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Do I start Medic classes or wait until I have some run time as a basic?
So I'm in a dilemma. I want to start Medic classes this spring, but me starting work with the Fire Dept was pushed back 2 months so I haven't had any run time as a Basic. I am aggravated because I want to start working but it seems like they totally forgot about it and I don't want to bug them. Anyways...so a few people have told me to not start medics until I get some run time, and was wondering if anyone else agrees? If I choose to start in the fall, I will take the fire investigator class that my school offers. More training the better. I just passed my Level II State test (YAY!) so I am pretty fresh with all of the firefighting stuff. Bah. I'm puzzled.
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Let me clear a few things up. I mean I will take the fire investigator class in the spring, work my butt off getting experience in the spring and summer, and then start medic classes. I am an EMT-Basic already. And I am not letting other people make my decisions, I am asking for opinions of those who have already done things.
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Let me clear a few things up. I mean I will take the fire investigator class in the spring, work my butt off getting experience in the spring and summer, and then start medic classes. I am an EMT-Basic already. And I am not letting other people make my decisions, I am asking for opinions of those who have already done things.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Roger Melchior on
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If you are in any state, you will get enough EMS experience as a FF to show you the ropes. Get your job first, then worry about the Basic. For folks in Florida, Paramedics can darn near write their own ticket. $45,000 to start.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Brooks on
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Go to medic school. You will get the runs. You will also get a lot of basic experience while in medic school during clinicals.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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There are some people who have years of experience and yet I wouldn't trust them to work in a Mortuary. I have seen others who are very quick studies, are able to grasp a situation quickly, and generally have a natural talent for medicine. Questions you need to answer yourself; How easy/difficult was it for you to learn the material? How easy/difficult was it for you to handle the practical skills? How confident do you feel in your own abilities and knowledge?
There are some who have a natural ability or talent which enables them to go right to paramedic. The majority of people have a more difficult time understanding or being able to correlate the book knowledge with the in the street skills requirement. These are the people who probably need to take one step at a time. The ones who had trouble with O2 flow rates, will really be in trouble when trying to figure drug and IV calculations.
That being said, which discipline are you leaning more, fire or EMS? While I agree with your "more training the better" idea, it can be a down side in this business. I have seen many people go from one class to another, to another, to another, for many years. Yes, intellectually they are very smart, but are as useless as carrying water in a bucket with the bottom missing on the street.
And lastly, if you are looking to take class after class and get cert after cert, with the goal of making money as quickly as you can, I would recommend getting into another line of work, because it just don't work that way in this one.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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No, I am not in this for the money. I don't think anybody really is. But I think you misunderstood what I posted. I WANT to start AFTER I get some run time. I DON"T want to start medic classes with no run time. I was wanting some paramedics to give me their opinions. The opinions I have received are from paramedics and I thought a few more would help. I am not letting other people make my decisions or anything, rather give me their personal experience and opinion. People who have been there and done it. I would feel more comfortable getting run time first, getting to know the road, then go on with the medic classes.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Julie, There are a number of points to consider here. And your feedback so far has ranged from "Go Girl" to don't ever come to Boston... I'm thinking that this is not very helpful for you at this point and wanted to share with you my insight having worked as one of the original Los Angeles County paramedics in the early 1970's. During the course of my career, I worked for volunteer and paid EMS providers as well as taught paramedic school and more importantly have worked with a myriad of folks in both EMS and the fire service since 1973. With this background, I share:
Medic Training: Start your medic classes in the Spring. In this economy, you have a better chance of securing employment in the EMS field than you do as a no-experience rookie firefighter that has taken a fire investigation class. Wait till you have more fire experience so you can fully appreciate the information shared in class.
