Mitch is Back to School

This April I will be going back to school to get my EMT Intermediate certification. Now some of you may be asking yourselves, "I thought that all firefighters were EMTs?" Well that is correct, but there are several classes of EMTs. Those classes being EMT Basic, EMT Intermediate, and EMT Paramedic. Currently I am an EMT Basic, which means that I can provide basic patient care such as wound management, splinting, oxygen therapy, and CPR/Automatic Defibrilation. The training that I'll be starting in April will prepare me to become an EMT Intermediate.

So what's the difference? Well, in Virginia there is no difference between an EMT Intermediate and an EMT Paramedic. Both certifications give you the ability to administer medications to patients as well as perform more complicated and invasive procedures such as endotracheal intubation, or shoving a tube down someone's throat in layman's terms. My educational experience will last about 5 months and is followed by a 4-5 month field internship. My reward for all this hard work is more money and a key to a big box full of narcotics...just kidding. I am doing this because EMS incidents make up about 75% of all incidents in the Fire and Rescue service and I enjoy providing patient care. It puts me in a position to help someone everyday that I'm at work and that's the reason that I got into the business to begin with. So wish me luck, I'm gonna need it.