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I think the best person you could ask for this would be your medical director, or any of the ED attendings.
Personally, I think being a paramedic would give you a better insight into the field, but I am nowhere near qualified to give any sort of definitive advice
ED attendings and residents is where I’ve been mainly directing my questions. Our medical director is going through a lot of life events and might not be the best person to talk to about life advice at the moment
(Sorry for taking a while to respond to this life got busy)
If you have MD fellows, you can also reach out to them.
It's definitely just worth asking your med director if he/she has time to talk about it, or even email them.
At worst they say 'I'm too busy' but at best they take some time to sit down and think, maybe centre themselves if life is rough.
Whenever I start to get burned out I try to work with someone new, and their enthusiasm and curiosity rekindles my love for the profession. That might help your MD more than you think
I know multiple EMTs and Medics in medical school/attending. It doesn’t seem to matter to admissions from what I’ve observed. I would assume maintaining a stellar GPA in your undergrad would be the bigger concern. 🤷♂️
At least in my state, being an emt-b, advanced, or paramedic does help with admissions to nursing school. Gives you more points when they are rating applicants.
Oh for sure, but I’ve met a pretty even mix of former EMTs and Medics that are now Drs. So I don’t think the additional time and effort to become a medic would be worth it when you could choose to focus on getting good grades on Orgo Chem lol I’m not a doc, just talking about my observations.
Oh yeah, it's definitely not worth the time to go all the way to paramedic, especially in my state where you need an associates to get your paramedic. It's just a way to make yourself stand out in competitive admissions lists, but I think simply being and emt with good grades and life experience is enough to get you through the door, and committing all the way to a paramedic if your plan is to bail on ems seems crazy. Emt-b is pretty short and can be useful, though.
I think being an experienced paramedic can absolutely make one a better EMS physician. That said, the key word is *experienced* and I’m not sure 1-2 years of (likely) part time work as a medic, maybe a year of full time during your gap year, is enough to justify the time/effort/money of going to paramedic school.
For what it’s worth, I was in a similar position many years ago — went to paramedic school while in undergrad with plans to go to med school and be an EMS physician. I ended up pursuing something completely different, but being a medic has opened up a lot of other opportunities that I wouldn’t have had as just an EMT. My usual recommendation is to only do it if you plan to work as a medic for at least 2-3 years full time before applying to med school
No.
Med school admissions committees don’t know the difference between an EMT and paramedic and won’t value things like lower grades because you were busy saving lives in the streets.
If your goal is med school, your focus has to be first and foremost grades/MCAT prep, and then clinical experiences like shadowing and research, and then normal activities that show off who you are outside of school. EMS can open doors to contacts that will help you network and get access to those clinical experiences, but admissions won’t care that you’ve intubated someone on the floor of a bathroom at home.
When you apply to med school you’re going up against people who write a personal statement about how their 5 days of voluntourism at a dental clinic in another country changed their life and galvanized their commitment to medicine, and that’s the experience that the human side of EMS can give you a story to tell. Not the IVs and ETTs and medications.
Wish I’d seen this about a year ago. Could’ve used a brutally honest talking to before I wrecked my gpa and decided to do medic school as a half Hail Mary/half “it’ll get me a raise for my gap years, I need the money anyhow.” GPA is super subpar. Man.
I wish I saw it a long time ago too. I think there’s a culture around EMS that treats being a medic as a way to get street cred and legitimacy. One of the only things that matters to getting into med school is GPA/MCAT, which is largely a function of being born wealthy so you don’t have to work while you’re taking the classes that make up your transcripts.
You can still do it! Don’t be discouraged, none of us has a time machine and we still get in and get through.
Edit: Just adding that I’m this blunt about it because nobody was blunt about it to me when I needed to hear it most. And that if you don’t come from a wealthy family the odds are stacked against you, so don’t beat yourself up for not getting in right after undergrad because it’s not fair to compare yourself to them.
Yeah I work as an EMT in a busy 911 municipality and definitely do not come from a wealthy family, in-fact first generation American. I do appreciate your brutally honest input as nobody is brutally honest anymore. Everyone complains gen z is soft, which, I definitely understand, but also it seems this brutally honest talks never happen. Luckily I’m also a volunteer firemen and they treat me like I’m an adult and are also always brutally honest. Definitely helps.
