Paramedic Prior to Medical School

[musashi]

How many of you guys & gals that are EM residents started off as paramedics? I’m a paramedic student who is applying to med school next year and was curious. I’m applying to both MD & DO schools and am wondering if that helps or not in securing residency. I know I still have to be accepted, and then graduate med school, but it can’t hurt to wonder. For those of you that were medics before med school, do you feel it helped you land an acceptance and then later a residency? I’ve heard from a few people that paramedic experience is highly admired by adcoms and does earn you a few extra “points.” I feel fortunate because if I’m not accepted I’ll have a kick *** job that’s very rewarding and adventurous.

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[leviathan]

Don't know who told you that, but being a paramedic does very little to help your success. Use the search function above to look at prior users on here who have commented on this.

 

[MedicFL]

How many of you guys & gals that are EM residents started off as paramedics? I'm a paramedic student who is applying to med school next year and was curious. I'm applying to both MD & DO schools and am wondering if that helps or not in securing residency. I know I still have to be accepted, and then graduate med school, but it can't hurt to wonder. For those of you that were medics before med school, do you feel it helped you land an acceptance and then later a residency? I've heard from a few people that paramedic experience is highly admired by adcoms and does earn you a few extra "points." I feel fortunate because if I'm not accepted I'll have a kick *** job that's very rewarding and adventurous.

Paramedic doesn't help much at all. It is good for making contacts, but as far as academics goes, I don't think it has helped me much with Adcoms, I would compare it to volunteering. But it is all what you get out of it, I have published papers because of my job. But just being a paramedic by itself wont help you at all. If I could do it over I would have just gotten student loans and not worked my way through UG as it did impact my grades.

 

[musashi]

Don't know who told you that, but being a paramedic does very little to help your success. Use the search function above to look at prior users on here who have commented on this.

Actually, the first time I heard this was from the Dean of Admissions from my local medical school and from a few medical students themselves. Thank you for your venerable wisdom in telling me to use the search function. Just out of curiosity, are you a paramedic or med student here in the US?

 

[docB]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=480043

 

[a_ditchdoc]

I have to agree that it does little to help in the admissions process. Some feel that shadowing a physician is much more important. It can be a detriment in some cases: "We will have to retrain you", which is, in part, true.

I enjoyed my years as a paramedic, and I started without the goal of medical school clearly established. If I could do it over, I might have quit, gotten loans, and went to college full time and saved myself years of really hard work.

 

[Jeff698]

I've been a paramedic for 20 years now and going to medical school was the furthest thing from my mind for 13 of those years.

I don't know if my paramedic experience helped me gain admission or not. I think my accomplishments (non-clinical, sadly...clinical ones don't seem to count for much) might have helped. I know my prior life helped me tell the difference between sick and not sick but that certainly wasn't helpful back at admissions time.

If you are going to paramedic school only because you think it will look good to the adcoms, stop now. Your paramedic colleagues (myself included) will never accept or respect you and it'll do nothing to help you gain admission.

If you're already a paramedic and decide later to go to medical school, go for it. I wish you well and think you're experiences MAY be helpful.

Take care,
Jeff

 

[RockfordWF]

Don't know who told you that, but being a paramedic does very little to help your success. Use the search function above to look at prior users on here who have commented on this.

I disagree. I excelled above and beyond my classmates initially with my clinical skills learned as a paramedic. I actually helped teach my classmates ACLS, IV's, intubations, etc. The pharmacology and cardiology I learned in paramedic school also gave me the upper hand at learning the info.

I've had nurses in the ED many times ask if I've "done this before."

You can't underestimate the value of being a paramedic---especially if you are going into EM.

Not only did I discuss my paramedic experience at ALL of my medical school interviews----I discusses it at ALL of my EM residency interviews. I even had one EM interview tell me I was "born to do emergency medicine."

Don't even post on here and tell me that being a paramedic is of no value.

 

[a_ditchdoc]

I disagree. I excelled above and beyond my classmates initially with my clinical skills learned as a paramedic. I actually helped teach my classmates ACLS, IV's, intubations, etc. The pharmacology and cardiology I learned in paramedic school also gave me the upper hand at learning the info.

I've had nurses in the ED many times ask if I've "done this before."

You can't underestimate the value of being a paramedic---especially if you are going into EM.

