EMT Cert. worth it?

[AKPreMed]

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Hi everyone,

Okay, so in 2006 I graduated from a local Medical Assisting Certificate program. I only worked as a CMA for one year, but it was for a General Surgeon and I basically ran her entire practice for her. I did clinical work, clerical work and office management work. I feel that I gained a lot of well rounded experience in that one year. Anyway, I had to move out of that town and was unable to find another MA job where I moved to (an even smaller town), so I took a job at a contracting firm until recently. I paid to have my certification reinstated but have been unable to find a job due to my lack of experience over the past few years (I figured this would happen, but it still sucks). Recently, when I was enrolling for the Spring semester at my university I found an EMT I certification course that is every Saturday. Would it be worth it for me to take this? Since I'm having such a hard time finding MA work I figured getting certified as an EMT would allow me more opportunity to work at night and on weekends (since I currently have a really good job at a virology lab). Anyway, I hope this question makes sense. I would really just like to use the EMT cert as a means of gaining clinical exposure at night and on weekends, since it's basically impossible to find MA work outside of the routine 9-5 schedule.
Anyway, thanks for any advice!

 

[ShyRem]

depends if you actually use it or not. You might find it better to volunteer, shadow, etc. As an EMT if you work on the ambulance you may find yourself doing more driving if you are working paired with a paramedic than you are doing patient care.

 

[augeremt]

depends if you actually use it or not. You might find it better to volunteer, shadow, etc. As an EMT if you work on the ambulance you may find yourself doing more driving if you are working paired with a paramedic than you are doing patient care.

Very true in most areas. To get patient experience as an EMT I would suggest finding a job as an ER Tech. You actually get to do stuff instead of drive all day.

 

[AKPreMed]

Thanks!

I may just forego the EMT course and do the volunteering. I'm trying to conserve on my loans and taking extra courses that may not really get me any valuable patient contact wouldn't be worth it.

 

[Dynamo24]

I'm an EMT-B and I took the class at a CC. It is a pain because it was 5 hours of class twice a week plus 5-7 hour labs on Saturdays and you're required ride time with the local fire department. I took bio2, stats, and that together and it sucked. You learn BLS skills and if you do work as an EMT you can learn a lot from your paramedics. Just ask them and they will teach you rhythms, IV's, drugs, etc. The cert. works well for other job openings like mentioned above (ER Tech). The great thing about being an EMT is you run into a lot of ER docs. Get to know them, that way shadowing will be very easy. Most of our calls are Basic calls, so I do run a lot of calls on my own. Patient care isn't too crazy, but it also helps to see various situations and have your medic challenge you with "well what if this happened" type of scenario. So hedge your bet, if you can find the time, do it. If not, don't worry about it. Stick with volunteering and shadowing.

 

[Beandog]

I'm an EMT-B and I took the class at a CC. It is a pain because it was 5 hours of class twice a week plus 5-7 hour labs on Saturdays and you're required ride time with the local fire department. I took bio2, stats, and that together and it sucked. You learn BLS skills and if you do work as an EMT you can learn a lot from your paramedics. Just ask them and they will teach you rhythms, IV's, drugs, etc. The cert. works well for other job openings like mentioned above (ER Tech). The great thing about being an EMT is you run into a lot of ER docs. Get to know them, that way shadowing will be very easy. Most of our calls are Basic calls, so I do run a lot of calls on my own. Patient care isn't too crazy, but it also helps to see various situations and have your medic challenge you with "well what if this happened" type of scenario. So hedge your bet, if you can find the time, do it. If not, don't worry about it. Stick with volunteering and shadowing.

Good points.I'm an EMT and volly firefighter. The connections I make are invaluable to me. I do get to go and work on some cool stuff, but the more experienced and Paramedics get the majority of the hands-on stuff.
Don't do it at a CC - too much time wasted. Get it through a fire company.

 

[augeremt]

I was very fortunate as well to be able to do things in the back by myself on BLS calls and with the medic on more advanced calls. I learned a bunch about reading an EKG, what drugs to give, contraindications, and all that jazz just from being curious and asking a lot of questions. The medics were very willing to teach.

Where I live now, most calls are ALS (or are made into ALS for reasons I just don't understand) so I don't think I'm going back to ambulance work and will instead apply for ER tech jobs once I get some time. You meet more ER docs this way and once they get to know you, they trust you to do more things. And of course, you get to see how an ER really works.