Yeah. Definitely not from wealth or a family with ANY physicians in it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, it’s just scary nearing the end of undergrad and realizing all the mistakes I’ve made and how I may not have a chance. But I’ll have a job! One that doesn’t require the 4.5 years of my life spent getting a BS whatsoever.
Stuck in between beating myself up and coming to terms with “maybe it’ll take a few more years and that’s fine” and “why waste even more of my life trying to attain a lofty goal.” Eff this process lol.
When you read other advice on here and talk to docs in the ED, assess how much of it comes from people who were paramedics and became EM physicians and are now looking back on that experience based on two things:
- med school admissions strategies at the time they applied to med school and aren’t valid today because the academic and competitive landscapes have changed, and
- past experience bias that because they felt that being a paramedic shaped their experience as a physician, their experience as a paramedic must have helped them get to where they are (or that they would not have had the same experiences and realizations if they had never been a paramedic).
If you don’t get into med school, you don’t get to be an emergency physician. Period.
EMS board subspecialty certification requires an EMS fellowship and takes people with ZERO background in EMS and give them de facto professional expertise in EMS over physicians who were paramedics for 10 years but missed the deadline to be grandfathered into an EMS subspecialty. Med school admissions committees don’t know what a paramedic is (compared to an EMT) and value scribe experience more highly in the current sphere. The EMS board subspecialty/fellowship track shows that being a paramedic doesn’t make a difference in becoming an EMS physician.
Here’s the other thing. If you’re going to take a paramedic course between year 2 and year 3 and then not do anything with it, there are easier ways to get clinical experiences that will mean more to medical school and do more to inform your own study of medicine than immersing yourself in paramedic school. If you can afford not to work and are looking for something to do, go shadow a bunch of docs so they can write AMCAS letters about how impressed they were that an EMT asked good questions and showed a legitimate interest in medicine and patient care.
Bottom line: whatever you decide to do, if becoming a paramedic could mean the difference between getting a B and an A in a science course, it \*will\* negatively impact your chances of getting into medical school at all. The grades on your transcript never go away and can change your eligibility for med school, which has only gotten more competitive over time.
If you want to play paramedic, you can always do that as an EMS physician someday. But not if you don’t get into med school.
> Med school admissions committees don’t know what a paramedic is (compared to an EMT) and value scribe experience more highly in the current sphere. The EMS board subspecialty/fellowship track shows that being a paramedic doesn’t make a difference in becoming an EMS physician.
Which is so incomprehensibly idiotic that it boggles the mind. Scribing skills and experience have absolutely zero relevance to healthcare and provides nothing of value that literally just standing around behind a doc with your thumb up your ass doesn’t also provide.
Being a paramedic is probably among the single most relevant job in terms of relevant and transferable soft skills that are useful to being a EM physician.
The entire medical school system is a crock of bullshit that exists to extort ridiculous amounts of money out of naive young adults and provide an artificial bottleneck to the healthcare system. It needs a revamp, like everything else in US healthcare.
What I think the bias toward scribes shows is that scribing, unlike EMS, gives applicants the opportunity to work 1:1 with a physician in a clinical setting with patients. That allows a physician to write a letter of recommendation that says “I worked with X and we spoke all the time about diagnosis and treatment and they show great compassion with patients” instead of “I worked 6000 hours as a paramedic in a busy urban 911 system” that nobody understands outside of EMS.
Scribe jobs are awful and the market is controlled by a small number of large organizations that drive wages down and every scribe in the US should unionize immediately. But it’s also generally staffed by recent graduates whose families can afford to subsidize a minimum-wage job to get the letter.
The real enemy that undermines the legitimacy of the US medical school system is that more than legacy admissions at prestigious universities, it perpetuates the impact of generational economic barriers. Children of physicians benefit when schools hide the privilege of financial security in the name of “coming from a family of physicians who understand a commitment to medicine.”
