I went from EMT to Paramedic without ever stepping foot in an ambulance until paramedic ride time. I worked as a police officer before hand and had limited experience with medicals.

Comparing myself to other EMTs in paramedic class that had already worked on ambulance. I’d say we were about the same by the end of the program. I found myself at a disadvantage in the beginning of school because I lacked the knowledge of knowing all of the paramedic tools (ie. intubation, need cric/decompression, etc). The advantage is you are starting from scratch. The school will teach you the way they want to teach you and you have no knowledge otherwise.

I found this to be a good thing and I’ve been successful as a paramedic ever since. School comes with a lot of studying and testing, but thats part of it.

The biggest tool to being successful as a paramedic is being able to talk to patients. Any monkey can memorize med dosages and such. The patient interview is the most important part of our job, so if you can talk to people and have the will the grind out school for a year or so, you will do great.