you have EM as a major? The f***? Thats awesome.
Yeah, they're paramedic students. There are roughly 14 Bachelor's level paramedic programs in the United States. UPitt has a good program. UPitt has the distinction of calling their major "Emergency Medicine", whereas other schools like UMBC and UTHSCSA call it "Emergency Health Services" or "Paramedicine" (CWU) or "Emergency Medical Services (EMS)" (Creighton) or "Emergency Medical Care" (Western Carolina). The curriculum varies, but some of the schools have dedicated clinical programs complete with extensive preceptorships, hospital clinicals, flight time, etc. Most have fairly intense courses of study, generally with 1-2 years of prerequisite courses similar to nursing majors followed by 1-2 years of didactic and clinical exposure. UPitt, UMBC, and Carolina all follow a somewhat similar curriculum. Carolina and UMBC require a fairly respectable science background prior to matriculation into the program and offer pre-med advising to those students who think medical school is in their future, although I imagine any of the schools on the list could do this. I think UPitt certifies their people in critical care prior to graduation, which is sorta cool. I believe all of the clinical programs lead to eventual certification as a Nationally Registered Paramedic (NRP), which is the prerequisite for state licensure in almost every state.
Some of the programs are as follows. The first two are arguably the oldest and most well established, with Western Carolina getting honorable mention. UPitt and UMBC typically argue over who was the first and have fairly well established alumni networks. UPitt benefits from it's relationship with the school and UPMC and UMBC from its history with the University of Maryland Medical System and the state EMS system. Both have affiliations with EMS Fellowship programs and/or residencies. The paramedic degrees are great programs, especially if you're looking at being a professional paramedic or EMS manager. A few of them have a good track record of producing successful physicians. I think you'll see more of these programs pop-up in the next 10-15 years, especially as EMS comes into its own as a profession. Obviously, like any major, it is what you make of it :
University of Pittsburgh
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
Western Carolina University
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
University of Washington
Northern Arizona University
Loma Linda University
University of Texas Health Science Center of San Antonio (UTHSCSA)
Creighton University
San Jose State University
George Washington University (non-clinical)
Eastern Kentucky University
University of South Alabama
Central Washington University
