Question about Material learned during EMT Training

[emted]

Hi, I am considering becoming an EMT to get more experience in the medical field. I wanted to know about the EMT curriculum. Do you learn a lot of medical information/concepts? What are some interesting concepts covered that you can remember from class? And is this information used a lot when you start working as an EMT?

Thanks,
emtedh34r:

 

[danlimmer]

EMT is a good idea

Hi, I am considering becoming an EMT to get more experience in the medical field. I wanted to know about the EMT curriculum. Do you learn a lot of medical information/concepts? What are some interesting concepts covered that you can remember from class? And is this information used a lot when you start working as an EMT?

Thanks,
emtedh34r:

EMT is a good start. I have taught many students who plan on going on into medicine and have taken EMT for the knowledge and patient care experience. Medical schools generally look favorably on EMS experience--although it is not a clincher.

You will learn a lot from terminology to assessment and care. The depth you get out of it is up to you. The EMT curriculum doesn't have a lot of fluff and most of what you learn is applicable every day.

My personal favorites are assessment and critical thinking.

Dan Limmer

 

[Veneficus]

i respectfully disagree

EMT is a good start. I have taught many students who plan on going on into medicine and have taken EMT for the knowledge and patient care experience. Medical schools generally look favorably on EMS experience--although it is not a clincher.

That is not true generally, most physicians don't know what an EMT or Medic is, what they do, or thier knowledge base.

Even more physicians look unfavorably on EMTs.

Not a week goes by I am not encouraged to quit fooling around with EMS providers and spend my time doing something "more beneficial to medicine." None of my peers have any interest in EMS or EMTs. Some of my preceptors have EMS backgrounds and their advice is to move on.

If being in EMS helps a person get into medical school, they are usually strong candidates even without it.

It is an extraordinarily bad idea count on being in EMS to help you in anyway get into medical school.

You will learn a lot from terminology to assessment and care.

Even in the best EMS programs, the terminology and especially the assessment are rather shallow in depth.

My book on history and physical is almost as long as the entire EMT book. Without an adequete knowledge of physiology and pathophysiolgy assessment is almost impossible. THe EMT curriculum does not provide that at all. The medic curriculum offers a good start.

The treatments are nothing more advanced than a cpr class and a first aid class in the boy scouts.

[The depth you get out of it is up to you..

It is nothing you cannot do on your own anyway. Better still in a university biology or chemistry program. The more you learn about basic and clinical science the more pathetic the EMT class becomes and it becomes evident why physicians do not find a lot of value in it.

The EMT curriculum doesn't have a lot of fluff and most of what you learn is applicable every day.

Could you please expand on why it is applicable everyday?

My personal favorites are assessment and critical thinking.

There is simply not enough information to critically think in an EMT class. Look at some of the postings here for the inadequecy of the assessments.

 

[LucidResq]

Do you learn a lot of medical information/concepts?

No. I would describe the level of training as "Basic First Aid utilizing an Ambulance and the Equipment on it."

And is this information used a lot when you start working as an EMT?

Meh... not really. There are a lot of useful soft skills that you will never learn in a classroom. I also found I learned about 10x as much from the impromptu education of working alongside higher level providers such as experienced paramedics, RNs and MDs than I did in class. My experiences are different from most, though.