Why does everyone think becoming an EMT-B is so easy

[chet]

Hey,
I am so aggravated, I took the NREMT written today, I am sure I failed. SO all of my family and co-workers have no clue what becoming an EMT-B is all about. They think the course was some basic first aid, just find some accident victim on the side of the road and throw him on a stretcher and ha-ha hee-hee drive to the hospital, throw him at the nurses and on to the next victim yeah!! Some stupid lady I work with knew I took today off for the exam and she said oh do you have to study for that? I said yes I went to school for 3 months, she said oh, I thought you could just go take the test. WTF, my mother and sisters have been like oh you can pass it's easy, my husband was like oh you failed.... meaning I am so stupid. Maybe I am stupid, stupid to think I could do this. I had no idea that many people think it's some easy task, in any case I have GREAT respect for all of you. To me this was one damn hard experience.

 

[Akulahawk]

Hey,
I am so aggravated, I took the NREMT written today, I am sure I failed. SO all of my family and co-workers have no clue what becoming an EMT-B is all about. They think the course was some basic first aid, just find some accident victim on the side of the road and throw him on a stretcher and ha-ha hee-hee drive to the hospital, throw him at the nurses and on to the next victim yeah!! Some stupid lady I work with knew I took today off for the exam and she said oh do you have to study for that? I said yes I went to school for 3 months, she said oh, I thought you could just go take the test. WTF, my mother and sisters have been like oh you can pass it's easy, my husband was like oh you failed.... meaning I am so stupid. Maybe I am stupid, stupid to think I could do this. I had no idea that many people think it's some easy task, in any case I have GREAT respect for all of you. To me this was one damn hard experience.

Well, the NREMT exam is supposed to be adaptive to a degree. It's supposed to be hard. As far as "easy" goes, it's all relative. For many of us here, it is. That's because many of us have advanced well beyond EMT. If you've never had any formal education in this field, it's not very easy because you're building a new knowledge base. We (well most of us) recognize that and we want you to succeed, we want to help you, but we also want you to learn this stuff because you'll retain the knowledge if you do the work. That's why we won't spoon-feed you.

It's very possible that you actually passed. So don't beat yourself up over the exam until you get official confirmation of a failure. Even then they should at least show you your areas of weakness.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Agree with the guy above me. The test is Adaptive so it's hard for everyone! You don't know if you passed or failed and it ain't over till the fat lady sings so just hang in there and wait for your score!

 

[chet]

You must have misread my post, I never thought it would be easy, I was stating most people I encounter do. I've studied long and hard, I am not dumb by any means, I made the dean's list at a college I attended in the past. I've given this my all and I really do mean MY ALL!!! Well, I will not succumb to one defeat. Thanks for the wisdom

 

[Handsome Robb]

Take a deep breath. Why are you assuming you failed?

If you're getting this wound up about a test you're in for a rude awakening in the field.

I also hate to break it to you but EMT-B is basic first aid and take them to the hospital. Hell that's 99% of ALS too.

 

[AtlasFlyer]

Are you sure you failed? Like others have said, many people walk out of that written convinced they've failed... but actually passed. Go to the NREMT website, on the home page you can click on "check initial entry/application status" and it should tell you relatively quickly if you passed or not. I took the test at about 10 am (May 24th), and the results were available on the website by 2pm.

How many questions did the test go to? My test shut off at 70 questions. So I figured I either passed or did REALLY bad. It was not an easy test. It is, indeed, adaptive, and I found myself with a couple questions that I was wondering if the computer gave me the right test! It asked me about a couple pharmaceuticals I have never heard the names of, a couple other questions that the best I could do was break down the question and break down the answers as best I could and just give it my best guess.

The state written (we have to pass a state written in Indiana, taking the NREMT written is NOT required here) was not as complex, but was 200 questions long.. so it covered a LOT of information and took almost an hour and a half for me to complete, and I'm a pretty fast test taker.

Don't get too worked up about it. If you really did not pass, don't sweat it. A LOT of people don't pass on the first attempt. There's a lot of great advice in the NREMT sub-forum here. I used emtprep.com and an app on my iPhone called Navigate Test prep: EMT. They're both excellent ways to practice test questions.

 

[Jambi]

To the OP

The only mistakes I gather that you made is (1) having taken the test on a Friday over a 3 day weekend, and (2) listening to these people around you.

Everyone thinks stuff is easy until they take it, and it doesn't stop with the lay person either. EMTs think medic school is easy until they take it. Paramedics think nursing school is easy until they take it...etc

Try and ignore it and find an outlet for your nervous frustration. Feeling like you failed the NREMT is normal as far as I'm concerned. Only in hindsight does it become "not so bad"

I'm just happy it wasn't the NCLEX, PANCE, or COMLEX/USMLE

 

[Akulahawk]

You must have misread my post, I never thought it would be easy, I was stating most people I encounter do. I've studied long and hard, I am not dumb by any means, I made the dean's list at a college I attended in the past. I've given this my all and I really do mean MY ALL!!! Well, I will not succumb to one defeat. Thanks for the wisdom

I think that part of the problem is that while EMT is pretty basic stuff, people don't realize that students have to actually build that new knowledge base from scratch. They also don't realize that often there's no means to challenge the exam. People don't realize that the exam is adaptive and therefore they don't realize that it will be hard. People just figure it's like they see on TV...

 

[Gastudent]

You should stop worrying so much. I am sure you passed it. If you still doubt it I want you to go to the front page of the NREMT website. On the front page if you scroll down a little bit you will see NREMT 2012 first time pass rates; now when you open that you will see that the national first time pass rate for the NREMT B is 72%, so if you want to look at it this way if 100 people go in to take the test 72 out of the 100 pass it the first time. Now for the other 28 I am sure at least half of them pass it the next time around, so as the math clearly shows you the test is not impossible, people just get all worked up over a whole bunch of nothing. I hope this helps a little bit^_^

 

[unleashedfury]

My response would be simple.

