Nurses and Paramedics

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

nontraditionalperson

New Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
May 9, 2016
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
For those that have gone to school to become a paramedic (not just EMT) or nurse, how did your classes and clinical experiences benefit you in medical school? For the first two years, did your science and healthcare classes and clinical experiences help with the classes? Did your background help during your clinical rotations? How did being a paramedic or nurse help you outside your courses? If you could redo you background, would you have taken more science courses? Also, I'd like to read about any specific examples, if you have any.

I posted this in the allopathic section, but figured I'd get additional responses by posting it here. If this violates the forum rules, then please take this post down. According to these rules, http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/sdn-forum-rules.44658/ , this is not an attempt to increase the post count, since this is a separate thread.

Members don't see this ad.
 
My clinical experience as a paramedic helped me during our Doctoring Skills, Clinical Science, and Simulated patient encounters. I was already comfortable with talking to patients, taking BP's, conducting physical exams, etc. It also helped during Pharmacology, I had a leg up on the common medications, mechanisms, etc. The reading EKG portion of Cardiology was redundant

I'm starting rotations in August in the same area I worked as a Medic, so that should be of benefit as well.

I wouldn't take anymore science classes if I had it to do over, if anything, I would arrange them differently so I could have done better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
For the paramedics and nurses I knew, they have mentioned that there were specific times during medical school where they benefitted, but largely it didn't provide them with a leg up. For example, DMU does a surgical skills lab where they teach you all kinds of procedures and you get tested on properly doing stuff. The paramedics and nurses already had half the procedures down cold so less studying. The cardiac drugs as mentioned above is another example. And they did well on rotations, but the people I know where good enough people that they would have done well anyway. If you are a paramedic, awesome, it may help, but if you are thinking about becoming a paramedic to help in medical school, I doubt it would be worth it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
For the paramedics and nurses I knew, they have mentioned that there were specific times during medical school where they benefitted, but largely it didn't provide them with a leg up. For example, DMU does a surgical skills lab where they teach you all kinds of procedures and you get tested on properly doing stuff. The paramedics and nurses already had half the procedures down cold so less studying. The cardiac drugs as mentioned above is another example. And they did well on rotations, but the people I know where good enough people that they would have done well anyway. If you are a paramedic, awesome, it may help, but if you are thinking about becoming a paramedic to help in medical school, I doubt it would be worth it.

I think this is the take away point here. If you are a paramedic, it will only help, but not as much as you'd like. It only occasionally helped during pre-clinical, slightly more during clinical, most during auditioning/internship. If you aren't a paramedic, it is not worth the trouble to go to school simply to go straight into medical school thereafter. In addition, most EMS-now-physician folks look down on people who claim to be medics without having any real experience; the internship component during medic school does not count as "being a paramedic."

In my own personal experience, being a medic has helped as @FrkyBgStok described. It has allowed some cognitive off-loading of certain skills (running codes, doing procedures, being comfortable being uncomfortable) so that I can focus on my (numerous) weak spots. During the interview season, PDs have said that most former medics do better than their peers during intern year and that the curves eventually catch up. My own PD has said the same. Of course, some former medics stay ahead of their peers the entire time, but so do many other non-medics; I think this is also what @FrkyBgStok was also saying in his quote above - that good people stay good regardless of where they started.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I think this is the take away point here. If you are a paramedic, it will only help, but not as much as you'd like. It only occasionally helped during pre-clinical, slightly more during clinical, most during auditioning/internship. If you aren't a paramedic, it is not worth the trouble to go to school simply to go straight into medical school thereafter. In addition, most EMS-now-physician folks look down on people who claim to be medics without having any real experience; the internship component during medic school does not count as "being a paramedic."

In my own personal experience, being a medic has helped as @FrkyBgStok described. It has allowed some cognitive off-loading of certain skills (running codes, doing procedures, being comfortable being uncomfortable) so that I can focus on my (numerous) weak spots. During the interview season, PDs have said that most former medics do better than their peers during intern year and that the curves eventually catch up. My own PD has said the same. Of course, some former medics stay ahead of their peers the entire time, but so do many other non-medics; I think this is also what @FrkyBgStok was also saying in his quote above - that good people stay good regardless of where they started.

Thanks for this post. I am in a similar situation to the one you described above; I just finished field internship, but I start DO school in about 3 months. Any advice on how to make the most of my "experience"? FWIW, I want to go into EM. I completely understand that I'm not really a medic, not having worked as one yet. I already work as an EMT for a 911 service, so I think I should be able to get hired on and work as a medic for 2 months or so.

Thanks again, really appreciate your perspective.
 
Thanks for this post. I am in a similar situation to the one you described above; I just finished field internship, but I start DO school in about 3 months. Any advice on how to make the most of my "experience"? FWIW, I want to go into EM. I completely understand that I'm not really a medic, not having worked as one yet. I already work as an EMT for a 911 service, so I think I should be able to get hired on and work as a medic for 2 months or so.

Thanks again, really appreciate your perspective.