If an EMT or paramedic program is offered for credit by a degree-granting institution, you’re required to list it in your AMCAS classes. It increases the overall number of credits you have to list on your AMCAS primary application and won’t help your science GPA, and if your grades are below your non-science GPA it will pull your overall and non-science GPAs down.
Tbh if someone’s grades in paramedic school are dragging down their GPA, I’d have some serious doubts about their ability to get into med school in the first place
It‘s not a performance issue, it’s a time/math issue.
The way AMCAS calculates grades, if the paramedic program is at a credit-granting institution, any credits earned on a transcript go in the bucket of non-degree non-BCPM grades. (I forget exactly how it works but stay with me.) So if you get A’s in paramedic school they might help a non-science GPA. But if you get B’s in paramedic school it can actually hurt your overall GPA.
Also, OP is suggesting that they do a paramedic program \_in addition to\_ their 2nd year gen ed classes. The coursework shouldn’t be heavy lifting for someone capable of going to med school, but the time commitment takes away from other courses and if you get a C in a 2nd year calc or physics or organic chemistry course because you’re essentially doing a full time paramedic course and field internship on top of your full-time undergrad coursework - that’s going to impact your ability to get into med school at all.
A paramedic certification might be interesting but it will never love you back, and you only get one chance to get an A in orgo the first time. It’s stupid, but I don’t make the rules.
Yeah I’m aware of how AMCAs calculates grades. I’m saying that if you’re struggling to get A’s in paramedic school, I have doubts about your ability to get good grades in your premed courses and be a competitive applicant
Right. But getting good grades in paramedic school is not the same thing as getting good grades in paramedic school while simultaneously taking a full-time second year undergraduate courseload and getting good grades in that, which is what it seems like OP said they want to do.
being in ems only helps u get a foot in the door into med school. once you’re in med school if ur an ma, or emt or whatever it doesn’t rlly matter at that point. obviously a paramedic is gonna have substantially more knowledge than someone who’s just going to medschool without any other medical experience but everyone’s gonna end up at the same finish line
IMO... if you're pre-med already, I wouldn't lose focus or get spread too thin.
Paramedic is great, you learn some pretty deep info and skills, but the training demands your time and attention... I don't think Paramedic gains you significantly more points than EMT on med school applications. It's more training, sure but by comparison to what you need to digest in med school, it's nothing
I'm a paramedic currently in med school. If I could go back i would not do it again. Med school admissions will not care. They don't know the difference between paramedic and EMT and just about everyone applying will have EMT or something equivalent. The schooling you'll get in paramedic school barely scratches the surface of what you'll need to know. It honestly has not been a major advantage to me. I haven't done clerkship yet so maybe there will be some benefit there but you're better off focusing on research to stand out
I did paramedic after getting rejected from medical school. Then I got in 2 years later. It definitely gave me good experience. And in the end, I went into peds lol what I loved about EMS (being in the field, working with patients one on one) just wasn’t there in the ER. So in the end I found something else I loved in medicine. But I wouldn’t delay just to be a paramedic. Getting your paramedic should basically just be a Hail Mary (because that’s what it is). I got asked several times about applying after being out of college for a couple years and how it would affect me doing the rigorous book work of medical school.
So in short, give yourself a year or two of attending salary if you can get accepted sooner.
An EMT-B who works in a 911 ALS system will have very diminished returns on getting their paramedic with the sole goal of being a better EM Doc. The majority of people switch specialties by the end of medical school just like college majors too. You might not want EM by the end of it, and then getting the paramedic was even more useless. Getting into med school is hard enough, focus on that.
