benefit of being an emt

[Omni]

to those of you in medical school who have been EMTs, did you find that being an EMT was beneficial to you? im not speaking in terms of "will look good on my resumé", but im speaking about takng something out of it that will help you as a doctor or a student.
one thing i see abbout it is the aspect of developing your critical thinking and to some extent your keadership. i would just like to know how much of that is right.
currently in day 3 of class. my squad is paying for it after i put in 500 hours of volunteering hours into them.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[chman]

I think that it is not necessary, but not bad either. I am taking the classes because I want to keep my options open to go to PA school as well, and they require lots of health-care experience.

The problem is there are different levels of EMT. You are probably thinking of the first level, EMT-B. Where as most of the people you see on t.v. are EMT-Paramedics. EMT-B sometimes end up doing pretty boring stuff like transporting patients for private companies for nursing homes and such. That is not to say that with experience you cannot move up.

Any experience will help you out some, and it is a lot more hands on than shadowing or volunteering. If you land a 911 gig in your area you will have already seen a lot of the stuff you will see in ER rotations. So if you have the time and money, go for it. It's not a bad summer job to have. You also never know what connections can do for you latter on. Just don't expect to be on the flight crew right away.


EDIT: It won't exactly HURT, your med-school app either.

 

[The Bearded One]

I am not in medical school, but I currently work as an EMT. It's not quite the medical knowledge that will help you, but it is the understanding of the system that really helps, and the foundation it builds. You will know what it's like to talk to patients, you will understand how hospitals work, it will provide a foundation that your first two years in medical school can be built on.

You have to know that a large portion of medical students have never even touched a patient when they start medical school. Thats like wanting to be a car mechanic, but never seeing or driving a car. Then think about learning all about cars in class by pictures and hypothetical situations, still not even dealing with cars until the last years of your class. I am not hating, I am just saying that starting medical school as an EMT (or CNA, or nurse, or tech, or whatever) will provide a better context for your future education.

I think MBA programs have it right: the good schools want you to have business experience before starting the program. It just makes sense.

It most likely will not help you get into medical school, because many students just go through the class just to put it on their resume. So EMTs are a dime a dozen these days. If you actually do something with it, like work as an EMT that might be a different story. But most likely, it will help most if you want an ER residency (like stated above).

But it has been one of the best experiences for me. I would strongly recommend working in healthcare to anyone because its fun and you will learn a lot!

 

[Siggy]

The problem is there are different levels of EMT. You are probably thinking of the first level, EMT-B. Where as most of the people you see on t.v. are EMT-Paramedics. EMT-B sometimes end up doing pretty boring stuff like transporting patients for private companies for nursing homes and such. That is not to say that with experience you cannot move up.

It's only boring if you let it be. Long term care patients and dialysis patients, on balance, are much more sicker than your average 911. They may not be acutely sick, but they are sicker. Doing interfacility transports (dialysis, discharges, doctors office visits) will let you work on your bed side manner, patient-provider interactions, and give you a chance to read a wide variety of charts. Also, depending on where you work, you can end up running a fair amount of emergency calls originating from nursing homes. Finally, there's always critical care transport units where you will have the oppertunity to work with RNs and RTs (maybe even physicians depending on if it's specialty transport like dedicated children's hospital units).

 

[The Bearded One]

The best is to find a position in an emergency room

 

[shindotp]

I am not in medical school, but I currently work as an EMT. It's not quite the medical knowledge that will help you, but it is the understanding of the system that really helps, and the foundation it builds. You will know what it's like to talk to patients, you will understand how hospitals work, it will provide a foundation that your first two years in medical school can be built on.

You have to know that a large portion of medical students have never even touched a patient when they start medical school. Thats like wanting to be a car mechanic, but never seeing or driving a car. Then think about learning all about cars in class by pictures and hypothetical situations, still not even dealing with cars until the last years of your class. I am not hating, I am just saying that starting medical school as an EMT (or CNA, or nurse, or tech, or whatever) will provide a better context for your future education.

I think MBA programs have it right: the good schools want you to have business experience before starting the program. It just makes sense.

It most likely will not help you get into medical school, because many students just go through the class just to put it on their resume. So EMTs are a dime a dozen these days. If you actually do something with it, like work as an EMT that might be a different story. But most likely, it will help most if you want an ER residency (like stated above).

But it has been one of the best experiences for me. I would strongly recommend working in healthcare to anyone because its fun and you will learn a lot!

Every med school wants applicants with clinical experience. EMT is one example of clinical experience, but shadowing, volunteering, clinical research, etc. are also examples of clinical experience.

Stanford does not require business experience for its MBA program.

 

[Omni]

Thanks, guys!

 

[ThunderBear]

I am not in medical school, but I currently work as an EMT. It's not quite the medical knowledge that will help you, but it is the understanding of the system that really helps, and the foundation it builds. You will know what it's like to talk to patients, you will understand how hospitals work, it will provide a foundation that your first two years in medical school can be built on.

You have to know that a large portion of medical students have never even touched a patient when they start medical school. Thats like wanting to be a car mechanic, but never seeing or driving a car. Then think about learning all about cars in class by pictures and hypothetical situations, still not even dealing with cars until the last years of your class. I am not hating, I am just saying that starting medical school as an EMT (or CNA, or nurse, or tech, or whatever) will provide a better context for your future education.

I think MBA programs have it right: the good schools want you to have business experience before starting the program. It just makes sense.

It most likely will not help you get into medical school, because many students just go through the class just to put it on their resume. So EMTs are a dime a dozen these days. If you actually do something with it, like work as an EMT that might be a different story. But most likely, it will help most if you want an ER residency (like stated above).

But it has been one of the best experiences for me. I would strongly recommend working in healthcare to anyone because its fun and you will learn a lot!

I agree very much. I am currently working as an EMT, and the experience was really eye opening. Healthcare is not what a lot of pre-meds think that it is, and I believe it should be a requirement to have experience in healthcare before applying to medical school. Most other programs are doing this already, and I think that it's a great disservice to the medical field to just accept smart people who might not have the right personality to handle a career in medicine.