EMT Certification in College for Premed?

[Anonymous]

I just traveled with a retired doctor who started out as an EMT. He would say it was positive.

The good thing was he could pick up extra shifts.

[Anonymous]

As for how time consuming it is, most of the squads require at least one shift a week (12 hours) and many also require one weekend shift a month. My kid does one overnight weekly (6pm-6am) on a night when he doesn't have a heavy classload the next day. It is manageable if you plan ahead.

[Anonymous]

What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

[Anonymous]

A friend who is a doctor was a phlebotomist. She continued to work as one in med school doing overnight shifts at the hospital. She said having to wake people up to stick them taught her more about bedside manner than anything in med school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

But surely you realize that your kid isn't there to be getting something out of it other than playing on their phone, they are there to do the job when it needs to be done? And if there are no calls to be working on 80% of any given shift, that is just how it is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s fine. But being a nurse assistant (CNA/PCA) is much more meaningful clinical experience and you can work PRN in college at a local hospital in pretty much any unit you want- or be be part of a float pool where they assign you to various units throughout the hospital depending on where you are needed.

The thing about EMTs is they don’t do a whole lot. It isn’t like Rescue 911. There is a lot of sitting around in parking lots and transporting people that can’t get to the doctor.

If you think stabilizing patients, performing CPR, administering Narcan, performing bag-valve mask ventilation isn't doing much then I guess you are right. That is like saying CNAs change bedpans and take people to the bathroom. Medical schools value EMT work as clinical work. It requires judgment and decision making under pressure and once you are released you are the person making the call on treatment as the first line responder. You have no idea what you are talking about.

EMT aren’t doing that 99% of the time, and we they are, those are very basic skills. I’ve worked many yrs in ERs, half the time when EMTs bring patients in they couldn’t start any IVs and intubated the esophagus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

But surely you realize that your kid isn't there to be getting something out of it other than playing on their phone, they are there to do the job when it needs to be done? And if there are no calls to be working on 80% of any given shift, that is just how it is?

Of course I realize just how it is but it seems absurd that clinical hours are counted like this when much of the time is not clinical work…when they are compared to applicants doing a job where all hours listed were actual clinical hours. The idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience - emt hours show this but it’s not factual (compared to a cna, cma, er tech, surgical assistant, etc). And i say this as the parent of an emt (who is also a cma).

[Anonymous]

Mine will be applying to PA school and EMT is a popular way to get clinical hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s fine. But being a nurse assistant (CNA/PCA) is much more meaningful clinical experience and you can work PRN in college at a local hospital in pretty much any unit you want- or be be part of a float pool where they assign you to various units throughout the hospital depending on where you are needed.

The thing about EMTs is they don’t do a whole lot. It isn’t like Rescue 911. There is a lot of sitting around in parking lots and transporting people that can’t get to the doctor.

If you think stabilizing patients, performing CPR, administering Narcan, performing bag-valve mask ventilation isn't doing much then I guess you are right. That is like saying CNAs change bedpans and take people to the bathroom. Medical schools value EMT work as clinical work. It requires judgment and decision making under pressure and once you are released you are the person making the call on treatment as the first line responder. You have no idea what you are talking about.

EMT aren’t doing that 99% of the time, and we they are, those are very basic skills. I’ve worked many yrs in ERs, half the time when EMTs bring patients in they couldn’t start any IVs and intubated the esophagus.

So is changing a bedpan. What is your point? You sound awful. I hope I am never in the ER that you are in ... (I doubt you are).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s fine. But being a nurse assistant (CNA/PCA) is much more meaningful clinical experience and you can work PRN in college at a local hospital in pretty much any unit you want- or be be part of a float pool where they assign you to various units throughout the hospital depending on where you are needed.

The thing about EMTs is they don’t do a whole lot. It isn’t like Rescue 911. There is a lot of sitting around in parking lots and transporting people that can’t get to the doctor.

If you think stabilizing patients, performing CPR, administering Narcan, performing bag-valve mask ventilation isn't doing much then I guess you are right. That is like saying CNAs change bedpans and take people to the bathroom. Medical schools value EMT work as clinical work. It requires judgment and decision making under pressure and once you are released you are the person making the call on treatment as the first line responder. You have no idea what you are talking about.

EMT aren’t doing that 99% of the time, and we they are, those are very basic skills. I’ve worked many yrs in ERs, half the time when EMTs bring patients in they couldn’t start any IVs and intubated the esophagus.

+1 Lifeguards do CPR. Everyday people administer Narcan. This is not a dis on EMTs but it is just that I don't think their actual clinical experiences are what people assume they are. Either way, med schools like them and give them full credibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

But surely you realize that your kid isn't there to be getting something out of it other than playing on their phone, they are there to do the job when it needs to be done? And if there are no calls to be working on 80% of any given shift, that is just how it is?

