Ride A-Longs

[indygirl14]

I'm starting EMT-B school in January...

So far, the program that I am enrolling in carries the highest requirement for ride-alongs and clinicals in my city (that I've found): 24 hours of ambulance time and 24 hours of ER time.

I'm also spending this entire weekend riding along with my cousin's crew (Friday at 7 am through Monday at 7 am, 12 hours on primary and 12 hours on secondary), which I pretty much have the option to do whenever she's working, and plan to take advantage of. BTW, she is the Lead Paramedic.

 

[NJN]

My squad has any prospective member Cadet or EMT, do at least a 4 hr. ride along to see if they're crazy enough to ride in my town and then if your not an EMT yet we get you CPR/AED and FA certs. I don't know about NJ's requirement for ride-alongs during Basic school or how much time is spent in an ER. I will prolly go out for Basic school next summer, when i have more time. I've been riding for 5 months and loving every minute of it.

 

[Tincanfireman]

When I went to EMT school(long time ago) we were required to do 10- 12 hour shifts, spread out among four counties.

Those were truly the good old days of instruction! When I took my first EMT-B class back in Michigan in the late 70's at the local community college, we did something like 8x12 hr shifts on the BLS side, 4x12 on the ALS side, 8x12 in the ER (Where we were used and thoroughly abused by the nursing staff...lol), 4 hrs in recovery, a morning in surgery, and an 8 hr day in SICU, MICU, PICU, and 8 hrs with an RT on the floors. We had to do write ups on at least 50% of our patient contacts and write a paper on the differences between patient care in the field and in the hospital setting. This was for a BASIC class; I have no idea what the medics had to do but I know it was a cubic butt load more than we did. This is in addition to something like 120 hours in the classroom (may be more, but it was a long time ago). When we hit the street, we were pretty well prepared and everyone benefited. I really am dismayed at how things have degenerated over the years...

 

[ErinCooley]

I'm in EMT-I school in Atlanta... I have to complete 96 ambulance hours AND X number of patient contacts, IVs, traumas, assessments, etc. It is very unlikely that I will get everything covered in 96 hours.

I also have to complete 24 hours of ER, 8 hours of L&D and 8 hours of respiratory. I'm not sure what is school requirements and what is certification requirements. I am NOT complaining however, I just did my first 12 hours on the ambulance and need 100's more!!!!!

PS, I am almost 1/2 way thru the 3-quarter program.