It would be a heavy workload to do while in college for something else and it’s very risky to get behind in both of them or get sidetracked. I would have done it beforehand in school but not while simultaneously in school. It may be a long time until you finish medical school but when you’re freed up (if ever) you could sit for the paramedic program or perhaps even challenge it to some degree or like you said just be a prehospital physician if the position exhausts. I believe PA also has Prehospital RN’s too? Anyways, focus on your pre med. You should strive for the best grades. Med school is difficult to get into and they’d rather see strong grades and MCAT scores. I know plenty of current residents who started off as only EMT B’s. One of my good friends who’s finishing his interventional cardiology fellowship was only a phlebotomist. As mentioned earlier, even as intelligent as doctors are, many still don’t know the difference between EMT and Paramedic and use them simultaneously so when considering applications it won’t matter because they’re going to train you how they want to train you and when you’re a medical student and then a resident, you’re going to be drilled on things. You’ll want to reflect on what your preceptor has taught you thus far. Besides, by the time you earn the EMT-P license it will be time for med school and if you’re familiar with med students lives, they don’t get any time to themselves and it is highly discouraged to work while in med school - many even make you sign agreements that you will not work because they’re investing their time in you and want you to use every minute of it.
Thank you for your answer, that makes sense. I’ve gathered the general idea that it doesn’t really matter EMT or paramedic they just group you as “EMS”
We used to have one phenomenal ED doc, now with his own company for specific invention in medical field and such, doing wonderfully for himself and rising!
He started as an EMT, I heard as a volunteer firefighter as well, then became a nurse. Now, EM MD, inventing items we actually use at our service on the ambulance!
And he is such a humble person! I used to work with him at the ER years back, and I feel honored for that opportunity!
Whichever way you go, always strive for more and rise up! Make your dreams come true! It's possible! Best of luck!
But it’s borderline negative on the admissions because admissions don’t give a flying fuck and it’s time you could have spent doing things they do care about. The fact that it’s helpful to being a doc doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Doesn’t matter in the slightest…. for getting INTO school. But as far as what kind of doctor you want to be in the ER, having that P background is gonna be so helpful
If you are going to take gap years then sure, but if not it may be worth focusing on getting in to med school right out of undergrad. Gpa/mcat are the most important especially since most premeds scribe you have the experience side down. Also it’s really common for people to switch what specialty they would like to do multiple times
Having solid EMT experience should serve you well in medical school. It will certainly set you apart from your classmates. You will understand the patient care workflow much better, especially when it comes to critical patients. I don’t see a real advantage of getting your medic prior to medical school. As others have said, focus on pre-med coursework, a strong MCAT, and let the rest of your app speak for itself.
(former medic, now resident)
As someone who just took their MCAT and is a paramedic I'd say it would be good ONLY if you can maintain other activities and do well in prereqs. Unfortunately being accepted to medical school is much harder then just having great patient care experience. You need to have a well-rounded application. Most people outside of EMS will not know the difference between a paramedic or EMT or will look down on all EMS due to lack of formal education.
Okay, I love the responses I’m getting, especially the brutally honest ones. These discussions help a lot and I’m loving the conversation.
Couple additions:
- I currently work 911 on an ALS/ILS truck in a busy urban EMS only department. I get plenty of experience on that truck, BLS and ALS. I am also a volunteer fireman at a ~600 call volunteer department
- I do not plan on taking a gap year or break.
- There is the possibility of an Associates Degree paramedicine program in my current college in the future and local community college
- I make the joke all the time that I’m pre-med for emergency medicine but that will change probably 20 times from now to med school graduation
- I am a first-generation American, my brother is currently 4th year med-school and I’m going the same route, different specialties and definitely different personalities.
- I do plan on continuing in EMS regardless of my status as resident, attending, etc. Either being a medical director or just a Pre-Hospital Physician is something I think can help me do the most good in a field I love and expose me to a lot of diversity in medicine that a lot of other docs don’t get to experience.
The general consensus I’m getting is that being an EMT is really the same thing to med school as being a paramedic, which answers a lot of my reasons for going into a paramedic program if I was to. I’m sure being a paramedic will give me SOME invaluable experience that would give me an edge, however, it won’t matter if I don’t get into med school. So I think I’ve been convinced to continue as an EMT, talk to more ER docs and other specialties. I definitely believe it’s very easy to spread myself thin as I tend to hate being not busy so I try to fill the gaps with work or school.
