January 3, 2025 • 8 mins
Paramedic to RN
Season 3, Episode 1: Why Paramedics Should Transition Into Nursing
Watch the video recording of this episode on the Paramedic2RN YouTube Channel:
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I understand the stance of the paramedics who don't think nursing is the correct career transition. I thought the same thing, at first. Little did I know.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey guys, how you doing? Man, we in here now for another season and I just wanted to talk to you
(00:06):
about something that's very dear to my heart and it was something that I had to battle with and I'm
not sure if anyone else had to battle with it but maybe you do, maybe you don't. But this is my
personal opinion of why paramedics should transition to nursing and now keep in mind
I'm not this is not meant to discredit EMS or to put down EMS because honestly I wouldn't be here
(00:29):
if it wasn't for EMS but this is something that I've had to battle with and it kind of led me to
the path that I'm on today and I believe that the number one reason why paramedics should pursue
nursing is for the advanced practice. Now my original plan was to be advanced practice provider
(00:50):
but it was to be a PA and so my original plan was PA school but I had concerns about being a paramedic
trying to transition to PA school. My number one concern was that an EMS bachelor's degree was
useless outside of EMS. My second concern was it was going to take a full-time commitment but what
about work? You know of course we got bills to pay and my third concern was due to the limited
(01:14):
amount of PA schools close by how was the competition? If I didn't get in the first year
then I would have to try to compete the second year then I would have to try to compete the third
year and that's three years off my original plan so this led me to consider another route maybe
nursing. So when I looked at the positives to me the positives would be I can make more money as a
(01:36):
nurse now I could save to take off for two years to PA school. Keep in mind I was still thinking
I'm going to go to PA school but maybe I need to jump into nursing because I can make more money
and I can have better control of my schedule and if I didn't get in to PA school then I had other
career options as a nurse that I could get into. You know I could become a nurse educator or you
(01:59):
know some other option that I could do instead of just being on the truck every day. So but the
negatives for nursing would be number one I would have to save full time because nursing school is
two years if I took the ADN route or it would be four years if I took the bachelor's route or with
a Paramedic to RN Bridge I could be done in a year but still that's still a year of commitment
(02:26):
where I would have to drop hours. But then to another negative I had was my view of nursing
wasn't real positive. I didn't really see nurses in a good light I just saw nurses as a way around
you know you're just sitting around waiting to take orders and also based on my experience dealing
with some ED nurses from some personal medic experiences that I had I didn't really have a
(02:48):
good view of being a nurse to be honest with you. Because of my research I decided that I could save
enough that I can attend a one-year paramedic to RN Bridge as my entryway and I felt that during
that time you know it wouldn't be too hard for me to save maybe drop my hours to work PRN along
(03:10):
with the money I save I could sacrifice that year to make that jump. During that time was was when I
learned about advanced practice nursing. So I want to talk about what advanced practice nurse is.
An advanced practice nurse or what we call an APRN is a mid-level provider. It's a master's and
doctorate level trained nurse. So a mid-level provider is just like a PA. All mid-levels APRN
(03:36):
PA can diagnose treat and they can prescribe. There are four advanced practice RNs or what we
call APRNs. They are nurse practitioners which are broken down mainly into family nurse practitioner,
acute care which is adult, adults and neo and psychiatric nurse practitioners. Number two you
have nurse midwifery which we call nursing midwives. They tend to work more OB and women's health.
(04:02):
You also have CRNAs that really attract a lot of paramedics because they work in OR. They're the
anesthesia providers working with the anesthesiologist. They do a lot of A-line placements
and they innovate and they do a lot of critical care. They're the ones who's monitoring the
patients in OR. CRNAs is a lovely profession. I mean as a CRNA I have a friend of mine that's
(04:26):
well over $200,000 a year as a CRNA. Also you have what I'm going to school for which is called
clinical nurse specialists. Clinical nurse specialists are broken down by populations,
adults, neo, psychiatric but clinical nurse specialists are what's considered clinical
experts. So the advantages that I found is that a lot of the APRN programs are full-time and part-time.
