The Paramedic class at TSTC was divided into two semesters – Cardiology and Pharmacology. Once the Intermediate course was over and I received my Basic course completion, there was only a week break before moving on to the Cardiology class. The course took place on summer semester, and because of that many students from the Intermediate class decided to take that semester off due to personal reasons. I, on the other hand, was still adamant to at least finish the program with a degree in 2 ½ years even if it meant no vacation time. The cardiology class consisted of five students, including myself, 2 people from my original Basic semester and 2 people from the Intermediate class. Some may think that it must have sucked having such a small class, but I honestly think had to be my favorite semester due to that very fact.
Once the five of us students moved on to our first Paramedic semester, we were already comfortable with each other. As a group together we each knew each other’s weaknesses and strengths, accepted each other’s personalities and quarks, and most importantly we looked out for each other and gave confident reminders when one couldn’t find it within one’s self – at least that’s what they did for me. To make that particular semester the most extraordinary, we were very fortunate enough to have our instructor from my Basic class teach and follow us to not only Intermediate, but also Paramedic cardiology. As a result, he has watched us grow from curious Basic students to anxious soon-to-be field paramedics. Our instructor had the advantage to become close to us, students, and knew how to work to grow on our individual strengths. Likewise, we were able to understand and absorb his particular teaching pattern and regard as him as not just our mentor, but our comrade through our journey.
Similar to the Intermediate format, the main sections for the first part paramedic included Cardiology, Special Populations, and Special Operations. Throughout that paramedic semester, we had come to familiarize ourselves with new cardiac drugs, equipment, and, in turn, learned both the right and wrong way of treating a patient. I definitely know I killed our manikin horribly over a class scenario once. Even though it was a manikin I still felt pretty bad for him by misplacing the leads and not treating him for the correct rhythm. However we all made slip-ups like that towards the dummy, maybe not as bad as I did, but we did learn from them and I, since then, have became more aware of lead placement on each patient. Besides training on more intense scenarios, the only real addition from lectures, skills, and clinicals was the ability to bask in being a certified EMT-Basic. With that title we each had the capability to move forward on Intermediate clinicals and try out our new advance knowledge and skills to real patients who depended on it.
When my second part of paramedic came along in Fall, three of my classmates from the Cardiology class moved onward with me and, with that, an additional four people entered also making the Pharmacology class a total of eight. What made this Pharmacology section to be somewhat interesting was two of the newer students were from my original Basic semester being a semester behind us. It felt like my old group from the very beginning was reunited and able to work together again. The four students have just finished their Intermediate semester which made this to be their starting point of paramedic part one, and, in contrast, those with me during the summer-time made Pharmacology to be our last lecture class of our curriculum.
In a way the other four students had an advantage in the class by already becoming accustomed to our instructor’s teaching habits owing to he taught them during their Intermediate phase. But, in the same way, those who previously took Cardiology also had an upper hand as a result of being familiar with many of the popular heart medications. Actually, it did not matter whether this was someone’s first or last semester, neither of the eight of us had ever taken Pharmacology. We were all in the same boat and, thus, each member was willing to help the other succeed in any way possible.
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