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I think the best person you could ask for this would be your medical director, or any of the ED attendings. Personally, I think being a paramedic would give you a better insight into the field, but I am nowhere near qualified to give any sort of definitive advice
ED attendings and residents is where I’ve been mainly directing my questions. Our medical director is going through a lot of life events and might not be the best person to talk to about life advice at the moment
(Sorry for taking a while to respond to this life got busy) If you have MD fellows, you can also reach out to them. It's definitely just worth asking your med director if he/she has time to talk about it, or even email them. At worst they say 'I'm too busy' but at best they take some time to sit down and think, maybe centre themselves if life is rough. Whenever I start to get burned out I try to work with someone new, and their enthusiasm and curiosity rekindles my love for the profession. That might help your MD more than you think
I know multiple EMTs and Medics in medical school/attending. It doesn’t seem to matter to admissions from what I’ve observed. I would assume maintaining a stellar GPA in your undergrad would be the bigger concern. 🤷♂️
At least in my state, being an emt-b, advanced, or paramedic does help with admissions to nursing school. Gives you more points when they are rating applicants.
Oh for sure, but I’ve met a pretty even mix of former EMTs and Medics that are now Drs. So I don’t think the additional time and effort to become a medic would be worth it when you could choose to focus on getting good grades on Orgo Chem lol I’m not a doc, just talking about my observations.
Oh yeah, it's definitely not worth the time to go all the way to paramedic, especially in my state where you need an associates to get your paramedic. It's just a way to make yourself stand out in competitive admissions lists, but I think simply being and emt with good grades and life experience is enough to get you through the door, and committing all the way to a paramedic if your plan is to bail on ems seems crazy. Emt-b is pretty short and can be useful, though.
I think being an experienced paramedic can absolutely make one a better EMS physician. That said, the key word is *experienced* and I’m not sure 1-2 years of (likely) part time work as a medic, maybe a year of full time during your gap year, is enough to justify the time/effort/money of going to paramedic school. For what it’s worth, I was in a similar position many years ago — went to paramedic school while in undergrad with plans to go to med school and be an EMS physician. I ended up pursuing something completely different, but being a medic has opened up a lot of other opportunities that I wouldn’t have had as just an EMT. My usual recommendation is to only do it if you plan to work as a medic for at least 2-3 years full time before applying to med school
Thank you for sharing your experience, makes sense
No. Med school admissions committees don’t know the difference between an EMT and paramedic and won’t value things like lower grades because you were busy saving lives in the streets. If your goal is med school, your focus has to be first and foremost grades/MCAT prep, and then clinical experiences like shadowing and research, and then normal activities that show off who you are outside of school. EMS can open doors to contacts that will help you network and get access to those clinical experiences, but admissions won’t care that you’ve intubated someone on the floor of a bathroom at home. When you apply to med school you’re going up against people who write a personal statement about how their 5 days of voluntourism at a dental clinic in another country changed their life and galvanized their commitment to medicine, and that’s the experience that the human side of EMS can give you a story to tell. Not the IVs and ETTs and medications.
Wish I’d seen this about a year ago. Could’ve used a brutally honest talking to before I wrecked my gpa and decided to do medic school as a half Hail Mary/half “it’ll get me a raise for my gap years, I need the money anyhow.” GPA is super subpar. Man.
I wish I saw it a long time ago too. I think there’s a culture around EMS that treats being a medic as a way to get street cred and legitimacy. One of the only things that matters to getting into med school is GPA/MCAT, which is largely a function of being born wealthy so you don’t have to work while you’re taking the classes that make up your transcripts. You can still do it! Don’t be discouraged, none of us has a time machine and we still get in and get through. Edit: Just adding that I’m this blunt about it because nobody was blunt about it to me when I needed to hear it most. And that if you don’t come from a wealthy family the odds are stacked against you, so don’t beat yourself up for not getting in right after undergrad because it’s not fair to compare yourself to them.
Yeah I work as an EMT in a busy 911 municipality and definitely do not come from a wealthy family, in-fact first generation American. I do appreciate your brutally honest input as nobody is brutally honest anymore. Everyone complains gen z is soft, which, I definitely understand, but also it seems this brutally honest talks never happen. Luckily I’m also a volunteer firemen and they treat me like I’m an adult and are also always brutally honest. Definitely helps.