(04:49):
So when I looked at being an APRN I thought man I can work full-time as an APRN but I could go to
school part-time to become a mid-level provider. The only program I know that's not part-time is
being a CRNA. The disadvantages of being an APRN I think from being a paramedic is it's divided by
population. So as a PA when you come out as a PA there's a lot of lateral mobility. You can move
(05:15):
from adults, you can move from adults to neonates to pediatrics. As a nurse practitioner it's kind
of divided to where if you're a family nurse practitioner yeah you can you kind of can treat
across the lifespan but if you acute care adult gerontology a nurse practitioner then your patient
population is only adults if you kind of can catch my drift and if you're a psychiatric nurse
(05:39):
practitioner you know you can't come work as a family nurse practitioner but as a PA you know
you can kind of move from psych you can move to women's health you can move to neonatal you can
move to critical care so that was the disadvantages that I saw but honestly being a CRNA being stuck
(05:59):
as a CRNA I mean it's not bad to be stuck at $200,000 a year so sometimes you don't necessarily
see that as a bad thing. So going back to my original statement while nursing it's because
of the APRN track and so in grad school what I'm learning right now while I'm on my APRN track is
that my approach to care my skills my knowledge my patient care all that transitions over and it
(06:25):
transitions over beautifully because I'm starting to see my past experience now aligning along with
the APRN track. I know for nursing it was a little bit of problems going to school because
nursing philosophy is holistic care it's not the medical model that paramedics follow doctors follow
or the PAs follow is more of a holistic way of looking at your patient versus the medical model
(06:51):
is diagnosed treat so the APRN track kind of follows that medical model and that's what I
that's why the skills transition over and when I'm finding some of my nursing friends that are
right now going through especially like nurse practitioner school some of them they've been so
ingrained being a nurse that is it's kind of having a little bit of difficulty having to transition
(07:14):
over to that medical mindset but as a paramedic it was ingrained in us from the beginning. So I
would say do yourself a favor kind of look at the four APRNs and kind of see where you see your fit
because I think that's the greatest advantage of being a paramedic looking to transition is man we
have this great grad level APRN track that you are transitioning perfectly into so thank you guys for
(07:41):
joining me for this podcast I welcome you back thank you and all I can tell you is happy nursing
and I see you over the top and I see you next week thank you bye. I just wanted to take a moment to
let you know how much I really enjoyed your support if you've been listening to me for a while I'd
like to hear from you so just leave a comment from time to time hit the like button and just let me
(08:01):
know that you really enjoyed this episode make sure that you share the episode with others and
of course subscribe and follow me my goal is to help as many people as possible make the transition
from paramedic to RN so thanks as always.
Hey guys, how you doing? Man, we in here now for another season and I just wanted to talk to you
(00:06):
about something that's very dear to my heart and it was something that I had to battle with and I'm
not sure if anyone else had to battle with it but maybe you do, maybe you don't. But this is my
personal opinion of why paramedics should transition to nursing and now keep in mind
I'm not this is not meant to discredit EMS or to put down EMS because honestly I wouldn't be here
(00:29):
if it wasn't for EMS but this is something that I've had to battle with and it kind of led me to
the path that I'm on today and I believe that the number one reason why paramedics should pursue
nursing is for the advanced practice. Now my original plan was to be advanced practice provider
(00:50):
but it was to be a PA and so my original plan was PA school but I had concerns about being a paramedic
trying to transition to PA school. My number one concern was that an EMS bachelor's degree was
useless outside of EMS. My second concern was it was going to take a full-time commitment but what
about work? You know of course we got bills to pay and my third concern was due to the limited
(01:14):
amount of PA schools close by how was the competition? If I didn't get in the first year
then I would have to try to compete the second year then I would have to try to compete the third
year and that's three years off my original plan so this led me to consider another route maybe
nursing. So when I looked at the positives to me the positives would be I can make more money as a
(01:36):
nurse now I could save to take off for two years to PA school. Keep in mind I was still thinking
I'm going to go to PA school but maybe I need to jump into nursing because I can make more money
and I can have better control of my schedule and if I didn't get in to PA school then I had other
career options as a nurse that I could get into. You know I could become a nurse educator or you
(01:59):
know some other option that I could do instead of just being on the truck every day. So but the
negatives for nursing would be number one I would have to save full time because nursing school is
two years if I took the ADN route or it would be four years if I took the bachelor's route or with
a Paramedic to RN Bridge I could be done in a year but still that's still a year of commitment
(02:26):
where I would have to drop hours. But then to another negative I had was my view of nursing
wasn't real positive. I didn't really see nurses in a good light I just saw nurses as a way around
you know you're just sitting around waiting to take orders and also based on my experience dealing
with some ED nurses from some personal medic experiences that I had I didn't really have a
(02:48):
good view of being a nurse to be honest with you. Because of my research I decided that I could save
enough that I can attend a one-year paramedic to RN Bridge as my entryway and I felt that during
that time you know it wouldn't be too hard for me to save maybe drop my hours to work PRN along
(03:10):
with the money I save I could sacrifice that year to make that jump. During that time was was when I
learned about advanced practice nursing. So I want to talk about what advanced practice nurse is.
