How long is the paramedic course where you're at

fortsmithman

fortsmithman

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The closest courses from here are in Alberta and they are 2 years to complete with the exception of Medicine Hat College where it's a 4 year degree. And do you think these are long enough, not long enough, or too long.
 
I think those are long enough.

The 4 year one is very long. 2 year programs are what you see the most of.

I went to an accelerated program that was 11 months long...

So there is a wide variety of class lengths... just depends what length you feel comforable doing.
 
The paramedic program at my school, Crafton Hills College, could be either 10 or 12 months long. Didactic 472 hours, clinical 164 hours, and field 600 hours. It is also accredited by the CAAHEP. I also heard from a couple of people that it is one of the best in southern California but I do not know how accurate that is. I will be taking my EMT-B there starting in January.
 
EMTCop86 said:
The paramedic program at my school, Crafton Hills College, could be either 10 or 12 months long. Didactic 472 hours, clinical 164 hours, and field 600 hours. It is also accredited by the CAAHEP. I also heard from a couple of people that it is one of the best in southern California but I do not know how accurate that is. I will be taking my EMT-B there starting in January.
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California requires all of their Paramedic programs to be accredited by CAAHEP/CoAEMSP.

These are the minimum requirements of the state so you can see how well the school exceeds or just meets them.




The minimum number of hours required for training are:
  • Didactic and skills = 450 hours
  • Hospital and clinical training = 160 hours
  • Field internship (which must include a minimum of 40 advanced life support (ALS) patient contacts) = 480 hours
At least Crafton Hills College is a state community college that does require at least one semester of college A&P. With the additional college EDUCATION, you could truly say your program offered you the opportunity to exceed the minimum requirements since many programs require no college prerequisites at all and rely only on that watered down overview text used in "A&P for the Paramedic". When comparing that to the college A&P books which are used for all other healthcare programs, it is like a remedial class textbook.

The price for California CC is very reasonable averaging only $20/credit hour. At that price it would be worth the effort to continue to the Associates degree.


It is difficult for Americans in EMS to compare a Canadian system because we have become very accustomed to PDQ medic marts and many have argued against the horrors of getting an education for the EMS profession. Our measuring system of "hours of training" rarely translates into the equivalent of degree credits. Some can make a 110 hour EMS course sound like a year long program if it was stretched out by going just 2 hours/week.
 
Again, when one can describe their education in clock hours... we have a problem.

R/r 911
 
VentMedic said:
California requires all of their Paramedic programs to be accredited by CAAHEP/CoAEMSP.

These are the minimum requirements of the state so you can see how well the school exceeds or just meets them.





The minimum number of hours required for training are:
  • Didactic and skills = 450 hours
  • Hospital and clinical training = 160 hours
  • Field internship (which must include a minimum of 40 advanced life support (ALS) patient contacts) = 480 hours
At least Crafton Hills College is a state community college that does require at least one semester of college A&P. With the additional college EDUCATION, you could truly say your program offered you the opportunity to exceed the minimum requirements since many programs require no college prerequisites at all and rely only on that watered down overview text used in "A&P for the Paramedic". When comparing that to the college A&P books which are used for all other healthcare programs, it is like a remedial class textbook.

The price for California CC is very reasonable averaging only $20/credit hour. At that price it would be worth the effort to continue to the Associates degree.


It is difficult for Americans in EMS to compare a Canadian system because we have become very accustomed to PDQ medic marts and many have argued against the horrors of getting an education for the EMS profession. Our measuring system of "hours of training" rarely translates into the equivalent of degree credits. Some can make a 110 hour EMS course sound like a year long program if it was stretched out by going just 2 hours/week.
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Thanks for all the info. I did not know that California required the paramedic programs to be accredited.
 
Ridryder911 said:
Again, when one can describe their education in clock hours... we have a problem.

R/r 911
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I got the numbers from my college catalog. I have not taken the course so I don't know what it is really like. The OP wanted to know how long it was so I got the info for them. I don't see the "problem" in that...
 
Ours are a year - year and a quarter long. with 660 hours of clinical time.
 
EMTCop86 said:
I got the numbers from my college catalog. I have not taken the course so I don't know what it is really like. The OP wanted to know how long it was so I got the info for them. I don't see the "problem" in that...
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The problem with it is "professionals" never can give their education level per clock hours (which demonstrates training NOT education) rather they are able to give it in degrees and fellowships.

