Paramedic VS Nurse..

Helloo

Starting to apply for university in September and definitely sure that I want to go down the medical route. For the last few years I've had the idea that I would like to study a Paramedic Course at University but lately I'm toying with the idea of studying Nursing. I like the idea of the Paramedic role more, as it is more varied, and you get the experience of working in emergency situations e.g cardiac arrests etc. But then on the other hand, (please correct me if i'm wrong) I feel that there is more career progression in the field of nursing, e.g sister, nursing practioner etc. But then I feel that working on say a Urology ward I would find a bit mundane and boring,so I would have to work in A and E to get the hands on, emergency experience I'm after. Would you say I would get to be more hands on as a paramedic or an A and E nurse? and who would you say is more clinically qualified? Anyone that has or is studying either of those courses got any tips or advice for me regarding my dilemma and applying to uni, personal statements, interviews etc.

Would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Abi

First of all i'm biased because I've applied to do nursing starting in September and I too thought about going down the paramedic route. Nursing is a hard career but what swung it for me in the end was the fact that, as a paramedic, you would not see the end outcome of each of your patients necessarily which I think would upset me a bit .

Nursing has so much more scope to do lots of different things, for example if you're bored in your job you can go and do extra training or just move jobs to something you find more difficult/ challenging. I'm not gonna sugar-coat nursing, it is very messy at times but you need not be in a messy aspect, and paramedics get a lot of time wasters and abusive drunk individuals to deal with; nurses to a much less extent.

Nursing degrees are well-respected and you could even do your masters to become an advanced nurse practitioner. This would allow you to practice independently and treat patients yourself without supervision from doctors or other nurses. They do a lot of the same things as doctors and have taken on lots of their responsibilities in family and general practice over the last decade.

To cut a long story short, do what you wanna do, but just remember that as a paramedic you'd be doing the same thing day in day out (it isn't as glamorous and exciting as casualty and holby city make it out to be lol). As a nurse if you're ever bored in your job you can go off on a whole new adventure at the click of you fingers- that's why I chose it anyway.

Hope this helps, and best wishes for the future despite what you choose

There are loads of roles now for paramedics. You can work on the trauma team (eg hems in the helicopter). You can go to a walk in centre or ucc. You can mentor new recruits, or work in classroom training. You can work in the HART team, which is working in hazardous areas (eg building sites, collapsed buildings, fires - all the Casualty stuff). You can do more things I can't even think of now.

Most of these roles require lots of paramedic experience and/ or specialist training at your expense though.

I helped someone make this decision a while ago. I persuaded him to do nursing. Several reasons why.*
1. If he wants to do emergency work in nursing, he can. Paramedic science is fairly one note by comparison.
2. Money. Nursing at the top is much better paid and it's something he is going to care about in future, even if he doesn't now. Plus if he gets in this year, he won't have to take out an additional fees loan, although this is a minor thing.*
3. Nursing has greater potential for career development. More directions.
4. His experience is all about working with people long term and he's good at it. He would be best off playing to his strengths.
5. He gets to see the outcome.
6. Nursing has a bit more of an academic bite to it. That's something he does want.
7. He didn't have to add further stress by trying to get his driver's licence in time. He's a terrible driver!*

The simple answer to your question is you should do what you want to do! Whether it be paramedic or nurse, both professions are fantastic and the rewards are countless. I am going to be starting my paramedic degree in September so I may be a little bias towards the paramedic profession but I will try my best to help you

As for progression there are lots of progression opportunity's with both roles, however from my experience there are more progression opportunity's and jobs available within the nursing sector. The jobs and progression is there for paramedics but they are very competitive and limited (I.E working for HEMS) plenty of people will go into the profession with this goal in mind but the reality is that the vast majority of people will not get into HEMS due to the limited spaces across the United Kingdom. This is not to say that you can't do it, just that It's a very competitive role and you have to be extremely self motivated! There are plenty of other roles within the paramedic sector, have a look at the college of paramedics website if you would like to explore more.

When asking who is more qualified clinically there is a lot of dispute as to who has more clinical skills etc etc. But I personally don't think that it matters who has more skills in their arsenal because at the end of the day we are all one big clinical team who all do fantastic jobs in caring for our patients! But if you're really interested then I will say this... paramedics specialize in pre-hospital care which is different to what the health care professionals will be doing when the patient is transferred to A&E (unless the patient deteriorates whilst in hospital). The whole idea of pre-hospital medicine is to keep an individual alive/stable until they can receive the definitive treatment in hospital that is supplied by the health care professionals that work there! (I am not very educated in the nursing sector in terms of clinical skills etc so this may be totally wrong, but as I am sitting here typing it out it seems correct. Please feel free to correct and educate me!)

Application and interviews are pretty basic when you break them down and think about them. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who will be reading your personal statement/interviewing you. Do you have the qualities that is required for this position (have a think about what the qualities are, they are pretty similar for both roles!). Do you know the role of the paramedic/nurse is and what it entails? (this is a huge make or break interview question in my opinion, showing a good understanding of the paramedic/nurse profession will make you stand out from the crowd). Where is the profession going in terms of career progression. Read up on current healthcare research that you could talk about in your interview, make sure you have a few questions that you could ask them at the end. It is not a necessity but it would also help your application to get some experience within the healthcare sector, whether it be volunteering with St John, volunteering in a hospital, getting a job in a care home or as a health care assistant. These jobs would enable you to develop and improve the skills that are required by paramedics and nurses and would look pretty good on your personal statement. Your experience from these jobs would probably also give you a few good talking points in your interview. But remember like I said it's not a definite requirement to have healthcare related experience. There are going to be people on my course in September that have no healthcare experience what so ever! I wrote my personal statement and had my interview last year so my answer in regards to the interview and personal statement it pretty vague I'm afraid! All I can say really is read some good personal statements so you can get an idea of what you can talk about, have someone who is either a healthcare student or a healthcare professional that mentors students to read yours to make sure it's up to scratch. For the interview read up on what questions could be asked and how you should answer them, also set up mock interview for yourself! It's no good just reading over the answers to the questions and hoping that the answers stick, you don't want to sound like you're reading from a script when you have an interview because the people who will pick up on it and mark you down!

Good luck on your journey

Am a qualified nurse for past three years and yes there's more specialities to enter but experience is needed for most of them. I am looking at also doing paramedic just thinking atm because I only ever liked A&E! So says it all for me lol goodluck


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What is the best and worst thing about what you do?

I have been a qualified Paramedic for nearly 15 years. (I work on the bank now). I am going into my 6th week at College studying full time the HNC Care & Administrative Practice, (2 days at College & 2 days at my work placement which is based in hospital theatres)
I am absolutely loving the course, and it has just made me realise how little we actually learned regarding ethics, accountability, sociology etc, as most of our course was based on anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology.We didn't have to give power-point presentations or write essays!
Previously when I talked with new graduate Paramedics, I was sceptical about what they were being taught at College (and couldn't get my head round how a power point presentation would prepare you for front-line emergency work, but now that I have started this course, I have found it immensely benefical to how I judge and treat my patients.
I am undecided as to whether I will go on to complete the degree in nursing or train as an Operating Department Practitioner. (we do have 2 in our class who would like to train as Paramedics, but have decided to get their degree in nursing first and take it from there!)