Things to study for and not to

[Sally21]

So I was told the national exam only covers airway/ breathing, cardiology, medical, trauma, ob/gyn/ PEDs and operations.
So does that mean things such as snake bites and pharmacology won't be on the exam?

 

[DesertMedic66]

The NREMT may contain questions from everything. You may get environmental questions (snake bites, hypo/hyperthermia) and you may also be asked pharmacology questions.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

Of the 70 questions I had at least 70 percent was on pharmacology and mechanisms of action. And at least 4 direct question on the receptor sites

 

[STXmedic]

If it's in your book, it's pretty much fair game.

 

[Handsome Robb]

My NREMT-P was all about neurogenic shock and the physiology and pathophysiology behind it.

Like everyone said, if it's in the book it's fair game.

 

[Sally21]

Well this is very unfortunate news.

 

[JWalters]

Well this is very unfortunate news.

Well, if you were responding to my snake bite I might disagree

 

[Handsome Robb]

Well this is very unfortunate news.

Why? The book is baseline knowledge. The test is minimum competency, you have to know it and recall it when you're caring for patients....

 

[Sally21]

Most of the EMT's I've had ride time with don't know a lot of the things we have to know for the exam. They just carry around cards with the info on it. Such as PEDs vitals, gcs, medications, ect.

 

[gotbeerz001]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id606535337

Great app. $30 for 600 questions. The practice quizzes will tell you why right answers are right and wrong answers are wrong. It's great for getting down the concepts that are behind the national Registry questions.

I pretty much exclusively used this app to study for my national Registry paramedic and finished in 76 questions

 

[Handsome Robb]

Most of the EMT's I've had ride time with don't know a lot of the things we have to know for the exam. They just carry around cards with the info on it. Such as PEDs vitals, gcs, medications, ect.

That's downright horrible and a bad attitude to instill so early in your career. That might fly at some agencies but at the good ones you'll never make it through a hiring process that way.

There's nothing wrong with having things to jog your memory but having to rely on a crutch is pure incompetence on their parts. Not saying you're incompetent, the EMTs you rode with are by the sounds of it though.

Do you plan on going farther than EMT to AEMT or Paramedic?

 

[Medic Tim]

That's downright horrible and a bad attitude to instill so early in your career. That might fly at some agencies but at the good ones you'll never make it through a hiring process that way.

There's nothing wrong with having things to jog your memory but having to rely on a crutch is pure incompetence on their parts. Not saying you're incompetent, the EMTs you rode with are by the sounds of it though.

Do you plan on going farther than EMT to AEMT or Paramedic?

This ^^^

OP - sounds like you didn't get the the best ( or even good) experience on your ride time.

 

[JWalters]

Never mind the fact that every three seconds you take looking something up is three seconds you could have been spending doing something important.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Despite what they teach you in school time is rarely of the essence.

 

[JWalters]

Despite what they teach you in school time is rarely of the essence.

Still, my time is valuable. I would prefer not to waste it stopping to look things up every few minutes.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Agreed.

When I'm at work I get paid by the hour, I'm not in a huge hurry was all I was saying.

 

[Sally21]

I just plan on doing this while in school for RN.

 

[gotbeerz001]

Oof. Seems like you have an even better reason to actually know this stuff.

Seriously, EMT is basic stuff but is required an understanding of concepts to build upon.

 

[Medic Tim]

I just plan on doing this while in school for RN.

When I was BLS, I used every pt contact to learn something new. I would look up meds, diseases, etc. As time went on I was looking up less but looking for more detail. This really helped me in nursing and medic school.

 

[Sally21]

Yeah I know. I'm bascily going to just go over the whole book again and add more details to my notes before I take the national. Which is going to be a lot of work but I want to have a deeper understanding. My notes aren't just signs, symptoms, and treatments like most of my classmates.