Not only did I discuss my paramedic experience at ALL of my medical school interviews----I discusses it at ALL of my EM residency interviews. I even had one EM interview tell me I was "born to do emergency medicine."

Don't even post on here and tell me that being a paramedic is of no value.

I am not sure anyone said it was of "no" value. It certainly is not a great help in the admissions process, although I concede it depends on the place. My experiences certainly helped me, but not necessarily my "paramedic". I'll tell you what it didn't do, help me through biochem and molecular biology. Of course, pharm was much more familiar. Second year was much easier than first as a result of my training.

The truth is, it did help once I was in. I can really stick a mean IV. I can pretty much put a needle right where I want it. Perhaps I am a little better at a few procedures, and I know what a "sick person" looks like. I don't even get all that excited when a patient drops dead... "Ahem...paddles please."

Here is what I learned as well. I thought I knew more than I did, the same thing I will surely say a few years from now. EM requires a whole new skill set that I am trying to get used to. I can't even begin to describe it, but it is not the nearly the same as being in the streets. If I had spent those 25,000 hours in medical school and the ED, rather then the back of an ambulance, I would be wealthier, healthier, and wiser.

I suppose it is a bell curve. Spend to little time doing it before medical school, and you don't get much out of it that you couldn't get in medical school and a good book. Spend too much, and you would have been better served learning your trade as an EM physician years earlier. I am not so sure where the sweet spot is.

Don't get so defensive. Many of us were medics for years and certainly love the profession. While I still reap the benefits from my experiences, I can't come close to the performance of the seniors in my program just two years, or even one year, ahead of me.

I promise you will be humbled more than once during the next year...

 

[12R34Y]

I disagree. I excelled above and beyond my classmates initially with my clinical skills learned as a paramedic. I actually helped teach my classmates ACLS, IV's, intubations, etc. The pharmacology and cardiology I learned in paramedic school also gave me the upper hand at learning the info.

I've had nurses in the ED many times ask if I've "done this before."

You can't underestimate the value of being a paramedic---especially if you are going into EM.

Not only did I discuss my paramedic experience at ALL of my medical school interviews----I discusses it at ALL of my EM residency interviews. I even had one EM interview tell me I was "born to do emergency medicine."

Don't even post on here and tell me that being a paramedic is of no value.

I agree. Been a paramedic for 10 years now roughly and it was the single coolest, best, rewarding thing I've ever done.

It helped tremendously during medical school with similar experiences as the above poster (ie teaching fellow students ACLS, IV's, rocking in the clinical skills labs etc...).

Also when you start clinicals or do an EM rotation and you tube some guy like you've been doing it for years or start a peripheral IV etc...it really does make you stand out.

I don't know how it affects admissions committee stuff, but I clearly (if I sat on an adcom) would value someone who has been doing fairly independent care of sometimes critically ill patients for years in the back of an ambulance than someone who "volunteered" at a local ER getting blankets, and pushing people to x-ray etc...

Not that I am bashing volunteerism or that it doesn't matter, but to say that being a medic is useless is just not correct IMHO.

I wouldn't have done it any other way and it has paid off tremendously.

Now, I also agree with Jeff in that if you do the paramedic thing strictly to get into medical school that means little. You should actuallly USE your medic skills and work prior to medical school for the added benefit again, IMHO.

I worked full time for about 5 years as a medic and it was AWESOME!

good luck,

later

 

[FLTDOC1]

Don't know who told you that, but being a paramedic does very little to help your success. Use the search function above to look at prior users on here who have commented on this.

There may be some debate as to if working as a medic helps your med school application... There is no doubt in my mind ( and as academic EM staff) that it is an absolute plus when applying for an EM residency

 

[a_ditchdoc]

There may be some debate as to if working as a medic helps your med school application... There is no doubt in my mind ( and as academic EM staff) that it is an absolute plus when applying for an EM residency

Applying to residency I was certainly recieved very well, in large part because of my clinical background in EMS. Applying to medical school was a mixed bag depending on the interviewer. Unfortunately, most people on an admissions committee are not well versed in the role of EMS and we are often viewed as glorified taxi drivers. A friend of mine that applied (still applying), after 6-7 years as a full time paramedic, was rejected from one school because of "Lack of clinically relevant experiences and volunteer activities". The interviewers did not consider an EMS career to be as relevant as shadowing a physician for forty hours. Volunteering in EMS, something he did for years, was not seen as community service. I admit my earlier post may be a bit skewed because of this. He is a smart guy, with decent grades and an incredible work ethic, yet he still has had no luck with admissions. It is a shame.