My cert ran out recently so I had to retake the entire EMT course all over again and, like Dynamo24, I took it at a CC. Worst decision ever. The class met T and Th for 4 hours at a time, plus 8 hours every 3rd Saturday, and there was the added stress that this actually factored into my GPA so I needed to get the A. Huge time-sink that didn't need to take so long. I mean, there are only so many ways you can talk about bandaging a wound, and everything else could be learned by reading the book. I was taking a Biochem I, Molecular Bio I, and Physiology, and working part-time in research so I was burned out like crazy by the end of the semester. I wouldn't recommend doing it this way.

Prior to getting recertified, I volunteered in the ER for about a week and absolutely hated it. Same with shadowing. Having gone from EMTing and treating my patients (as limited as my treatment was) to only being allowed to bring them water and stand silently in the corner, I was going insane. Hence getting recertified. But if you're coming from no clinical experience at all, then shadowing and volunteering may be enough for you.


Edit: This post sounds like I'm discouraging and hating on volunteering and shadowing. That is not the case at all. I'm actually very happy with my current volunteer position, and think everyone should start out that way. It gives you a great intro into medicine and the relationships and interactions between all members of the medical team and patients. And once I changed my attitude about shadowing and started focusing not on the medicine per se (and not grumbling about me not being able to practice it) but on the daily life/work/interactions of the doctor, I really began enjoying it. And again, I think everyone wanting to get into medicine should shadow at least a few specialists. It opened my eyes to the way medicine was really done in a clinical setting, and was quite different from my perceptions gleaned from volunteering in the hospital and on the ambulance.

But, if you want to be able to do something yourself, I would recommend getting certified as an EMT and either working for an ambulance company (depends on the types of calls they receive) or as an ER tech. But only get certified if you plan on using the cert. Otherwise it's a waste of time and money. It won't work to your advantage on your app unless you do something with it. Even then, there's much debate about how much it actually helps.

 

[Dynamo24]

augeremt has some great points and I agree with them all. I forgot to mention the only reason why I did my EMT was because I was thinking of going into PA school and could use the experience on my app. Now that I am pre-med, I don't I feel I wasted my money, but I think it was a waste of time. I essentially sacrificed two 3 credit hour classes for it. I do the job now because I'm 28, married, full time student, and have a second job. The over night hours help me study and get money. Although, EMT's don't make much, ER Tech's make at least 2-3 dollars more an hour and get 12 hours shifts. I have found tech jobs hard to come by due to other medics, EMT's, pre-nursing/pa/med students gobbling them up. If you want the cert to try to get into an ER, go for it. But if you want it for strictly EMT work...I'd go another route.

 

[Dan1804]

Hi everyone,

Okay, so in 2006 I graduated from a local Medical Assisting Certificate program. I only worked as a CMA for one year, but it was for a General Surgeon and I basically ran her entire practice for her. I did clinical work, clerical work and office management work. I feel that I gained a lot of well rounded experience in that one year. Anyway, I had to move out of that town and was unable to find another MA job where I moved to (an even smaller town), so I took a job at a contracting firm until recently. I paid to have my certification reinstated but have been unable to find a job due to my lack of experience over the past few years (I figured this would happen, but it still sucks). Recently, when I was enrolling for the Spring semester at my university I found an EMT I certification course that is every Saturday. Would it be worth it for me to take this? Since I'm having such a hard time finding MA work I figured getting certified as an EMT would allow me more opportunity to work at night and on weekends (since I currently have a really good job at a virology lab). Anyway, I hope this question makes sense. I would really just like to use the EMT cert as a means of gaining clinical exposure at night and on weekends, since it's basically impossible to find MA work outside of the routine 9-5 schedule.
Anyway, thanks for any advice!

I've been an EMT-Firefighter for a couple of years--while doing post-bacc classes--and found it to be very helpful. It has given me good material for essays and interview conversations, as well as helping me develop an ease with patients and a familiarity with pre-hospital care and emergency operations. There will be questions on secondaries and in interviews about your clinical experience. EMT is the fastest way to get your hands on real patients, and even if you're just driving and doing basic history taking/vitals, you're immersed in patient care and will come away with some great experiences to talk about. Don't know as much about ER Tech, but have heard it's miserable scut work. If you are in an area with a volunteer rescue squad, see if they will pay for the training for you.

