6 essential skills paramedics and EMTs

6 essential skills paramedics and EMTs should have

Thinking about becoming an EMT? See below if you have what it takes to be a good emergency medical technician!

EMTs are pretty special people because their job is so rewarding yet so difficult. And, they need certain skills to be this special and amazing at what they are doing.

Being an emergency medical technician is all about providing healthcare services to those sick or injured individuals who find themselves in emergency medical situations. But, despite being a cool, rewarding job, being an EMT can be difficult, and you need to be properly prepared for it.

A day in the life of an EMT or a paramedic is pretty busy and tiring. It can include overtime. There can be some really pressing situations. It can be physically tiring and often requires prioritizing patients’ needs over personal needs. So, you basically need to be something very close to a superhero.

Yet, it’s not easy to be a superhero. You need to have certain skills to be a super EMT.

Here are the six essential skills paramedics and EMTs need to have to do their job perfectly.

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You need excellent medical skills.

It should go without saying that the most important skills you need to be a good EMT are medical skills.

To become an EMT, you first need to search for “emt classes near me” and join these classes to learn all life support techniques for first-response situations. At EMT classes, you’ll learn techniques such as CPR, tourniquet application, wound treatment, and many other procedures that are necessary for saving the lives of your patients.

The most important skill to have to be a good EMT is to be trained to administer on-site emergency care.

You have to be a people person.

Another essential thing to be good at your job as an EMT is to be a people person.

Think about it: your job is all about people. You’re interacting with several new people every day as you’re helping your patients with their emergency situations. First of all, you’re interacting with patients. In more situations than not, you’ll also have to interact with their relatives, friends, or peers. Plus, you also have to communicate efficiently with your colleagues because being an EMT involves a lot of teamwork.

So, see why being a people person is so important to be a good EMT?

And, it’s not even just about being a good communicator. It’s also about being compassionate, having the ability to be emphatic, and having the ability to communicate differently with different people.

You need great listening and communication skills.

Besides being a people person, meaning that you feel comfortable around strangers and interacting with new people every day, you also need to be a good listener and communicator.

Here’s the deal: most times than not, you’ll have to communicate with people in pain or sick who are panicked and can barely explain to you what they are feeling or how they got themselves into those critical situations. Well, for this reason, you need to have amazing listening and communication skills to understand what your patients and their peers are trying to tell you and to be able to make them listen to your advice.

What’s more, your listening and communication skills are also extremely important when it comes to talking to your colleagues. EMT involves a lot of teamwork to treat, save, move, or do any procedure to help your sick or injured patient. For this reason, you have to be a great communicator and listener to work together with your EMT peers efficiently.

You need perfect problem-solving skills.

As an EMT or paramedic, you’ll often confront with very stressful and time-pressing situations in which your decisions will have a big impact on your patient’s wellbeing. For this reason, you need to have excellent problem-solving skills so that you can not only make decisions really fast, regardless of the stress and pressure you’re feeling, but also make the right choice.

For example, you may have to treat an unconscious patient, and you are not sure what has caused their condition. In such a situation, it’s up to you to determine the best procedure to help your patient and save their life. It’s not only a pressing and stressful decision, but you also have to make it within seconds because when it comes to injuries and sicknesses, time can be crucial.

You need to be physically strong.

Paramedics and EMTs also need to be physically strong in order to be able to help their patients.

Think about it: Maybe you’ll have to help a patient that was injured in an accident and can’t move due to their injury. In such a case, you’ll have to move your patient or transport them to the ambulance so that you can take them to the hospital for more professional healthcare. Also, sometimes, in your interventions, you may have to move heavy objects to reach your patients or to release them from what is blocking them from moving.

So, to be able to do your job as an EMT, you also have to be physically strong.

You need to have situational awareness skills.

Having developed observational skills is another essential thing that can help you save your patients’ lives in some situations. As an EMT, you’ll have to deal with many different and unique situations. So, it is essential to be able to assess a situation really fast, as well as the overall condition and wellbeing of your patient, so that you can come up with an effective solution.

Correctly and quickly assessing the situations is also essential for the safety of you and your colleagues and others.

Becoming an EMT can be an amazing and gratifying job. However, make sure that you check all these boxes when trying to determine if you have all that it takes to be an excellent paramedic or EMT.