Paramedic: Now What?
Today the commonwealth issued my paramedic license. After nearly four years of training, switching lead paramedic instructors, the COVID-19 pandemic, four jobs, getting engaged, seemingly countless exams, a little procrastinating on my part, and completing 594 hours of training in operating rooms, labor and delivery suites, trauma centers, and ambulances, my journey through paramedic school is over.
While I did not end up working as an EMT in an emergency department as I had hoped, the opportunities afforded to me through paramedic clinical rotations had a profound impact on me. I loved every moment. I would like to give my most sincere thanks to the custodial staff, resident physicians, attending physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, respiratory therapists, social workers, child life specialists, and the rest of the staff of both the Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital emergency departments. The experiences I had with you will never be forgotten.
The world was a very different place when I finished EMT school, the SARS-CoV-2 virus didn’t exist, and the COVID-19 pandemic was still just under a year away. Despite that, emergency medicine had found me and I knew that I needed to continue my education in medicine. I started paramedic school four months after becoming an EMT, having never once set foot in an ambulance. As we learned more and more about the human body I became increasingly confident in my decision to pursue emergency medicine. I also realized how much I didn't know, and how much I wasn’t going to learn as a paramedic. Nearly every topic we discussed left me wanting, I had more questions, I wanted more knowledge. Paramedics can do incredible things; but at the end of the day it’s still about getting the patient to definitive care. It’s all about keeping them alive until someone else can take over.
I don’t recall exactly when it clicked, it likely was not a single moment in time. At this point I feel as though I have been saying it for so long it’s always been true. At some point during paramedic school it hit me. My educational journey doesn’t end with becoming a paramedic.
My next stop? Medical school.