Hey Guys

[erice2592]

I'm new to the site, and have been browsing through the forums and have realized you guys are sure a group of people to model after. I'm currently going to paramedic school, as well as doing a firefighter intern program. Any tips and/ or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all

[paramedicmike]

Welcome.

Do you need to be a FF to be a paramedic in your area?

[Arctickat]

I'm new to the site, and have been browsing through the forums and have realized you guys are sure a group of people to model after, except for that Kiwi fellow of course. I'm currently going to paramedic school, as well as doing a firefighter intern program. Any tips and/ or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all

There, I fixed that for you.

Welcome to the forums, feel free to join into a conversation that interests you, or start one of your own.

[erice2592]

No sir, EMSA is the only sole medical service in my local area, and the turnover rate there is outrageous. I just wanted to see how i liked the fire side for a while. my long term goal is working for a mediflight agency, which brings me to my next question, in your opinion, what are the most beneficial cert's to have if i intend to go that route. i have asked around at some agencies but have not really gatherd a general census on the best path to go, so about rambling on haha

[paramedicmike]

If you want to fly you should concentrate on earning at least five years of solid, busy ground experience. Your first two to three years should be focused simply on becoming a proficient paramedic. The next two to three years should be spent becoming a more proficient paramedic. Then you can start thinking about additional certifications and education (which will become evident to you as you progress).

In the mean time, be nice to everybody. This includes staff at any hospital at which you find yourself. It's a small community. Piss off the right person once and it can kill your chances.

Almost everyone and their brother wants to be a flight medic. You will face stiff competition. Don't lose sight of your goal. For now, however, focus on shorter term issues. You know, getting through paramedic school and become a good paramedic.

[Arctickat]

Yup. Like Mike suggests, one step at a time. Any reputable flight company won't even look at a resume with less than 3 years of experience. Even then, they'll take the guy with 4 years over the guy with 3 years, and so on. You wouldn't want to work for one that's less than reputable...it's a good way to end up dead.

When you're done medic school, you can start looking at additional training. Advanced pharmacology, Advanced Trauma Life Support (not ITLS - Advanced), aviation related training. I'm not sure what the States have, but in Canada we have a training program put on by the Canadian Aerospace Medicine and Aeromedical Transport Association which is pretty much compulsory. You could even become a pilot, it won't make much difference for employability options, but it makes you more attractive as a candidate because you'll understand the aviation aspect much better.

[erice2592]

That's my biggest focus right now, the main thing i seem to have trouble remembering is remembering all the medications and exactly what they're designed to do. any algorhythms that you guys know of to help the memory process of that matter?

[paramedicmike]

Flash cards. Make your own. Don't buy preprinted study cards.

ETA: You haven't mentioned what your educational history looks like. If you don't have any college under your belt then I will suggest you work on getting some classes under your belt. Anatomy and physiology, chemistry, math, history, english, writing are a good place to start. If you can get into a microbiology class down the road a little bit that'll help, too.

If you can earn a degree, even an associates, in something like paramedic science or something similar certainly won't hurt your chances. It will most certainly help you in your day to day professional life.

Edited June 14, 2012 by paramedicmike

[Arctickat]

lol, yup, geez, Mike sounds like my twin.

Making your own flash cards embeds the topic into your memory better because you have to concentrate harder to write than you do to read, so it gets committed to memory better.

[erice2592]

Im currently working on my associates with emergency medical tech. as my major, then i will be obtaining my bachelors emergency medical response management. all the classes besides micro-biology are pre req's for my associates so i'm knocking them down along with advancing through p school. ill have a couple fire science along with that just to benefit me on the fire side. Also, do most flight agencies have a paramedic/nurse team or is that totally at the discretion of each agency?