paramedicmike

Welcome back, Rid. Stick around for a bit, won't you?

A new campaign in Oregon should be interesting to watch: Click me.

Interestingly enough, some paraplegics are extremely hypersensitive to sensation especially around their feet and legs. What you encountered is not only possible but well documented. There are varying extents of quadriplegia. Some have little sensation but some intact motor movement even in their legs. Enough to scoot their chair around? It's possible. What made you doubt him? Nothing some light reading won't cure.

Weight and balance in an aircraft, especially rotor wing, is a big deal. However, not mentioning more than Registry certification and weight certainly doesn't shed a positive light on the program.

You have to successfully complete an accredited program if you want to take National Registry's paramedic exam and earn their certification. Read more about it here. Even more reason to spend the money on an accredited program.

I've typed in a reply here three times over the past two days and every time I click "post" the site goes down. The long run will probably not result in higher wages or better income. It will, however, offer you a program that has met standards as established by an independent agency as to the curriculum and educational infrastructure available to the student. It will not guarantee you an education. It will offer you a better chance for a better education if you put the effort into it. It will offer you the opportunity to pursue additional certification down the road. National Registry certification is not required by Massachusetts. However, if you decide to move to NH or any number of other states, for whatever reason, it will allow easier transition to earning NR certification (as NR will soon be requiring accreditation of programs in order to sit for NR testing). The emphasis here is on the program itself. Accredited programs have meet the standards outlined by the independent agency, as established by the agency in cooperation with industry leaders, for the benefit of the student. As always research your choices accordingly. Talk to former and current students. Talk to faculty if you can. Find out the certifying exam first time pass rate for all programs you're considering. And, of course, ask us if you have questions.

Maryland is a Registry state. It shouldn't be too hard to find a review course.

To be fair, our new friend has aspirations in flight nursing. Depending on location that is a completely different political discussion from being a flight medic. Not every flight service requires flight paramedic certification. Some services do require it within a certain time since hire. Some services don't require it at all. The certification exam is reputed to be exceptionally difficult but not impossible. There is a growing perception of the dilution of flight crews. With the rapid expanse of flight programs nation wide (in the US anyway) and the need to fill crew slots, there has been much discussion and observation that some (many?) new hires would never have gotten hired "back in the day". This may be true. I know, and used to work with, several people who probably shouldn't be flying. Nurse hiring is still different from medic hiring. Nursing standards as related to hiring for flight jobs still tend to be higher than those for medics. So comparing the two is not necessarily an apples to apples discussion.

Welcome.

Welcome. There are a variety of systems out there that will probably meet your needs. However, without knowing what else is on your check list of requirements it's really impossible to make any kind of suggestions. What fits your description, based on what you've shared as being important, will vary from person to person based on how your ideas are interpreted. To expand on that a bit, your checklist should include things like off duty activities, geography, climate, hobbies et cetera. I'm quite sure you know this already. However, we don't know this as we are just meeting you here for the first time. If we start naming places in New England and you hate snow that wouldn't do you much good. So if you have additional requirements that might help narrow down some good choices for you I'm sure we could put together a decent list.

So what's wrong with being a test writing agency? They're no different from the NLNAC, the NCCPA or any of the other exam writing/certification maintenance agencies out there. National Registry exists to create a defensible exam and serve as the maintainer of the registry. And before anyone says anything about the cost to test or recertify save it. What NR charges is a joke compared to what other organizations charge for exams and recertifications. Part of the problem with EMS is that there's no one certifying standard. States want to do things differently from their neighbors or from other states just to be different. It's silly, wasteful and holds the profession back in the stone ages. One standard. One testing standard. Move everyone to the same starting level with education (as NREMT has started to accredit educational programs for testing purposes) and we'll start to build a foundation for positive change. I agree that EMS needs a professional association that actually works. The NAEMT exists but they're ineffective and have done nothing to promote or defend the industry. However, NREMT is not the agency to assume that role. They are a testing agency. That's it. We shouldn't expect any more or different from them.

Watch this space. I have to head out for a bit but will answer shortly. In short, however, if you have the choice between an accredited and non-accredited program, choose the accredited one.

