Would ER Paramedic experience count?

[TransportJockey, EMT-P]

I'm in the process of doing my nursing program through Excelsior tright now and just had a question. I know I'm jumping the gun a little.

When I worked at the Lvl 1 Trauma Center for NM in the ED, I worked as an ER Paramedic. I'm curious if that experience would count anywhere? We operated similar to RNs on the unit, in that we had our own patient load, charted our own assessments and interventions, received orders directly from midlevels and physicians, passed medications, and performed a few skills (NG/OG, intubation if ordered by physician, etc).

Just a curiosity I had, since I might be going back to doing that work PRN while doing flight full time and doing my classes.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

When they ask what your nursing experience is after you graduate, your only possible answer is, "None." But you can put it on your resume as past employment.

What many students think of as "skills" are manipulative tasks that we can teach anybody. I mean, we teach parents how to manage a vented kid at home, or people how to do their own or a spouse's hemodialysis, and that doesn't make them PICU or dialysis nurses. Real nursing skills, such as I hope you are actually learning in that program, involve the assessment, analysis, planning/delegating, and evaluating related to the autonomous role RNs have in the nursing process, and you have only student-level skills in those. The tasks come along in their due time, between school and the first year or two of practice in nursing. Everybody gets caught up with them.

That said, a lot of your classmates may not be clear on the idea that there is no one career ladder in patient care, with CNAs on the bottom rung, with other nursing and EMS work higher up, and physicians at the tippy-top. Totally three different professions, career paths, scopes of practice, licensure, legal obligations, and educational philosophies even though a lot of our knowledge data points and manual abilities overlap.

[BR157]

I know the Level 1 Trauma Center where you worked in NM. As I was told by some of the nurses, unless you actually worked as an RN there, you really didn't know everything they were responsible for.

One piece of advice I will give you, don't keep saying "like or similar to a nurse". That will get your interview trashed every time. Nurses can say they do everything a Paramedic does but unless they have actually held that title and sat in the Paramedic seat, they don't really know what the job really is. The same goes in the other direction.

Be proud to say you are a Paramedic in an interview and let that carry the weight. You might be surprised to find out many nurse managers place the value of Paramedic skills and their critical thinking abilities about even experienced ER and ICU nurses.

[TransportJockey, EMT-P]

Thanks for the input guys. Like I said, I was just curious, since it's not a typical 'medic working as an ER Tech' type job.

And trust me, I'm very proud of the work I've put in to become a paramedic and improve myself as a critical care provider. Gonna be interesting since one of my specialty certs transfers over to RN as well lol.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Just a wee bit of advice: If that's your actual picture, consider changing it to maintain your anonymity, as we are all cautioned to do here.

[TransportJockey, EMT-P]

Thank you. I didnt think of that. Im used to my EMS forums where my username is attached to a name amd cert number

[BR157]

Thanks for the input guys. Like I said, I was just curious, since it's not a typical 'medic working as an ER Tech' type job.

And trust me, I'm very proud of the work I've put in to become a paramedic and improve myself as a critical care provider. Gonna be interesting since one of my specialty certs transfers over to RN as well lol.

Like I said before, I know the hospital. You got to do a few skills and had a few of the fast trackers as your patients. You took care of those patients at the level of a Paramedic working in the ED. You probably still did less than most busy 911 Paramedics in progressive systems and a lot less than the RNs when it came to assessing for admissions.

A lot of certs have a wide audience. Nurses can take the same certs as Paramedics. The difference is Paramedics and RNs will process the info in each cert differently.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Hi transport,

I am a medic and an RN, and can honestly say my being a paramedic who worked in an ER in between calls for a hospital based ALS ambulance definitely helped me get an ER job as a new grad (I had three ER job offers before I even graduated!). Just make sure you make it clear in both your cover letter and resume that you do have ER experience as a medic. Don't sound like you have a big ego of course, but make it known, also in person during the interview.

My co-wroker also got hired recently, as a new grad right into an ER, and jobs are few and far between in my area for new grads! They did tell him they only hired him into their ER as a new grad because of his medic experience.

I will say that I eventually got bored with the ER and left a few months ago in search of something else, so you may too get bored with ER since you work on the ambulance. I am awaiting to hear as to whether I got a PICU job which I had a second interview for. A lot of folks on here told me not to even apply because I didn't have my BSN, and of course its a teaching hospital in a big city, and they put BSN required. I applied anyway, had a second interview, and it is looking good!!

Certain individuals may disagree with my reply, just ignore it, I can truly say being a medic hands down helped me get multiple job offers!!

Good luck!

Annie