Monday, April 5, 2010

A taste of what testing will be like

Had A 100 question test tonight on three or four chapters. Questions like:

An organ or tissue may be better able to resist damage from hyperfusion if the:
a. the body's demand for oxygen is markedly increased
b. body's temperature is considerably less than 98.6F
c. systolic arterial pressure is at least 60 mmHg
d. heart rate is maintained at greater that 100bpm

or:

A 27 yr old woman complains of stabbing pains in the right lower quadrant. Last menstrual period 7 weeks. Pelvic inflammatory disease 3 months ago. You should be most suspicious that this patient is experiencing:
a. acute apendicitis
b. intrapelvic infection
c. spo0ntaneous abortion
d. ectopic pregnancy

People were walking out with big shocked looks on their faces. WTF?! They want us to be doctors in 5 months?

4 comments:

  1. Sagacious, got a question. How extensive a training does one need to get a good job as a EMT? In my area, there is a 7 credit "Letter of Recognition" program you'll find
    here, which is at a good community college.

    I'm considering for my son who surprised me yesterday by pitching the idea to me. Thing is, he needs to get a GED first, I think, to understand the kind of classwork you're doing. Any thoughts on that link and employability?

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I trained for it here in PR we had to do at least a 1,500 hours. Training course. I believe that's changed now.

    It's a very interesting and very rewarding profession, but it is hard on the back. The large patients on gurneys are difficult. Many people use it as a step off to careers in other areas of medicine

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kit, There are different levels of EMT. The first is the EMT-Basic. It requires a minimum of 110 hours of training (we're doing 130 hrs, 2 nights a week, 4 hrs per night for 4 months), which is quite a bit when you consider that a 3 hr. college class consists of less than 40 hours of in class time. . . and like a college class, you've got to do a whole lot of outside studying or else you aint gonna make it. I see it as a full semester of work.
    An EMT-B is qualified to be the person alone in the back of the ambulance giving BLS (basic life support).
    Most people, if they are going to further their career go straight to EMT-Paramedic. This is a course of stufy equivalent to or slightly less than a two year college degree. Some programs actually do incorporate an Associate degree with the certificate. The program I'm considering is a whole regular semesters and a full summer.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the feedback from both of you.

    ReplyDelete