N.A. or E.M.T.??

[MaybeMD]

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I have to get a job soon, and I want it to be something that medically related. So I am going to either be a nursing assistant or an EMT. If you feel that you know something about the two professions, please comment. Thanks in advance!

 

[wolferman]

I'd do the CNA. That way you can make money in your time off (summers) in med school. I bet it's harder to find part time work as an EMT than it is as a CNA.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

According to a friend, it's pretty easy to find part-time work as an EMT, too. They take long shifts (12-24h), so you can pick up one or two a week. Don't know anything about CNAs, though.

 

[deleted6669]

CNA = DIAPER CHANGES AND FEEDINGS IN NURSING HOME
EMT=911 CALLS, ER EXPOSURE AND STUDY TIME BETWEEN CALLS
YOU DECIDE.......

 

[Deuce 007 MD]

Originally posted by emedpa
CNA = DIAPER CHANGES AND FEEDINGS IN NURSING HOME
EMT=911 CALLS, ER EXPOSURE AND STUDY TIME BETWEEN CALLS
YOU DECIDE.......

I like this answer.

 

[Moneyless]

Originally posted by Deuce 007 MD
I like this answer.

me too

 

[Horseradish99]

I might be a little biased, but I was an NA for three years in an ICU. Yes, there is butt wiping, feeding, bathing, dressing, cleaning up, emptying catheter bags, crotch shaving, enemas, and all around low stuff, but I can not tell you ENOUGH about the level of exposure into medicine it provided me.

It was a VERY humbling experience, and the amount of patient contact I got was immeasurable. I dealt with death and dying, families and lots of ethical decisions, codes!, respiratory care, CT scans, etc. I witnessed surgeries, helped perform simple procedures, befriended patients and their families, and was constantly taken aside by the nurses to have them show me something new.

I learned just how much nurses' intellect and training is taken for granted, at least the Critical Care Nurses I met. Being on the bottom of the totem pole in terms of medical care was overwhelming at times, but so humbling and so beneficial to understanding why I wanted to choose medicine as a career.

I can't speak for EMTs-- I know they might see a lot of action, but I'm telling you, if you want patient contact, and if you want to learn to work with patients and interact with them, choose NA!

🙂 Scott

 

[X]

My vote goes for the EMT. I think I learned a lot doing that. As a nursing assistant you have to do the stuff that people mentioned and you just have to figure if you are okay with that. And the EMT job is much more fun, but the pay sucks.

X

 

[deleted9493]

If you're interested in getting patient contact/care experience, become a nursing assistant. You will have considerably greater opportunities to develop interpersonal skills as a nursing assistant. Additionally, because of the nursing shortage you will likely have opportunities to work as little or as much as you like. I currently work 8 hours a week because I'm readying for the mcat this semester...but I could very easily work full-time...if I chose to. If you're considering EMT too...why not be an NA in an emergency room? Often they call them nursing techs but their qualifications are certainly not much greater (a few extra weeks of orientating). EMT's also have considerably less physician contact than NA's do. Certainly a nursing home NA will have extremely little physician contact....but I'm talking with physicians all throughout my shifts at the hospital. Whatever you do, do what you think you would enjoy most.

 

[DoctorWannaBe]

Are Patient Care Techs the same as Nursing Techs? I volunteer at a hospital and a nurse there said I should look into becoming an ER tech. I was considering this or becoming an EMT, but with EMT I think I'd have to go to the community college to get the degree.

Does anyone here know anything about scribes (basically take notes on what the doctor wants, writes up prescriptions, calls other doctors, etc.)? I was told to look into that too in the ER, but it seems basically like a secretary job. I guess the advantage to it is that you get to work directly with a doctor, but there's no patient contact.

 

[deleted9493]

Generally speaking, patient care techs., patient care associates and nursing assistants all fulfill much the same roles. Official titles are different from hospital to hospital. I'm not at all familiar with the role of "scribe" that you're referring to. In the day of dictating machines and ease of sending out prescriptions through PDA's/computers....it seems as though such a role would be increasingly diminished but I'm sure it still exists somewhere.

If I were you and I lived near a major hospital network, I would find out about employment opportunities without necessary certification first. I work as a nursing assistant and didn't pay a dime for certification. The hospital trained me in all necessary aspects of patient care and actually paid me for the training. I would start at this point first....and find out what your options are. Note: I am not officially a Certified Nursing Assistant...I just do what they do.

 

[deleted9493]

Nursing tech. are usually involved in the more acute hospital settings (ICU's, burn units, emergency). From what I've seen, a patient care tech is the same thing as a nursing assistant (generally).

Try to get into contact with the ER clinical manager and talk to him/her about becoming a tech. Clinical managers in the hospital will generally be able to get you a position more quickly than anybody else in the hospital (usually much much faster than a typical HR department).

 

[lattimer13]

i did EMT and loved it. now working as an ER tech before starting school in july. you get to do tons of patient care stuff (drawing blood, splinting broken bones, ekg's, wound cleaning, etc.), but you also have to clean beds and sometimes clean up poop and pee. guess somebody's got to do the dirty work, but i'll only be doing it for a few more months.😀

oh, the hospital i work at doesn't require any certification like CNA, NA, or EMT. but my EMT stuff and previous experience did help since 25 people interviewed for 2 openings (according to the charge nurse that hired me).

