EMT course or EFR course??

Polo mint

Hello

I am getting conflicting advice on whether to go straight and do my EMT course or whether to do the EFR course first.

What I want to know is whether I would be able to do my EMT course if I don't do the EFR course. I am doing my first Aid with St John's ambulance at the moment and I previously worked with the Military on a ship for a year as First Aid party where we dealt with all sorts of issues.

I am an intelligent enough person and I don't want to waste my time doing the EFR course and then the EMT course if I can handle just doing the EMT course. Any advice would be welcome. My long term goal is paramedic and I am in a situation now when I have the time and can afford to do the course.

Thanks PM

paraletic

you'll get conflicting advice from everyone - because we all know everything:D

do the EMT course, in my opinion, EFR is really just advanced first aid.
the EMT course shouldn't be hard for anybody with any interest in it. the EMT course is also, in my opinion, a very high standard of care - not too far from paramedic really.

the EFR course is probably quite good too, but if you have the time and can afford it - aim a bit higher,

most paramedics probably never did either course before starting, but i think it would be an advantage to have something - even if it is just to show the interview panel!
don't forget the driving licences....


Good luck, which ever choice you make!

Elessar

I agree with paraletic, go straight into EMT. If you're somewhat experienced and intelligent enough, you'll get by with a good study routine. Don't St. Johns offer EMT aswell now?

touge_drift

if your with a vol organisation, id personally do the efr course first, its only 5 days long and it will help you with the emt, if your young you have years ahead of you for paramedeic so the 5 extra days will benifit you even more.

the efr in my opnion opens you up the the idea of cpg's, how to use and follow them, introduces you to pharamcology and a few other elements vital imo to being an emt within a vol organisation.

Polo mint

Thanks Folks

Well I am young at heart but am getting along now and at the ripe old age of 34 don't think I can spend too much doing it at stages. I spent 6 years in the military and 2 of those years I was an Emergency First Aider on the ship. My basic first Aid is good.

St John's do an EMT course but I have only just joined and there is a hierachy which I am very low down in. I would like to do the course this summer as I lost my job and I will have the time.

My gut instinct is the EMT course but I do appreicate all the advice and will have to decide by the end of the week.

M

medic780

I agree with touge drift it is a benefit to do the EFR plus if you look at <mod snip> it recommends that you have the EFR done before you go on to the EMT. It's a big change from doing first aid at sea as you can basically do what you want at sea once you have some training and can read a manual I have done the off shore medics course and most of the things you are trained to do at sea would cause serious problems if you did these on shore, EFR as touge drift said gives you an introduction to CPG's and your skills matrix. But at the end of the day the decision is yours check out www.phecc.ie and take a look at both EFR and EMT it will show you the skill sheets etc for each course and make your decision from that.

touge_drift

without sounding condasending here but... what do you want/ need the emt for? personal satisfaction or for employment?

if your thinking of doing it privatly wasting 2.5k you will not get a job after it.

personally id wait become more active in your spare time with the st. john ambulance and work your way up to emt.

Polo mint

Thanks medic I will have a look at that.

Tough-drift - I want to eventually end up working as a EMT and then paramedic for a living. Its something I have wanted to do for a few years. Before the HSE would even look at me I need to do my EMT course and C1 and D1 course. I spoke to the HSE and they will probably not be advertising till next year although the lady at the HSE said it may be late this year either.

But as you say I don't want to waste the money if i end up not been able to finish the course because I am missing some of the basics.

medic780

Don't bother doing ur D1 and C1 if you do the full D and full C you get your D1 and C1 with these plus it's the same price for lessons and tests.

touge_drift

you dont need your emt licence to join the h.s.e nas, and working as an emt in ireland is virtually non exsistant these days there is another thread in the main es forum you should read about an emt. you need to be a paramedic at least for the emergency ambulances, the privates are looking for paramedics more so now and their current emts are only driving or becoming paramedics. thats just the way it is on our tiny island these days

Polo mint

Thanks

M

villains77

iam i nst john 2 years next week and ave done my cfr/efr course and now emt course with medicall. I did a basic first aid course last april and decided to go on for emt. will see how i got before i try the paramedic i found it of benefit to get to know the cpgs and a few of the skills before i went on to do the emt course. iam glad i did the efr course and would recomend it as a steppign stone to the emt course to familiarise with the terms and abreviations before i started the course so i would have a knowledge but having completed efre and emt course i think that the emt is a totally different course and more indept then the efr course hope it helps and best of look with it in the future

discus

Polo mint wrote: »

Thanks Folks

Well I am young at heart but am getting along now and at the ripe old age of 34 don't think I can spend too much doing it at stages. I spent 6 years in the military and 2 of those years I was an Emergency First Aider on the ship. My basic first Aid is good.

