Students, what should we do with them?

On a side note. The variation in EMS education in my area is ridiculous. About a month after my class started i volunteered as a Pt for the skills test and I was shocked by the amount of people that failed the skills. And I am talking about failed horribly, missing critical criteria and using the equipment totally wrong. I had a person put the KED on backwards :rolleyes:

But having said that, I think students do need some time to adjust to the emotional side of the job, it does not happen over night. And as pointed out on this forum multiple times even veteran EMTs have a hard time handling some of what we will see on the job. However, I do understand we need to weed out people instead of letting them waste a good amount of time and money on a profession then may not be fit for. I have had no problem seeing trauma and very sick patients but seeing a 17 day old baby being brought in practically dead because her meth addict mother dropped her on her head, I was not ready for that on one of my first days in the ER and I am not sure how I would have reacted if I had to respond to that call on my first day.
 
Wow, good points and replies.

Chase, sounds good, but I don't know how to ease anyone into it emotionally except by cherrypicking their calls for a while (good case for starting at an interfacility transfer operation) then having supportive co-workers or mentor.

Linus, I first encountered "uncomfortable" in nursing college as a wiggle-word to let you express anything from "EEEEEW! Gross!" to " There are some real professional issues with this". I dislike it because it gets used when ambiguity is not profitable. If something tells me I need not to be there but I can't put my finger on it, then I need to figure that out...while initially following my "spidey sense". It's saved me a couple times.

If your employer sees that you have some unalterable limitations to the types of patients you are willing to care for, it can affect your employment, and maybe your certificate/license if it can be alleged, from a pattern of refusal to care, that you undertreated or failed to treat ("non-feased"?) because you "decided" you didn't like a class or a particular patient. (And who knows, maybe the pattern shows something you don't notice about yourself on your own?).
 
"No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher." -Mr Miaygi
 
CAOX3 said:
"No such thing as bad student, only bad teacher." -Mr Miaygi
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Mr. Miyagi never met some of the :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing retards EMS instructors deal with. Not to mention he had the luxury of punching his students in the face.
 
I literally lol'd at that. I can't say I've ever wanted to punch a student, but I haven't had many. I'm more apt to threaten to beat them with the appropriate text books.
 
usafmedic45 said:
Mr. Miyagi never met some of the :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing retards EMS instructors deal with. Not to mention he had the luxury of punching his students in the face.
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Well in my experience, the students are far from the problem. EMS instructors for the most part leave much to be desired.

That being said there is always exceptions to the rule. Substandard instructors usually develop substandard providers.
 
That being said there is always exceptions to the rule. Substandard instructors usually develop substandard providers.
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Given that I won awards for my teaching ability both from students and my peers and superiors, I don't think that was the issue in my case. It's all too easy to blame the instructors and that has been the popular tactic over the past few years as the educational system has become more about not "leaving anyone behind" and less about turning out a quality productive member of society.
 
usafmedic45 said:
Given that I won awards for my teaching ability both from students and my peers and superiors, I don't think that was the issue in my case. It's all too easy to blame the instructors and that has been the popular tactic over the past few years as the educational system has become more about not "leaving anyone behind" and less about turning out a quality productive member of society.
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I wish there was a "like" button some times on this forum. I meant to just read a bit before bed and now I've been sucked into posting. ;)

For a laugh try to track down "Penn and Teller's B-S-" on self-esteem.

I also enjoyed this article so much I bookmarked it in my "education" folder.
http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

Good night.
 
usafmedic45 said:
Given that I won awards for my teaching ability both from students and my peers and superiors, I don't think that was the issue in my case. It's all too easy to blame the instructors and that has been the popular tactic over the past few years as the educational system has become more about not "leaving anyone behind" and less about turning out a quality productive member of society.
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I agree with what you are saying, but I also think that the majority of EMS instructors are the problem.

Not the handful of good ones.
 
I agree with what you are saying, but I also think that the majority of EMS instructors are the problem.
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I agree with you on that. I just wanted to rebutt what I took to be a slight accusation that the reason why I have on a couple of occasions felt the desire to punch a student was due to my own shortcomings and not because they were subpar and being beligerent.
 
Eat them.
 
usafmedic45 said:
I agree with you on that. I just wanted to rebutt what I took to be a slight accusation that the reason why I have on a couple of occasions felt the desire to punch a student was due to my own shortcomings and not because they were subpar and being beligerent.
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The comment wasn't directed towards you, it was a general statement about EMS educators as a whole. Their awful for the most part, exceptions do exist like yourself but are far from the norm.

The majority of EMS classes taught by EMS providers lack credibility and are often based on opinion and experience rather then science and evidence and at times laughable at best.

This isn't knock on all EMS instructors, good ones do exist but its like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

I often walk in a class and within two minutes you know if its even worth staying. I have walked out of many in the middle because I couldn't stomach the nonsensical information and war stories that permeates most of these classes.

I'm part of the problem, I often don't say anything I just get up and walk out. My time is too precious to get in a pissing match with some mental midget about the usefulness of HEMS activation on mechanism alone. I have a wife a daughter and a double digit handicap that I rather spend my time with.
 
CAOX3 said:
I'm part of the problem, I often don't say anything I just get up and walk out. My time is too precious to get in a pissing match with some mental midget about the usefulness of HEMS activation on mechanism alone. I have a wife a daughter and a double digit handicap that I rather spend my time with.
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Then you are spending yor time wisely.

It does no good to argue with them. They are often not smart enough to even realize you are right.
 
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