Of course I realize just how it is but it seems absurd that clinical hours are counted like this when much of the time is not clinical work…when they are compared to applicants doing a job where all hours listed were actual clinical hours. The idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience - emt hours show this but it’s not factual (compared to a cna, cma, er tech, surgical assistant, etc). And i say this as the parent of an emt (who is also a cma).

You are incorrect when you say the "idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience." That is not the idea. The "idea" is mere exposure to patient care. That's it. Med students will have "significant clinical experience" in third and fourth year of med school, perhaps even before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

But surely you realize that your kid isn't there to be getting something out of it other than playing on their phone, they are there to do the job when it needs to be done? And if there are no calls to be working on 80% of any given shift, that is just how it is?

Of course I realize just how it is but it seems absurd that clinical hours are counted like this when much of the time is not clinical work…when they are compared to applicants doing a job where all hours listed were actual clinical hours. The idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience - emt hours show this but it’s not factual (compared to a cna, cma, er tech, surgical assistant, etc). And i say this as the parent of an emt (who is also a cma).

You are incorrect when you say the "idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience." That is not the idea. The "idea" is mere exposure to patient care. That's it. Med students will have "significant clinical experience" in third and fourth year of med school, perhaps even before.

100% incorrect. If you were correct, then shadowing would NOT be separate from clinical experience. It would all be lumped in as the idea is "exposure" to patient care. For med school admissions, they look at volunteering separate from clinical experiences separate from shadowing separate from research. Clinical experience shows that the applicant has hundreds of hours of personal hands on experience in the clinical setting.

This is why you have to filter out the garbage claimed by people who have no idea what they are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

But surely you realize that your kid isn't there to be getting something out of it other than playing on their phone, they are there to do the job when it needs to be done? And if there are no calls to be working on 80% of any given shift, that is just how it is?

Of course I realize just how it is but it seems absurd that clinical hours are counted like this when much of the time is not clinical work…when they are compared to applicants doing a job where all hours listed were actual clinical hours. The idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience - emt hours show this but it’s not factual (compared to a cna, cma, er tech, surgical assistant, etc). And i say this as the parent of an emt (who is also a cma).

You are incorrect when you say the "idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience." That is not the idea. The "idea" is mere exposure to patient care. That's it. Med students will have "significant clinical experience" in third and fourth year of med school, perhaps even before.

100% incorrect. If you were correct, then shadowing would NOT be separate from clinical experience. It would all be lumped in as the idea is "exposure" to patient care. For med school admissions, they look at volunteering separate from clinical experiences separate from shadowing separate from research. Clinical experience shows that the applicant has hundreds of hours of personal hands on experience in the clinical setting.

This is why you have to filter out the garbage claimed by people who have no idea what they are talking about.

Well, I work at a medical school. But by all means, keep blathering on about how you "have to filter out the garbage claimed by people who have no idea what they are talking about." I know exactly what I'm talking about.

At any rate, shadowing a physician does not necessarily expose students to direct patient care -- imagine shadowing a radiologist or pathologist. No patient care. It's still shadowing. Shadowing a surgeon, which lots of students love to do? Probably won't meet a conscious patient let alone have to deal with one (unless you shadow them during clinic hours which no one wants to do). At any rate, exposure to human patients and exposure to the health care system and what it means to work in it is what pre-application clinical hours are about. So that applicants understand what caring for other humans is like, and see that it requires some empathy. They don't need to know any real medicine before they get to med school, and to the extent that they do they sometimes have to unlearn it. We give them plenty of "hands on experience in the clinical setting" once they get here. Many, many hours of it. The clinical hours they amass for applications just show they have some vague exposure to what they are getting into, and that they didn't respond to it with "oh, hell no."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

But surely you realize that your kid isn't there to be getting something out of it other than playing on their phone, they are there to do the job when it needs to be done? And if there are no calls to be working on 80% of any given shift, that is just how it is?

Of course I realize just how it is but it seems absurd that clinical hours are counted like this when much of the time is not clinical work…when they are compared to applicants doing a job where all hours listed were actual clinical hours. The idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience - emt hours show this but it’s not factual (compared to a cna, cma, er tech, surgical assistant, etc). And i say this as the parent of an emt (who is also a cma).

You are incorrect when you say the "idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience." That is not the idea. The "idea" is mere exposure to patient care. That's it. Med students will have "significant clinical experience" in third and fourth year of med school, perhaps even before.

100% incorrect. If you were correct, then shadowing would NOT be separate from clinical experience. It would all be lumped in as the idea is "exposure" to patient care. For med school admissions, they look at volunteering separate from clinical experiences separate from shadowing separate from research. Clinical experience shows that the applicant has hundreds of hours of personal hands on experience in the clinical setting.