If its so damn easy or you think its so easy.... Why don't you take it??

Emttestprep.com is a good site to get you adjusted to the NREMT style of testing.

I am not a good test taker for the most part. and as you seen most of the questions you encounter are "scenario based" My biggest problem is I tend to read more of the questions than what information they give you and run with it. that screws me up

When you take the test, breathe relax read the question and make sure you understand entirely what they are asking you. From there eliminate answers

first eliminate obvious no's, then look at the other three answers if there is 2 correct answers use the one that seems more right

I.E.

You are dispatched to a restaurant for a 24 yr old male experiencing a allergic reaction. You arrive on location to find a male sitting at a table stating he has came into contact with shellfish which he is allergic to. He is presenting with signs of obvious respiratory distress and has audible stridor as he tries to tell you what happened. Your first action should be?

A) Apply Hi Flow 02 via NRB Mask
B) Listen to Lung Sounds and Get Baseline Vitals
C) Insert a Airway Adjunct
D) Contact Medical Command

Use logic, You just got on scene. and just greeted your patient in the scenario he tells his story. You notice the obvious respiratory distress and signs of allergic reaction. As the patient tells you he contacted shell fish.

So Putting an Airway Adjunct is Out.. he is conscious and talking to you barely but talking to you so he has an airway at this moment in time

Contact Medical command? what are they gonna tell you to do if you do not have any idea whats going on other than what the patient told you. The scenario says no vitals or assessment performed. So that's out.

Listen to lung sounds and get vitals, or Apply hi flow 02 is your only options left. Well you can get a set of vitals initially to see how your pt is presenting and such. But if he is having difficulty breathing we would want to correct that first. So lets go with the Hi Flow 02. And load this pt up so we can get moving and get vitals as we go. Correcting the initial life threat first

 

[Handsome Robb]

My only argument with that is I want a room air SpO2% but good example.

Sorry...I'm splitting hairs now.

 

[unleashedfury]

My only argument with that is I want a room air SpO2% but good example.

Sorry...I'm splitting hairs now.

I agree Robb. SPO2's I feel are important too. But I look at it as they want you to think like a EMT-B at the national level.

Being that Respiratory distress is a immediate life threat.. and treat it immediately... You know as well as I do how things flow in the field much different than the Registry lists that the instructors expect you to regurgitate at Test time.

 

[Aidey]

My only argument with that is I want a room air SpO2% but good example.

Sorry...I'm splitting hairs now.

My issue with that is that they are all dumb answers. Let's go with E. GIVE THE GUY SOME FREAKING EPI.

Bloody hell do I hate questions like that.

 

[chet]

Thanks very much to all of you, yes I guess I did overreact. I had a couple beers and tend to become somewhat excitable after drinking (I'm Irish) I'll just keep trying. What was upsetting was at my training school they prepared us for the PSI exam and MA switched the week of the course completion. So I was also pissed that I wasn't properly prepared for the NREMT exam. I wish I knew if anyone else failed or passed. (in that MA time frame) I only know of one other kid who failed the exam. I think that is playing on my mind too. But I'll just take it like a man from here on in and stop whining. Thanks again!

 

[J B]

Relax. As others have said, I think everyone feels terrible after taking the test. I was super confident going into it, but I remember not having a clue whether I passed or not coming out. I estimate 60% or more of the questions I wasn't sure what the correct answer was and had to make an educated guess...

Nothing you can do about it now anyways, so no reason to stress about it. You can re-take it (and prepare better) if you did fail.

You are dispatched to a restaurant for a 24 yr old male experiencing a allergic reaction. You arrive on location to find a male sitting at a table stating he has came into contact with shellfish which he is allergic to. He is presenting with signs of obvious respiratory distress and has audible stridor as he tries to tell you what happened. Your first action should be?

A) Apply Hi Flow 02 via NRB Mask
B) Listen to Lung Sounds and Get Baseline Vitals
C) Insert a Airway Adjunct
D) Contact Medical Command

I hate questions like this, too, but I think the answer is pretty clear here. Not much logic required (though it is good to consider every answer and use process of elimination as much as possible). Remember to always just go through the steps: ABCDE -> OPQRSTI -> SAMPLE -> focused physical + finish vitals -> interventions/transport.

So A/airway first - he's talking, so no need for an adjunct. Going on to B/breathing, as far as testing is concerned we're putting him on O2 regardless of what his symptoms are, so there's the answer.

Even if he had an arterial bleed after having his arm severed, the answer would still be O2 if it was an option because breathing comes before circulation.

 

[Uclabruin103]

I hate questions like this, too, but I think the answer is pretty clear here. Not much logic required (though it is good to consider every answer and use process of elimination as much as possible). Remember to always just go through the steps: ABCDE -> OPQRSTI -> SAMPLE -> focused physical + finish vitals -> interventions/

Don't forget BSI and scene safety! I remember a bunch of questions that were along the lines of a man is :censored::censored::censored::censored: and bleeding to death on the street. What is your first priority. A: stop the bleed, b: call law enforcement, C: apply an occlussive dressing, etc.

 

[Uclabruin103]

That censored was suppose to say GSW to the chest.

 

[IslandTime]

I think "GSW to the chest" being censored is about right. I find such assaults on the human body to be highly offensive.

 

[NomadicMedic]

All: This is a thread about the NREMT. Not the NCLEX, PANCE, or COMLEX/USMLE. These tests have no relevance to the EMT-Basic who's concerned about passing the NREMT. If you'd like to discuss these tests, please start a new thread.

 

[chet]

Sorry