The newest news as of late is that I am dipping my toe into the educational and mentoring portion of paramedicine. Recently our rig has had two paramedic students, the most recent staying with us until mid-December. It has been very interesting being in a teaching position in the field, especially when many times I feel like I am still learning the ropes myself. The idea of teaching has always appealed to me. I've been told I'm good at explaining things and that "I'd make a great teacher."
That is not, however, how I feel.
I realized (not surprisingly) that I have high standards for street performance. I want people I work with to be at that standard right away, and it is a bit of a shock to see a student below that (duh, they're a student) and wondering how I'm going to get them from where they are to where I want them to be. Fortunately, my partner on the ambulance is an experienced field instructor and I've been able to pick up some good tips from him. As he put it, mentoring a student is a fine art of putting them on the line between uncomfortable and dangerous to practice. Apparently this zone is the best place to learn.
Unavoidably, I've also compared both our paramedic students. I've come to the same conclusion I always have--this is a job field built largely on field experience. Most of our job, at the basic or advanced level, centers around being able to talk to people. If you can go up to a stranger and establish a rapport with them, as well as extract pertinent information in a concise and timely manner, you'll make a great pre-hospital provider. This comes to some naturally, while in the rest of us it takes many repetitions. I'm covering all this because I'm unhappy with the way paramedic education seems to be going in my state. Now, paramedic school started out as a two year deal. With the advent of fire-based EMS, programs were pressured to shorten their academies to accomodate agencies that needed more advanced providers in the field quickly. As a result, paramedic schools everywhere are cranking out paramedics in as little as six months.
Experience also used to be a prerequisite to a paramedic program. EMTs with a couple years street experience on an ALS rig were considered the minimum when applying to a program. Now, however, there are too many "zero to hero" programs, where someone can become an EMT and then paramedic all in the same program with no street experience in between! Even worse, many fire departments (including my own), send inexperienced EMTs to school, EMTs who got their certification only so they could apply to the fire department. Does this product sound like someone you want treating your family?
Ah, I can see I've rambled again. Anyway. I'm sort-of precepting now and it's interesting.
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