To be honest, now that I am rested and in a less cynical mood, it is hard for me to guage how much EMS experience has helped me because I'll never know what it is like to train without it. There is no way to seperate where I learned various things: in paramedic school, from dealing with patients, in medical school, or from reading it on my own in a book somewhere. I also have no idea how I compare to the other interns in my program as I seldomly work with them. I'll leave it to those that train physicians, with and without EMS experience, to judge just how beneficial being a paramedic is.

 

[leviathan]

Actually, the first time I heard this was from the Dean of Admissions from my local medical school and from a few medical students themselves. Thank you for your venerable wisdom in telling me to use the search function. Just out of curiosity, are you a paramedic or med student here in the US?

I wouldn't consider it wise to use a search button, but you obviously need to learn if you haven't seen the hundred threads already on this topic. I was just trying to lend you a hand. I am a paramedic outside of the US, but I have heard from US residents, med students, attendings, etc. on the subject just by browsing SDN.

 

[leviathan]

I disagree. I excelled above and beyond my classmates initially with my clinical skills learned as a paramedic. I actually helped teach my classmates ACLS, IV's, intubations, etc. The pharmacology and cardiology I learned in paramedic school also gave me the upper hand at learning the info.

It certainly opens your eyes to a small window of the medicine you learn in school, but you still have to learn things in much greater depth.

I've had nurses in the ED many times ask if I've "done this before."

Seeming you presumably have done it before, I hope they have asked this!

Don't even post on here and tell me that being a paramedic is of no value.

Obviously you didn't learn how to read in paramedic school. We are talking about value towards gaining acceptance into medical school. But on that note, though it was my own assumption that being a paramedic would give you a leg up in medical school, the opinion of many members on this board who have already gone to medical school doesn't seem to be the same.

 

[notdeadyet]

Not only did I discuss my paramedic experience at ALL of my medical school interviews----I discusses it at ALL of my EM residency interviews. I even had one EM interview tell me I was "born to do emergency medicine."

Don't even post on here and tell me that being a paramedic is of no value.

How respected and useful experiences working as a paramedic will be for med school and residency admissions is a bit moot, no? By my read, the OP is going to be applying as he wraps up his paramedic training. He'll have a few months experience at most by the time he applies and six to nine months by the time he interviews.

When doing interviews, my general approach is to not put too much weight on anything an applicant hasn't done for at least a couple of years. Anything else is nice, but not all that impressive. For any job that you do that has any complexity (like a paramedic, I'd imagine) the first year or two are really more OJT than anything. I think I'd be a little underwhelmed by an applicant who showed so little time on his app. I just don't see a few months as being enough to have a huge impact on what makes you who you are.

A paramedic with ten years experience under his belt would be perceived at residency inteviews one way, but how would the interviewee be perceived talking about the 10 months he spent as a paramedic five years ago?

 

[enfuegoEP]

IMHO working as a paramedic won't help much in the way of being a better clinician, but it will indicate that you definitely picked the right career. If you've done EMS you'll love emergency medicine. Rockford is right when he says it gives you a lot to talk about on interviews.

 

[plasticcigar]

IMHO working as a paramedic won't help much in the way of being a better clinician, but it will indicate that you definitely picked the right career. If you've done EMS you'll love emergency medicine. Rockford is right when he says it gives you a lot to talk about on interviews.

Uhh...I have to disagree. One point I haven't seen mentioned is the fact that if you're a paramedic for 5-10 years, you won't be 24 years old when you start interacting with patients in a meaningful way. Even if all of the patient assessment skills, critical thinking, and procedural skills that you learned as a paramedic were of no use to you as a physician (and I think most people realize they are), the fact that you're older and have more life experience does make you a better clinician. I'm sorry, but 20-somethings and 30-somethings tend to interact with patients in a very different way.

