Sasha
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So you should go for stories? Go straight to medic, any program worth its salt will teach you how to use equipment. You gain field experience during ride times.
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Quick question
- Thread starter nathanawoodward
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So you should go for stories? Go straight to medic, any program worth its salt will teach you how to use equipment. You gain field experience during ride times.
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Sasha
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I'm going to go against the tide with this one, and say that you should get a little experience first, for several different reasons. Who knows if you're going to like this field of work? you don't know if this is the right thing for you to do. And I'm sure you don't want to be thrown into a situation where you decide you don't want to do this, but you're in charge of a whole team.
I know that if I ever had a medic who just hopped onto my rig with no field experience, and tried bossing me, and AEMT whose been doing this for several years, around, I'd laugh. Yea, they may have more book smarts, but they don't have a clue of how it works in the real world.
It's up to you. If you want to just jump into it, go for it. But I can tell you now, you won't have nearly as much respect as a medic who has several years experience under their belt.
Good luck either way.
A good medic never bosses their partner around. I find it much easier and more pleasent to ask.for things from my partner "can you get me a set of vitals, please" etc rather than bossing anyone.
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I worked a couple of years as an EMT before doing a medic program which had a fair amount of clinical time incorporated into it (1000 hrs ambulance, 400 hospital). I also worked full-time in parallel with school, and with practicum rotations, which wasn't fun.
I think I learned a lot from it. I got the chance to develop some technical skills, like 3-lead interpretation, IV initiation, that were BLS skills in my region. I got to run in both pure BLS and ALS/BLS systems in remote areas, doing 911 work. It allowed me to develop some scene management and call management skills, and it let me see a small amount of critical patients, and do a few cardiac arrests and MCIs with a reasonable amount of responsibility before becoming a medic. It helped.
This isn't to have a go at Lady_EMT or anyone else, but even with that background I was often considered very new by a lot of the senior EMTs, and didn't get a lot of respect at first. I found though, that a lot of the attitude I got from EMTs as a medic disappeared the second a critical patient appeared, and all of a sudden the responsibility of making the decisions was mine.
The trouble with spending a lot of time working as an EMT is you don't get paid well. There's a risk of working in an all-ALS system, and rarely getting to manage critical patients, always having a medic around to rely on. There's a lot of regions where there are few good EMT jobs. It can be a great experience to work in a really rural setting, but not everyone is willing / able to relocate for it. I also agree with usalsfyre that sometimes experience is just doing the same thing wrong more times.
I think it was great for me, as someone who was very young when they entered EMS, and was willing to make low pay and move for the job. But the same cost/benefit might not be there for someone older with a family. I wouldn't do it again if I was starting from scratch now.
I think I learned a lot from it. I got the chance to develop some technical skills, like 3-lead interpretation, IV initiation, that were BLS skills in my region. I got to run in both pure BLS and ALS/BLS systems in remote areas, doing 911 work. It allowed me to develop some scene management and call management skills, and it let me see a small amount of critical patients, and do a few cardiac arrests and MCIs with a reasonable amount of responsibility before becoming a medic. It helped.
This isn't to have a go at Lady_EMT or anyone else, but even with that background I was often considered very new by a lot of the senior EMTs, and didn't get a lot of respect at first. I found though, that a lot of the attitude I got from EMTs as a medic disappeared the second a critical patient appeared, and all of a sudden the responsibility of making the decisions was mine.
The trouble with spending a lot of time working as an EMT is you don't get paid well. There's a risk of working in an all-ALS system, and rarely getting to manage critical patients, always having a medic around to rely on. There's a lot of regions where there are few good EMT jobs. It can be a great experience to work in a really rural setting, but not everyone is willing / able to relocate for it. I also agree with usalsfyre that sometimes experience is just doing the same thing wrong more times.
I think it was great for me, as someone who was very young when they entered EMS, and was willing to make low pay and move for the job. But the same cost/benefit might not be there for someone older with a family. I wouldn't do it again if I was starting from scratch now.
JJR512
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As I'm sure most of us realize, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Not all paramedics who do their entire EMS education in one fell swoop are great, nor are all paramedics who get field experience as an EMT-B for x amount of time before going on to EMT-P great, either.
There are advantages and disadvantages to doing it either way. There are extenuating circumstances that lead some people to do it one way instead of the other. This particular decision is but one tiny one out of many that can lead to a person being a good paramedic or not.
If you go straight to EMT-P, don't come out of it thinking you're an expert, or even good. If you spend time in the field first, don't get tainted by bad habits.
There are advantages and disadvantages to doing it either way. There are extenuating circumstances that lead some people to do it one way instead of the other. This particular decision is but one tiny one out of many that can lead to a person being a good paramedic or not.
If you go straight to EMT-P, don't come out of it thinking you're an expert, or even good. If you spend time in the field first, don't get tainted by bad habits.
That's somewhat true... I mean it's all about perspective, I have only held one transporting job in my short three year span in emergency medicine. I waited a year and a half before enrolling in a paramedic program. This program was 10 months long and had approximately 500 clinical hours as the graduating requirements. I just know from witnessing some of my classmates hardships that it was more beneficial to wait a little bit. If you can prove the fact that field experience doesn't make you more acclimated to our field of work, I'd love to hear it. Prior to enrolling in paramedic I had run approximately 1200 calls, and participated in maybe 4 full arrests. Which served useful. What you learn prior to class only makes it easier.
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Dpiner49, I don't want to inflate my ego bubble but I have been running circles around the more experienced guys in my class in practical and testing situations...
If you can show me proof that experienced EMT's who become medics are always better medics than a medic with no experience, I'd love to hear it.
This is the best answer to the OPs question, in my opinion.
If you can show me proof that experienced EMT's who become medics are always better medics than a medic with no experience, I'd love to hear it.
This is the best answer to the OPs question, in my opinion.
epipusher
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In my experience as a preceptor/FTO for a 911 only service, the paramedic students who have 911 experience as an EMT, seem to do better during their clinical time. They struggle most with basic patient assessment skills. They don't think outside the box or make any attempt to perform a differential diagnosis. These are just a couple quick examples, but it is frustrating to have to take time away from what they are supposed to be learning by having to teach them the basics. As always, just my opinion, but flame away.