Studying

[josh rousseau]

Any advice on like taking notes what to look for I get the whole book is important but I feel like I’m overthinking everything and taking for notes than I should and as a result I’m falling behind HELPPPPPP!!!!

 

[srcoen]

Two things come to mind... check the chapter quizzes, and also the NREMT skills sheets.

 

[josh rousseau]

Two things come to mind... check the chapter quizzes, and also the NREMT skills sheets.

Yes I have been doing those I overthink it a lot like if I don’t take this note and this happens I didn’t take the note so i don’t know what to do

 

[mgr22]

Not sure if you mean taking notes in class or while you're studying. Note-taking, like punctuation , is a skill that used to be learned in high school. It takes practice. Basically, you have to learn to pick out what you think is important, which can be either stuff you want to know or stuff you need to know. To start, try writing down any word or term mentioned in class that you haven't heard before. Add the definition, too, if it's given. If not, look it up later.

Just to be realistic, if you haven't taken notes before, you're not going to suddenly master that in a day or a week. Keep practicing and gradually, you'll use feedback you get from tests and practical exercises to determine how much of what you wrote down was worth noting.

 

[josh rousseau]

Not sure if you mean taking notes in class or while you're studying. Note-taking, like punctuation , is a skill that used to be learned in high school. It takes practice. Basically, you have to learn to pick out what you think is important, which can be either stuff you want to know or stuff you need to know. To start, try writing down any word or term mentioned in class that you haven't heard before. Add the definition, too, if it's given. If not, look it up later.

Just to be realistic, if you haven't taken notes before, you're not going to suddenly master that in a day or a week. Keep practicing and gradually, you'll use feedback you get from tests and practical exercises to determine how much of what you wrote down was worth noting.

I mean studying like my note taking is fine I just feel like everything was put in the book for a reason so it needs to be written down if you get what I mean the I don’t mind studying a lot but I feel I’m doing more then I should which is making me fall behind like we are already on patient assessment and I am still trying to learn anatomy

 

[mgr22]

Josh, if it's in the book, it is written down. You don't have to memorize it, but it's ok to read some parts more than once. Maybe try underlining whatever sounds important.

Are you in an EMT class or a medic class?

And Josh, seriously, try some punctuation -- if not for yourself, then for the rest of us.

 

[josh rousseau]

Emt class and sorry about my bad punctuation I only usually use it in more formal drafts.

 

[mgr22]

Emt class and sorry about my bad punctuation I only usually use it in more formal drafts.

So, the good news is that there's not a ton of anatomy in the EMT curriculum, and most of it involves names of body parts you'd already know. Why not put anatomy aside for a few days and try catching up with assessment? If you come across an anatomical term you don't know, look it up. I bet you'll remember it longer that way.

What's the easiest way for you to learn stuff? Reading about it? Hearing about it? Watching videos? Hands-on? People learn differently. Figure out what works best for you and try using that approach whenever possible -- e.g., you might find some YouTube videos that would supplement what you're reading. YouTube wasn't an option when I was in school -- but then, neither were telephones with screens or buttons.

 

[josh rousseau]

So, the good news is that there's not a ton of anatomy in the EMT curriculum, and most of it involves names of body parts you'd already know. Why not put anatomy aside for a few days and try catching up with assessment? If you come across an anatomical term you don't know, look it up. I bet you'll remember it longer that way.

What's the easiest way for you to learn stuff? Reading about it? Hearing about it? Watching videos? Hands-on? People learn differently. Figure out what works best for you and try using that approach whenever possible -- e.g., you might find some YouTube videos that would supplement what you're reading. YouTube wasn't an option when I was in school -- but then, neither were telephones with screens or buttons.

that’s good advice thank you I think I’m stressing anatomy cause it’s the basis of the job

 

[mgr22]

I think I’m stressing anatomy cause it’s the basis of the job

Actually, Josh, it's not, but I realize you wouldn't know that yet. Assessment is much more important in the field. If I were working with you and you told me your patient was having heart trouble, I wouldn't care if you knew a vertebra from a ventricle.

 

[josh rousseau]

Actually, Josh, it's not, but I realize you wouldn't know that yet. Assessment is much more important in the field. If I were working with you and you told me your patient was having heart trouble, I wouldn't care if you knew a vertebra from a ventricle.

Then why are we taught it?

 

[mgr22]

Then why are we taught it?

1. To learn a common language. If I call that thing on your head an ear, and you call it "a thing on my head," we wouldn't get very far.
2. To develop some familiarity with the human body's structure. Anatomy is just how body parts go together, not how they work.

Picture an EMT named Mike treating someone in your family for difficulty breathing. Suppose Mike doesn't remember what lungs are, or even where they are, but he knows your family member has asthma, and based on Mike's assessment, he's pretty sure your family member is having an asthma attack. Maybe Mike should study that anatomy chapter again, but you'd still want Mike to give your asthmatic loved one medicine to relieve the asthma attack, wouldn't you?

As your course continues, you'll see how much more challenging and important it is to figure out what's making patients sick than it is to know the names of the affected body parts. I'm not saying you shouldn't learn anatomy; I'm just saying you could score 100% on your anatomy test and still be useless in the field.

