Paramedic to nurse/nursing student

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Hi there,

I was hoping I could get feedback from any paramedic turned RN or RN student. How was the transition into nursing school. How did your paramedic experience help or hurt you in nursing school? Any feedback would be great. I'm starting nursing school in the fall and can honestly say that I'm extremely excited and terrified at the same time. I've been in ems 11 years and am hoping that my background will give me a little advantage in school. I am going into it expecting the worst of course and praying for the best!!

Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.
I don't see what the big dark secret is. We clinical instructors know who is EMT and/or LPN and/or RT etc. Maybe if you're going out of state it would be different.

Exactly. My program was very supportive of those of us who had prior experience, and allowed us to draw on that experience. It wasn't about learning how to start an IV THEIR way, as long as we were being safe. In fact, they had us help teach IVs and other skills we already had, and one instructor allowed me to start IVs before we'd gone over them in class. I would imagine it's clear to instructors who's had patient care experience and who hasn't. I know it was obvious to nurses if I didn't say anything prior, but I generally said something. They often rode me a little harder, but I also earned their trust in return, and I think I got more out of my clinical experience because of this sort of thing. I was taking full patient loads way before my classmates, and was getting very good reports from my nurses.

There was a former Army medic in the year above me who had a hard time shifting to nursing process and had the ego issue, and he didn't make it. That's one person. Of the 4+ people (myself included) in my class of 23 that were either EMTs or military med personnel, not one failed or had issues like this.

Like I said in my earlier response, as long as you're humble and open to a new process, you'll be fine. It's when you're rigid and set in your ways, as some are, that trouble starts, and you set yourself up for failure. I don't see that attitude in your responses.

@runbabyrun. You are right. I was taught very early on in ems on being kind and humble. I remember one of my preceptor telling me"just because your partner is a basic and your a paramedic doesn't mean he or she can't teach you anything in this job." 11 years later, I still follow that rule. With that being said, I don't plan on mentioning my experience to my instructors because like episteme said I'm sure they'll be able to see early on who has patient care experience. I am going in this with the attitude I'm the student, your the teacher, so teach me cuz im ready to learn. If they want me to do it a different way, then Ill adjust. I'm ready to be done with EMS and I'm willing to do what I need to to make this change. For myself and my family!!! Come on August!!!!

@episteme. Thank for the encouragement. I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more from me once school begins!!!

Specializes in Emergency Department.
I don't see what the big dark secret is. We clinical instructors know who is EMT and/or LPN and/or RT etc. Maybe if you're going out of state it would be different.

I have had really positive experiences with paramedic students in clinical. Care plans were a little rocky at first but that's true of all students.

Sometimes I have seen paramedics struggle on exams that are very "NCLEX-ish" where the question is asking you to identify a goal vrs an action, or select a priority diagnosis. That's the nursing process and it pretty much explains how the thought process differes between the two professions. There are no algorithms. You have to reason your way to the answers. Nothing is "always"... it always "depends" upon your assessment data.

Best of luck to you.

Episteme, if more nurse instructors were like you, then there'd be less of a need for us Paramedics to give the advice we did.

I am an academic advisor and neither an RN nor paramedic. It has been my experience that when talking to paramedics about becoming a nurse, they tend to come across as knowing it all. Many are insulted when they are required to take many of the same courses that LPNs are required to take. Because they are emergency caregivers, and are responsible for keeping victims alive until they can be seen by a doctor, they tend to consider themselves as mini-doctors. I'm not saying that all paramedics think that way, but the majority of those I have dealt with do.

Many hospitals are now requiring that an RN be on the ambulance. Most paramedics I have talked with say that this belittles the training and expertise of the paramedics who would staff this unit if nurses weren’t there and in essence that nurses don’t have the skills to get the job done. While this may (arguably) be true, it is not the place of the student to belittle nurses, or question the hospital's motives.

In short, leave the ego at home and spend your time studying not ruminating over things that you can not control. Everyone will be happier.

Tweets, this is also why us Paramedics gave the advice that we do to other Paramedics and EMT's that are about to enter Nursing School. There are a LOT of Nurse Instructors that have the impression, if not experience, that EMS personnel are "know it all's" and are arrogant about it. I have met few Nurses that have worked in the field as a Paramedic before becoming a Nurse and whose exposure to EMS personnel is whatever they had while on the floor when they arrived for transport and don't really know the knowledge-base of the Paramedic but think they know what Paramedics can do.

