months at night while working f/t in EMS.
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I see it totally the opposite. An associates is not yet required. In other countries a bachelors is a minimum to be a paramedic so in that sense, I disagree with you.
I would love to see bachelors be a minimum requirement along with an increase in scope and pay [in my lifetime].

I believe what robb meant was the emt would be driving not completely leave the scene. That's how I took it anyway. And even being a new medic I agree with them. There is a lot of liability in the line for the paramedic so to be protective and have high expectations should be the rule not the exception.
 
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