Paramedic to nurse/nursing student

RunBabyRN · May 27, 2014

You'll definitely have an advantage! I was a first responder then hospital corpsman, so it's not the same as paramedic, but I experienced some of the same advantages and challenges. The shift in thinking was hard for me- I was so used to "see this, do this," and it's just such a different thought process than emergency/first response medicine. The good news is that you're used to touching people and asking them embarrassing (necessary!) questions. This is the BIGGEST hump those with no patient care experience have to work through, and it can hold them back for a long time. It keeps them from really getting to learn, whereas I was able to take larger patient loads and got way more opportunities because I wasn't afraid to jump in and get dirty and intimate. I also wasn't afraid of doctors and wasn't afraid to advocate for myself the way some students were. You'll also love having experience with handing off patients. This is another thing SO many students struggle with, and having that experience will really benefit you. Documentation experience, too.

As long as you're humble and open to learning a new way to approach patient care (welcome to Nursing Process), you'll likely be just fine. I just graduated, and am waiting for my authorization to take my NCLEX!

Best of luck to you!

Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B · May 28, 2014

Tell no one your an EMT. of you do a search of the men in nursing forum it was discussed last year extensively about transitioning into nursing from EMS. I was an EMT and there are several forum members who are basics or medics as well. I will say it will help you in some ways, and will require you to adjust in others.

I use my phone, to type, I work at night, and I'm a bad speller. Pick any reason you want for my misspellings

Nolli · May 28, 2014

I was a medic and am currently graduating. It will most definitely help you with a lot of things. Some examples include critical care as well as certain portions of med-surg such as cardiac and respiratory. It will also help you with prioritization questions since you are already used to that sort of thing. What you will have to reconcile is the street way of doing things vs the book way of doing things. Having experience often makes it hard to remember the book way when it is already second nature. The other thing is learning the nurse way vs the medic way.

I'm with big al though on the not always telling people to a degree. At first I always disclosed, but people seemed to either expect me to know everything or think I was bragging when I put it out there. For interviews or applicable situations such as during introductions to your clinical group I let it be known. Otherwise I just use the experience it gave me to learn, complete tasks, or help a classmate understand something and stay silent.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · May 28, 2014

I'm also a Paramedic turned Nurse. I just graduated from nursing school and these folks above me pretty much hit the nail on the head. It's going to be obvious very quickly to your clinical instructors that you've had patient care experience. You won't be able to hide that. While you're nervous about doing certain things, you just won't be nervous about actually making patient contact because you've done it a lot. The hardest thing you'll have to do is to put your Paramedic brain up on a shelf for a while because you really need to learn the nursing way. Nurses do think differently. It's not better or worse, just differently. Allow them to teach you, and allow yourself to learn, the nursing way.

There will be a LOT of things that you really will consider so very basic, but you absolutely must learn to do "it" the way they show you. Since it just involves perhaps doing things a little differently, you should be able to master that stuff fairly quickly and from there, you ought to be more "free" to think about your assessments and how to incorporate them into your new way of thinking about your patients. You'll definitely come to loathe, hate, and despise doing care plans, but like your EMS protocols, they're your recipe for how to take care of patients. Toward the end of school, you'll be a LOT more independent and you'll be able to take your Paramedic brain off the shelf a bit because you'll need it to help you manage your day. You'll also think back to your time on the ambulance and reminisce about providing care for just one patient because you'll be taking a full patient load (including taking and giving report) and still managing to find a little down time from time to time.

You'll need that Paramedic's brain to help you organize your day and prioritize your patient care. What's most important to do now and what's up next?

You're truly going to have an awesomely challenging time in nursing school... just don't directly let out the fact that you're a Paramedic for quite a while because your instructors may either dislike Paramedics or they'll appreciate them... and either way they'll expect a LOT from you, perhaps more than what you're capable of at the moment.

Looking back to my hospital clinical time while in Paramedic School, I can certainly see that I was fairly decent as a Paramedic but definitely a world away from what a new grad RN would be capable of. It's not that I wasn't able to take care of patients, but more that I wasn't trained to manage 4. Fear not, Paramedics are just "built differently" because they've got a different purpose in mind. Put a new grad Paramedic and a new grad RN in the field and the Paramedic will safely run circles around the RN because of the differences. Put them on a med-surg floor and the new grad RN will run circles around the new grad Paramedic. It is just is what it is. They're just trained differently. You'll come to appreciate this difference in time.

Jayjormom · May 29, 2014

I WILL NOT be mentioning anything about my paramedic experience for those and other reasons. I was WARNED by some of the er nurses here to not tell them. So I'm keeping my lips sealed. Thnx for the forum advice. I will be looking into that

CowboyMedic, DNP, APRN, CRNA · May 29, 2014

Thank you for bringing this up. I am also a paramedic with almost 6 years of field and er experience and I will be starting a LPN/Paramedic to RN bridge in the summer. I have had a lot of encouragement from my fellow nurses that I work with and I'm looking forward to this next step.

Guests · May 29, 2014

I'm an ED nurse and a couple of my tech are paramedics planning to go to nursing school and I always caution them not to reveal their backgrounds and keep their mouths shut.

Episteme · May 29, 2014

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.

Tweets · May 29, 2014

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.

Nolli · May 30, 2014

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.

This kind of came out of left field and I'm not sure where you are going with this. Other than it being a RN program and having Paramedics involved I don't see anything in common with the thread, let alone something that justifies the above response. If you are saying be humble/not a know-it-all, then you would be correct. However, it seems like you have a bias or some other agenda against medics. Just as you criticized the medics who came across as arrogant you might want to check yourself as well because you just generalized an entire profession.

Jayjormom · May 30, 2014

This kind of came out of left field and I'm not sure where you are going with this. Other than it being a RN program and having Paramedics involved I don't see anything in common with the thread, let alone something that justifies the above response. If you are saying be humble/not a know-it-all, then you would be correct. However, it seems like you have a bias or some other agenda against medics. Just as you criticized the medics who came across as arrogant you might want to check yourself as well because you just generalized an entire profession.

I was thinking the same thing. I just wanted to know how being a paramedic helped or hurt them in nursing school. There's NO ego here. Just trying to do something else with my life. Lol