Medical school EMTs

Time magazine ran a fascinating article back in July about Hofstra North Shore - LIJ School of Medicine requiring their students to obtain EMT certification and spend time riding on an ambulance. The program is new this year--in fact, everything is new this year, as this is the inaugural class of medical students--but a number of the students interviewed for the article said they were excited about it. One even said it influenced his decision to attend Hofstra North Shore.

The article went on to say that the program was implemented largely in response to the demand for physicians with improved people skills; forcing medical students to operate as part of an EMS unit would help forge their teamwork and leadership abilities. This is certainly true, and I think that the program will achieve its stated goals. I predict, however, that it will also have a number of unintended, positive results.

A common lament among EMS providers is that we don't get enough respect in the medical community. There are a number of contributing factors, but one big reason is that many hospital providers don't understand what we do or the conditions under which we do it. Putting future physicians in the field will imbue them with a better sense of how EMS fits into the patient's overall care. This will, I think, allow the next generation of doctors to better appreciate, interact with and utilize EMS in a way that maximizes the system's resources and provides superior patient care from start to finish.

Furthermore, the medical students will have in their capacity as EMTs a unique opportunity to provide direct patient care long before their traditional schooling would have allowed them to do so. For example, a student at Dartmouth Medical School doesn't do his OB/GYN rotation until midway through his third year, and even then in a controlled environment under close supervision. Some of these students may not make it one month in the field before they find themselves delivering a baby in the back seat of a car, alone.

And even if the students have a relatively "vanilla" experience on the ambulance, they will still gain valuable experience in delivering care to patients in their hour of perceived greatest need. Because no matter the patient's level of clinical acuity, the situation is still an emergency in his eyes and you must treat him with compassion. And that lesson alone is worth the price of admission.