With the large influx of EMT's....

Hockey

Hockey

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Right now, there are TONS of EMT's in Michigan. Schools around every corner it seems. Not sure how it is anywhere else, but its very difficult to get a job as an EMT right now.


Do you think we'll see this problem in the near future with Paramedics? I mean Paramedic courses are filling up fast at a lot of places. I know its a lot different then EMT school since you can pass being an EMT without opening the book.

It seems almost every EMT that I know that has some experience, they are also enrolled in Paramedic school. I just don't want to go through Paramedic school and then get into the real world and realize there are too many Paramedics too

So what do you think?
 
Hockey said:
Right now, there are TONS of EMT's in Michigan. Schools around every corner it seems. Not sure how it is anywhere else, but its very difficult to get a job as an EMT right now.


Do you think we'll see this problem in the near future with Paramedics? I mean Paramedic courses are filling up fast at a lot of places. I know its a lot different then EMT school since you can pass being an EMT without opening the book.

It seems almost every EMT that I know that has some experience, they are also enrolled in Paramedic school. I just don't want to go through Paramedic school and then get into the real world and realize there are too many Paramedics too

So what do you think?
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My class started off with 38. We're down to 10 and we still have a term to go. The class ahead of me is 2/6 for passing the NR test. So, I'm not that worried about it.
 
I don't think so. Lots of people go to medic school and never finish. Lots more go to medic school and never get certed (coughcoughlookslikesashacoughcough). And also, many enter EMT-dom not knowing what it's really like and realize they hate it, and don't go. Or that they're smart enough as EMTs. Or that they believe in magical "street experience"
 
HotelCo said:
My class started off with 38. We're down to 10 and we still have a term to go. The class ahead of me is 2/6 for passing the NR test. So, I'm not that worried about it.
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Thanks! I'm not already nervous enough :P
 
I may retake the fire academy in Jan (Jan-April). It will be night (after medic class I believe)

Took it, and failed the donning scba (long story, should have appealed it) and the night before my retest, I busted my ankle and never retested.

I won't have a problem since I could just challenge it if I could and still pass


I'll study somehow :)
 
Hockey said:
I may retake the fire academy in Jan (Jan-April). It will be night (after medic class I believe)

Took it, and failed the donning scba (long story, should have appealed it) and the night before my retest, I busted my ankle and never retested.

I won't have a problem since I could just challenge it if I could and still pass


I'll study somehow :)
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I've been debating the Fire Academy. If I can find a summer program to take Fire I or I/II combined.
 
HotelCo said:
I've been debating the Fire Academy. If I can find a summer program to take Fire I or I/II combined.
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Look at Washtenaw Co if you can. I believe they might have a Spring/Summer academy coming up. Most academies include I/II. Not much extra in II. Only problem I know is unless you're sponsored by a department, you have to go through an college
 
Seeing as how all my childhood friends are still in Michigan... don't be surprised when I come back to Michigan after medic school and possibly steal your job :P
 
I attended two advisory committee meetings today at different schools and some of the topics was similar to what the OP. Yes, the EMT courses are filling fast and truthfully will get out of hand in the near future as T.V. shows and economy fails and more and more emphasis is placed upon getting a job in the health care industry.

I advised more stringent entry requirements upon the EMT and definitely a screening for Paramedic students. There should be a reason of why you can attend Paramedic school. The law of supply and demand needs to take action.

We also discussed the need of "no nonsense" in the classroom. No more second chance attempts. If you fail.. better have a reason or no re-entry. The emphasis should be placed in prevention of failing to a point. One has to learn to be responsible for themselves and to learn. As much help should be placed to a student to succeed but there is a point where it is the students responsibility.

The new EMT scope will soon be here, institutions and schools need to prepare for the future.

R/r 911
 
Hockey said:
Look at Washtenaw Co if you can. I believe they might have a Spring/Summer academy coming up. Most academies include I/II. Not much extra in II. Only problem I know is unless you're sponsored by a department, you have to go through an college
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I can't find anything about a Washtenaw Co Fire Academy. Mind poinging me in the right direction?
 
