Doctor (pre-med) or EMT?

[AWhitehair]

EMT's... were you pre-med first and then an EMT/Paramedic or did you start out as an EMT/Paramedic and decide you wanted to be a Doctor?

Just curious, because everyone I work with usually assumes that I decided I wanted to be a doc from being an EMT. However, I was pre-med a loooong time before that.

 

[AggieJohn]

EMT's... were you pre-med first and then an EMT/Paramedic or did you start out as an EMT/Paramedic and decide you wanted to be a Doctor?

Just curious, because everyone I work with usually assumes that I decided I wanted to be a doc from being an EMT. However, I was pre-med a loooong time before that.

Same as you. Pre Med then EMT.

 

[Robizzle]

i have a feeling the outcome of this poll will be lots and lots (and lots) of choice 1.

 

[Agent Splat]

I had wanted to be an EMT for a few years before even considering premed, but I didn't get a chance to take the course until about the same time I had thought about becoming a doctor. For me the work is great stress relief from school.

 

[notdeadyet]

i have a feeling the outcome of this poll will be lots and lots (and lots) of choice 1.

I had no interest in being a premed when I became an EMT. Sounded like too much college at the time.

 

[greytmedic]

I started out Pre-med in college, but financial problems kept me from getting past my first semester. I joined the Army as a medic to get experience. I was in the National Guard, deployed a couple of times which also screwed up my getting back into college. I took a slight detour on the road to medical school and got a job as a EMT-B then went to paramedic class. Now I am working part-time as a paramedic while going to school full-time. I love EMS and most likely, although not 100% sure, will go into emergency medicine.

 

[AWhitehair]

i have a feeling the outcome of this poll will be lots and lots (and lots) of choice 1.

You may be right when it comes to SDN. However, outside of SDN you'd be surprised at just how many people took took the opposite route. There are so many ER docs that started out as Paramedics.

 

[AWhitehair]

I started out Pre-med in college, but financial problems kept me from getting past my first semester. I joined the Army as a medic to get experience. I was in the National Guard, deployed a couple of times which also screwed up my getting back into college. I took a slight detour on the road to medical school and got a job as a EMT-B then went to paramedic class. Now I am working part-time as a paramedic while going to school full-time. I love EMS and most likely, although not 100% sure, will go into emergency medicine.

This is how I feel too. Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[ShyRem]

I dreamed of medicine when I was a kid (really). Went to college, didn't wanna do the work, didn't know what the heck I wanted - dropped out. Not pre-med at the time. Became a paramedic, worked for over 10 years, went back to school and going to med school in 3 weeks.

 

[AWhitehair]

Wow! That's awesome...congrats!!!

 

[sentrosi]

Kind of half and half.

I had always sorta wanted to be a doctor from when I was really young. But I wasn't officially pre-med until after I became an EMT. As in I made my decision to definitely become a doctore after becoming an EMT.

 

[sentrosi]

Yarr. I too am strongly considering Emergency Medicine. I think most people who have an EMT/Paramedic background either strongly consider it as a specialty or strongly don't want to be an ER doc.

My undergrad (MIT) has a student run EMS, which invariably gets filled with a decent number of pre-meds, though we try to only accept people who are interested in EMS and not padding their resume. Anyway, I think out of the pre-meds in the group, about half are interested and the other half is doesn't want to deal with it (because they know what stuff gets brought in).

 

[asunshine]

well, i was pre-med before i became a nurse. does that count? i had to check out nursing before i made the big commitment to medicine. and now i can say i'm 1000000% sure i'm ready to take the plunge.