Maggie Martin – EMT Certification Internship

My internship for this semester is still with New Holland. Instead of being a ride-along student on the rig in the morning, I am an EMT student. I go to class on Mondays and Thursdays from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. During this time, we may be having a lecture or a skills lab. I have a textbook that I read often and an online learning site that helps me study. I was very excited to take this class and become an EMT.

I start out every class night the same way. I arrive about 10-15 minutes early to take the nightly quiz. When I complete the quiz, I go to the back room to take the vitals of my fellow classmates for practice. Once I get two sets of complete vital signs, I sit at my seat and get ready for the lecture/skills lab. On lecture nights, I take notes on what the instructor is saying. We usually get a 5-minute break every hour. On lecture nights, class often runs until 10:00 PM or at least 9:30. Skills lab nights can end earlier, but we are not allowed to leave before 9:00 PM. The lecture is always on one, two, or three chapters in the textbook. Every Monday night we have a quiz on what we learned in the chapter last week. Every Thursday night we have a quiz on the medication we learn on our own. We are released for clinical times, meaning we get to be on the truck and practice the skills we are learning. I run every Wednesday night with the Fivepointville Ambulance Association, and I want to run every Tuesday night with the New Holland Ambulance Association. It is a pretty intense schedule, but there is plenty of spare time while on call to get studying done!

I am learning a lot about many different types of emergencies. For example, we are learning about cardiac emergencies, respiratory emergencies, diabetic emergencies, different types of shock, medication administration, and patient assessments. A lot of the lectures are building off of my EMR class, but lots of the material is still new. For example, EMRs cannot administer any medication.

I am learning a lot and emergency medical situations and how to handle people in need. This is influencing my future career goals to be an ER nurse. I love the excitement and fast pace of the job and also helping people in need. These are all qualities needed in being a nurse.