An advanced practice nurse or what we call an APRN is a mid-level provider. It's a master's and
doctorate level trained nurse. So a mid-level provider is just like a PA. All mid-levels APRN
(03:36):
PA can diagnose treat and they can prescribe. There are four advanced practice RNs or what we
call APRNs. They are nurse practitioners which are broken down mainly into family nurse practitioner,
acute care which is adult, adults and neo and psychiatric nurse practitioners. Number two you
have nurse midwifery which we call nursing midwives. They tend to work more OB and women's health.
(04:02):
You also have CRNAs that really attract a lot of paramedics because they work in OR. They're the
anesthesia providers working with the anesthesiologist. They do a lot of A-line placements
and they innovate and they do a lot of critical care. They're the ones who's monitoring the
patients in OR. CRNAs is a lovely profession. I mean as a CRNA I have a friend of mine that's
(04:26):
well over $200,000 a year as a CRNA. Also you have what I'm going to school for which is called
clinical nurse specialists. Clinical nurse specialists are broken down by populations,
adults, neo, psychiatric but clinical nurse specialists are what's considered clinical
experts. So the advantages that I found is that a lot of the APRN programs are full-time and part-time.
(04:49):
So when I looked at being an APRN I thought man I can work full-time as an APRN but I could go to
school part-time to become a mid-level provider. The only program I know that's not part-time is
being a CRNA. The disadvantages of being an APRN I think from being a paramedic is it's divided by
population. So as a PA when you come out as a PA there's a lot of lateral mobility. You can move
(05:15):
from adults, you can move from adults to neonates to pediatrics. As a nurse practitioner it's kind
of divided to where if you're a family nurse practitioner yeah you can you kind of can treat
across the lifespan but if you acute care adult gerontology a nurse practitioner then your patient
population is only adults if you kind of can catch my drift and if you're a psychiatric nurse
(05:39):
practitioner you know you can't come work as a family nurse practitioner but as a PA you know
you can kind of move from psych you can move to women's health you can move to neonatal you can
move to critical care so that was the disadvantages that I saw but honestly being a CRNA being stuck
(05:59):
as a CRNA I mean it's not bad to be stuck at $200,000 a year so sometimes you don't necessarily
see that as a bad thing. So going back to my original statement while nursing it's because
of the APRN track and so in grad school what I'm learning right now while I'm on my APRN track is
that my approach to care my skills my knowledge my patient care all that transitions over and it
(06:25):
transitions over beautifully because I'm starting to see my past experience now aligning along with
the APRN track. I know for nursing it was a little bit of problems going to school because
nursing philosophy is holistic care it's not the medical model that paramedics follow doctors follow
or the PAs follow is more of a holistic way of looking at your patient versus the medical model
(06:51):
is diagnosed treat so the APRN track kind of follows that medical model and that's what I
that's why the skills transition over and when I'm finding some of my nursing friends that are
right now going through especially like nurse practitioner school some of them they've been so
ingrained being a nurse that is it's kind of having a little bit of difficulty having to transition
(07:14):
over to that medical mindset but as a paramedic it was ingrained in us from the beginning. So I
would say do yourself a favor kind of look at the four APRNs and kind of see where you see your fit
because I think that's the greatest advantage of being a paramedic looking to transition is man we
have this great grad level APRN track that you are transitioning perfectly into so thank you guys for
(07:41):
joining me for this podcast I welcome you back thank you and all I can tell you is happy nursing
and I see you over the top and I see you next week thank you bye. I just wanted to take a moment to
let you know how much I really enjoyed your support if you've been listening to me for a while I'd
like to hear from you so just leave a comment from time to time hit the like button and just let me
(08:01):
know that you really enjoyed this episode make sure that you share the episode with others and
of course subscribe and follow me my goal is to help as many people as possible make the transition
from paramedic to RN so thanks as always.
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