EMT Educational Requirements

Q&A with an EMT

Just one year ago, John Gill never expected he could become an EMT. Now with his EMT-Basic certification under his belt, John is set to begin volunteering with as an EMT with the Carbondale Fire Department in Colorado. He plans to continue his training and hopes to eventually work his way up to paramedic, and make emergency work his primary career.

Here, John gives all the details on how he jumpstarted his EMT career and talks about his plans for the future.

What made you decide to become an EMT?

It started out when i went to Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. I had no idea what I wanted to do in life so I took a career class. During the class we took an exam and at the end it would tell you what types of fields you should try and see if you would like them. The quiz told me I could be a pilot and I was very interested in that, so for our final in career class we had to interview a person of whom our quiz interested us in. So I decided to interview a Flight for Life helicopter pilot in Frisco.

The interview was very interesting but I was more fascinated by the medical side of the interview. So the next semester I took a CPR class and it was amazing, and from there I heard about Ambulance training at my school and next semester i went on to EMT-Basic class. That is how I became interested in becoming an EMT.

How long did you have to train to become an EMT-basic?

The training I did for EMT-Basic was set up with Colorado Mountain College. The teacher was a great teacher, Ken, who is still a paramedic and a fire fighter for Rifle fire in Colorado, and still takes the time out of his busy schedule to help teach new students. The class took a semester long to finish, from January 12 to April 28.

What did you learn in your training? What sort of classes did you have to take?

I learned a lot of anatomy, from how your heart works to how your lungs work and what happens to your body during an allergic reaction. My favorite was learning the steps on how to treat your patient, from what you do when you first get the call to when you get the patient to the hospital. It was a very long process to learn how to help out a patient but I loved learning the steps on how to help someone out and what interventions you can give them to help them … The pre requirement for EMT- Basic class is CPR class, after that you are good to go. Once you finished and passes EMT-Basic class you then much get Nationally certified which is another test that is not affiliated with the class So all in all the best part was how to help save a life.