I can't even count the number of times I've seen comments on my evaluations about my maturity, or ability to interact with patients and other caregivers, or my ability to independently manage patients being way above my peers. I'm not that smart (trust me!), so I think some of it has to be the fact that 10 years ago I was running codes by myself, and deciding when someone was sick enough to jam a tube down their throat, and deciding when (with a base physician consult, of course) someone really shouldn't be resuscitated. I've had to tell people that their loved ones have died, run mass casualty incidents, and learned my strengths and weaknesses throughout the process.

Judgement and intuition are formed from your clinical experiences (hopefully). I'm sorry, but spending 5 or 10 years being the one ultimately responsible for a patient's care does contribute just a tiny bit to your clinical skills.

I've noticed that my classmates with little clinical experience just refuse to believe that someone who spend all day driving an ambulance for 10 years might know something they don't about taking care of patients. Those of us who were paramedics realize that we had the unique opportunity to assess and treat patients unsupervised--one we won't get again until after residency. Anyone who didn't improve their clinical skills (become a batter clinician) after 10 years of seeing patients has no place in the medical field.

So, become a paramedic to get into med school/residency? No way. Has it helped - hell yes!

I'm going to go take my arthritis meds now and curl up with a warm blanket on the couch now. Then i'll put my dentures back in, get some dinner and wait for medicaire to kick in.

 

[RockfordWF]

It certainly opens your eyes to a small window of the medicine you learn in school, but you still have to learn things in much greater depth.


Seeming you presumably have done it before, I hope they have asked this!


Obviously you didn't learn how to read in paramedic school. We are talking about value towards gaining acceptance into medical school. But on that note, though it was my own assumption that being a paramedic would give you a leg up in medical school, the opinion of many members on this board who have already gone to medical school doesn't seem to be the same.

My argument was against your statement: "being a paramedic does very little to help your success."

My medical school admissions committee holds prior medical experience in a very high regard. This may be due to the fact that I attend an osteopathic medical school, and they look for people with personalities and experience, instead of enter grades and MCAT into a machine to spit out acceptances.....

 

[RockfordWF]

How respected and useful experiences working as a paramedic will be for med school and residency admissions is a bit moot, no? By my read, the OP is going to be applying as he wraps up his paramedic training. He'll have a few months experience at most by the time he applies and six to nine months by the time he interviews.

When doing interviews, my general approach is to not put too much weight on anything an applicant hasn't done for at least a couple of years. Anything else is nice, but not all that impressive. For any job that you do that has any complexity (like a paramedic, I'd imagine) the first year or two are really more OJT than anything. I think I'd be a little underwhelmed by an applicant who showed so little time on his app. I just don't see a few months as being enough to have a huge impact on what makes you who you are.

A paramedic with ten years experience under his belt would be perceived at residency inteviews one way, but how would the interviewee be perceived talking about the 10 months he spent as a paramedic five years ago?

It's allow about how you present the information. If you state you "only did it for a little while," it will be of no benefit.

If you do however state you were a paramedic, and back it up with some stories, it will be much more effective. I was asked to tell funny or extreme paramedic stories at 100% of my medical school interviews.

 

[musashi]

First of all I’d like to thank those of you who took the time to respond to this thread. I know many of you are med students, residents, or attendings whose time is extremely valuable so thank you for your time. I think my original post was worded poorly. It was not my intention to say that becoming a paramedic would “get me in” to medical school. I think a bit more about my background is in order. Up until a a couple of years ago I was a career 10th grade world history teacher. I earned my masters in history and thought this was what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, I realized albeit a tad late that this was not where I wanted to be and became disillusioned that I wasn’t making a difference. I decided to switch gears a bit. I never once even thought about medicine until the ripe young age of 32. I enrolled post bac to acquire those sciences which I had never take in undergrad or grad school. Through researching this process (something a history degree has taught me well) I realized I didn’t have much if anything to offer in the way of clinical experience. I became certified as an EMT-B and on my first rotations immediately had the proverbial “click” in my head. This is where I wanted to be. I now realized that the odds were against me of getting in: 34 y/o 3.1 gpa, no biology degree and not really a science kinda guy.

