FDNY EMS - Basic to Medic and More...

[tskstorm]

I have to agree with the other poster, you really need the three years street exp. before deciding to make the jump from Basic to P. Personally I would get my I then go for my P. I am in P class now, hold EMT-I Cert. and have numerous Basics in my class with less than one year street time and although class is difficult, these poor people are thoroughly lost. The more street exp. you can get, the better prepared you will be.

Bottom line is, nothing about street/field experience dictates how well you do in class. College experience A&P experience help you. This has been proven time and time again.

[mediccjh]

So getting somewhat back on topic, does the FDNY directly hire paramedics often? Or are they mainly recruiting out of their pool of EMT's? I know there's a hiring freeze right now, but was wondering.

Do you already have your NY State card? If you do, then you have to take the REMAC exam; go to nycremsco.org for more info.

Once you have your NYC REMAC card, you can call the number on the website.

[Richard B the EMT]

For those not in the know, REMAC is REgional Medical Advisory Committee, and NYCREMSCO is NYC Regional Emergency Medical Service COuncil.

[Dominion300]

Cause I'm bored going to add my two cents to the discussion of street experience vs. education. I personally have less than 1 year (about 6 months total in a non-911 system) experience and am currently enrolled in paramedic school. I had the luxury of being in two really great programs for my basic and now my paramedic. My basic class was long and focused on the students comprehension and ensuring not only could we pass the written and practicals but also that we understood the WHY and the HOW of everything we did. Now in my paramedic course we're doing the same thing in a 12 month didactic and 8 month clinical course. As someone who has had less than a year experience I've got a 95 in class averaged from test grades, homework assignment, ride time (basic ride time to observe and assist the medic on als calls), etc; i'm not lost, I have a good grasp on pharma, cardiac, my A&P, etc. I don't feel lost except for covering new concepts until I've had time to absorb and understand the material. Again there are 4 other students in my class that have less than 1 year, and they're doing GREAT. We had one guy who had 15 years experience as a basic who flunked out.

So again this shows that experience isn't everything, it's education. Street smarts can be learned and to an extent that's what ride time is for and is a reason why my class had a BASIC ride time. We had to do 150 hours of basic ride time and during those times we had some pretty stringent passing requirements.

One last reason I can think of is that in many situations with people with more than 5 years experience they have a hard time getting into paramedic mode and thinking like a paramedic. There are several in my class who after pharma, cardiology, all the basic a&p, etc still can't answer questions about how a paramedic would treat a scenario.