It's also advice to EMS personnel that we need to simply shut up about your background and be humble about everything because we don't want to be "that Paramedic" that perpetuates the stereotype. From my own experience, I don't mind being ridden a little harder or had more expected of be because I'm a Paramedic, but I don't want to be singled out by Nurses that think that Paramedics shouldn't be in Nursing School and ridden so hard to the point of driving me out of school.

I'm a 10 year paramedic in the middle of my second week of an accelerated program. I didn't purposefully out myself as a medic off the bat, but short of taking a vow of silence for the year, I found it impossible to come off as less knowledgable than I am. To be completely honest, I wonder if I haven't made a horrible mistake. I have a moment every day when I want to withdraw from the program. I think I might have sold myself short. There is little about nursing so far that is challenging in any way. I'm not bragging, and trying not to be arrogant. I just don't think the reality of nursing justifies the way I've been treated by the nursing institution, including people on this forum. I was told during my interview that this program doesn't usually admit "EMS people" I think I'm still a little heartbroken that my knowledge and experience count for nothing and are seen as so threatening that I can't tell my class mates what I do for a living. No one else sees the problem here? Every time a nurse states that paramedics are "know-it-alls" it perpetuates the stigma and makes second-career nursing students like me feel totally alienated. Nursing and paramedicine are totally different jobs, slightly different knowledge base, and very different priorities. I do not see one as better than the other overall. I respect nursing enough to want to become one, why can't the reverse be true?

Sorry for the tangent, my advice to to OP, is to keep your mind open, understand that what nursing emphasizes is quite different, but the big picture is so nice if you have been dealing with "the first 20 minutes only" for years. Your instructors are going to teach things that you consider to be "fact" totally backwards. Just consider it, take your notes, put it on your exam and move on. I'm trying hard to be helpful to my fellow students who are struggling with patho and pharm, without sounding like a jerk. Don't roll your eyes when they tell you to "check with the pharmacy" during pharm math. We didn't have that advantage as medics, but think of how much more efficient we might have been if we didn't have to calculate a dope drip by gravity at 2AM with no help. Keep your sense of humor and be nice, everything will be fine. I wish you luck!

@saracos thanks for the encouragement and completely understand and agree with a lot of what you're saying. Particularly the 2am "gravity" dopamine drip. Lol.

I have seen both kinds of instructors on this issue-- the ones who say, "Everyone starts from zero with me, innocent until proven guilty," and the ones who say, "Oh god, here comes another smartass paramedic/medic/EMS guy who thinks he knows it all because he lives and breathes ACLS at work but he really doesn't know anything about nursing." Patient handling and other psychomotor skills (like IVs and needles) are really useful skills, but it's not rocket science and your other-people's-bodies-naive classmates will be as good as you are with them pretty quickly, so that's of very little importance in the long run. (And you can disregard the massive lab checklist mentality of most nursing students. It's NOT all about psychomotor skills. Look up "psychomotor, affective, cognitive" to see what I mean.) You will all be in the same boat in terms of nursing knowledge, including the cognitive and affective parts. Really.

So, for your own sake and for those who will follow you, do not be Guy Numbah Two. Akulahawk is spot on with that, "leave your paramedic brain on the shelf." You can always go back to some of it later, but for now, you have to tell it sternly that you love it dearly and you will never forget it, but for now you have to date someone else and give her your full attention.

@grntea. Packing up the "paramedic brain" and throwing away the key. I'm so miserable doing the whole ems thing that failure isn't an option for me. While I still do love the patient care aspect of my job, its the other BS that I've had enough of. I'm sure nursing will have its issues as does any job, I'm just ready to move on.

@grntea. Packing up the "paramedic brain" and throwing away the key. I'm so miserable doing the whole ems thing that failure isn't an option for me. While I still do love the patient care aspect of my job, its the other BS that I've had enough of. I'm sure nursing will have its issues as does any job, I'm just ready to move on.

Every job does, but I too moved out of EMS because I realized that I was soo much happier in the hospital than I was out on the street. I do miss some aspects of it (drama not included), but ultimately I wanted a new beginning. I don't think you'll fail and I won't speak for everyone (although I'm pretty sure I could in this aspect) when I say that we look forward to seeing you around more often. Let us know how you are doing/if we can help.

@Nollie. I'm pretty sure that ill be posting ALOT more once school starts. Picking your brains and looking for some much needed advice!!!! Stay tuned!!

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