Decreased paramedic Student Class numbers

[Rick Tresnak]

I live in Iowa, and I have seen a significant drop in people moving up the ladder from EMT to Paramedic. We had one school that put on a class for 2 students so they wouldn't lose their credentials. I was wondering is this a nation wide problem?

 

[DesertMedic66]

Not here in SoCal. Every medic class has tons of applicants.

 

[MrJones]

I think, with the advent of the accreditation requirement, we will see fewer Paramedics in the pipeline due to fewer opportunities to obtain the necessary education and training. And the classes that are available will be full.

 

[TransportJockey]

Here the class numbers have dropped a little bit, but there are more pre-reqs now due to every school in the state being a degree school. There are no more certificate programs in NM (thankfully)

 

[terrible one]

Here the class numbers have dropped a little bit, but there are more pre-reqs now due to every school in the state being a degree school. There are no more certificate programs in NM (thankfully)

Wow that's awesome! Proud of my home state! Lol

 

[yowzer]

With only 3 or 4 paramedic programs in the state, there's always more people applying than there are spots in the classes.

Personally, I never bothered because I'd either have to move, or have a much longer commute for less money than I'm making now. Not worth it. Plenty of people feel otherwise, though.

 

[drjekyl75]

In Michigan, there are a ton of paramedic schools, but the quality of them varies greatly. Within a 30 minute ride of my house there are 11 schools and only 2-3 actually have a high success rate of turning out candidates that pass the NREMT written

 

[Rick Tresnak]

Man Michigan isn't that far from Iowa I wonder why there is such a difference in schools?

 

[drjekyl75]

I'm not sure about the success rates of candidates of the schools in your area, but some near me have a reputation as "EMS Factories." They always have large numbers of students that enroll and graduate the program, but only a small handful actually pass national registry. I had a student riding with me recently who was taking her Paramedic program through a local school. She said she went to another academy before passed the class and took the registry 3 times with no luck so she's redoing the whole class. She mentioned that there we 15 in her class and only 2 had passed the registry in the 12 months since her class ended. So maybe having a ton of schools isn't the best either.