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i got my emt-b cert in may. no luck finding a job. thats one of the large reasons im moving to TX on the 10th :P

but as far as school goes. my class had over 30 student even at the end of the period. most of the class were guys coming out of fire academy
 
From what I've seen in East Tennessee it's not too bad. The school I'm going to requires you to take First Responder before EMT, and I think that puts alot of people out. Not to mention there was several people in my First Responder class that either flunked/dropped out, or weren't taking the class because they wanted to be involved in EMS but because it was one of the cheaper courses at the school.
 
Hockey said:
Thanks! I'm not already nervous enough :P
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My class started with 18, added 1 after first semester and lost 2 after second semester. Graduated 17 and so far only 1 has failed NR. She retested and passed. I think there are a couple who haven't tested yet, but so far my instructor has only had a handful of students fail registry or the state test (prior to registry) in the 30 years she's been teaching. Of those who failed, only 1 has not been able to pass on retest.
 
Hockey said:
Thanks! I'm not already nervous enough :P
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Your concern is understandable...eveyone worries about passing. It won't do much good to say DON'T...so just try not to so much :>)

A 20% drop/failure rate is the norm. College programs seem to have a somewhat higher negative rate but, recent pre-req changes should improve outcomes. Some classes have higher rates at times with even the best of instructors. So many factors play a role in the outcome of a course and some factors are not instruction related. Once in a while ya just get a class that isn't made up of a bunch of scholars. I will also say that any program with consistently high failure/drop/poor NR pass rates should be of concern to any prospective students. Consistently poor outcomes speaks loudly of probable instructor/program problems. In the not too distant future, we should be able to choose programs based on actual NR pass rates. This competitive ideal might help improve instruction quality. I sure hope so!

Here is an example of what hard work has done recently;

The last Medic class I taught (ended Dec. 08) was a mid-stream clean (2nd in a year) up class that started with 31 students. When I took over there were 25 left and they were more than 2 months behind. Of the 19 who finished the course, 2 were not able to initiate clinicals/rides so they needed to repeat 3rd semester in order to meet requirements. 14 of the remaining 17 are now licensed last I checked. Yep, a couple had to take the NR twice but, who cares? They did pass the next time through!

Sucky part of a class such as this.... A few failed because the doubled up work was just too much to handle. It does go to show however; that if a class can go from 2+ months behind and come out swinging the way these folks did, anything is possible!

My advise.....Work hard and make it happen! ;)
 
My class started with 22, we are down to 5. (maybe 4), of those that left only 3 quit, 1 was kicked out for plagery and the rest failed. We have a no nonsense policy on fails, if you dip below a rescueable point on the grading, if we take a session that the instructor says pass or your gone, or somethingl ike that.

For example my instructor told us, pass ACLS skills and written or you're gone. We got two chances on each skill, one guy got all the writtens and failed his dynamic twice. He was gone.
 
What kind of a program you attending Dominion?

There are some pass/fail points and I agree, we must have them. Pharm and Cardiology, perhaps the ologies in general, would be 2 important milestones IMHO. 80% going into a final exam and an 80% on the final is a very reasonable expectation also. If a student can achieve 80 or above overall, the chance of passing licensure exams is pretty good.

I do worry about programs which almost appear to make it a goal to fail as many as they can to reduce the number of first try failures. NR only counts the first try as you know.
I am aware of instructors who have 90-100% NR pass rates where only 6 of 30 were left to take the exam due to weeding out practices. Weeding out those who "might" fail at NR on the first attempt doesn't say much for the program IMHO. Our goal as educators is to facilitate a learning process in order to give students the most reasonable opportunity to be successful. Tossing out the ones we feel "might" make us look bad is a horrible practice and one I hear about too often.

The lousy in the first place programs is a whole other subject so I won't get into that.
 
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