What Level Of Medical Training Do You Have?

[RandyRhoads]

BTW.... to my understanding...the differences have been addressed with EMT-A and EMT-B.....

I must be missing something here. NREMT-B is more advanced than VAs regular EMT-A class? It was my understanding the whole country was on the same level, and required to be registered to be recognized as an EMT. I mean you could easily fake/cheat or BS your way through a class. The national registry test, background check and whole registry process is what weeds out the potential murderers....

I'm trying to ponder on what would seperate someone who knows CPR and VA EMT. The NREMT can be taught in TWO WEEKS. What the hell could make NREMT so advanced beyond VA EMT?? You spent two weeks in school rather than one? I'm not trying to sound like an a hole, i'm just curious how other states work. I see myself moving in the future. If I didn't have to pay for National Registry, PALS, PEPP, ACLS, AMLS, and ITLS every 2 years in a different state, I could sure save a lot of money.

[Echo2]

I'm not sure what the differences are now.....they have changed a lot of stuff in the past few years....Heck....when I first went through class....they still made distinctions for "shock/trauma" and "cardiac tech"

The last Va Cert I had was 2 night a week for 10 weeks....then ER time.....The last NREMT was way more class time and twice as much ER time. The only reason I took the NREMT was the job I was working on would not accept my Va EMT Cert on a WV jobsite....so they paid for it.....years ago.

I grew up with both parents on the Rescue squad.....I've been "victim" more times than I care to recall....strapped to backboards, HEDs, c-spine collars, into stokes baskets, splinted and bandaged in so many configurations and sat through classes so many times....That for kicks I took the EMT test and passed at 13 yrs old.

Yet....never served on any squad as an active member. I've been safety super and first aid admin. on many jobs.....always let someone else pay for it....

[Bushman]

CPR & Basic First Aid........

have to re-qualify each year....a job 'requirement'

also qualified as a Bush Medic through the Unit back in the Army.


also use it as a Volunteer Firefighter.......

[AzaezelisI]

For those interested in Wilderness medic training, there is a facility centrally located in the US that provides several wilderness medic/first responder classes. Check out Sigma 3. They have other programs as well. Definitely worth a look

[1stimestar]

Yea, we have wilderness first responder classes here regularly.

[Daniel Nighteyes]

Back in the late 1970s thru late 1980's I was a certified Advanced First Aid (roughly equivalent to EMT-1) and CPR instructor. I taught a whole heap of classes. For those who don't already know this, the absolute best way to master a subject is to be required to teach it!!!

I got practical experience working first aid stations at events like the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, the Greater Gulf State Fair, bluegrass festivals, rock concerts, etc. You might be surprised at just how severely people can injure themselves or each other at such events, particularly when high heat/humidity and beer are involved. The carnival workers at the Fair brought some very, ah, interesting (yeah, that's a good euphemism) medical situations to us. I've even treated two minor gunshot wounds, both of which occurred on OPENING DAY of two consecutive deer seasons. And this, gentle folks, is why you'll never catch me anywhere near the woods during deer season. I may watch a movie about the woods while sitting in my recliner and sipping a brew in front of my fireplace, but that's it.

[Bushman]

Don't count on it. While the most painful shot I have ever gotten personally was gamma globulin (really really painful), the worst one I have heard of was penicillin. Not Procaine penicillin like you get today with Procaine, a lidocaine-like local anesthetic mixed with the penicillin, but the raw deal like they used to give farm animals. Now, even that is more humane, but from what I gathered, it was not uncommon for people to faint when getting the unmixed shots back in the day because it felt like someone was pushing jello under their skin. Very nasty. The old rabies shots (multiple injections over a short duration) were pretty awful too.

yer damn RIGHT there about pennicillen !! 30 odd years back I had a punjii stake slip through my boot and into the side of my ankle...... (turned out, only the size of matchstick........) and you'd think..."no big deal"but those little yellow men had smeared the bamboo with human excrement.........and within 20 minutes I could not walk on it.......I got on the 'dust -off' and back to the RAP where I expected a local and a few stitches....... but 'no'.............10 days of pennicllen (imagine light cream, and you've got the consistency) EVERY 4 hours, injected with a LARGE BORE needle, which left weeping holes in my thigh and backside. This stuff is so thick that they 'throw' the syringe into your leg like a dart, get a firm grip with BOTH hands, force it into the muscle, then put the palm of one hand on the plunger and VERY slowly......force the pennicillen into your leg............. Eventually the swelling went down (my ankle had swollen to the size of my thigh) and they operated and removed this sliver of bamboo that fit into a 45mm film container.............

to this day I CANNOT even watch people on TV getting needles stuck into them !! and I will avoid them like the plague !! Talked to a GP about this recently, and he said, "well, if you hadn't had the pennicillen you would have been dead in a couple of days........"

[Adventure Wolf]

First aid and CPR qualified. I picked up some more advanced tricks as well, but First aid and CPR Qualification is my "formal" training.

[MoraGuy]

First Aid, CPR, Wilderness First Aid, First Responder

[Geek]

Rescue Diver, includes Basic First Aid, CPR with AED and Oxygen Provider.

[SurvivorMama]

Advanced Practice Nurse, Emergency Medicine (trauma: started as EMT 40 yrs ago), Herbal Therapies, Quantum Touch

[le Metis]

W-EMT, Swiftwater Rescue, Rescue Rigger

[TheUnknownPoet]

None. Although I am a chemist, so I could use my knowledge to prescribe medication. *(More realistically, I know how to properly give you heroin after you get blown in half so you don't die painfully. Yea. I'm not a doctor.)

[intothenew]

None. Although I am a chemist............

Some people do fine?

[RandyRhoads]

Just finished recues diver. I gotta say I wasn't impressed, seems like just another way for PADI to get money from you to get a fancy card with your name on it.

[Woodmaster750]

Dido, heeeheeee. But down deep you go in to the dark no body knows.

[Suvurov]

Hi, first post here. The wife and I are both RN's- she 18 years, 14 as an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) nurse and 4 as a med/surg nurse; myself 5 as a med-surg nurse, with er crosstraining. Both bls/acls/pals cert'd.

[crashdive123]

Welcome. I had to look at your post twice......you said crosstraining.

[tacmedic]

Critical Care Paramedic
Wilderness EMT
Registered Nurse
Tactical medic
Tactical diver, dive rescue
High and low angle rope rescue
Swift water rescue
Plus a whole alphabet soup of instructor certifications that I have to keep track of and renew every other year.

And, I am currently in school to become an advanced registered nurse practitioner.

[RandyRhoads]

Critical Care Paramedic
Wilderness EMT
Registered Nurse
Tactical medic
Tactical diver, dive rescue
High and low angle rope rescue
Swift water rescue
Plus a whole alphabet soup of instructor certifications that I have to keep track of and renew every other year.

And, I am currently in school to become an advanced registered nurse practitioner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGyIwTAFPzQ