It was broken into 40 chapters and different sections. There was the introduction section, human body (anatomy and physiology) and development section, basic EMT stuff (CPR, maintaining airways, treating for shock, patient assessments, etc), medical emergencies, trauma emergencies, special populations (pregnant and neonatal care, pediatrics, geriatrics, patients with special challenges), and the last section is something like EMT duties (lifting and moving patients, transport, vehicle extraction, special rescue, incident and disaster management, terrorism response, and ALS assistance). It was normally pretty interesting, and I was able to do pretty well on the tests.
The next part of the class was to do the skills review. I went to El Paso to do this, since that's where the Training Academy is located. They just need to make sure that I actually know what I'm doing, and pass me off to perform the specific EMT duties.
It was a little scary driving over there to El Paso. It's about a 7 hour drive, and that's the longest I've ever driven by myself. The entire drive is along the boarder of Mexico, and the northern states of Mexico have been pretty violent. Stephen made sure I took my gun and it was loaded, just to be safe and make sure that if I broke down on the road, I'd be able to protect myself. I think that freaked me out even more! Well, I made it safe and sound to El Paso. The program director, Lisa, is very motherly and protective, so she was constantly checking up on me to make sure I was making it back to my hotel safely. I also ended up on a few downtown tours of El Paso, and almost ended up in Mexico since I didn't have a map or GPS, and was just trying to remember where I'm supposed to go.
My first 2 days in El Paso was doing the skills review. This took place in their office downtown where they have all their equipment, a manikin, and a stretcher. Lucky for me, I was the only real student. They were training one of their advanced students to be an instructor, so the real instructor was teaching the student instructor how to teach me. It actually worked out pretty well because I felt like I didn't really have a lot to learn, more just see how to do it, and then do it. It all came pretty easy for me; most of it's common sense, and the rest is thanks to SABC (self aide and buddy care) with the Air Force. My instructor was very impressed with my skills and wants me to take the advanced course. So, they tell us to plan on it taking 2-3 days to complete the skills review, but we finished in about a day and a half. As we left the office for the last time, my instructor told me I'm a natural, and if something happened to him, he would be more than fine for me to be his EMT.
After the skills review, I have to complete 24 hours of clinical rotations in the ER and see at least 9 patients. The ER there is a free-standing ER that's not attached to a hospital, so they don't see the gunshot wounds or unconscious people, but the people who are still sick and need to see the doctor, kinda like urgent care. My first 12 hour shift, we only saw 1 patient who had been in a car accident. Just 1. Since I have to see 9 patients, I decided to stay a few hours late since more people tend to come in the evenings. Lowe and behold, I stayed for 5 more hours and saw 4 more patients. It was really cool and fun to go in and out of all the rooms, checking up on people, watch IVs, assist with an EKG, give the reports to the nurse, etc. I had a really good time with it.
So after that 17 hour shift, I went back to my hotel and slept for a bit, then woke up and was back in the ER 9 hours later, for a 10 hour shift. Unlike my first day shift, this time we saw 7 patients, which kept us busy. The doctor who was there was also very helpful and would let me assist and see different things that I normally wouldn't have had the opportunity to. I got to assist with an abscess removal, and wow. I actually left the room to go sit down before I'd pass out! I went back in a minute later and was good to go from there! The doctor said I should've just sat down next to the patient so I could continue watching! haha yeah right! After that shift, I'd been in the ER for more time than is required, and had seen the proper number of patients.
The next two days I spent on the ambulance. The first day was again, slow. We had 2 patients in 10 hours. Also, the ambulance company I was riding with is mostly a transport company, so they take people from the hospital to another hospital or nursing home or some other similar facility. Most of our patients were older and had a lot of medical problems. My second shift was a lot more fun. I had a fun crew and we were all girls and the same age, and we were also the only ambulance from this company for the whole day. We ended up with 9 patients in that 12 hours! Some mentionable patients include the lady who was schizophrenic, a morbidly obese patient (who was almost dropped when we tried to lift her), and a possible stroke patient. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it!
Then I was back on my way to Del Rio. All that's left is finishing up my last 2 shifts on the ambulance, and taking the final exam! I can't believe I'm almost done with my EMT certification!
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