Looking for EMT's who are now in nursing school

[sjparks]

I'm a MSN student preparing to study the nursing school experience of students who have a background as emergency medical technicians. Are there many of you out there, and is the experience worth studying? I'd love some feedback to help me formulate questions for the interview process.

[Mike A. Fungin RN]

I'd like to know:

How is nursing the same or different from your expectations?

Same: Good schedule, great benefits/salary, challenging

Different: On the plus side, I have more autonomy (at least in critical care) than I expected, although still less than I enjoyed in the field. On the down side, there's definitely less camaraderie. Also, there doesn't seem to be the same emphasis on professional conduct in nursing as there is in EMS and Fire/Rescue.

How is nursing educators different from EMT or paramedic training? ( Not length of training and requirements but more about attitudes, methods, expectations)

EMT and Paramedic training was more in depth and geared towards preparing you for real world practice. Nursing education was a lot of fluff and nursing educators were too preoccupied with political correctness and teaching "cultural competence."

Is your experience useful? Does it give your advantages or do you have to "unlearn"? Describe a situation where your prior experience helped you.

I don't think I had to unlearn anything. The prior experience helped in that I was already good at managing stress, setting priorities, and multitasking. It also helped in that EMS taught me how to project confidence even when I don't feel it.

Do the teachers value your experience? How can nursing educators help you?

I didn't go out of my way to advertise my EMS experience. A lot of nurse educators and nurses seem threatened or put off by it. I was often met with either attempts to belittle my EMS experience or questioning of the motives that led me to nursing. The few educators who were accepting and supportive had... surprise... started as EMTs or paramedics themselves. I really don't understand the animosity towards students with EMS backgrounds, so I'm not sure what advice I'd offer to professors other than to keep an open mind and recognize that people who come to nursing as a second career (whatever their first career was) often bring experiences and skills to the table that transfer to nursing.

Thanks for your interest!

[coastiewifejenna]

I totally agree with Mike Fungin. The teachers were so focused on why I changed fields and not that it matters but my husband is in the military and I needed something I could do in Alaska on base. There were times when I would be put on the spot and be asked what would I do and I dont really think it was fair, especally because we had students in our class (as second year students) that have never worked in medicine ever.(you didnt have to be a CNA to get into our program) My best suggestion for instructors is to realize that people from all over the world do things a little bit different and they still end up with the same result, so dont judge them because they think about things differently but still come up with the same answer.