Halfway There
EMT school is half over. Last Monday was the mid-term exam and a slew of practical labs that had me backboarding and examing my classmates. The mid-term was a 150 question test written in the vaguest terms possible in an effort to confuese EMT students.
Oweing to national standards 70 was the minimum passing grade, which proved to be to high for several of my classmates. They are no longer eligible to test for their EMT license upon graduation but may stay in the academy until completion in order to study and improve their chances should they choose to reattend.
Watching some of my classmates fail out was bittersweet, these were people that I had worked with, trained with--but all the while I had known they were not up to the stress and fatigue of emergency service. It was hard to see them go but I knew it was for the best. The classroom is an ideal condition, everything is controlled. If the students who failed had problems in a pristine environment, the field would have froze them at the wrong moment.
The purpose of the intensity of EMT school is twofold. One, EMT training is, by nature, an intense and trying expierence-- the job itself is a very nerve wracking career. And two, emergency situations are stressfull, so EMTs and responders need to be acclimated to the stress they will be experiencing on a daily basis.
Unfournately, the stress of this type of training proved to be too much for several of my classmates. As much as I am pained to see them leave, it's better for them to find out that they can't perform these skills in a classroom than on scene.
Seeing the empty seats upon return to EMT school will be difficult, but at the same time I'm very proud to still be there. The EMT patch is worn on the right shoulder, while the department patch is on the left. Those without EMT have a bare right shoulder, they're not lazy or any less firefighter but those who have EMT, especially after attending the rigorous Roger Williams EMS Academy, wear that patch on every uniform shirt they have. A lot of time and study went into earning that patch, and a lot is yet to come.
Oweing to national standards 70 was the minimum passing grade, which proved to be to high for several of my classmates. They are no longer eligible to test for their EMT license upon graduation but may stay in the academy until completion in order to study and improve their chances should they choose to reattend.
Watching some of my classmates fail out was bittersweet, these were people that I had worked with, trained with--but all the while I had known they were not up to the stress and fatigue of emergency service. It was hard to see them go but I knew it was for the best. The classroom is an ideal condition, everything is controlled. If the students who failed had problems in a pristine environment, the field would have froze them at the wrong moment.
The purpose of the intensity of EMT school is twofold. One, EMT training is, by nature, an intense and trying expierence-- the job itself is a very nerve wracking career. And two, emergency situations are stressfull, so EMTs and responders need to be acclimated to the stress they will be experiencing on a daily basis.
Unfournately, the stress of this type of training proved to be too much for several of my classmates. As much as I am pained to see them leave, it's better for them to find out that they can't perform these skills in a classroom than on scene.
Seeing the empty seats upon return to EMT school will be difficult, but at the same time I'm very proud to still be there. The EMT patch is worn on the right shoulder, while the department patch is on the left. Those without EMT have a bare right shoulder, they're not lazy or any less firefighter but those who have EMT, especially after attending the rigorous Roger Williams EMS Academy, wear that patch on every uniform shirt they have. A lot of time and study went into earning that patch, and a lot is yet to come.
posted by Nick Stabile at 10:15 AM
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