medic6070

I have 30 + years of experience in pre-hospital EMS. 11 of those years as a paramedic. I got my ASN from Ivy Tech Valpo last May and passed the NCLEX the first time last Sept. Since then I have had 6 interviews and no offers! I had my second interview with Porter last night for a ED position and the interviewer said he was passing the interview notes along to the ED unit head with a positive recomendation. Things are tough out there. Facilities I spoke with prior to passing boards told me "call back after passing NCLEX". Just try to network during clinicals and keep your ears and eyes open for oportunities. My instructors were also a good source of information about positions where they worked and also references/reccomendations during the hiring process. Good luck!

I've been a Paramedic for 11 years and have not had to deliver a baby, although I think I would like to. It's probably a good thing since during my OB rotation (8 hours) in medic training none of the patients would allow a male student to observe their delivery (there were 4 that shift 2 lady partsl ans 2 c-sections). My clinical group consisted of myself and 9 female students. They all agreed, before letting me or our instructor know) that I would have the oppertunity to attend every delivery until I got to observe one. They were a great group to work with. I ws allowed to onserve the first delivery of our rotation. When it came time for post-partum care, the patients husband would not allow me to participate in his wife's care. I loved the nursery! No body cared what gender I was. I did have to develop a teaching plan for a new mother who was breast feeding, kinda of awkward but the patient was understanding and it went well. Every rotation is what you make of it, if you don't put the effort into it you won't get anything out of it. One other piece of advice...suck it up and get your hands dirty someone is watching and knows what is going on, it will make you a better care giver in the end!

Thank you for mentionong the "ambulance attendents". I am a Paramedic with 30+ years of pre-hospital experience. I see people on what may well be the worst day of their life even if it is not, seeing me is defiently not what they had planned for the their day when they got out of bed! I finished my ADN a year ago and am still lookiing for my first position in nursing. I have to say I have been concentrating on ED positions, however that has changed in the last couple of months. That having been said, even at 3:00am nearing the end of a 24 hour shift, I have never treated someone that has invited me in to their home to help them, the way you were treated in the ED. (although I have had many nurses treat me in that way when I tried to give them report on a patient, you just get used to it.) You should have taken the nurses name (if you didn't) and send this letter to the ED nurse manager, nursing administrator, PR dept., and the facility President. Their is no excuse for it. if you are having that bad of a day, clock out and go home. If it is not just that day, take a leave of absence, a long vacation, or just find another job! I hope the rest of your care was very much better and that you are well today.

I am a fulltime paramedic ( 20 years as a basic EMT and the last 11 as a medic) who works 24 hour shifts. I am allowed to study on downtime (after housekeeping chores, training, audit and review, and in between runs). I made straight A's throught my pre-req's. I found I had to study longer the farther I got into my ASN program. The last semester my study goal was 4 hours a day. Somedays I made it others I fell short. I graduated May 8, 2010 with a 3.53 GPA and I take the NCLEX on Sept. 24th ( I have been hospitalized, so I have been delayed). My EMS experience helped, but having to think like a nurse instead of a field paramedic was a struggle. You should know how you learn best, stick to that method, study as much as you need to, and keep your goal insight.

I live in northwest Indiana and currently working as a paramedic (10 + years, 29 total in pre-hospital). I am in my last semester of an ADN program at a CC. I chose this option so that I could begin working quicker and I would have some form of tuition assistance or re-embursment (hopefully) where I will be working to help in completing my BSN. I am still working full time and driving 44 miles each way three days a week to campus. One day for classes and two days for clinicals. Did you take clinicals into account on your driving and gas figures? One other thing, a private 4 year university has partnered with our CC offering an ADN to MSN program, earning your BSN along the way, at the CC tuition rate! It's been a long road. I will graduate in May, 2 months before my 50th birthday and will have taken me 3 years and 5 months to complete my pre-recrequsites and the two year ADN program. In the end it is what works for you. You are the one that has to do the work. Good luck whatever you decide.

