Audience: Future and/or current college students who are caught between the two fields of healthcare
Purpose: to inform students of the similarities and differences between nurses and paramedics
Have you ever wanted to become a paramedic but you didn’t want to wear the uncomfortable uniforms or drive around the big ambulances? Registered nursing may be a better career choice for you. Nurses and paramedics have very similar jobs but the requirements, performance, situations, and conditions have more differences than similarities. To become a registered nurse, there are many steps and processes to go through to gain the correct requirements, as do paramedics. Nurses must obtain a certified nursing assistant (CNA) license and a licensed practical nurse (LPN) license before gaining their registered nursing (RN) degree. Paramedics must go through a similar process. They must obtain an emergency medical technician (EMT) basic license and then an EMT intermediate license before getting their paramedic degree. Both paramedics and nurses can get their degrees in a two year associates degree program through technical college. Although the roads to getting the degrees to be a RN or a paramedic are very similar, there are more differences in how their jobs are performed even though they are both directly involved in patient care. Nurses are required to work below or with the doctors to give treatment and maintain the stability of their patients, while paramedics stabilize the patients to turn their care and treatment over to the doctors and nurses. Paramedics and nurses both can administer IVs which are intravenous injections. They both can also give medicines to their patients. The job of giving medicine is somewhat different for paramedics than nurses. The nurse must follow the direction of the doctor as in