R/r 911
 
Denver metro area:

6-12 months - must already have EMT-B, 1 yr. field experience, basic EKG, IV approval, and 1 year of college anatomy and phys. So with all of the pre-reqs, excluding the EMT-B, you're looking at 18-24 months. I based this information on the 3 largest paramedic programs in the area, which are hospital-based.

A local community college offers a program that is split into 3 semester-long phases, with each phase being 12-15 credit hours, and then a 6 credit hour internship. Pre-reqs include EMT-B, EKG and IV but do not include A&P. Apparently, students complete some sort of A&P course online in their first semester. Seems like this program would take 2 years.
 
LucidResq said:
Denver metro area:

A local community college offers a program that is split into 3 semester-long phases, with each phase being 12-15 credit hours, and then a 6 credit hour internship. Pre-reqs include EMT-B, EKG and IV but do not include A&P. Apparently, students complete some sort of A&P course online in their first semester. Seems like this program would take 2 years.
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Most colleges have a certificate program which is about 45 semester credits or 1 year to stay competitive with the career schools. However for some, 1 year is too long and they still seek out the medic mills at 10x the cost. It is also sad that it would just take another 20 semester hours or about 7 classes to finish the Associates degree and few do. If you finished the degree and some medical professional asks how long was your "training", you can proudly say you have an Associates degree in EMS. You would not have to embarrass yourself with the hours thing. As stated before, many other health care professions require well over 1000 hours just for clincials and that doesn't include the book learnin'.
 
Clarification on the above: hours of training is very differently viewed than semester credit hours. All professionals from medicine to banking can relate to semester credit hours including those that make the legislation.
 
I'm in AB, so 2 years. I must say, the pay differential between EMT-A and EMT-P here is not that high, but the gap in length and cost of education is quite significant. For that matter, I'm not particularly interested in pursuing EMT-P anytime soon.
 
VentMedic said:
Clarification on the above: hours of training is very differently viewed than semester credit hours. All professionals from medicine to banking can relate to semester credit hours including those that make the legislation.
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If one credit hour is 1 hour of class per week for 12 weeks, then 60-credits Associate's degree is only 720 hours. That sounds barely enough to cover paramedic curriculum. Are the credit hours in above mentioned paramedic's progams defined differently from what I described?
 
Foxbat said:
If one credit hour is 1 hour of class per week for 12 weeks, then 60-credits Associate's degree is only 720 hours. That sounds barely enough to cover paramedic curriculum. Are the credit hours in above mentioned paramedic's progams defined differently from what I described?
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Not even close.

Each credit hour corresponds to 50 minutes of lecture per week with an associated typical weekly out-of-class workload of 2-3 hours. For example, a 3 credit hour class would have a total of 150 minutes of lecture per week with 6-9 hours of out of class work.

For the average 15 semester credit term, that is conservatively 45 hours/week x 15. This is 675 hours per semester. Let's say it is just a 45 semester credit certificate or about 3 terms: 675 x 3 = 2025 hours. Different weight may be given for lab but this is the general lay out for the college system.

Quarter credits can also be easily translated with a little math.

Again, educational credit hours are a universal language spoken by educators throughout the world with the degree being a common thread.
 
I had to double check the semester credit hour eqivalents for clinicals.

A 3 semester credit hour clinical class is 16 hours/week for 16 weeks. (oops I used 15 weeks in my calculations in the above post to simpify my math)

So, that is 256 pt contact HOURS in addition to whatever other classes.

example:
http://www.broward.edu/outlines/RET1832L.pdf

I apologize for using RT but the clinical hours also translate for the EMS classes.
 
I'd kept out of this til now. Where I'm planning to go is 49.5 semester units for the certificate, plus ACLS, PHTLS, PALS, PEPP and NRP. I will complete the general ed requirements for the associates while I'm getting my field experience.
 
Sapphyre said:
I'd kept out of this til now. Where I'm planning to go is 49.5 semester units for the certificate, plus ACLS, PHTLS, PALS, PEPP and NRP. I will complete the general ed requirements for the associates while I'm getting my field experience.
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Yes!! Excellent!! That's what I'm talking about!

That actually speaks volumes in the world of academics and professionals.
 
VentMedic said:
Not even close.

Each credit hour corresponds to 50 minutes of lecture per week with an associated typical weekly out-of-class workload of 2-3 hours. For example, a 3 credit hour class would have a total of 150 minutes of lecture per week with 6-9 hours of out of class work.
Click to expand...

By weekly out of class workload do you mean self-study and homework or labs? In my university labs aren't included into credit hours; so a class of 3 hours of lecture + 3 hours of lab a week is still 3 credits.
 
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