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Journal
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Okay, here's the intro...I'm a paramedic student at Brevard Community College, in my third term. I created this page as a creative outlet for myself. I noticed there weren't a whole lot of pages about paramedic students, or resources for them, so I decided to create one. So here it is. I will try my best to keep it current, but I *am* in medic school, so forgive me if I don't. I work overnights, so I will probably do it then.
First and second term were challenging, but not impossible. I had a great instructor, a flight RN/Paramedic, and if you listened to her lectures, and took some notes (I myself am a minimal note taker), you passed all the tests. I even got a 93 on the final, and I was on like 2 hours of sleep. Talk about miracles. First and second term consist of going to class and learning all the information you need to know, like A&P, pharmacology (ahhhH!), cardiology, Gyn, Peds, all that stuff. Also, you have labs at this time, learning all the fun stuff like intubation and IV's. You ride on the ambulance (120 hours) and you have ER clinicals (45 hours) as well as peripheral clinicals like psych, L&D, Peds, Cardiac cath lab, and other boring stuff. I really felt like the peripheral clinicals were a total waste of my time, I didn't learn a damn thing. You have to get 6 ALS calls while on the ambulance first term, 8 second term and 10 third term. I only got 3 second term, so I'm riding extra hours now, to try to get my ALS calls. And at the stations I'm at, I highly doubt that's going to happen. Third term is strictly riding the ambulance, and you are the person in charge of the calls, just like you were the solo medic. Personally, I'm terrified of third term. I barely feel like I'm getting my "groove" now. What I mean is, I'm still developing my skills as a paramedic, and I really don't feel like I should be in charge of anybody. Sorry, but that's how I feel. And I'm not the only one. A few people in my class have expressed the same opinion. I know the paramedic that I will be riding with in third term will be right there beside me, making sure I don't screw up, but damn, that's still a lot of responsibility. You don't want to end up looking like a moron in front of anybody, and you run the high risk of just that if you make the wrong decision and your paramedic has to correct you. But I guess that's better than, NOT correcting you, and letting the patient get hurt, right? right? Sure.
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