Hello, I need help with the direction of where I am going. I'm a senior right now and have gotten good grades and is very involved in high school. I want to be a paramedic, and I heard and found out the UIC (university of illinois at chicago) offer a good paramedic training program. I did not know what major to decide, so I choose Pre-Medicine. Is that a good choice of major to choose I want to be a paramedic? I thought it that pre-medicine can branch out into the emergency medicine field and then to EMT and then a paramedic.
Need help achieving my goal of being a paramedic!
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Pre-med isn't usually for paramedics, mostly because you don't need a college degree to become a paramedic. I think you can become an EMT-B in a few months and many community colleges offer such a program. There is also a more advanced EMT-P that you can get after that.
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Emergency medicine major? Dude you need to become a EMT-Basic first(takes about 8-9 months), practice for like a year then take a paramedic class and ecru like hours of experience... then you can be a paramedic. Emergency medicine is not a major nor is it any degree. That requires 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school and 3 years of residency.
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you just need to go to CC. Don't waste your time with a university.
Ideally, it only takes about a year to become a paramedic. But, this could differ between states.
Go email the head of the training department for paramedics at your local CC (or, where ever you want to go) and talk to them.
I actually talked about this with some paramedics at the hospital I volunteer at and they said you can get trained for free if you are a firefighter first. After about a year or less being a firefighter, you can get trained to become a paramedic within two to three months.
Overall, it's less than two years, but with on the job training. gl
Ideally, it only takes about a year to become a paramedic. But, this could differ between states.
Go email the head of the training department for paramedics at your local CC (or, where ever you want to go) and talk to them.
I actually talked about this with some paramedics at the hospital I volunteer at and they said you can get trained for free if you are a firefighter first. After about a year or less being a firefighter, you can get trained to become a paramedic within two to three months.
Overall, it's less than two years, but with on the job training. gl
Okay, according to this site: http://www.ehow.com/how_2325165_find-paramedic-school-chicago-area.html?optype=text
"Most students will spend between two and four years in college or a medical school in preparation, studying emergency response as well as earning their medical degree as an EMT."
Can someone clarify this for me? Does most EMT actually go to CC or a med. school?
"Most students will spend between two and four years in college or a medical school in preparation, studying emergency response as well as earning their medical degree as an EMT."
Can someone clarify this for me? Does most EMT actually go to CC or a med. school?
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That article is bogus. No one needs to go to medical school to become an EMT. Plenty of pre-meds become EMTs in their spare time as an extracurricular.
Okay, should I go to a university and go off studying medicine and become EMT on my spare time just in case EMT does not work as I hope?
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Medical school should not be a backup for EMT. One is much harder to do than the other.
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That article is just wrong. You do not get a medical degree at any point during the education to become a paramedic.
To become a paramedic most people start by taking and EMT-B class which is ~120 hours depending on where you are. As an EMT-B you could start looking at paramedic schools but most require that you have some street experience. Paramedic training varies in length but is >1000 hours everywhere (in NV it's ~1400 hours).
EMS and medicine are distinct fields. Paramedics (AKA EMT-Ps, EMT-Is, EMT-Bs, First Responders, etc.) are not doctors nor are doctors necessarily competent providers of field medicine.
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I think what they meant about med school is that you can get the degree through some med schools. There are programs that are affiliated with med schools, not just md programs.
imo, just go to a CC.
imo, just go to a CC.
What if I'm not sure if I really want to be a paramedic? My plan now is to go to college and take pre-med, and my second semester try doing emt volunteer/job. And if that don't work out, then I will consider what I can branch off of pre-med. Is this idea good?
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When you refer to "the degree" to you mean paramedic certification? Paramedics get a certification, not a degree. That's an important distinction.
Wrong. Plenty of schools offer an AS or BS in "paramedic studies" or some similar name.
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Ug. Ok. Yes you can get an Associate's Degree in "Paramedic Studies" or some similar invented field but the fact remains that having a Paramedic Certificate and passing whatever local testing requirements there are is what allows you to work as a paramedic. You can not work as a paramedic unless you are certified and have passed the tests no matter what paramedic "degree" you hold be it Associate's, Bachelor's or even the PhD in Paramedic Studies. The reason that some schools, particularly on line and chain schools offer degrees like this is that subsidized student aid can be easier to get when enrolled in degree programs than in vocational programs.
With the current push for evidence based practices in EMS, a PhD in EMS research might not be so strange.
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It's true that we do a disproportionate amount of the research in EMS but there are certainly other docs involved such as trauma surg, OB/Gyn, Critical Care and other docs who are non-EM but serve as EMS Medical Directors (often in smaller communities).
That's not to take anything away from the EMTs who do research though. Having doctoral level input is crucial but no EMS study can ever succeed without the boots on the scene. EMS research has a number of very specific and very difficult obstacles. Without EMTs working to overcome those any study is doomed.
I think anyone interested in doing EMS research as an EMT should try to get some extra training in statistics and scientific methodology. Those would be really helpful.
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OP - Do not waste your money going to a university if you truly want to become a paramedic. Just go to a CC.
Also, you shouldn't use ehow.com as a reliable source for info, that crap is bogus. To my knowledge, paramedics don't even need a college degree.
Also, you shouldn't use ehow.com as a reliable source for info, that crap is bogus. To my knowledge, paramedics don't even need a college degree.
No, they do not, but he would be wise to pursue a paramedic school that awards an AS degree. There are many reasons for this. One, a degree awarding program is usually at a college instead of a tech school and is probably therefore cheaper. A degree may also be required for practice at some point in the future, and it opens up other options and gives confidence should the OP wish to continue education at a university.
And yea, ehow.com sucks.
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