I’m almost done with my prereqs and while my undergrad gpa is still way under par, my science gpa is around a 3.8. Because I’m a realist, I asked myself what I would do if I don’t get in on my first attempt. That answer was easy. I would love to continue my EMT training and become a paramedic. So, I guess with my rather tedious post I’m trying to say that I’m actually becoming a paramedic so that if I don’t get in I will have an awesome job, making a difference, with a lifestyle I’d like to live. Here in south Texas there is Austin/Travis county EMS which continually ranks top 3 in the nation for EMS services. You have to actually try out to make it in and then you have to go through a 3 month academy to work for them. This is all after you are finished my national registry. So, while I hope I can land an acceptance next year, if I don’t then I will be perfectly happy with plan B. If I can convince the adcoms to accept me then I will have a better appreciation of patient care, and emergency medicine skills, which I hope to hone to a fine point in an EM residency down the road and maybe a couple of funny and I’m sure sad stories to talk about during my interview. Okay, I’m going back to lurking here on SDN and once again want to thank those that have spoken their thoughts. I appreciate candor above all else.

Scott

 

[12R34Y]

Uhh...I have to disagree. One point I haven't seen mentioned is the fact that if you're a paramedic for 5-10 years, you won't be 24 years old when you start interacting with patients in a meaningful way. Even if all of the patient assessment skills, critical thinking, and procedural skills that you learned as a paramedic were of no use to you as a physician (and I think most people realize they are), the fact that you're older and have more life experience does make you a better clinician. I'm sorry, but 20-somethings and 30-somethings tend to interact with patients in a very different way.

I can't even count the number of times I've seen comments on my evaluations about my maturity, or ability to interact with patients and other caregivers, or my ability to independently manage patients being way above my peers. I'm not that smart (trust me!), so I think some of it has to be the fact that 10 years ago I was running codes by myself, and deciding when someone was sick enough to jam a tube down their throat, and deciding when (with a base physician consult, of course) someone really shouldn't be resuscitated. I've had to tell people that their loved ones have died, run mass casualty incidents, and learned my strengths and weaknesses throughout the process.

Judgement and intuition are formed from your clinical experiences (hopefully). I'm sorry, but spending 5 or 10 years being the one ultimately responsible for a patient's care does contribute just a tiny bit to your clinical skills.

I've noticed that my classmates with little clinical experience just refuse to believe that someone who spend all day driving an ambulance for 10 years might know something they don't about taking care of patients. Those of us who were paramedics realize that we had the unique opportunity to assess and treat patients unsupervised--one we won't get again until after residency. Anyone who didn't improve their clinical skills (become a batter clinician) after 10 years of seeing patients has no place in the medical field.

So, become a paramedic to get into med school/residency? No way. Has it helped - hell yes!

I'm going to go take my arthritis meds now and curl up with a warm blanket on the couch now. Then i'll put my dentures back in, get some dinner and wait for medicaire to kick in.

Well said and could not agree more!

 

[leviathan]

My argument was against your statement: "being a paramedic does very little to help your success."

Which was referring to success for gaining entry into medical school (the topic of this thread), so the statement still stands that you were barking up the wrong tree.

My medical school admissions committee holds prior medical experience in a very high regard. This may be due to the fact that I attend an osteopathic medical school, and they look for people with personalities and experience, instead of enter grades and MCAT into a machine to spit out acceptances.....

Well kudos to your school then. I think experience as a paramedic should give you a huge leg up in getting into medical school, for so many different reasons. Unfortunately I was just echoing the opinions of those on this board who have personal experience which speaks for the opposite. I remember one person commenting that they had been flat-out rejected by their local medical school, only to have the same school come to them and ask for help in teaching ACLS to their medical students a short while later.

 

[pseudoknot]

I remember one person commenting that they had been flat-out rejected by their local medical school, only to have the same school come to them and ask for help in teaching ACLS to their medical students a short while later.

I think that was foughtfyr. His local med school was unusually hard to get into, IIRC.

That's still pretty messed up though.

 

[Squad51]

I think that was foughtfyr. His local med school was unusually hard to get into, IIRC.

That's still pretty messed up though.

I think this has the story you were talking about. I just added this to the sticky in the EMS forum but I am posting it here because it is en pointe to the OP's question.

Foughtfyr and OSUDoc (two former members) posted some pretty strong opinions on the subject in this thread http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=254483

I loved being an EMT (and a paramedic) but, as a former paramedic instructor, Adcom member, and now EM resident, I can tell you it won't help you get in...