You'll get a lot of people who will say otherwise, but I agree that going straight to paramedic school is a good idea. Learn it all fresh. Learn it all new. Do not give yourself time to develop shortcuts and bad habits. That way, when you become a paramedic, you will be fresh as a paramedic and not jaded like a burned out EMT. I will add, too, that you should find an accredited paramedic program (accredited by these guys) through which to earn your education. Otherwise, you are short changing yourself. There is only one accredited program in Massachusetts. Hope you're close to Cambridge.

Is this for real?

The lack of ambulances in the City of Philadelphia has not been resolved. They are still woefully short in both ambulances and crews. However, the rest of the thoughts ERDoc posted are pretty spot on.

This wouldn't happen if all providers, regardless of certification level, focused on "appropriate patient care" instead of getting caught up in the whole ALS vs BLS crap. Again with with EMT-I vs EMT-1 thing.

History Nut, I'm guessing you're referring to the old California EMT-1 (like EMT-one) as opposed to EMT-I (like EMT-intermediate). Am I correct? Judging by the EMT-1 vs EMT-I confusion, I'd reiterate this point about being aware of the alphabet soup.

Looking for a side gig, Mike?

Friend, if you thought I or anyone here was being rude you are sorely mistaken. Are you saying you haven't even take then class yet? If so... ...wait for it... ...That's exactly the point of the pre-test! It is to demonstrate what you know and what you don't know and what you have to learn! That's why they give the pre-test first and the post test last to demonstrate what you have learned over the course of the class. This isn't anything new in the way of EMS education. If the pre-test demonstrates you have a lot to learn, and the post test demonstrates a lot of learning, then you've gotten your money's worth. I'm not entirely sure where your problem is with this. You take the pre-test, determine what you need to learn, then go take the class. The topics covered on the pre-test, along with a lot more information, will be covered by the class. Ideally, a responsible instructor will go over the pre-test at some point. Ideally, a responsible student will ask questions on topics s/he is not clear. Then you demonstrate your learning with the post-test. It's a simple concept that has adapted itself quite well to EMS training. C'mon, man. You were in the Army. EMS is similar. Thick skin is better than thin. Nothing is personal until it is. Nothing you've gotten here has been condescending or rude. You could have been much more clear, yes. So be more clear in the future. We aren't here to butter you up. We aren't here to stroke your ego. We will call it like we see it. Sometimes we will be rather blunt about it. Other times we'll sugar coat things. But until you recognize that this isn't about you personally, we aren't making it about you personally, and there are no personal attacks on you (until some moron out there makes it a personal attack... those tend to be pretty obvious) then please lighten up and take it in the spirit in which it's intended. You got exactly what you asked for (with the minor exception of the answers to a pre-test for a class it sounds like you haven't even taken yet). If you stick around you'll see that our approach isn't as bad as you're making it out to be. modified for thought clarification.

Sure, your intentions may have been responsible. But you made no mention of following up with your instructors... something a responsible student would, should, have done first. Given the energy you took to outline what steps you took to follow up it seems reasonable to think that had you followed up with your instructors you would've also mentioned that. Perhaps if you had read my entire post you would've understood the context in which my comments were intended.

Wait. Those are the same answers you posted for the AMLS answer key. Is it a universal answer key? One answer key will answer every test out there?

Score!

So you're saying I shouldn't ask you for the ATLS pre-test answers? I've been contemplating taking ATLS especially since they opened it up to PAs. I'll just need to find a class location that includes PAs as I don't think all of them do.

This. Posting answers could violate copyright rules simply based on the fact that the OP asked for answers to a specific (pre-)test. There is a name associated with his request. We know exactly what he's looking for. Presumably anyone reading the thread will know what he's looking for. This isn't a vague question. Posting the answers also kinda' kills the purpose of a pre-test by allowing people to just mark an answer without actually testing their base knowledge. In that case, why bother with the pre-test? This isn't something limited to just the OP. Posting the answers makes it public for anyone reading this thread, or with even a basic command of Google, to find. It helps defeat the learning process. That's not something EMS needs.

Let him follow up with the class instructors. That's the job of a responsible student. That's the job of a responsible instructor. If the instructors won't help him out then they suck. Asking a doc with whom one works to help review questions and answers isn't a bad start. But it's kind of silly given the context of the OP. This is especially true if there are still questions afterwards. If one has a question about something going on in a particular class then the best resource to get answers is the person or people teaching the class. And if the OP took that route and received no satisfaction from the class instructors then that info would've been helpful in the opening post.