Final Exam

The comprehensive final had a little over 80 questions entailing not only the entire Pharmacology semester, but also Cardiology from the past summer semester. Now 80 some odd questions for a comprehensive final seemed like nothing compared to back in the day of the Basic final consisting of exactly 200 questions, but the consequences of failing held fatal. Fatal not like “if you fail this test, you die”, but fatal in a way of “if you pass this final it’ll be you’re last one for a long time, but if you fail just put graduating in the Spring on hold and retake the final again this upcoming July” kind of fatal. Between the four of us, the two boys had the mind set of There is no ifs, I’m going to pass no matter what kind of attitude, unlike me and the other girl who were nervous wrecks before the test.

In preparing and bracing myself for the comprehensive final I experienced something very similar to the Kübler-Ross model – the five stages of death. But instead of death, it was over the upcoming final. I was in denial how close the day was coming. I was angry over how this stupid final could postpone me from finishing the program. I actually tried to bargain with prayers to pass the final. Yes, I even hit depression thinking Why bother even try? There’s too much stuff…I don’t care anymore. Finally, when the day of the final arrived I advanced to acceptance with my favorite outlook of Well I made it this far. If I don’t know it by now, then I should retake the class. And after an hour and a half of turning in that final test and waiting for the results, a sigh of relief was all that could be formed. I passed, all four of us passed our last semester of lecture, and we each only had to finish our last clinical requirements in next spring. It’s been awhile since that last day of class, but I’m still amazed we four did it – Kent from my original Basic class, Leann, Miguel, and myself.

Accordingly with only having to finish twenty-four days worth of clinical skills in the total Spring semester, I’m not going lie, it’s different. The only focus during that semester was to excel on those clinical hours; there were no requirements of going to class twice a week, no more tolerating that well-known stress over new materials, no chapter quizzes, and especially no more end-of-semester finals. Do I miss it? No, but I will say I do miss the atmosphere with engaging with other students.

I’ll admit my journey through TSTC for EMS, like any other college or university, it wasn’t as clean cut as I had made it seem. One should expect that with such a small number of students per semester seeing each other every other day there should be drama and conflicts, my class was held no exception. So there were some drama between classmates and clashes with instructors, but not often. We all also had our own struggles and responsibilities outside the EMS program whether it had been work, families, or personal health. But even with our differences or outside conflicts, we in some way pulled it together and came to school every Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. Really that’s what all that mattered.

And so with Spring clinicals the only thing that’s holding me back from graduating and testing out to be a License Paramedic, I’m nervous. There isn’t a class on how to transition from EMT student to field paramedic. No one will be looking over your shoulder and coaching you through how to treat a patient, you’re not just working under someone’s supervision anymore, up until then your were just a student, but now everything that you have done to be a paramedic is entirely your responsibility. It’s funny because I have researched this issue online, and out of all the results apparently all say that from student to paramedic rather happens by one’s own time.

For now I’ll depend on the infamous reminders beginning from my Basic semester. BSI and provide O2. Advanced skills or not, ABCs first and let go the tourniquet. Seeing pictures on the monitor are pretty cool, but treat the patient not the equipment. Even trauma victims could be due to medical, get SAMPLE history. One can never be too old to use notecards. As a final point, respect and make the most of on your teammates when you’re in a pickle, as said before, we each need each other whether any of us like it or not.