Centennial College

Paramedics are often the first responders in the scenes of emergency where people require immediate medical care. They are responsible for assessing a patient’s condition and performing controlled medical acts, aiming towards stabilizing the patient’s condition. 

Paramedics are also known as emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who work in conjunction with private or public emergency services. They often operate in highly stressful situations in numerous different settings, such as hospitals, ambulances, fire and rescue companies and other organisations offering emergency medical services. 

Career Options for Paramedics

Most graduates work for licensed ambulance services. They are usually responsible for transporting patients from one medical facility to another. Much of their time in spent in transporting injured or sick people between healthcare facilities.

Paramedics working in hospitals respond to emergency ambulance calls. They are directly employed with hospitals and assist with taking vital signs, performing controlled medical acts and providing patient education. 

The paramedics working with emergency service providers usually operate in team environments. They are responsible for assessing patients; implement therapeutic and preventive strategies and providing patients with life support and initial treatment to them while transporting them to the hospital. They check vital signs using diagnostic procedures and also perform bandaging and splinting. Paramedics in emergency departments in hospitals work alongside doctors and administer oral and intravenous medications. 

Work Life of Paramedics

Paramedics may work on full-time, part-time or on a call-in basis depending upon the employment. They can also apply for permanent, temporary, contractual or casual basis depending upon the needs of the employer. 

Shift schedules may also vary as they may have on-call duty or evening, morning, weekend and holiday shifts. They are also expected to work overtime or whenever required. They may work within the healthcare facilities as well as in ambulances. Regardless of the setting they work in, a large part of their job consists of dealing with emergency situations.

Becoming a Paramedic

In order to become a paramedic, one needs to undergo a formal training, which includes hands-on-experience covering emergency, trauma, medical and psychological situations. Along with this, they also need to be emotionally stable and possess good decision-making, leadership and communication skills. 

Centennial College’s two-year post-secondary paramedic program prepares students to work as emergency medical technicians. The course covers a wide range of subjects including principles of psychology, pre-hospital care, professionals and legal issues, research, responsibilities and leadership, anatomy, alterations of human body functions, pharmacology for allied health, medical directed therapeutics and paramedic responsibilities, PCP integration and critical decision making and EMS research methods.

The students learn to

The program also integrates extensive paramedic training with working professionals in emergency, medical, trauma and psychological situations. The aim is to help students have hands-on-experience to develop expertise and enhance confidence. 

In order to enroll in this program, you will need: