STEP Reflection

During this project, I went through the process of Emergency Medical Technician training of certification. I went to classes where I practiced skills and learned techniques while fitting in riding along time with working EMTs for a total of around 35 hours. I took exams throughout the semester and ended by taking the national registration exams which consisted of both physical and written portions.

While doing this project I was able to meet and interact quite a bit with people involved in the pre-hospital treatment of patients. I had never previously been able to see these people or truly understand their role in the health care system. While learning the curriculum and interacting with these people I was able to understand their role more fully in the workforce that I plan to be involved with even more in my future career. Throughout this project, I was able to learn real medical conditions and was given the knowledge and skills necessary to provide preliminary interventions to patients on their way to the hospital.

The aspect that gave the foundation for my transformation was the curriculum and testing regime. We had a lot of material to cover that was mostly expected to be done by ourselves if we were taking the online version which I was. The amount of material seemed daunting but was necessary to apply the knowledge later to treat theoretical and real patients. We had practice and module exams almost weekly which served to both see if were absorbing the material and able to keep up and also to prepare for the course final exam and eventually the national registry exam.

The next part of the class that helped with my transformation was the physical examinations and skill practices. Each time we learned a new concept or skill we spent the rest of the night practicing the skills and running through theoretical scenarios and working as we would with a real patient. This was helpful and necessary because the physical practicing of real-world skills helped me learn and appreciate how I would need to use the skill while working as an EMT.

Finally, the last main component to my transformation was the clinical hours that were required to do ‘clinical hours’ which entailed going to some EMS service and going on calls with them. There I interacted with real patients that were being treated and transported to the hospital. There I got to witness and experience the treatment of real patients, and arguably more importantly, how to interact and have a conversation with them to treat them most effectively and have them have as good an experience as possible.

During this project, I was able to experience working in the pre-hospital setting. Since I want to eventually enter medicine as a physician, I wanted to be able to see the whole operation, so this was an opportunity to see it. The knowledge that I gained will further prepare me for medical school and possible future pre-hospital setting jobs in the future. By seeing the profession of prehospital treatment and interacting with the people that do that job has helped me further understand this link in a patient’s treatment which will help me with interactions later in my career.