 

[GenusTide]

I've been an EMT-Firefighter for a couple of years--while doing post-bacc classes--and found it to be very helpful. It has given me good material for essays and interview conversations, as well as helping me develop an ease with patients and a familiarity with pre-hospital care and emergency operations. There will be questions on secondaries and in interviews about your clinical experience. EMT is the fastest way to get your hands on real patients, and even if you're just driving and doing basic history taking/vitals, you're immersed in patient care and will come away with some great experiences to talk about. Don't know as much about ER Tech, but have heard it's miserable scut work. If you are in an area with a volunteer rescue squad, see if they will pay for the training for you.

To further expand on this post, as an EMT-B in a tech position chances are that all you will be doing is filing paper work and imputing orders (this is what the level 1 techs do at several local hospitals). Essentially, your "pt contact" will be zero. On an ambulance, you can build a good relationship with the charge medic and you will not be driving the whole time. I would have to discourage you from volunteering with any FD unless you really want the experience. Geographic location really plays a big role in this setting. All the departments here locally are paid and the ones that allow "volunteering" will basically make you their **tch and you will be competing with other people who really want to be fire/EMT's. I would suggest trying to get hired on a private/independent ambulance service or at an ALF facility part time as an EMT to get some good pt contact. Like I said before, this advice can really vary geographically since there is not any real standard adhered to by any department.
Good luck 👍

 

[CardiologyJosh]

On the topic of EMT. It truly depends on why you pursued the certification in the first place, how you used it, and how your experiences as an EMT served as an affirmation of your pursuit of a career in medicine.

Myself, I earned my EMT-B (NYS,) and was awarded the cert. in June 2009. I have done little with the certificate in this time, but I will be taking a refresher course and re-certifying prior to my current cert. expires. That being said, I needed to fulfill a gym credit, and the EMT-B course offered at my school could fulfill this requirement. Instead of taking "Introduction to Tennis," or "Yoga," I decided that I could actually learn something new and exciting while fulfilling this credit requirement. I also was a lifeguard for many years, and EMT-B was considered the next-step up in the totem pole of first response. I expect that a current certification (active,) can help in securing a position in an emergency room, either as an ER-Tech (employed,) or as a volunteer. As a volunteer, while you may not typically have clinical privileges, you are infact protected by your state & local laws, and you DO have a duty to act. If you are the closest person to someone in respiratory arrest, you can and must provide intervention until medical staff arrive to the patients bed or room. (You would be surprised how slowly that can be sometimes.)

One of the downfalls about pursuing EMT-B, and Even EMT-I and EMT-Paramedic, is that the pre-hospital care provided by such individuals, is all protocolized, and does not provide insight to the critical-thinking and application of fundamental physiology that allows physicians to create treatment plans on an individualized patient-by-patient basis. However, it does provide insight to what it is like to deal with emotionally charged situations, and it does provide patient contact, learning to deal with the different needs of patients in altered mental states as well as the boundaries of culture and language, would be a "+" as far as an ADCOM would be concerned, given that you have used the certificate to it's potential, and have volunteered with an ambulance corps or have worked as an EMT-(insert level here.)

All this being said, pre-hospital care is NOT medicine. When sharing your experiences on an application, it would be important to make it absolutely clear, that this was not an experience in which you developed a sense of what the patient-physician relationship is like - rather, focus on the element of patient contact / patient interaction.

 

[augeremt]

All these different descriptions just go to show that your role as an EMT will vary greatly based on the service and/or hospital you work at.

Your best bet would be to be realistic about your expectations and talk to people in your area involved in EMS (instructors, proctors, etc) to see what's best for what you want to do.

Best of luck to you! EMS is an awesome gig. For real.

 

[Dzerzhinsky]

Since I'm having such a hard time finding MA work I figured getting certified as an EMT would allow me more opportunity to work at night and on weekends (since I currently have a really good job at a virology lab). Anyway, I hope this question makes sense. I would really just like to use the EMT cert as a means of gaining clinical exposure at night and on weekends, since it's basically impossible to find MA work outside of the routine 9-5 schedule.

I decided to kill two birds with one stone (volunteering and clinical experience) and volunteer as an EMT. I've been very happy with that decision. With that said, a couple important points:

• Don't take it at the university. Find a volunteer squad and let them sponsor you. If they're not willing to do that, you're probably not going to be doing anything interesting.
• I'm in a mixed career/volunteer system that is, at my station, all-volunteer on nights and weekends, which means that I get to do a lot of patient-touching (ooh, that sounded dirty.) We run 911 calls instead of inter-facility transports. Either of these two factors changing might well make it a less rewarding experience.
• My intended specialty is emergency medicine, so this makes a lot of sense for me, and in fact I have heard that active and continuing involvement in EMS is often even a plus for EM residency applications. Your specialty mileage may vary.