JOELEMTNY Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Hi, I'm new to this field, and need advice where to start the EMT course? First aid? CPR? or should i just start to read an EMT-B book? Thanks!
Dustdevil Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Step 1: Come here for the best advice available anywhere. CHECK! Step 2: Head to the nearest community college and enrol in the first semester of Human Anatomy & Physiology. Step 3: After completing that first semester, complete the second semester of Human Anatomy & Physiology. Step 4: Complete an American Heart Association CPR for the Professional Rescuer course (one or two days). A first aid course can be helpful in convincing you that this subject matter is something you can maintain interest in and learn quickly, but it is not necessary or particularly helpful to your success in EMT school. Although, some EMT schools do require it as a pre-requisite. Step 5: Enrol in the longest EMT school available to you. By longest, I mean the most total number of contact hours, not how many weeks or months it lasts. Usually, it's going to take about a semester. And most all of them (depending on your state) will be at least 120 total hours. If you can find one that offers over 200 hours, that's the place to go. That's Plan-A. That's the best way to do it that results in you being the best possible EMT. There are other ways. There are faster ways. There are ways that take a lot less effort and commitment. Those ways suck, and you will suck as a provider. The choice is yours. Before you do ANY of that, you had better spend a good month doing an EXHAUSTIVE job market research to find out if there are even any jobs to be had for EMTs in your area. In many areas, there are none. In many areas, all EMS is done by firemonkeys and nobody else. In other areas, all EMS is done by paramedics, and EMTs are not utilised at all. And in even more areas, there are plenty of EMT jobs, but it's because they all pay about $8 dollars an hour, so nobody wants them. Find out how your system is run and how that affects you and your future before you waste any time or money on training that will get you nowhere. As stated in your previous topic about textbooks, no, you should not just pick up a book. You can't learn it that way. This is not like memorising dates in high school history. This is understanding sometimes complex scientific concepts. If you don't think you could have learned high school physics out of a book, then you definitely couldn't learn medicine out of a book. Just take whatever book they give you in EMT school. Good luck!
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