EMS Research?

IvanD

IvanD

Forum Crew Member
Messages
69
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hey all,

I'm currently a freshman in college and am someone with great interest in the field of EMS, however due to certain circumstances (not being american) I won't be able to pursue this as a career or even a part time job before med school. (will still be getting certified as a basic)

However, I'm looking to do some research during summers and I want my research to be meaningful, I thought of all those EMS research out there. If I wanted to participate/help with research related to EMS or emergency medicine, could anyone point me in a direction to start looking? At the moment I have zero clue on how to find such a position...

Thanks all!
 
IvanD said:
Hey all,

I'm currently a freshman in college and am someone with great interest in the field of EMS, however due to certain circumstances (not being american) I won't be able to pursue this as a career or even a part time job before med school. (will still be getting certified as a basic)

However, I'm looking to do some research during summers and I want my research to be meaningful, I thought of all those EMS research out there. If I wanted to participate/help with research related to EMS or emergency medicine, could anyone point me in a direction to start looking? At the moment I have zero clue on how to find such a position...

Thanks all!
Click to expand...

If you are in this country legally, I don't see a problem with you pursuing EMS as a career.
 
medicRob said:
If you are in this country legally, I don't see a problem with you pursuing EMS as a career.
Click to expand...

This. As long as you can provide documentation showing you're legally able to work, you can (probably) get a job in EMS.
 
Yes but the problem is getting an employer to do the "extra work" to sponsor a foreigner for a work visa, especially when there are "many other americans" with the same skill set.

But we digress, anyone know of any research opportunities?
 
The OP is likely here on a student visa, and cannot work domestically unless there is a shortage they are filling.

I suggest you get a background in a specific area of medicine-- either health policy, economics, then look for an internship in a hospital Quality Assurance Department (user silver may have more info about that), or with an academic research center, focused on EMS.
Unfortunately, not nearly enough research is being performed about the skills and processes we go through every day-- and only now, 40 years into this experiment are we working towards more serious evidence based medicine, or practice.
 
Will this be university sanctioned research?

If so, I would want to look at outcomes. For instance, patient 1 with condition X, gets procedure A and B and outcome is (Worse, Same or Better) than patient 2 with condition X who gets procedures C and D.

That sort of thing would be helpful to know as an EMS community, it would be valuable in your efforts to learn research and it would be fun.

Good luck
 
You're going to want to start local to try to find someone who will take you on. Be willing to volunteer to get started. If you were had at least an undergrad degree and were willing to move then it would be great to consider Rescu (link above) or some other big prehospital research program, but that obviously isn't what you're looking for.

Start with your college. Try to find out whether there is anyone doing any prehospital research. If not, maybe the local EMS service is involved in a project run out of a different centre so it would be worth contacting the service directly.

For someone who is still in college, you would mainly expect to be involved in data entry if you're working at a research program. Of course, this will vary depending on a lot of factors, but don't expect that you would be running a bunch of studies.

The only other thing I would say is not to get too caught up in clinical trials. Yes, they are important, but they cost a lot of money to run and the PI will be a physician (i.e. not you). There is a whole lot of other research (even just survey-based) that can be quite useful in EMS. Even if you can get on with a prehospital researcher and they agree to help you with a little side project of some kind of survey-based research, that would be great.

But the first step is to find someone in your area doing the research... especially if you have a medical school at your university hopefully one of the faculty is doing something prehospital-ish. Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top