I am a Paramedic, a Volunteer Firefighter, a nursing student, and I am male. I am attending a communinty college in the Associate of Science in Nursing degree program with two semesters left. There are 5 males in my class of 60 nursng students and as far as I know none of them are "gay" nor would I care if they were. The only person that looks down on me is the "old school nurse" that is the Chair of our program and I think that has more to do with my being a Paramedic. I have had no problems in any of my clinicals, except for post-partum in OB, nor with any of my class mates or other instructors. I would encourage any man who is seriously interested in nursing to investigate all of the programs that are available in their area or where ever they are interested in going. Also I am 49 years old. :cheers:

:yeah:Started college at 47. I have finished my general education requirements and have been accepted into the ASN program at Ivy Tech State College in Valpariso, In. for the fall semester (next month, I get more exicited every day). I turned 48 today and will hopefully graduate in May of 2010. Two months before I am 50. On the application they did not even ask for my age. I finished in the bottom third of my graduating high school class, however I have made the Dean's list for the last two semesters at college and am maintaining a 4.0 gpa. All while continuing to work full time as a Paramedic (26 years) and maintaining my family life. I believe that our experience in life gives us a different perspective and the work ethic of our generation sees us through. Good luck to you and push forward - hard and fast.

I have been a paramedic for 7 years, an EMT for 19 years before that. During Paramedic training we had to do rotations in a locked down psych ward, OB, a LTC, cath lab, ER, accompany a respitatory therapist for a day, watch an autopsy, and finally precept with a senior medic on a truck. Between clinicals and class we put in over 1400 hours. Sure we didn't have algebra or english compisition, so we don't get to put A.S. or B.S. behind out names. Do not belittle someone because you have a piece of paper that says you were able to BS your way through 2-4 years of college. That paper "says" you know something and the NCLEX is supposed to prove compentence at a certain level. Does experience count for anything? We have protocols to guide our treatment decisions, which are made and implemented in the back of a moving ambulance. We treat based upon the findings of our assessment. We do not ask for permission to start an IV or give Benadryl and Epi for a severe allergic reaction. Can you do anything without a Doctor's order? Our Medical Director is a Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.), we operate under his medical license and are not allowed to work unless he has the confidence in our abilities to make sound treatment decisions and then carry out the care plan. It's all about our patients lets jsut take good care of them and sort the rest out here. By the way I am 47 y/o, working full time, in my third semester of an ASN program, and carrying a 4.0 GPA. How smart am I and where do I fit in the "pecking order"?

I am applying for the fall semester at Valpo an d the way I undersatnd it is;The four prereq's (A & P 1-2, Eng. Comp, Intro to Psych.) have to be completed prior to the application deadline for the letter grades to be assigned the point values they use to select the students who are admitted. April 1 deadline for the fall semester. Acceptance letters go out end of MAY.

I am attending IVY TECH Valpo. Here they only use one TEAS test score. I got an 84.2% and am applying for the fall semester starting in August.

Maybe they left to go work a code or a motor vehicle accident. How many ambulances does your community have available per shift? I live in a small rural town, we have two (2) ambulances on duty for schedueled as well as non-schedueled transports and 911 calls. one staffed by an EMT and a Paramedic the other by two EMT's.If the call the ambulance you called for was dispatched as more life threatening, it's a simple matter of triage. I have been a Paramedic for the last seven years and an EMT for 19 years before that. I am now beginning the ASN nursing program at a local community college. This is a two sided issue and will never go away. Perhaps ride alongs would help others (not just Long Term Care Nurses) to see things from a different perspective as well as having Skilled Nursing Facility clinical rotations included in EMS training. We all just need to remember that it is all about our patients not ourselves. Treat others how you would like to be treated and work together to take care of our patient. :cheers:

I am still working as a Paramedic while finishing the co-requisite classes for my ASN, prior to starting the program in the fall of '08. I have been an EMT since 1981 and a MEDIC since 2000.