 

[josh rousseau]

1. To learn a common language. If I call that thing on your head an ear, and you call it "a thing on my head," we wouldn't get very far.
2. To develop some familiarity with the human body's structure. Anatomy is just how body parts go together, not how they work.

Picture an EMT named Mike treating someone in your family for difficulty breathing. Suppose Mike doesn't remember what lungs are, or even where they are, but he knows your family member has asthma, and based on Mike's assessment, he's pretty sure your family member is having an asthma attack. Maybe Mike should study that anatomy chapter again, but you'd still want Mike to give your asthmatic loved one medicine to relieve the asthma attack, wouldn't you?

As your course continues, you'll see how much more challenging and important it is to figure out what's making patients sick than it is to know the names of the affected body parts. I'm not saying you shouldn't learn anatomy; I'm just saying you could score 100% on your anatomy test and still be useless in the field.

Ahhh that does make sense I appreciate the feedback and examples it means more than you know. Any tips going on or just about ems in general you sound knowledgeable?

 

[DrParasite]

So, I'm going to go the opposite of what @mgr22 is saying: It's all important. even anatomy. moreso physiology. knowledge of A&P is one of the building blocks to medicine. But while it is important, I wouldn't stress the anatomy part, especially after you pass the exam

it's a lot of information. much of your trauma assessments are based on anatomy. how would you know something is wrong if you don't know what it's supposed to look like?

The basis of the job isn't anatomy: it's patient assessment. Medical and trauma. at the end of the day, that's the basis for the job. You apply your interventions as a direct result of your findings based on your assessment.

Let me give you some advice: read the text book before class. read the chapter. come to class with questions. ask your instructor what they think is important. A lot of stuff will get thrown at you... and (speaking from experience) some stuff is covered just because it might be on the test, and has no practical value in the field. And a lot of it will be new to you, and it's very easy to start feeling overwhelmed.

EMT class (in general) isn't that hard. the curriculum is written at a 10th grade level. That isn't to say it's an easy A; people fail all the time. read the material. ask questions. form study groups. use additional resources if you are unclear on something. read the material before class. budget 8 hours a week to studying and preparing for class (in addition to going to class 2 nights a week). It can be done; after all, plenty of people had done it.

 

[mgr22]

How about you? What got you interested in EMS?

 

[mgr22]

So, I'm going to go the opposite of what @mgr22 is saying

I don't think you did, DrParasite. It sounds like we're in violent agreement.

 

[Gurby]

I didn't take notes in paramedic school and was top of the class. I think taking notes during a lecture is a yuge waste of time and energy.

Here is one of my favorite examples to illustrate the point: We're learning about the lungs, and the instructor puts a slide up that says "drowning - death due to submersion in water" or something like that. Probably more than half of the class wrote that down. Like, did you really need to write down a definition for drowning?

Obviously everyone knows what drowning is and writing down a definition was pointless. Those people were more focused on the act of taking notes than they were on thinking about/understanding the material.



Here's what I recommend instead: show up to lecture with a stack of blank index cards instead of a notebook. Any piece of formation you want to make sure you don't forget, put it on a card. Put a prompt on one side, and the answer on the other side. For example: Name the chambers of the heart /// LA, RA, LV, RV. Review these cards every day. As you go through the cards, separate out the ones you got wrong and review those again.

When reading your text book, take notes directly onto flash cards again, and look at some of those cards every day. This is the key to learning - seeing the material multiple times, and ACTIVELY testing your knowledge of it. It's much harder to answer a question on a flash card than it is to passively read what you wrote in a notebook and say "yup I knew that".

 

[josh rousseau]

So, I'm going to go the opposite of what @mgr22 is saying: It's all important. even anatomy. moreso physiology. knowledge of A&P is one of the building blocks to medicine. But while it is important, I wouldn't stress the anatomy part, especially after you pass the exam

it's a lot of information. much of your trauma assessments are based on anatomy. how would you know something is wrong if you don't know what it's supposed to look like?

The basis of the job isn't anatomy: it's patient assessment. Medical and trauma. at the end of the day, that's the basis for the job. You apply your interventions as a direct result of your findings based on your assessment.

Let me give you some advice: read the text book before class. read the chapter. come to class with questions. ask your instructor what they think is important. A lot of stuff will get thrown at you... and (speaking from experience) some stuff is covered just because it might be on the test, and has no practical value in the field. And a lot of it will be new to you, and it's very easy to start feeling overwhelmed.

EMT class (in general) isn't that hard. the curriculum is written at a 10th grade level. That isn't to say it's an easy A; people fail all the time. read the material. ask questions. form study groups. use additional resources if you are unclear on something. read the material before class. budget 8 hours a week to studying and preparing for class (in addition to going to class 2 nights a week). It can be done; after all, plenty of people had done it.

Thank you I appreciate it Also anatomy wise is all that’s holding me back will know the part and the function be good enough

 

[josh rousseau]

How about you? What got you interested in EMS?

Seen a lot of bad things and bad people growing up just wanna do good and be the person people feel some sense of relief when they see

 

[Gurby]

Emt class and sorry about my bad punctuation I only usually use it in more formal drafts.

You have to do a surprising amount of writing as an EMT. May as well get in the habit of using punctuation now...