 

[MaybeMD]

Originally posted by emedpa
CNA = DIAPER CHANGES AND FEEDINGS IN NURSING HOME
EMT=911 CALLS, ER EXPOSURE AND STUDY TIME BETWEEN CALLS
YOU DECIDE.......

This is why I am asking. I wanted to know if the diaper changing, feedings, etc... are worth it. I would work at a children's hospital if I were to go the NA route (I know some people there). So it may not be as bad as doing it somewhere else. But thanks for the input y'all.

This is why I f*ckin love this site 😀. There are always people willing to help you out!

 

[MaybeMD]

Oh yeah, do you need to anything extra to be an ER tech? Or is it just something else you can do with your EMT training?

 

[oldman]

There are many job opportunities at the entry level. NA and EMT are ones where you require training. As an EMT you can work in the ER or work ambulance shifts etc.

Two things I have done that required no training (as in going to a community college to get certified) was working as a rehabilitation technician and a phlebotomist. As a rehab tech, I worked with patients recovering from surgeries (CABG, Hip, etc) and people on long term stays because of antibiotic treatments. All I needed was a high school degree and I was doing a lot of hands on stuff with patients such as helping them with exercises and other stuff that is involved in PT/OT.

As a phlebotomist, I had the opportunity to draw blood from all sorts of patients in a hospital (ranging from a few hours old to 90 years old). I worked in a small hospital so often times I was it as far as the person doing blood draws. I responded to code blues. It was also a good learning experience.

In either case, I didn't need any extra certification. I worked in Maryland and Minnesota for my rehab tech and phlebotomy jobs respectively. I know that you need phlebotomy certification in California, this involves some sort of internship where you do about 50 blood draws. I got my "training" by following around the other phlebotomist for 3 days starting on nursing home patients.

This is just to let you know there are other things to do in a hospital that can get some patient contact. I personally didn't worry about how much contact I had with doctors, in fact it's often useful to not work with them directly. That way you can hear about what people complain about as far as doctors go. I've gotten lots of advice as to things I should and should not do as a doc.

PM me if you have other questions.

 

[oldman]

Oh as far as being an EMT, I was also that. I did it on a volunteer unit. I had a lot of fun being in the uniform doing things. I volunteer at a University where I am at sporting events and concerts. Usually I didn't have much to do, though I have had some major accidents. Doing EMT stuff can definitely get you a chance to do some work that sets off your sympathetic nervous system which is always fun (i have a neuro test coming up...let's see if i can get this right). Norepi stimulates the alpha 1 adrenergic to vasoconstrict, stimulates beta 1 to increase heart contractility. Epi stimulates alpha 1 ( i think) on the skeletal muscle vasculature to incrase the blood flow to the muscle to help me move faster....Now why am I talking about this? Oh yeah, emting. well as you can tell I'm a total dork. Once again, feel free to PM me if you are interesting in knowing about EMT, rehab tech, or phlebotomy.

 

[oldman]

Originally posted by oldman
Norepi stimulates the alpha 1 adrenergic to vasoconstrict, stimulates beta 1 to increase heart contractility. Epi stimulates alpha 1 ( i think) on the skeletal muscle vasculature to incrase the blood flow to the muscle to help me move faster....Now why am I talking about this?

i was wrong, epi stimulates the beta 2 receptors (beta dilates alpha constricts) on the smooth muscle cells of the blood vessels located in the skeletal muscle.

 

[PluckyDuk8]

I'm working as an EMT this year...so I don't have to repreat myself, read some of the comments I wrote in this thread...Feel free to pm me if you have any questions (or post them here).

http://www.studentdoctor.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59292&highlight=EMT

 

[neofight]

Could someone share how their experience for getting an EMT certification? Specifically, how many courses are needed and the cost? Also, was the training at a special EMT training school or a community college? Thanks.

 

[oldman]

Originally posted by neofight
Could someone share how their experience for getting an EMT certification? Specifically, how many courses are needed and the cost? Also, was the training at a special EMT training school or a community college? Thanks.

you can go to a community college to get the training. the course i took was 1 semester long and cost about 400 bucks. it actually went onto my transcript when applying for med school and was worth 7 credits of sweet tasty A.

if you are in baltimore, i took it at the baltimore city community college.

 

[chapinsita]

I got my EMT cert after taking an intensive (10hr/day) class for 11 days (or maybe it was two weeks? it's all a blur). Anyway, it cost me around $300 including the examination fee. Some stuff was fun, other stuff was boring. The test was easy but you did have to study for all the little detail stuff. I did the course through a private company during my winter break so it was cool because it didn't take up any of my time once I was back in school. I live in so. cal so if you're there, I can give you the name of the company I did it with, just PM me.

 

[nickdv]

Well, I think that the details here are probably variable based on where you are in the country. From what I've seen here in NJ, you would basically be taking a class at a community college or similar public institute. I took the course over about 4 months, twice a week for 3 hours each night (with a few weekend training sessions). In the summer, it was also possible to do an accelerated one month course. As for the cost, this really depends on the state. In NJ, as long as you are already associated with a public rescue squad, all of your fees will be taken care of by the squad. So, contact a squad before-hand if you plan on being a volunteer.