Honestly, I wouldn't even bother. Just relax and enjoy some time off before medical school. No fire based/public 3rd service is going to let you work without a year of probation, and even the sketchiest private company will have you on field orientation for a few months. Depending upon how ALS/BLS calls are handled in your jurisdiction, it is highly unlikely that you would have a chance to even work independently on "real" ALS calls before it is time to go to medical school.

By all means, if you need to work for $$$, keep working and just try to make the most of it. Otherwise, relax.

Good luck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
My clinical experience as a paramedic helped me during our Doctoring Skills, Clinical Science, and Simulated patient encounters. I was already comfortable with talking to patients, taking BP's, conducting physical exams, etc. It also helped during Pharmacology, I had a leg up on the common medications, mechanisms, etc. The reading EKG portion of Cardiology was redundant

I'm starting rotations in August in the same area I worked as a Medic, so that should be of benefit as well.

I wouldn't take anymore science classes if I had it to do over, if anything, I would arrange them differently so I could have done better.

Were you able to understand the basic sciences more, since you had clinical situations to draw from? Or did you find yourself not being able to relate to much of the material, given all the uncommon disorder scenarios?
 
Were you able to understand the basic sciences more, since you had clinical situations to draw from? Or did you find yourself not being able to relate to much of the material, given all the uncommon disorder scenarios?
My school had a systems-based curriculum, with the basic sciences being the first block. My medic experience gave me no leg up in the basic sciences. For the clinical sciences (cards / msk / pulm / etc) the physiology taught in paramedic courses is so basic that it gets covered in the first two or three days. So I didn't have to worry much there as I had the solid foundation, but like others have said, the experience doesn't go nearly as far as you might hope for. Once you start with the pathology in each block, outside of basic code scenarios, etc, you're on a level playing field again.

Due to my experience I was comfortable with things like starting IV's, CPR, ACLS scenarios, etc. My classmates thought I was a huge badass when nurses actually asked me for help with IV's, and when I showed some nurses how to use the I/O gun.

I will reiterate that unless you want to become a paramedic and work for at least 1-2 years before medical school, then don't bother. And even then, only do it if you truly want to, because the payoff in medical school is minimal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I'd say the advantages are short-lived in 3rd year. The pimping serves as a great equalizer, and most students can easily catch up with them in the hands-on department.
 
I would like to say that just having a job in general would benefit in terms of talking to people but I've noticed a lot of types come off obnoxious. Here's where I think it's an actual hinderence.
 
All the posts before me have been dead on. I've been a paramedic for ten years and flight paramedic for six years. I'm only at the end of my first year of med school but the experience has definitely benefited with the hands on stuff. Biochem (and most of the other basic sciences) is a completely different story. Definitely had to buckle down for those just like my fellow classmates.

But, I'm one of the odd ones since I still work for a county-wide ambulance service running primarily 911's and a flight service while in school. Just.......can't....let.....it.....go


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
All the posts before me have been dead on. I've been a paramedic for ten years and flight paramedic for six years. I'm only at the end of my first year of med school but the experience has definitely benefited with the hands on stuff. Biochem (and most of the other basic sciences) is a completely different story. Definitely had to buckle down for those just like my fellow classmates.

But, I'm one of the odd ones since I still work for a county-wide ambulance service running primarily 911's and a flight service while in school. Just.......can't....let.....it.....go


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

That's quite the resume. Plus I can see that you were army. How'd you make the transition to (osteopathic) medical school?
 
Were you able to understand the basic sciences more, since you had clinical situations to draw from? Or did you find yourself not being able to relate to much of the material, given all the uncommon disorder scenarios?

Not really. My EMS learning and experience only scratched the surface. The second year material made more sense though.
 
All the posts before me have been dead on. I've been a paramedic for ten years and flight paramedic for six years. I'm only at the end of my first year of med school but the experience has definitely benefited with the hands on stuff. Biochem (and most of the other basic sciences) is a completely different story. Definitely had to buckle down for those just like my fellow classmates.

But, I'm one of the odd ones since I still work for a county-wide ambulance service running primarily 911's and a flight service while in school. Just.......can't....let.....it.....go


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
I kept up fairly regular shifts through about halfway through second year. I wouldn't suggest going much further than that as you will want to start dedicating more time to Step 1 study. And you will not have the time to keep it up during your clinical years.
 
I kept up fairly regular shifts through about halfway through second year. I wouldn't suggest going much further than that as you will want to start dedicating more time to Step 1 study. And you will not have the time to keep it up during your clinical years.

Appreciate the advice! I think what I was trying to articulate was that even with a decade of experience, being a paramedic didn't give me a massive advantage over my classmates. As a couple of the other posts stated, I did feel comfortable with IVs, intubations, 12-leads, etc (we do early clinical experiences at my school). I also felt pretty good during cardio block, particularly EKG interpretation, ACLS, and pharm.

But as far as the basic sciences, I studied and did some picmonics/sketchy.

I know my work schedule will start to dwindle come December/January for board prep. Just wanted to keep my NRP/state license good for the next renewal cycle.

To the OP, I would not take an EMT class "just because". Take it if you'd enjoy it but you most likely wouldn't be able to apply it prior to school starting.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top