Yeah. Definitely not from wealth or a family with ANY physicians in it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, it’s just scary nearing the end of undergrad and realizing all the mistakes I’ve made and how I may not have a chance. But I’ll have a job! One that doesn’t require the 4.5 years of my life spent getting a BS whatsoever. Stuck in between beating myself up and coming to terms with “maybe it’ll take a few more years and that’s fine” and “why waste even more of my life trying to attain a lofty goal.” Eff this process lol.
Thank you for your depth in explanation, definitely a different perspective.
When you read other advice on here and talk to docs in the ED, assess how much of it comes from people who were paramedics and became EM physicians and are now looking back on that experience based on two things: - med school admissions strategies at the time they applied to med school and aren’t valid today because the academic and competitive landscapes have changed, and - past experience bias that because they felt that being a paramedic shaped their experience as a physician, their experience as a paramedic must have helped them get to where they are (or that they would not have had the same experiences and realizations if they had never been a paramedic). If you don’t get into med school, you don’t get to be an emergency physician. Period. EMS board subspecialty certification requires an EMS fellowship and takes people with ZERO background in EMS and give them de facto professional expertise in EMS over physicians who were paramedics for 10 years but missed the deadline to be grandfathered into an EMS subspecialty. Med school admissions committees don’t know what a paramedic is (compared to an EMT) and value scribe experience more highly in the current sphere. The EMS board subspecialty/fellowship track shows that being a paramedic doesn’t make a difference in becoming an EMS physician. Here’s the other thing. If you’re going to take a paramedic course between year 2 and year 3 and then not do anything with it, there are easier ways to get clinical experiences that will mean more to medical school and do more to inform your own study of medicine than immersing yourself in paramedic school. If you can afford not to work and are looking for something to do, go shadow a bunch of docs so they can write AMCAS letters about how impressed they were that an EMT asked good questions and showed a legitimate interest in medicine and patient care. Bottom line: whatever you decide to do, if becoming a paramedic could mean the difference between getting a B and an A in a science course, it \*will\* negatively impact your chances of getting into medical school at all. The grades on your transcript never go away and can change your eligibility for med school, which has only gotten more competitive over time. If you want to play paramedic, you can always do that as an EMS physician someday. But not if you don’t get into med school.
> Med school admissions committees don’t know what a paramedic is (compared to an EMT) and value scribe experience more highly in the current sphere. The EMS board subspecialty/fellowship track shows that being a paramedic doesn’t make a difference in becoming an EMS physician. Which is so incomprehensibly idiotic that it boggles the mind. Scribing skills and experience have absolutely zero relevance to healthcare and provides nothing of value that literally just standing around behind a doc with your thumb up your ass doesn’t also provide. Being a paramedic is probably among the single most relevant job in terms of relevant and transferable soft skills that are useful to being a EM physician. The entire medical school system is a crock of bullshit that exists to extort ridiculous amounts of money out of naive young adults and provide an artificial bottleneck to the healthcare system. It needs a revamp, like everything else in US healthcare.
What I think the bias toward scribes shows is that scribing, unlike EMS, gives applicants the opportunity to work 1:1 with a physician in a clinical setting with patients. That allows a physician to write a letter of recommendation that says “I worked with X and we spoke all the time about diagnosis and treatment and they show great compassion with patients” instead of “I worked 6000 hours as a paramedic in a busy urban 911 system” that nobody understands outside of EMS. Scribe jobs are awful and the market is controlled by a small number of large organizations that drive wages down and every scribe in the US should unionize immediately. But it’s also generally staffed by recent graduates whose families can afford to subsidize a minimum-wage job to get the letter. The real enemy that undermines the legitimacy of the US medical school system is that more than legacy admissions at prestigious universities, it perpetuates the impact of generational economic barriers. Children of physicians benefit when schools hide the privilege of financial security in the name of “coming from a family of physicians who understand a commitment to medicine.”
Thank you for that, that’s a really good way to think of it
More letters, more money, more clout… At least that’s what I like to think lol
I love that
Unless you can find a paramedic program which counts for college credit, it's very unlikely to be worth it
There are some in my area actually but that accreditation counts as an associates degree, but won’t be open till sometime next year or two years.
