What is a Paramedic?

Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are first responders trained in emergency medicine who save lives and transport patients to hospitals every day of their working lives.  

The difference between the two is that paramedics have a higher level of education and training, indeed, being an EMT with a specified number of hours is often a prerequisite of many paramedic courses. While an EMT will complete tuition totalling around 150 hours; a paramedic will complete a course of around 1,200 to 1,800 hours.

Paramedics extend on their EMT knowledge and, consequently, can provide more complex care, such as administering emergency medications, inserting IVs, performing advanced airway management, and providing emergency treatment for cardiac patients.

You can find course stats at The Community for Accredited Online Schools or your local college. Why not check out this video in which Christian Jocelyn talks about his job as a paramedic?

Learning to become a Paramedic

If you’re learning to become a paramedic, chances are you are working full-time as an EMT. During your course, you’ll build on your EMT understanding and aim to become proficient in more advanced healthcare. When you’re juggling study commitments with a stressful hands-on job, Brainscape is the ideal supplementary study aid to help you drill down and memorize tricky medical terminology and principles.   

You’ll find thousands of flashcards on this page all prepared by like-minded Paramedic students. There are cards covering all you need from anatomy basics to helpful drug quizzes. You can also use the software to make your own flashcards from your course notes. All for free!  

Learn Faster in Brainscape

Brainscape’s Confidence-Based Repetition system (CBR) is transforming the way people are learning. The reality is you can learn twice as fast, with Brainscape!

Comprising three scientifically proven learning methods the turbo-charged learning engine uses your responses to deliver flashcards for optimal learning. The result, you never waste a second going over material you know and learn super quick.

To test it out, just click on ‘make flashcards’ at the top of the page or choose a deck from below. Good Luck!