St John's do an EMT course but I have only just joined and there is a hierachy which I am very low down in. I would like to do the course this summer as I lost my job and I will have the time.

My gut instinct is the EMT course but I do appreicate all the advice and will have to decide by the end of the week.

M

If I recall, the syllabus for each progressive qualification contains all the lower qualifications. ie, the EFR is within the EMT course, and the EFR and EMT are within Paramedic etc.

So I'd say no - don't bother do both courses, it's wasting your time and money.

villains77

medic780 wrote: »

Don't bother doing ur D1 and C1 if you do the full D and full C you get your D1 and C1 with these plus it's the same price for lessons and tests.

How much is it for lessons for c and d licences iam awaiting my emt osce results in the next week or so and would love to get the licences sorted so i can drive our ambulance in the near future

donkey balls

villains77 wrote: »

How much is it for lessons for c and d licences iam awaiting my emt osce results in the next week or so and would love to get the licences sorted so i can drive our ambulance in the near future

The cost of geting both licences can vary from school to school check out the learning to drive section there is a lot of lads that have done both tests recently,If your Dublin based I can recomend a school via PM I dont want to see to be advertising for them considering I got first time passes for both the ridgid&artic about 15yrs ago.

maglite

This may be overly simplistic, and as you already have experience this will differ from my normal position.

Do you want Experience, a cert, better skills, or better patient care.

Private EMT will more than likely only get you a cert. I don't have much faith in how they teach their students. Look long and hard at who will be teaching the course and their experience, also if you know someone who has done a course, look at the and see if you are happy with the level of real skill they have.

IF you want better Pt Care and Exp stick with the SJA and get as much PT Care time as you can.

If you have the time and money head off and do the EMT then practice as much as you can with SJA, then migrate to HSE. There is no career as an EMT.

5500

maglite wrote: »

This may be overly simplistic, and as you already have experience this will differ from my normal position.

Do you want Experience, a cert, better skills, or better patient care.

Private EMT will more than likely only get you a cert. I don't have much faith in how they teach their students. Look long and hard at who will be teaching the course and their experience, also if you know someone who has done a course, look at the and see if you are happy with the level of real skill they have.

I wouldnt be so quick to tar all the private companies with the same brush. When I did my emt just over 2 years ago, it was only starting to roll out in CD and I would have probably been waiting another 2 years minimum to get a sniff at a place on a course for starters

The company I did it with at the time were using HSE and DFB AP's who are instructors on the paramedic programmes in both the obi and nasc so I was confident enough in their levels of training and experience to be teaching on the course. As they said themselves, they were training us to be good emt's and know what we were doing, not just to pass an exam. There were 18 of us on the course and 17 passed in the end, 1 guy was away at the time of the exams so I dont know how he faired in the end.

Looking at it from the other side, Once I had my cert and got my pin I was able to start practicing the skills that I had learned, although being the only emt in my unit was kind of like being the back sheep, the relics who had years and years experience but only recently completed OFA would always seem reluctant to ask for your assistance or advice.

Funnily enough 2 people from my unit sat there exams in may and both failed. Im not sure what the pass rate is like within CD and according to them it was either an emt or paramedic who was instructing on the days they attended a class, looking over the structure and syllabus of their program If I had to complete further training I still think I would prefare the private route.

maglite

maglite wrote: »

Look long and hard at who will be teaching the course and their experience,

5500 wrote: »

The company I did it with at the time were using HSE and DFB AP's who are instructors on the paramedic programmes in both the obi and nasc

within CD and according to them it was either an emt or paramedic who was instructing

QED

villains77

just a quick query went to view my osces for emt and missed out by a point in 2 of them and i know that i defo did the exams the right way and remember giving the correct pulses and sayign the rthym and strentgh and when i saw the exams the paper said i didnt say the strenthgs and regurlar or irregular and then 1 poitn from passign anotehr primary osce. if i query it i have to pay 50 euro to phecc and write a letter to director general outlining why i feel i should query the exams and wait 28 days to find out if i had passed or not or wait to do resits in october

lmmoonbeam1976

medic780 wrote: »

Don't bother doing ur D1 and C1 if you do the full D and full C you get your D1 and C1 with these plus it's the same price for lessons and tests.

I Can vouch for this part -- i completed my D licence in june and got work for the summer driving D1 vehicles -- im applying to do C licence as soon as i get money together for it --