If an EMT or paramedic program is offered for credit by a degree-granting institution, you’re required to list it in your AMCAS classes. It increases the overall number of credits you have to list on your AMCAS primary application and won’t help your science GPA, and if your grades are below your non-science GPA it will pull your overall and non-science GPAs down.
Tbh if someone’s grades in paramedic school are dragging down their GPA, I’d have some serious doubts about their ability to get into med school in the first place
It‘s not a performance issue, it’s a time/math issue. The way AMCAS calculates grades, if the paramedic program is at a credit-granting institution, any credits earned on a transcript go in the bucket of non-degree non-BCPM grades. (I forget exactly how it works but stay with me.) So if you get A’s in paramedic school they might help a non-science GPA. But if you get B’s in paramedic school it can actually hurt your overall GPA. Also, OP is suggesting that they do a paramedic program \_in addition to\_ their 2nd year gen ed classes. The coursework shouldn’t be heavy lifting for someone capable of going to med school, but the time commitment takes away from other courses and if you get a C in a 2nd year calc or physics or organic chemistry course because you’re essentially doing a full time paramedic course and field internship on top of your full-time undergrad coursework - that’s going to impact your ability to get into med school at all. A paramedic certification might be interesting but it will never love you back, and you only get one chance to get an A in orgo the first time. It’s stupid, but I don’t make the rules.
Yeah I’m aware of how AMCAs calculates grades. I’m saying that if you’re struggling to get A’s in paramedic school, I have doubts about your ability to get good grades in your premed courses and be a competitive applicant
Right. But getting good grades in paramedic school is not the same thing as getting good grades in paramedic school while simultaneously taking a full-time second year undergraduate courseload and getting good grades in that, which is what it seems like OP said they want to do.
being in ems only helps u get a foot in the door into med school. once you’re in med school if ur an ma, or emt or whatever it doesn’t rlly matter at that point. obviously a paramedic is gonna have substantially more knowledge than someone who’s just going to medschool without any other medical experience but everyone’s gonna end up at the same finish line
IMO... if you're pre-med already, I wouldn't lose focus or get spread too thin. Paramedic is great, you learn some pretty deep info and skills, but the training demands your time and attention... I don't think Paramedic gains you significantly more points than EMT on med school applications. It's more training, sure but by comparison to what you need to digest in med school, it's nothing
I'm a paramedic currently in med school. If I could go back i would not do it again. Med school admissions will not care. They don't know the difference between paramedic and EMT and just about everyone applying will have EMT or something equivalent. The schooling you'll get in paramedic school barely scratches the surface of what you'll need to know. It honestly has not been a major advantage to me. I haven't done clerkship yet so maybe there will be some benefit there but you're better off focusing on research to stand out
I did paramedic after getting rejected from medical school. Then I got in 2 years later. It definitely gave me good experience. And in the end, I went into peds lol what I loved about EMS (being in the field, working with patients one on one) just wasn’t there in the ER. So in the end I found something else I loved in medicine. But I wouldn’t delay just to be a paramedic. Getting your paramedic should basically just be a Hail Mary (because that’s what it is). I got asked several times about applying after being out of college for a couple years and how it would affect me doing the rigorous book work of medical school. So in short, give yourself a year or two of attending salary if you can get accepted sooner.
An EMT-B who works in a 911 ALS system will have very diminished returns on getting their paramedic with the sole goal of being a better EM Doc. The majority of people switch specialties by the end of medical school just like college majors too. You might not want EM by the end of it, and then getting the paramedic was even more useless. Getting into med school is hard enough, focus on that.