{insert wavy lines fadeout here}

I was a paramedic instructor at a medical center directly affiliated with a medical school. As such, I was asked to teach the third year students "ward skills", e.g., how to defibrillate, start IVs, etc. I would have done so happily, except I had recieved a rejection letter (before interview) the day before! Yep, I can teach there - just can't go there! And not even a courtesy interview...

Even better - the next year when I was teaching an EMT-B course at another facility, I gave my usual talk on "not using an EMT cert. as a tool to get into medical school as I've been a paramedic for years and can't get in", and I had two students who were in the post-bac program at the school that rejected me. They said "that's nothing, one of our teachers told us about a paramedic who got asked to teach ward skills to our M3 class the day after he got a rejection letter from our school. (The teacher) told us that just goes to show how ridiculous the admissions process is..." I wish I had a camera when I confirmed the story firsthand - their faces were classic!

Apparently, word of my story got around. I really would have loved to be a fly on the wall at that adcom meeting.

{insert wavy lines fadeout here}

- H

Then OSU responded:

I completely disagree with this. EMS experience is invaluable. There is no reason why this person should not get EMS experience. I always recieved higher grades while I was doing my EMS training, so that is not an excuse.

To which Foughtfyr said:

Sorry that you disagree but I think the point is that few (if any) adcoms will give EMS providers preference. So, if the ONLY reason for taking EMS training to to buff your CV for medical school admit - don't do it. If you want a great experience that will educate you on a wide variety of patient care issues and in my opinion make you a better doctor (eventually) then take the training by all means. I guess the difference is in the motivation...

- H

And the last exchange on the topic began:

I was asked to discuss my EMS experience in all 4 medical school interviews that I completed.

and ended:

As was I, but I didn't get in initially, despite 8 years of FF/EMT-P. When later on an Adcom no preference was given to EMS professionals over that given to anyone with any other job. When I asked "why?", I was told, essentially, that "anyone" could do EMS (they cited local volunteer ALS EMS squads as evidence) and that there was no academic rigor to EMS programs (again, citing a lack of collegiate pre-reqs). Additionally, several members felt that 'medics were "too cocky to train" and others felt that "most applicants with an EMT certificate just got (the cert) to try and get in here". In short, no real love for the EMS folks. Since then I've talked to other residents who served on Adcoms at their medical schools, I've yet to find one that "pref"ed EMS providers.

I've got to believe (again, from my experience) that if your personal statement or application discussed your summer job making candy on Mackinac Island that would have been discussed in all of the medical school interviews you completed. EMS was most certainly a big part of your application, so what else should have been discussed?

Look, I am not saying that EMS experience isn't useful to a medical education. It is - very. What I am saying is that if the OP, or anyone else, is taking an EMS course solely to improve their CV, it won't meet that goal any better than would any other job.

- H

It is the same at my school. EMS personnel receive no admissions preference beyond that given to anyone who had a job prior to their studies. Does it help in clinical rotations - absolutely! In residency - probably, ask me next year. But for admission? Not one bit.

 

[RockfordWF]

I think this has the story you were talking about. I just added this to the sticky in the EMS forum but I am posting it here because it is en pointe to the OP's question.

Foughtfyr and OSUDoc (two former members) posted some pretty strong opinions on the subject in this thread http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=254483



Then OSU responded:


To which Foughtfyr said:


And the last exchange on the topic began:


and ended:


It is the same at my school. EMS personnel receive no admissions preference beyond that given to anyone who had a job prior to their studies. Does it help in clinical rotations - absolutely! In residency - probably, ask me next year. But for admission? Not one bit.

Once again, I agree that it probably helps you very little. However, if you have two equal applicants, and one working in EMS and the other worked in a coffee shop, the EMS would beat it out. Medical schools, particularly DO schools, are looking for people who have worked in a medical field and know that they like medicine. Those people who have no medical experience whatsoever are moved down on the list of preferred candidates.

 

[Squad51]

Once again, I agree that it probably helps you very little. However, if you have two equal applicants, and one working in EMS and the other worked in a coffee shop, the EMS would beat it out. Medical schools, particularly DO schools, are looking for people who have worked in a medical field and know that they like medicine. Those people who have no medical experience whatsoever are moved down on the list of preferred candidates.