Ride-Alongs: Speaking of experience, looking at your department location, your not too far from a number of big cities. To not take advantage of riding along on a busy rig would be a shame. Even if you were to work as a medic and get experience as suggested by other posts here wouldn't get you the desired experience level. What you want to look for is meeting folks who work in big cities, not too far from where you live and cultivate both friendships and experience learning how other jurisdictions work. I rode along with LAFD in downtown Hollywood and running 24 ACLS calls in one shift. You can get a years worth of experience in one-shift dependent upon your departments stats. Don't rule out Lifestar / Medivac helicopter providers for ride a longs as well. This is another awesome way to see some interesting and challenging trauma cases as well as round out your personal knowledge base.
Career Choices: I'm not sure from your limited post what your long term career plans are but if you are pursuing a career as a firefighter, getting the medic training and doing a ton of ride a longs will make you an awesome resource an addition to your department. The beauty of where you live is that you are close to so many other larger cities and resources. Take advantage of them and don't listen to any negative criticism you might read here. We all have to start out somewhere.
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Once again, I am not in this for the money. I am not someone who can sit at a desk. I'm a second generation firefighter and I moved away from all of my non-immediate family when I was two and had no family in Ohio. My Dad was the Captain/Fire Marshal for the fire dept. so I grew up in a firehouse around fire engines and firefighters. It just feels right to me. How come you say it can be a downside in the business, yet all the fire deptartments I have talked to, don't even ask what I am capable of, they just ask what little cards I have in my wallet. If you can get more and more training, why not get it? For people my age, 19, everything is education education education. If you don't have an education, you have nothing. I will have the time to take a 4 hour class a week, and why shouldn't I if it will only benefit me in my knowledge?
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Thank you for the positive help. My career plans are to be a career Firefighter/Paramedic, since in Ohio, you have to be both. Being that I am a Level II Firefighter and an EMT-Basic, will help me get onto a department but not as full time. I have been looking into doing ride alongs with the city of Dayton, since they get the most runs around where I live. I never thought about the helicopter providers, so that would be very interesting. I will definitely take into consideration what you have said.
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Kali, It's one messed up program to allow a medic without the appropriate experience level to work in a situation where they would be responsible to run a full pediatric resuscitation code. Hell, that one is difficult for even the more seasoned medic because they are not that common compared to the bread and butter things we see or the response times to the hospital dictating that the patients are load and go categories.
It seems to me that most EMS programs and providers require their medics to first intern a number of hours, have the appropriate clinical experience and work with a seasoned medic trainer. Not that I agree with the system but believe that it is getting more and more common for folks to go through paramedic training with out first having worked in the field as an EMT.
Regardless, I have watched the level of care and knowledge of these folks who went directly to paramedic training and I have not seen many folks who couldn't cut the mustard... If they don't belong, as some don't, the paramedic intern proctor has the ability to wash them out.
A key point here is that folks who focus on the paramedic field alone tend to be better educated than folks who are firefighter medics over the long term. I say this from working as both a private and public paramedic for over 30 years. On the private side, there is a lot of time spent in hospitals compared to the fire service which minimizes time spent in the ER, post patient drop off and then it's back to the job duties as an engine company firefighter paramedic. Two different worlds... Which one are you in?
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Yeah here a lot of the EMT-Basics, go straight into medics, and do good at it. But here in Ohio, we have to do 1200 hours in the hospital.
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So Caleb, the million dollar question is how long does it take to see all the situations to be ready for the big one? Even working busy areas, with the number of medic units including fire department providers, I question how many "good " calls you will actually get annually no matter where you work, if you are doing it full time. I'm not familiar at all with call loads in your area but since I was a full time paramedic, they have increased the numbers of units plus we now have helicopters. And for the checklist, does it include performing:
- emergency delivery
- relieving paricardial tamponade
- relieving tension pneumothorax
- emergency crychothryotomy
- getting an iv started on a kidney dialysis patient who's also in liver failure, and then have her go into cardiac arrest, without base contact and on and on and on...
Point is that if the training includes appropriate clinical hours and working on a busy bus that gets you the required hands on experience and you do so with a competent medic, you stand a good chance of being a competent medic yourself, you got to get started somewhere. The sooner you start getting hand on experience the better. But to do so, it may be necessary to augment your run load with ride a longs...
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