WuLabsWuTecH
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So I've read a few posts now discussing premeds in EMS and the few that I've read there is generally a negative connotation towards us. I was wondering if that holds true of most EMS workers out there?
I'm in it for the experience, and since I need to make money to pay for school anyway, why not do both at the same time? I used to volunteer in hospitals and would get to watch a lot of cases and learn from doctors shadowing in the downtime, but I feel that working as an EMT-B (on ALS trucks) gives me good exposure to the field, and that in no way does my being also a pre-med compromise patient care, professionalism, or safety.
I understand that I may have more book knowledge on certain topics than the medics, but I let the medics do their work and I know that they have more experience and skill than I do. One of the EMT-B's I work with is a MED3 (3rd year medical student) and he seems to know more than most of the medics most of the time. But that doesn't mean he bosses them around or oversteps his bounds. I've never worked on the same crew as he (we run medic-medic-basic) but from talking with the medics, they respect him as well and will let him use a lot of his skills (patient assessment, advanced skills, etc) but never if it gets in the way of patient care. As a matter of fact, the only gripe they have about him is that when he is in charge, his reports turn out to be dissertations and that they're at the ER forever waiting for him to finish writing!
One of the gripes I hear was that it "looks good" on resumes. Probably, true, but have the people who make these gripes think that perhaps the guys who are dedicating 8 years of their life to academic education and 3-7 more years after that of on the job training actually LIKE medicine enough to do it for more than just a resume padder?
I'm just wondering what you all think about premeds in EMS. General thoughts and stories welcome!
I'm in it for the experience, and since I need to make money to pay for school anyway, why not do both at the same time? I used to volunteer in hospitals and would get to watch a lot of cases and learn from doctors shadowing in the downtime, but I feel that working as an EMT-B (on ALS trucks) gives me good exposure to the field, and that in no way does my being also a pre-med compromise patient care, professionalism, or safety.
I understand that I may have more book knowledge on certain topics than the medics, but I let the medics do their work and I know that they have more experience and skill than I do. One of the EMT-B's I work with is a MED3 (3rd year medical student) and he seems to know more than most of the medics most of the time. But that doesn't mean he bosses them around or oversteps his bounds. I've never worked on the same crew as he (we run medic-medic-basic) but from talking with the medics, they respect him as well and will let him use a lot of his skills (patient assessment, advanced skills, etc) but never if it gets in the way of patient care. As a matter of fact, the only gripe they have about him is that when he is in charge, his reports turn out to be dissertations and that they're at the ER forever waiting for him to finish writing!
One of the gripes I hear was that it "looks good" on resumes. Probably, true, but have the people who make these gripes think that perhaps the guys who are dedicating 8 years of their life to academic education and 3-7 more years after that of on the job training actually LIKE medicine enough to do it for more than just a resume padder?
I'm just wondering what you all think about premeds in EMS. General thoughts and stories welcome!