theFNG

Understand that nursing in general (and even emergency nursing) are two different worlds. As an EMS provider you are concerned with the immediate assessment/treatment of the sick and injured to keep them alive and get them to the hospital. As a nurse your role is patient managment. Both are extremely important in their own right. . Be professional, earn the trust of the nurses you encounter in the ED, ask questions and do your own patient follow-ups if you can. Make it clear you want to learn more, are willing to admit mistakes or lapses in judgement. Enhance your own assesment skills, expand your own knowledge base. Do not let the curriculum of your EMT program limit what you know, read everything you can. Your curriculum, knowledge, and experience may not have the breadth and depth of a nurse, but your role as an EMS provider important in the urgent care of the extremely sick/injured. Do not be in awe or intimidated by nurses or doctors, we all have our own place in the care of the patient. .If you can find an NP program with a concentration in emergency nursing go for it..or consider getting your CEN after a few years of experience. Above all, be a patient advocate with whatever you do. Its sad that nurses and EMS providers are two teams playing the same sport but seem divided rather than united by the same goal: patient care.