Hi,

What's involved with getting certified as an EMT?

Here's the story. My wife is a family practice physician. I'm a private pilot, just about to get my Commercial rating. My wife is thinking of working in a very lightly populated area such as Alaska or the desert SW. I would fly her to her various clinics, and help her in any way I can in the clinics. EMT skills would complement my wife's skills very nicely.

- How much training would be involved? Any suggestions for schools in the St. Paul, MN area? I see by a brief web search that the red cross and various community colleges give courses. Any preference?

- I'm a good book learner. Are there any books I can study ahead of time that would make the coursework easier? Or is it really a lot more hands-on?

- What level would be the most appropriate?

- How transferrable would my certificate and training in MN be in other states? Would I need additional training to be certified there?

- The red cross has a "first responder" course also. Do you think this might be useful instead?

- Is this just a pipe dream?

The red cross also gives a course titled "Wilderness First Aid", a 3 day course held weekend after next at a Gander Mountain store 2 blocks from my house. That's a course that would be useful for me (and maybe even my wife) even if we don't follow through with this idea.

Contact your local Fire/Rescue Department, they can help you with local training oppertunities. Also take a look at the NREMT web site, as many of the answers to your questions may be found there. Pete

http://www.nremt.org/about/nremt_news.asp

Goatrider,

It doesn't sound like a pipedream, it sounds like a brilliant idea.

Good luck on the Commercial ride. I am about 1/3 of the way through my commercial right now, although I don't plan to fly commercially, just want to be a better pilot.

Paula,

I too am getting my commercial to make me a better pilot. In other words, I'm getting my commercial to study, rather than studying to get my commercial. I'm mostly done with it. I've got all the required dual, including the cross countries, and the solo cross country, and I've passed the written. The only thing left is to get 2.5 more hours of night solo (kind of hard when sunset is 9:00, and I'm not a night person), and then polish up my maneuvers. Probably need to do the 3 hours of dual in the last 90 days, since I've taken a couple months off. I'll need that for review anyhow.

Goatrider,

I know what you mean about not being a night person. I am waiting until late September to start the night portion...that way I don't have to stay up till midnight. In Canada, night flying requires a separate rating for a Private license, so I can add that to my Private as soon as I finish it. The night rating is a requirement for the Commercial license.

Lately, I've been doing the cross countries, which are fun out here because there are so many different kinds of country...ocean, mountains, valleys, high desert, etc. Next week, I start the mountain portion of my training. It's not a requirement for the Commercial, but most schools out here offer a separate mountain flying program. It's something you should look into if you go to Alaska. There's a lot to be learned from the bush pilots.

Good luck and safe flying.

You might look at training for a Physician Assistant (PA). The skills are more in line with helping a physician during normal office visits. Requirements vary with the state and I have not been around any PS's for several years so it may be different now. But the PA's I knew were very active in the office and did many of the more routine tasks that really take a big load of the Doc. Like BP, Medical History, Injections , training in some areas etc. Good luck. Sounds like you both are beginning an interesting life.

I thought about PA, but that would be less useful for us. If I do any of that work, she can probably train me fairly quickly on what she would need me to do to lessen her workload. But if a patient crashes, or we come upon an accident, she's not as well trained in that sort of a situation.

Benton,

and what sort of stuff you want to assist your wife with (be specific)? I know she is a physician but are you are going to be making injections for her, draw blood, assist during surgery, dispense meds? Maybe than it would be better to go for you LPN licence and than take a wilderness first aid course.

Read EMT job description and realize that there is not as much healing there but packaging the patient and transporting them.

Matt

Thanks, this is stuff I hadn't really thought of, which is why I ask. I don't really know for sure if there are even places where a partnership like this would be valuable, so I'm kind of making this up as I go. Alaska or the desert SW for Indian Health Services seems likely. Is it still called "Indian" health services?

As far as I know, the only things that I would be assisting my wife with would be lining up the patients and doing the initial paperwork. She would be doing the healing. Mostly I'm there to fly the plane. But if something happens that gets to be more than she can handle herself, then I would think that as an EMT I could help stabilize the patient and prepare the patient for transport. But then I suppose it might be kind of hard for me to drive the plane, wouldn't it? She's taken flying lessons, but quit after soloing, so she could help with that. Maybe I should lean on her to continue her flying if we get serious about this.

Basically, any medical training would help us, so that I learn enough terminology to be able to communicate with her. As an RN or PA, I would only know a subset of what she knows, so our total knowledge wouldn't be any greater. But as an EMT, I would know things she doesn't. Does that make sense?

The red cross EMT-basic course has an 8 hour CPR course as a prerequisite. Maybe I should take that first, and discuss it with the instructors. CPR would certainly be useful. Also, the 16 hour wilderness first aid course will be useful to us for camping and flying even if we don't go through with "the plan".

GoatRider, you should look into both the PA and Nurse Practicioner. They both commonly specialize in a specific area. Here in CA. it's common to find PA's in the E.R.. The EMT would limit you, and the licensencing in different states could be a nightmare. I know 2 PA's that work for the Feds.