Are you really part of EMS???

[AnthonyM83]

Wouldn't furthering your education do your patients more right? Wouldn't it make you more apt to catch things and figure out the tricky things you mentioned?

And by proving it to yourself, I mean challenging yourself to be a high level provider, that includes education, but also rising above all that wanker stuff that you mentioned.

[Scaramedic]

I shouldn't have implied all transfer companies provide a lower professional image...but I've yet to see anyone who doesn't do 911 in this county make an impression on me.

Do you I need to bring up this guy again...

...and just for the record, non-emergency transfer service.

[AnthonyM83]

A POSITIVE memorable impression on me that is...

[spenac]

There may be professional haulers but you can not say without being a liar that you are in EMS if all you do is haul people back home or to appointments. If you choose to be a taxi driver be a professional one. If you choose to be in EMS be professional. Be professional regardless of how others act.

Education comment by one of the posters scares me. Hopefully clarification will come to make it better. As written basically poster says education is not needed for good patient care. That is a dumb idea. I will never say that education guarantees that a provider will be good because there are always people that just don't care. But I can guarantee that the more education I have received the better my patient care has gotten.

[FireGuard69]

spenac, I'm guessing that was directed at me?

I was typing late at night, so not everything I was saying was making sense.

Basically, here is what I was trying to get across.

You can take every class that is offered, and still be the dumbest mofo around.

Education does not equal intellegence, but it sure as hell means that you are trying to further yourself.

The more I learn, the better off my pts are, provided I can make the info I learn in class jive with what I see on the street.

[spenac]

spenac, I'm guessing that was directed at me?

I was typing late at night, so not everything I was saying was making sense.

Basically, here is what I was trying to get across.

You can take every class that is offered, and still be the dumbest mofo around.

Education does not equal intellegence, but it sure as hell means that you are trying to further yourself.

The more I learn, the better off my pts are, provided I can make the info I learn in class jive with what I see on the street.

Thank you for the clarification. Your very right not all with education can do the job, but they have a better chance than the person with no education. I know some guys that are actually very good class room educators but in the field they can not do what they preach. I used to work with a medic with a masters degree that just sucked. But can you imagine with no education how bad. That scares me.

[AnthonyM83]

Would this be a case of needing more TRAINING?!

Or are we going to go back to it not being good education b/c education includes book plus skills smarts....

[Mateo_1387]

If the system is so great' date=' how come you don't see prerequisites about lower level work in medical or nursing schools? There's nothing stopping paramedic schools from requiring/being required to offer longer clinical periods. Several of the things you mentioned apply to physicians too. .[/quote']

I can see vaguely what you are saying. In EMS there is definanatly a shortage of Medics. Since our schools do not require us to work EMS and gain a ton of experience like physicains, then we need to be able and experience some of it at a lower level certification in order to obtain a knowledgebase. If we each worked for a year as a student, and I mean working it like a job every week then we'd all be great technitains. Doctors do that in their resedency.

[spenac]

To get back on topic: Any service that does not do any 911 calls or emergency hospital to hospital transports is not EMS. Do not know if all you do is haul people home and to appointments if you should even be called medical.

[JPINFV]

I can see vaguely what you are saying. In EMS there is definanatly a shortage of Medics. Since our schools do not require us to work EMS and gain a ton of experience like physicains, then we need to be able and experience some of it at a lower level certification in order to obtain a knowledgebase. If we each worked for a year as a student, and I mean working it like a job every week then we'd all be great technitains. Doctors do that in their resedency.

What good is an experience if you don't have a base to build upon? The simple fact is that the 120 hours (on average, and no, I'm not impressed with anyone's 150 hour course, it's still not enough] doesn't give you enough of a basic or applied medical education to understand what's going on. Can you truly understand why cyanide, for example, is bad if you don't understand biochemistry? Same question regarding the much more likely CO poisoning. Can you truly understand how cardiac medication works without physiology and neurobiology? These are things that can't be provided in depth in a 120 hour course. Sure, you can learn "see this, push this because x" talking to a paramedic while working as a basic, but you won't understand the nuisances of it.

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting releasing medics from school with no or limited clinical time, just that they should have more. I wonder what would happen actually if the medic exam was multi stepped. Pass part 1, get to go and do clinicals. Pass part two and you become licensed.

I'm also not impressed with the "shortage of medics" claim because there's a shortage of other health care and medical professionals and you don't see them compromising their standards to fill the shortage.