title: What they didn't teach me in paramedic school.
abstract: Medicine is an art based on scientific principles. It's important for paramedics to understand this so they can keep up with changes and advances. We must acknowledge that care we believe to be proper today may be considered inappropriate treatment tomorrow. For this reason, we need to understand that the medical knowledge we gained in paramedic education is not sufficient. Reading journals and staying current with medical science is as much a part of our job as running calls. Many people are already implementing some of the changes suggested here and are constantly improving prehospital care in their respective areas. Sadly, they are not the norm. The EMS community needs to work together to make it the norm. The updating of the paramedic curriculum is an important opportunity in this regard. Ultimately, the responsibility for making paramedicine a respected medical specialty is our own. We need to understand that we must demand this commitment of ourselves and our systems. We cannot expect anyone else to do the job for us. We must take the time to gain the knowledge we need to build our profession into this ideal model.
authors.affiliation: Team Dernocoeur, Lowell, MI, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dernocoeur
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004496:Education, Continuing / Q000592:standards*; D004634:Emergency Medical Technicians / Q000193:education*; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D014218:Triage; D014481:United States