Career options for paramedics centennial college

1. Career Options for Paramedics – Centennial College Canada
Paramedics are medical professionals who offer pre-hospital emergency medical care to injured or sick
people while they are transported to the hospital via ambulance. They are often the first responders in
the scenes of emergency where people require immediate medical care. They are responsible for
assessing a patient’s condition and performing controlled medical acts, aiming towards stabilizing the
patient’s condition.
Paramedics are also known as emergency medical technicians (EMTs) who work in conjunction with
private or public emergency services. They often operate in highly stressful situations in numerous
different settings, such as hospitals, ambulances, fire and rescue companies and other organisations
offering emergency medical services.
Career Options for Paramedics
 Ambulance Companies
Most graduates work for licensed ambulance services. They are usually responsible for transporting
patients from one medical facility to another. Much of their time in spent in transporting injured or sick
people between healthcare facilities.
 Hospitals
Paramedics working in hospitals respond to emergency ambulance calls. They are directly employed
with hospitals and assist with taking vital signs, performing controlled medical acts and providing
patient education.
 Emergency Service Providers
The paramedics working with emergency service providers usually operate in
team environments. They are responsible for assessing patients; implement
therapeutic and preventive strategies and providing patients with life support
and initial treatment to them while transporting them to the hospital. They
check vital signs using diagnostic procedures and also perform bandaging and
splinting. Paramedics in emergency departments in hospitals work alongside
doctors and administer oral and intravenous medications.
Work Life of Paramedics
Paramedics may work on full-time, part-time or on a call-in basis depending
upon the employment. They can also apply for permanent, temporary,
contractual or casual basis depending upon the needs of the employer.
Shift schedules may also vary as they may have on-call duty or evening,
morning, weekend and holiday shifts. They are also expected to work overtime
or whenever required. They may work within the healthcare facilities as well as
in ambulances. Regardless of the setting they work in, a large part of their job
consists of dealing with emergency situations.
Becoming a Paramedic
In order to become a paramedic, one needs to undergo a formal training, which
includes hands-on-experience covering emergency, trauma, medical and
psychological situations. Along with this, they also need to be emotionally
stable and possess good decision-making, leadership and communication skills.

2. Centennial College’s two-year post-secondary paramedic program prepares students to work as
emergency medical technicians. The course covers a wide range of subjects including principles of
psychology, pre-hospital care, professionals and legal issues, research, responsibilities and leadership,
anatomy, alterations of human body functions, pharmacology for allied health, medical directed
therapeutics and paramedic responsibilities, PCP integration and critical decision making and EMS
research methods.
The students learn to
 Assess patients
 Establish treatments in controlled manner
 Implement preventive patient management strategies
 Integrate medical acts in a stimulated, clinical and field setting
 Provide optimal care to patients while transporting them
 Ensure operational safety
 Prepare ambulance and its equipments
 Operate ambulance
The program also integrates extensive paramedic training with working professionals in emergency,
medical, trauma and psychological situations. The aim is to help students have hands-on-experience to
develop expertise and enhance confidence.
In order to enroll in this program, you will need:
 Secondary School Diploma or equivalent
 English Grade 12 C or University or equivalent
 Mathematics Grade 11 M or 12 C or University or equivalent
 Biology Grade 11 or 12 C or University or equivalent
 One additional science (physics, chemistry or exercise science) Grade 11 or 12 C or equivalent