When to become a Paramedic. Part 2.

So… My “When to become a Paramedic” post has drawn much debate. So I’d like to reorganize my thoughts up a little and try to restate some of my points.

So, the question begs you, what is the secret to making the BEST medics we can? Not, the too often, how can we make the MOST medics and the most MONEY we can. Well, as I’ve stated before, I think Life Experience is critical to coming out on top in this game.

The schools that medics come from vary–greatly. From Hospital Based programs like ours to community colleges and larger state universities. Advantages and disadvantages are partly perspective–a larger school will give you a recognizable degree, you will also likely have a much larger class and this could put you to a disadvantage. Even our class at +/- 20 people(it changed… a lot) made it so that “lab” time was a bit wasteful. That was our faults though… we slacked off way, way too much.

So I don’t think just choosing the right school will make you a good medic–although someone who researches the right school may be on the right track. Not just choosing the cheapest, or easiest to get into school closest to you shows that you want a little more than average.

So if it isn’t the right school, and it isn’t PRIOR experience–both life and field–only, then we must be searching for more…. Somewhere inside “future medic” has to be a drive to do this. Obviously, we don’t do it for money. Some choose to do it for the “prestige”, though I don’t find a great deal of prestige in getting puked on, hitting my head on cabinets, or being faced with informing a wife that her husband of 48 years has died. It is a dirty, tough, emotionally challenging, physically demanding(seriously, patients keep getting bigger and bigger… ask EE!) line of work, where we will be under paid, pushed to our breaking point, and shot out to do it all over again.

So I don’t think there is any secret recipe to being the best damn medic out there. I think it takes a lot of drive, a desire to work hard, and an understanding that sometimes you might not know everything–all in combination with an understanding of your skills, BLS and als, a knowledge of how to communicate and a desire to better yourself–always.

I have managed to work with a few medics that knew everything they could ever need to, but have gotten so burned out that they are some of the worst medics I’ve ever dealt with. Because of that, I think that at a certain point…. Experience can be your arch enemy. But that goes on into an entirely new subject….