This is why you have to filter out the garbage claimed by people who have no idea what they are talking about.

Well, I work at a medical school. But by all means, keep blathering on about how you "have to filter out the garbage claimed by people who have no idea what they are talking about." I know exactly what I'm talking about.

At any rate, shadowing a physician does not necessarily expose students to direct patient care -- imagine shadowing a radiologist or pathologist. No patient care. It's still shadowing. Shadowing a surgeon, which lots of students love to do? Probably won't meet a conscious patient let alone have to deal with one (unless you shadow them during clinic hours which no one wants to do). At any rate, exposure to human patients and exposure to the health care system and what it means to work in it is what pre-application clinical hours are about. So that applicants understand what caring for other humans is like, and see that it requires some empathy. They don't need to know any real medicine before they get to med school, and to the extent that they do they sometimes have to unlearn it. We give them plenty of "hands on experience in the clinical setting" once they get here. Many, many hours of it. The clinical hours they amass for applications just show they have some vague exposure to what they are getting into, and that they didn't respond to it with "oh, hell no."

You could shadow a pediatrician for 900 hours. It does not turn it into clinical hours. They are listed as shadowing hours.

Tell you what. Since you're clearly lying: name the medical school and department you work at and I will call admissions and ask them if one has tons of shadowing hours of an internist or pediatrician if that is fine even if there are low/no clinical hours for admissions because... - and then I'll quote what you said above and refer them to your department where you work as the source of this information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What drives me nuts about EMT clinical hours is the long shifts where many times nothing is happening. My kid is a HS certified EMT and now a college student. Kid also works as a CMA. When working in a doctor’s office or hospital as a CMA, about 90-95% of work hours is truly clinical (hands on, all the time). With EMT, it can be 20% for some shifts yet every hour clocked in counts as clinical. At times, my kid has been getting sbux with another EMT or playing on the phone or sitting around talking and all count as clinical hours.

But surely you realize that your kid isn't there to be getting something out of it other than playing on their phone, they are there to do the job when it needs to be done? And if there are no calls to be working on 80% of any given shift, that is just how it is?

Of course I realize just how it is but it seems absurd that clinical hours are counted like this when much of the time is not clinical work…when they are compared to applicants doing a job where all hours listed were actual clinical hours. The idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience - emt hours show this but it’s not factual (compared to a cna, cma, er tech, surgical assistant, etc). And i say this as the parent of an emt (who is also a cma).

You are incorrect when you say the "idea is to have significant (time wise) clinical experience." That is not the idea. The "idea" is mere exposure to patient care. That's it. Med students will have "significant clinical experience" in third and fourth year of med school, perhaps even before.

100% incorrect. If you were correct, then shadowing would NOT be separate from clinical experience. It would all be lumped in as the idea is "exposure" to patient care. For med school admissions, they look at volunteering separate from clinical experiences separate from shadowing separate from research. Clinical experience shows that the applicant has hundreds of hours of personal hands on experience in the clinical setting.

This is why you have to filter out the garbage claimed by people who have no idea what they are talking about.

Well, I work at a medical school. But by all means, keep blathering on about how you "have to filter out the garbage claimed by people who have no idea what they are talking about." I know exactly what I'm talking about.

At any rate, shadowing a physician does not necessarily expose students to direct patient care -- imagine shadowing a radiologist or pathologist. No patient care. It's still shadowing. Shadowing a surgeon, which lots of students love to do? Probably won't meet a conscious patient let alone have to deal with one (unless you shadow them during clinic hours which no one wants to do). At any rate, exposure to human patients and exposure to the health care system and what it means to work in it is what pre-application clinical hours are about. So that applicants understand what caring for other humans is like, and see that it requires some empathy. They don't need to know any real medicine before they get to med school, and to the extent that they do they sometimes have to unlearn it. We give them plenty of "hands on experience in the clinical setting" once they get here. Many, many hours of it. The clinical hours they amass for applications just show they have some vague exposure to what they are getting into, and that they didn't respond to it with "oh, hell no."

You could shadow a pediatrician for 900 hours. It does not turn it into clinical hours. They are listed as shadowing hours.

Tell you what. Since you're clearly lying: name the medical school and department you work at and I will call admissions and ask them if one has tons of shadowing hours of an internist or pediatrician if that is fine even if there are low/no clinical hours for admissions because... - and then I'll quote what you said above and refer them to your department where you work as the source of this information.

Can you read? What on earth makes you think I said shadowing is fine for clinical hours? I said the opposite. I specifically said shadowing does not necessarily even expose a student to direct patient care at all. Your reading comprehension is incredibly poor.