But isn't some of that because of time frame? It's 4 years to get an RN, and 14 months to get medic. And it's all got to be pretty much the same stuff (I know not exactly but you know what I mean)
Its a whole bunch of factors and it varies depending on where you are.
Nursing is a degree program because its required by every place of employment to be a registered nurse and a requirement of that is official schooling as a nurse with a degree to prove it, followed by NCLEX testing to prove it.
Nursing has a national unified body where as EMS has next to nothing. Every region does what it wants and dictates what a paramedic can do.
In one state you can tie a patients shoes but in another state you can do a chest tube and emergency tracheotomy.
Skills wise, A paramedic can do more than a nurse. If a nurse can read an ECG, its because she learned to do it on her own. A nurse cannot intubate. A nurse cannot perform surgical procedures such as an emergency tracheotomy, thoracic decompression, chest tube, needle crichothyrotomy.
Most skills past an IV/pushing meds in the hospital setting are handled by doctors and their assistants.
Knowledge wise, it depends where you get your schooling but as far as practical job related knowledge goes its pretty much the same. Sure you can say a nurse spent more time in a pharmacology class or took microbiology, but lets be realistic, after a year no one remembers any of that stuff unless they strive to maintain it on their own.
Being a good nurse/doctor/paramedic all comes with experience. No one knows everything when they finish school you learn as you go. Any time you encounter a medication or a disease or something you don't know about, you make it an opportunity to do research and learn. Over time you will grow into an experienced provider. But at the same time, there are plenty of folks on all sides who could care less to learn past what their job requires.
The problem with pre-hospital medicine is that we are a young service compared to nursing. Nursing has been in the game a LONG time. We currently have a few 100,000 people who have no means of relating to one another outside of a place like this forum. In order for that to happen, the entire country would have to decide to wise up and do something or the federal government would need to step in somehow. To randomly tell a few 100,000 people that they need to get a 4 year degree by 2020 or they cannot continue in their profession will never happen.
At some point with the rising cost of hospital healthcare, EMS will have to advance as a service. Its a long road but an inevitable one.