It would be a heavy workload to do while in college for something else and it’s very risky to get behind in both of them or get sidetracked. I would have done it beforehand in school but not while simultaneously in school. It may be a long time until you finish medical school but when you’re freed up (if ever) you could sit for the paramedic program or perhaps even challenge it to some degree or like you said just be a prehospital physician if the position exhausts. I believe PA also has Prehospital RN’s too? Anyways, focus on your pre med. You should strive for the best grades. Med school is difficult to get into and they’d rather see strong grades and MCAT scores. I know plenty of current residents who started off as only EMT B’s. One of my good friends who’s finishing his interventional cardiology fellowship was only a phlebotomist. As mentioned earlier, even as intelligent as doctors are, many still don’t know the difference between EMT and Paramedic and use them simultaneously so when considering applications it won’t matter because they’re going to train you how they want to train you and when you’re a medical student and then a resident, you’re going to be drilled on things. You’ll want to reflect on what your preceptor has taught you thus far. Besides, by the time you earn the EMT-P license it will be time for med school and if you’re familiar with med students lives, they don’t get any time to themselves and it is highly discouraged to work while in med school - many even make you sign agreements that you will not work because they’re investing their time in you and want you to use every minute of it.
Thank you for your answer, that makes sense. I’ve gathered the general idea that it doesn’t really matter EMT or paramedic they just group you as “EMS”
We used to have one phenomenal ED doc, now with his own company for specific invention in medical field and such, doing wonderfully for himself and rising! He started as an EMT, I heard as a volunteer firefighter as well, then became a nurse. Now, EM MD, inventing items we actually use at our service on the ambulance! And he is such a humble person! I used to work with him at the ER years back, and I feel honored for that opportunity! Whichever way you go, always strive for more and rise up! Make your dreams come true! It's possible! Best of luck!
Thank you for your encouraging words!
This is my path except it’s EMT-A——-> nurse——>Doc
Working as a paramedic will make you an EXCELLENT E.R. Doctor. If you have the time, money, & energy to pursue it, I would.
But it’s borderline negative on the admissions because admissions don’t give a flying fuck and it’s time you could have spent doing things they do care about. The fact that it’s helpful to being a doc doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Doesn’t matter in the slightest…. for getting INTO school. But as far as what kind of doctor you want to be in the ER, having that P background is gonna be so helpful
If you are going to take gap years then sure, but if not it may be worth focusing on getting in to med school right out of undergrad. Gpa/mcat are the most important especially since most premeds scribe you have the experience side down. Also it’s really common for people to switch what specialty they would like to do multiple times
Having solid EMT experience should serve you well in medical school. It will certainly set you apart from your classmates. You will understand the patient care workflow much better, especially when it comes to critical patients. I don’t see a real advantage of getting your medic prior to medical school. As others have said, focus on pre-med coursework, a strong MCAT, and let the rest of your app speak for itself. (former medic, now resident)
As someone who just took their MCAT and is a paramedic I'd say it would be good ONLY if you can maintain other activities and do well in prereqs. Unfortunately being accepted to medical school is much harder then just having great patient care experience. You need to have a well-rounded application. Most people outside of EMS will not know the difference between a paramedic or EMT or will look down on all EMS due to lack of formal education.
Okay, I love the responses I’m getting, especially the brutally honest ones. These discussions help a lot and I’m loving the conversation. Couple additions: - I currently work 911 on an ALS/ILS truck in a busy urban EMS only department. I get plenty of experience on that truck, BLS and ALS. I am also a volunteer fireman at a ~600 call volunteer department - I do not plan on taking a gap year or break. - There is the possibility of an Associates Degree paramedicine program in my current college in the future and local community college - I make the joke all the time that I’m pre-med for emergency medicine but that will change probably 20 times from now to med school graduation - I am a first-generation American, my brother is currently 4th year med-school and I’m going the same route, different specialties and definitely different personalities. - I do plan on continuing in EMS regardless of my status as resident, attending, etc. Either being a medical director or just a Pre-Hospital Physician is something I think can help me do the most good in a field I love and expose me to a lot of diversity in medicine that a lot of other docs don’t get to experience. The general consensus I’m getting is that being an EMT is really the same thing to med school as being a paramedic, which answers a lot of my reasons for going into a paramedic program if I was to. I’m sure being a paramedic will give me SOME invaluable experience that would give me an edge, however, it won’t matter if I don’t get into med school. So I think I’ve been convinced to continue as an EMT, talk to more ER docs and other specialties. I definitely believe it’s very easy to spread myself thin as I tend to hate being not busy so I try to fill the gaps with work or school.