I was the student rep on the Adcom at my school (allopathic). I can tell you that we used a "points" based system (applicants given points for specific achievements). Discussions between committee members were used to decide between similar applicants. I can tell you in those discussions the Adcom would be split 50-50. Half of the committee would take the coffee shop worker over the EMT. They would cite the "cocky" and "difficult to train" nature of some EMS providers. They would also argue that the points system was specifically designed to prevent making value judgments between similar factors (should we take the applicant who worked at Dunkin Donuts over one who worked at Starbucks because the coffee is better?). Those "pro-EMS" members would argue experience and patient contact etc. In the end, it was a wash. I think that if you poll people who actually sat on adcoms (as opposed to those just offering up their opinion as medical students) you would find that it is not an edge in the allopathic schools. No knock on DOs, I just didn't go to a DO school so I can't speak to their practices.

I honestly do think it helped me in my residency applications - but I reserve the right to change that opinion next Thursday.

 

[crewmaster1]

I think EMS experience is a useful thing on your CV. When I interviewed for med school my EMS experience was a major topic in almost every single interview I did. I think it also helped in residency interviews showing that I was committed to EM and had a significant amount of first hand experience (a lot more than most med students with a couple of months!). I think it is all how you spin the experience. If you come in saying that med school is going to be easy because you've been a medic for X years doing this all by yourself in the field....your EMS experience will NOT help you. I spun it as an experience that allowed me to get very involved in the field of medicine, see many different opportunities to work in medicine (EMS, nursing home, RN, RT, MD, etc) and it helped me decide what I wanted to do. I also discussed how I felt it was a better experience than being an ER tech, or CNA, or shadowing a MD because in EMS you are forced to make decisions in the field with limited resources and live by those decisions. You were held accountable for these decisions and you made a difference in patient care. An ER tech just gets told what to do, shadowing an MD before med school you just watch, being an EMT and actually providing care is a much more useful experience. You can also discuss role model physicians you have met during your EMS experience that maybe inspired you.
I echo what was said above, it probably won't help you as much if you have been doing EMS for less than one year, but I see that the OP is using it as a back up plan. I wouldn't mention that too much in your interviews.

 

[crewmaster1]

And....if that med school thinks EMS makes you a worse applicant, who wants to go there anyways!

 

[musashi]

I echo what was said above, it probably won't help you as much if you have been doing EMS for less than one year, but I see that the OP is using it as a back up plan. I wouldn't mention that too much in your interviews.

Thanks for the advice. I had a friend who interviewed and at the end was asked, "what will you do if you don't get in this cycle?" If I get similar question, I was thinking of answering along these lines. Well, I feel very fortunate that If I'm not accepted I will still have an awesome and fun job, in which I'll be doing something I love, getting lots of patient contact, and continually honing my critical thinking skills and hopefully become the best medic that I can. I can understand about what some of you are saying about being too cocky. I've seen a few of those. Since I'm STARTING this journey at 34 I have a better appreciation and sense of humility, which I can only hope will carry over and allow me to become the best damn medic that I can be.

 

[crewmaster1]

I had a friend who interviewed and at the end was asked, "what will you do if you don't get in this cycle?"

I was asked that question during my interview at UW. I replied that I would take another year to make myself a better applicant to medical school. They then asked what I would do if I couldn't ever get in....FF/medic was job choice #2.

 

[leviathan]

And....if that med school thinks EMS makes you a worse applicant, who wants to go there anyways!

I agree, BUT, beggars can't be choosers.

 

[Squad51]

And....if that med school thinks EMS makes you a worse applicant, who wants to go there anyways!

There is a difference between not extending special treatment or additional consideration to those with EMS experience and thinking EMS makes you a "worse" applicant. As a rule, the people on adcoms I have spoken with (n=~5, all allopathic and all conversations from the standpoint of myself being on one as opposed to the "for public consumption" answers given to applicants) have indicated no special preference was given to current / former EMS personnel in their admissions process. All saw it much as we did. It indicated you could hold down a responsible job. It was given as much credit as any other job. Sorry. That said - I got in, as did many other EMS personnel. I think our committee's stance was appropriate on balance and I believe it represents a common practice in allopathic schools. (Again, I can not speak for osteopathic institutions. Allegedly they are different, but I've always wondered how much).