what makes a better medic?

Last chance to get this back on topic and away from the military EMS discussion.
 
sorry got a bit side tracked: my point was that those who go to medic mills or courses that are seen as "substandard" might not necessarily be uneducated idiots or people looking for a way into the paramedic without knowing their stuff but may be choosing that direction for another reason (financial, time limitations, other requirements, etc). is there any real study done out there comparing the life saving capabilities of graduates from different types of programs? i know some places do "paramedic of the year" contests or what not, even if those are half bs you could use those to get atleast some sort of an idea of what produces the better medic just by looking at what program graduates normally win those.
 
seen as "substandard" might not necessarily be uneducated idiots or people looking for a way into the paramedic without knowing their stuff but may be choosing that direction for another reason
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Very true, but you have to remember that we make educated guesses (and write protocols, etc) with the average product of the worst program in mind. If a school produces the lowest common denominator 99 times out of 100, then it's safe to assume there's something wrong with the program and with the students since:
-They didn't significantly improve once out of the program
-There was not a statistically significant number of outliers to imply that folks who were smart but went there for other reasons beyond expediency or the inability to make it into the local hospital program or one of the two college affiliated programs.

is there any real study done out there comparing the life saving capabilities of graduates from different types of programs?
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We did the study but the hospital's IRB (yes, we did the research "backwards") would not let us publish the results out of concern for the effect the results would have on the "morale" of the local EMS providers. Read as: They didn't want to point out that one of the larger for profit ambulance services (which favored this one particular mill we dealt with) had sub-standard personnel because they were afraid that the response from the service would be to take their patients to the other hospital in town.

I do agree with you that there needs to be more research on the subject.
 
Do you have to go to college for four years to go to med school?
 
No, if you can complete the requisite education (normally a bachelors) in less time, so be it. This really isn't the best forum to discuss that though. Try the forums at http://forums.studentdoctor.net/
 
"A better medic" or "the best-hireable and good medic"?

Do the most you can afford soonest, it will give you a better grounding and you might even decide to aim higher up the food chain. Just make sure that, if you are offered two classes, take the one that will advance you (such as EMT-B to Paramedic) versus just milling about (LVN to RN, or EMT-B to RN or LVN). Once you are working it gets harder and harder to "go back and take some classes", etc.

In either event, you must become a professional in attitude as well as study to do well, and to BE a professional instead of an "ambulance driver".

If you are smart and system-savvy enough, you can skate through "HAH-Vahd", but turn out to be worthless except as a dispatcher or company owner; however, with a Podunk Tech School certif only, you will blend in with a huge sea of mediocrity, probably because you never had the best chance to learn.
 
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