During class we practiced the skills we learned on other students including when we were learning how to properly transport patients
My official certificate and patch I received after completing the course and National Registry test
For my STEP signature project I took an Emergency Medical Technician preparation course at Cuyahoga Community College. This 10-week course completed the state and national requirements for allowing me to become a certified EMT-B.
Prior to this transformative event, I followed a very traditional undergraduate pathway. I have always been interested in emergency medicine as a career and wanted to gain experience to know that this is the correct choice for me. The course reminded me that I am not just another pre-medical student, I have my own thoughts and life experiences that differentiate me from others.Throughout the Emergency Medical Technician course I was able to meet other students and people I normally would not have the opportunity to. I gained confidence, knowledge, and practice as well as a new understanding of my interests and abilities. My insecurities about taking on the responsibility of patient care have lessened, and my assumptions about prehospital care were corrected and I gained further understanding of the medical field.
One of the major agents of change was the ambulance ride time built into the class. I completed two 12 hour shifts riding with paramedics from Cleveland Emergency Medical Services. During this time I completed more than a dozen patient evaluations. As excited as I was when the station phone first rang calling us to see a patient I was also nervous. I had no idea what I was walking into and no similar previous experience. Despite taking other students vitals many times during class it was completely different in the ambulance. There was distracting noise, new people, and pressure to get the correct vitals because a person’s health was at stake. As we went on more calls, this pressure lessened as I learned that patients and paramedics were both understanding of the situation and this allowed me to get more confident and more adept. By the end of my second shift I felt capable of doing what was asked of me in many circumstances, a dramatic transformation.
My relationship with other students and the EMS instructors also facilitated change. It was a small class of about 12 students, all coming from different backgrounds. There were pre-medical students like me looking for opportunities, military veterans looking for a new job after serving, and moms working towards a new career. Being with this group of people for 16 hours a week, practicing new skills on each other we became a very close class. I studied with other students outside of class, and we all talked about our ride along times and the disturbing things we saw. We all helped each other understand the content being taught and the realities of the field we all had chosen to enter into. These new relationships helped me get through the difficult class, and opened me up to the possibility of different relationships in the future.
The rigor and setup of the EMT course has helped me prepare for classes I will take in the future. As a pre-medical student I have to take many courses covering various sciences, including chemistry, biology, physics, and anatomy. This pre-hospital care course served as an introduction to many of these subjects. Learning about different injuries and symptoms that could present from illnesses gave me a foundation to build on in my anatomy course that I am taking this semester. We also discussed the mechanism of injury that can cause injuries and how they depend on the forces acting upon the person, using physics to estimate the extent of injury. This preparation will continue to benefit me throughout my remaining time at Ohio State in a way that no other class has so far.
This change in myself, my confidence, and my knowledge will continue to affect me for the rest of my life. This transformative experience has helped me improve on basic life skills that can help me in every aspect of my career, schooling, and social life. With newfound confidence I will be better prepared for every new obstacle I face no matter the area. The tangible skills I learned and practiced will directly benefit me in my future career. These changes came at a perfect time for my motivation to continue on the path that I am on to be renewed. It was an invaluable experience that I would not have been able to complete without the financial support I received.