PCT V. EMT in Chicagoland

[mrt438]

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I am interviewing for two jobs next week and was wondering if anyone could provide some insight on which one I should go for. One is a Patient Care Technician (as far as I can tell a CNA) in the orthopedic surgery floor at Rush Medical center. THe other is a EMT at Superior ambulance service. I have an EMT-B and want to get clinical experience to solidify my interest in medicine before I make the huge commitment to medical school. If anyone has any insight about the jobs (or the specific companies themselves) I would be very grateful!

 

[FlyinBryan]

Hi, I'm also a recently certified EMT, and have been working for a private ambulance company for the last few months, part-time. Our company has 911 contracts with several towns, and we do a lot of routine transports as well. About 60% of the calls I do are routine transports, the other 40% emergency calls. EMT is not a bad way to get your feet wet in the healthcare field--you'll get to see some interesting pathology and clinical presentations, which will complement some of what you learn in your studies....Thefirst severely jaundiced patient I ever saw, for instance, was a motivator to do some further reading on the causes of jaundice, blood composition, and liver function.

If you work for a company that takes 911 calls, you will get a lot of experience doing patient assessments, taking medical histories, taking vitals, forming a clinical field impression, and just dealing with a wide variety of people, some very nice folks who appreciate your help, and some who constitute the dregs of society (I know, not p.c. to say that, but true nonetheless). In short, the EMT-B ticket opens the door for you to work as an EMT-B, which will gain you some interesting experiences, and which is where your education as an EMT really begins. If you already have your cert., it would be invaluable to work in the field, even if only for a brief time, just to see what it's all about.

I can't speak for the CNA job, although I'm sure you'd gain a lot of knowledge and experience doing that as well, and the experience would be hospital-related and may give you better insights into the health-care field in general than working in pre-hospital care as an EMT.

Good luck

 

[TerraMedicX]

I'd have to say that your answer completely depends on the type of medicine you're interested in (or could potentially be interested in). I worked as a PCT-type in a medical clinic on campus before I got my paramedic. It was actually a great experience! I got to see and do some things in the clinic that I never would have gotten to do simply in the field, and it exposed me to primary care medicine. The later was probably the most important part of this experience for me because it really solidified to me that I'm not very interested in primary care, but if you don't have any experience, its hard to say this (and I still won't say for certain that I won't end-up in primary care!). On the other hand, you have absolutely NO autonomy in a clinical setting! In the field, you get to decide that to do to help your patients, and allows you to develop your own diagnositc skills and treatment regime development skills. I guess the long and short of it is, both settings have their advantages and disadvantages and you really can't go wrong as long as you can actually get some real patient contact!

Nate.

 

[RoadMedic]

I'm a new medic and work in an ER. I agree with TerraMedicX about adv/disadv to both. Especially true is that you will NOT have any autonomy other than in the prehosp enviroment. And then, you probably won't have much autonomy as an EMT-B unless you get in with a system that runs BLS trucks. Otherwise you'll be assisting a paramedic who will be calling the shots. None the less either is a good environment in which to learn. One thing I'll say about the ER though is that in one day I see a lot more patients than I would if I were in the field so I feel like I get the chance to see many more clinical presentations in a shorter time than I would if I were working in a truck. Even though I don't get to decide the pt's treatment I still assess them and try to decide what I think their treatment should be. Then I compare my plan to what the doc actually does so I feel that enviroment offers a lot of learning opportunities. Also, having a doc right there to answer questions is a great resource. The down side of there ER is that there's lots of bed making, bed pan changing, and stretcher pushing so there's a lot of grunt work that isn't particularly rewarding. However even with that said, the time I spend with the patient transporting them to a room is a great time to practice interviewing/assessment skills. So, as an instructor I had said, the hospital is a great place to learn because that's were the sick people are.

Hope this helps.