S.A.L.L.Y

[AnthonyM83]

That so doesn't count as a "semester". A semester would be full-time school (4 classes).

Or in medic schools around here, it's 8-5 Mon-Fri, like a job.

[Dustdevil]

That so doesn't count as a "semester". A semester would be full-time school (4 classes).

Or in medic schools around here, it's 8-5 Mon-Fri, like a job.

Sure. But even if they are full-time, the remainder of the course load is english, math, communications, and psych, so it doesn't really count as time spent on cardiology.

[AnthonyM83]

I'm just saying it's over exaggerating that it would take two semesters. Even if it were one course on cardiology that met three times a week, that's moving awful slow. Or maybe we're saying the same thing. Don't know.

[EMS49393]

OK I hate you now. I want to go to the Bob Page EKG seminar. Love his book. OK don't really hate you just envious.

Ha ha ha ha (best evil laugh) I went through Bob Page's PARAMEDIC program. Envy me, it makes me happy to see that there are actually people out there that care about a paramedic having a proper education, instead of 1000 hours of mnemonics and war stories. I can say, with near 100% certainty, that we left the mnemonics to the inferior paramedic programs in the area. If we were given a mnemonic as a memory aide, I have long since forgot it.

[Mateo_1387]

In my honest opinion it does take a couple of semesters to understand enough cardiology to be paramedics. In my school, We had a semester of cardiology during our first summer. We learned quite a bit, but as I did research, I found that there was still a lot more to learn.

In my school the Cardiology course gave us a strong foundation upon which to learn. In the second year of paramedic school, we have reviewed our knowledge base from the summer, plus we continue to add to it during the spring and fall semesters, as well as our last summer semester.

The basic concepts are not really that difficult, learning the anatomy and physiology. But you add on learning the rhythms, what each wave means, what different measurements mean and you have a different story. Then you add on to that how the patient presents and what physical finding you will find with certain rhythms and you have another level to comprehend. Then add on to that treatments, what drugs do in the body, and how they affect the heart, taking into consideration you patient, and it takes a few semesters to get the full grasp of it. But still that is the tip of the iceberg in my opinion. We still need patient encounters to still understand it better. And there will always be that Cadiologist that still understands it 100 fold what even the experienced paramedic knows.

You can learn the basics, what you might get from the medic mill, but it is not worth anything to me. I think you get more knowledge from an Anatomy and Physiology class about the heart than the medic mill.

I guess as a recap that what I listed above is my idea of basic cardiology. The field of cardiology is huge, and medics just do not have the full understanding.

Medic mill = tip of a needle of what you need to know

Paramedic degree with continuous study = Basic cardiology

Cardiologist = Full Shebang.

Understanding what I described in full is a must. It just cannot be done properly in three weeks at the medic mill. It takes a lot longer.

[VentMedic]

I'm just saying it's over exaggerating that it would take two semesters. Even if it were one course on cardiology that met three times a week, that's moving awful slow. Or maybe we're saying the same thing. Don't know.

That depends on what you consider basic cardiology. In RT, "basic" is 3 college semesters and then you do two more advanced. Of course that covers more indepth A&P (2 semesters of regular A&P are prereqs), basic rhythms, 12 lead and hemodynamics which you can not adequately do cardiology without hemodynamics. You hope the classes are only 4 - 6 hours per week because the reading in both the text and assigned articles are time consuming. That is besides the other 2 or 3 classes and clinicals. After you complete the basics you can get into IABPs and LVAD as well as the clinical in the Cath Lab. And, that still doesn't touch even half of what the CVT program students do with cardiology even at the A.A.S level. RT school was a far reach from one Paramedic text with Sidney Sinus node and a Dubin reader on the side.

[AnthonyM83]

Well original poster was describing it as "anatomy & physiology, Eindhoven's triangle, the "drop of blood" through all the structures of the heart, coronary vasculature, cardiac diseases, or even basic rhythm interpretation" to the depth of "basic cardiology" (at a medic level, I presume). What VentMedic describes seems a bit different...?

[Dustdevil]

lol, definitely. You're talking about memorising structures and techniques. We're talking about learning, understanding, and mastering physiological concepts. Education, not training.

[VentMedic]

Here is a typical two year RT program list of classes not including the prereqs. You can link to the course descriptions and course outlines. Most of the classes are called CardioPulmonary because it is difficult to talk about one and not the other.

http://www.broward.edu/ext/DepartmentCourseList.jsp?Name=RET

Here is a four year RT program:

http://www.catalog.sdes.ucf.edu/current/de...onary_sciences/

Now if you want to see some really indepth cardiac classes, look up an Exercise Physiology/Science degree program. They take it to the Ph.D level.

[scott33]

Well original poster was describing it as "anatomy & physiology, Eindhoven's triangle, the "drop of blood" through all the structures of the heart, coronary vasculature, cardiac diseases, or even basic rhythm interpretation" to the depth of "basic cardiology" (at a medic level, I presume). What VentMedic describes seems a bit different...?

I am really not sure of the exact time frame for these things to be taught.

My point was that I was astounded that someone felt cheated by her university, because she could have "skipped two semesters" (her words) and learned the same stuff by going to an 8-hour interactive lecture given by Bob Page. I just wonder how much of the lecture she wold have followed, had she not have had those two semesters in the first place.

Just because medic schools can knock out cardiology over a couple to a few months, does not mean there is not much more to learn on the subject. We are taught just enough to pass state exams and no more.

Having already gone through "basic" cardiology in nursing school, I can safely say that medic school didn't cover cardiac A&P in the same detail, not to mention the 8 credits of anatomy and physiology required, before you can apply to nursing school. There are a few medic programs which require this, but not all.