Eydawn Posted April 9, 2008 Posted April 9, 2008 A basic understanding of physics is good, but I think the high school level suffices. College physics is a royal pain in the arse, and more about plug'n'chug formulae than really grasping the concepts of how things move around and how different forces act. I think a survey course explaining the basic concepts that's focused on improving spatial thinking would be a lot more pertinent than more useless formulae that you never recall when you're looking at an accident scene... Wendy CO EMT-B
JPINFV Posted April 9, 2008 Posted April 9, 2008 Nope. Calculus is good for learning the higher sciences, but for what we utilize and need to understand, calc is not a necessity. Algebra, however, is. I liked Calculus... but I don't find myself using it very often... and I don't think that it would make someone a better medical provider. (Someone who doesn't dig higher math, that is. Anyone who pursues the study of anything they're interested in or have a yen for makes themselves a more rounded provider... even if it's studying dance theory in depth..) Wendy CO EMT-B Point taken. How about 2 quarters of algebra and a quarter of either statistics or epidemiology?
mrmeaner Posted April 9, 2008 Posted April 9, 2008 A basic understanding of physics is good, but I think the high school level suffices. College physics is a royal pain in the arse, and more about plug'n'chug formulae than really grasping the concepts of how things move around and how different forces act. I think a survey course explaining the basic concepts that's focused on improving spatial thinking would be a lot more pertinent than more useless formulae that you never recall when you're looking at an accident scene... Wendy CO EMT-B I think there is more useful information in college physics than useless as it applies to paramedicine. Then again, I really liked physics so I may be biased. Is physics required for a high school diploma anymore? I was under the impression that either physics or chemistry is acceptable. Maybe it differs by state.
Eydawn Posted April 9, 2008 Posted April 9, 2008 Definitely differs by state as far as the high school diploma goes. As far as useful vs. useless.. again, I hate the formula heavy aspects of physics. I love the concepts... but I wouldn't force everyone through a math-heavy physics course. You would be biased! Physics folk usually are ;-). JP, I'll go for 2 semesters of Algebra and a semester of statistics... and I do think epidemiology is a good alternative for those who hate statistics. Even if you hate stats (which I certainly did!) it's a great course to at least sit through. You learn a lot about how research is analyzed... and how figures can be manipulated. Invaluable stuff in my opinion. Wendy CO EMT-B
JPINFV Posted April 9, 2008 Posted April 9, 2008 He he, my Epi professor is on a one man crusade to end the P=Publish problem.
JPINFV Posted April 9, 2008 Posted April 9, 2008 Generally statistical significance is considered having a "P value" of 0.05 or less. Essentially the likely hood of the result happening by chance is 5% of the time. This is a semi-arbitrary cut-off mark and can determine if a study is published or not. Hence P=publication. Is a P value of 0.05 that much more significant than 0.06? Also P value will be affected by sample size. The larger the size, the lower the P value a study will earn. Hence things like confidence interval width are just as important for determining the precision of the data.
Eydawn Posted April 9, 2008 Posted April 9, 2008 Knew it had to do with P values, just wasn't sure what you were getting at lol! Stats proves that it's all made up. That's the impression I got. But ya gotta believe in something, right? (I know how to actually use statistics wisely and interpret them... but you gotta admit it seems bogus at first!) Wendy CO EMT-B
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