Paramedic student

First and foremost, you absolutely MUST know your allowed scope of practice. You don't want to be asked if you can do something and not know. You should also have some kind of reference sheet for your preceptor(s) to give them so they can study this as well. You're there to (primarily) learn skills and get some basic idea of how things work after you hand a patient off to the ED.

You'll likely be given certain tasks at first and those tasks shall be done under the watchful eye of your preceptor. These are things like putting the patient on the monitor and obtaining basic vital signs and so on. Eventually they'll have you begin doing IV starts on basically non-critical patients that need a line. As they see you progressing in your skill, you'll start doing IV starts on a wider variety of patients. You'll also begin doing your paramedic assessments on patients and at least recording your assessments for your school.

Have a drug guidebook handy because once they feel you're ok to do some IV medication (if your scope allows it at that time) you need to know the basics of each drug you'll push.

Expect to also be doing some ED Tech-like stuff like room cleaning, making beds, doing some restocking, and the like. Generally be helpful, courteous, and the like and you'll eventually find yourself "farmed out" to other nurses for certain tasks.

A few months ago we had a couple of paramedic interns in our ED that were fantastic. They didn't exactly start out that way, but then again nobody ever does! By the end of their time in our ED, they were generally pretty good as paramedic interns go and were more than ready to head out to their field time.

Don't expect to be able to manage a full patient load. Paramedic training isn't about that and neither will your ED time be about that. It takes nurses a while to be able to do it, usually longer than you'll be in the ED. Your primary goal is going to be refining your assessment skills you've learned so far and learning your skills. Your field preceptor is the one that will be the one that takes you from paramedic student to new grad paramedic that will be safe to let loose on basically any call that comes.

Above all, keep your ears open, mouth shut unless you have a question about something. You'll end up being amazed what you'll learn simply by doing this!

Thank you for your informative and thorough post! I truly appreciate your time.

I have a paper that describes my scope of practice (I can give almost everything except for ACLS drugs and diprivan up to this point) so I will be sure to make plenty of copies incase they get misplaced.

Another question for you as a follow up... since I have worked as an ED tech and am comfortable placing patients on the monitor, obtaining vitals, EKGs, etc. should I let the nurse know that in advance? Or just let him/her see me do it a few times?

That is why I am here to get a jump start on the things I should be doing/expect when I do my time in the ED. I know it will be different than when I am working as a ED tech, but hopefully I can make a good impression and learn as much as possible!

Thanks again!

Emily

Thank you for your informative and thorough post! I truly appreciate your time.

I have a paper that describes my scope of practice (I can give almost everything except for ACLS drugs and diprivan up to this point) so I will be sure to make plenty of copies incase they get misplaced.

Another question for you as a follow up... since I have worked as an ED tech and am comfortable placing patients on the monitor, obtaining vitals, EKGs, etc. should I let the nurse know that in advance? Or just let him/her see me do it a few times?

That is why I am here to get a jump start on the things I should be doing/expect when I do my time in the ED. I know it will be different than when I am working as a ED tech, but hopefully I can make a good impression and learn as much as possible!

Thanks again!

Emily

This is something that should be discussed with your preceptor very early on as well as what things you were allowed to do as an ED Tech. This is because your preceptor likely works for a facility that has a different scope of practice for their techs than what you're used to. Absolutely have them go over these things with you so they can see that you're doing the procedures the way they prefer them to be done. Once they're comfortable with those basic skills, they won't worry about those, they'll have you work on more "paramedic" skills.