From reading the site, I do not think the actual Bachelors component of it has any LAb portions.
UT San Antonio B.S Paramedic Program
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From reading the site, I do not think the actual Bachelors component of it has any LAb portions.
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I haven't taken a close look yet but how many credits do you have to carry into the program to apply?
Being young with my pants on fire going mach 10 I didn't take the best route with my collegiate education.
Just like any program, you get out of it what you out into it. In the past couple of years, they've gotten rid of some of the classes that I wanted to take like critical care medicine.
You get A touch on research, HR etc but not a lot of management.
This will depend a lot on how well these were taught within your paramedic program. Most programs claim to teach anatomy & physiology "at a university level", but fall a little short (*Something that should raise suspicion here is that they combine two separate subjects into one course --- usually these are taught separately). I don't know anything about where you trained, but I haven't seen a program yet where they make a serious claim to have gone beyond an introductory physiology course.
It will help compared to someone who just has high school biology. In the best of worlds, it might be equivalent to an introductory physiology course. But this depends greatly. It's also a matter of what sort of anatomy and / or physiology you're looking at. Even for introductory courses you usually have a number of options, e.g. "Physiology for Nurses", "Physiology for physical therapists", physiology courses aimed a general science students, or at honour's majors. These will also vary greatly in their depth and scope.
My personal experience was that most of the material we covered that related to cardiac physiology in an introductory course was included in medic school. There were other areas where I was less well prepared, like reproductive physiology, or endocrine physiology.
I don't think pharmacology is taught well in paramedic school. I think most of us have an idea of what pharmacology is, and then it gets challenged when we encounter university education in this area. Many of us seem to think that pharmacology is about memorising trade and generic names, specific dosing regimens, and a few contraindications, and maybe being able to say something like "dopamine is a positive dromotrope as it increases AV conduction velocity". Or maybe "lidocaine is a Vaughan-Williams class IB antiarrhytmic because it decreases the slope of phase 0 depolarisation without lengthening or shortening the action potential duration".
But, we generally have little or no idea why. Most of us can list a number of effects of epinephrine at the beta-1 receptor, and we can say this has something to do with calcium. Very few of us can talk intelligently about what happens after the receptor's occupied and activated, e.g G protein signalling cascades, cAMP, PKA, and various kinase events. In the same thread, most of us can say "drug x is a vasoconstrictor acting at the alpha-1 adrenergic receptor". But can't follow the Gq/Ga13 signalling pathways to describe why and how. Our education is a little incomplete, even in areas we claim to know well.
Then factor in that pharmacology isn't just about the 30 - 100 drugs you might see on a typical ambulance or fixed / rotary wing platform. Many of us may have briefly surveyed some of the prescription medications, and might have a cursory idea of what an ACE inhibitor is. We may even be able to talk a little about the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis. But when someone starts introducing cancer chemotherapeutics, we tend to get lost, because medic school doesn't give a good understanding of DNA replication and mitosis. We don't learn about proofreading and error-correcting mechanisms.
So, I think medic school prepares you for pharmacology, but only in the narrow area that we work in. It doesn't really cover the wider field. This often becomes apparent when someone takes a nursing pharmacology course (these aren't generally any better on the cell biology level, just broader in scope and less specialised), or an introductory pharamacology course from a university pharmacology department. They're not going to be as focused on autonomic, cardiac, vascular and neuromuscular pharmacology.
When you look at the higher (more specialised) courses, some of them are a lot more relevant. I found I learned a lot of stuff that I felt should have bee covered in paramedic school. But there's always a balance there. Two years is a very short time to make someone a semi-autonomous provider. It isn't really sufficient, as many of us have argued before, and our training should be more detailed.
I think being a paramedic will be really helpful, but I wouldn't expect it will automatically give you the background to go into specialised pharmacology or physiology courses. You might be able to manage anyway, but you'll probably find you're lacking some areas. You'll probably really enjoy CV physiology / pharmacology. Half of university / anything is having the motivation to want to learn.
The other reality is you're unlikely to get most of these courses on-line. For example, most universities will give a course specifically in "Neuromuscular pharmacology". So, 3-4 hours a week for a semester of talking about the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, and all the many different early and modern neuromuscular agents, many of which we don't use in the field (Did you know nicotine is a depolarising neuromuscular blocker like succinylcholine?). But this requires having a number of research groups working in this area at the university. And it needs enough students to have an interest for the course to be worth running. So these sorts of courses don't typically end up getting offered on-line, because it's not financially viable.
Sorry for the long post. I hope I didn't come across as an elitist *******, because that's not what I'm trying to do here.
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I'm also interested in getting a bachelors in ems. For one, I plan on going to a PA school, which requires a BAchelors in most programs and at least helps on apps to any higher medical education. I live near San Antonio and I am looking into this program. It does require some college prior but I'm in contact with some people who are part of the admin. So I will give a sitrep as soon I find out more info.
Is this program really 20k?!
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You pay in state tuition. Closer to 25 it is much less if you transfer credits in.
I have an AAS degree in ems. They gave me transfer credit for just about everything, plus other classes I had taken over the years.
With work experience you don't need to do the 8 credit preceptorship. There are also some classes you can test out of.
If you have any more questions pm me.
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FNGperpetual
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I went by the college the other day. The health and science bldg..no knew what i was looking for and i could not find ems instructors. But, here is a photo of the claas to take...i think the AAS in EMS + these class = B.S in EMS.
I MAY GO FOR IT..BUT, I NEED TO GET MY WORK IN LINE AND COMPLETE PARAMEDIC..MAYBE AT SAC?? WHO HAS THE BEST CLINICAL EXPERIENCE? I HEAR UT HAS THE SAFD CLINICAL CONTRACT?
I MAY GO FOR IT..BUT, I NEED TO GET MY WORK IN LINE AND COMPLETE PARAMEDIC..MAYBE AT SAC?? WHO HAS THE BEST CLINICAL EXPERIENCE? I HEAR UT HAS THE SAFD CLINICAL CONTRACT?
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Information and curriculum here. You must obtain your core curriculum elsewhere, and finish your paramedic degree. After completing the requisite upper-division classes from UTHSCSA, you will be awarded your BS in Emergency Health Sciences. The entirety of upper-division coursework is online.
Your caps hurt my eyes.
SAC rides out with smaller departments in the area: Schertz, Seguin, Acadian I believe, and a few others.
UTHSCSA from both the degree and CE side (there are two different programs) both ride out with SAFD.
There are pros and cons to both program. When I went to paramedic school five years ago, I refused to go to SAC after my experience with their Basic program. A lot at SAC has changed as far as instructors go, but I am still frequently unimpressed by many of the students at SAC.
FNGperpetual
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What do you mean by core? Englesh, math, history..
Are there any other options for paramedic school in san antonio?
Thank you.
Are there any other options for paramedic school in san antonio?
Thank you.
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Yes, your basic core, lower division coursework. English, math, arts, history, polisci, etc.
No other good options. SAC has two programs, and UTHSCSA has two programs.
There used to be a program at Eagle Creek, not sure if that's still around. San Marcos used to put one on, not any more. 911 training concepts might do one, I'm not too sure.