The Interview and Skills Test
A few days after I had initially applied on line, I received an email with a specific date and time for my interview where the program was going to be held. Also attached was a list of the documentation that I needed to bring with me to the interview, as well as just a run down of what was going to happen.
The day of, I arrived fairly early, and the first step was the administrator of the program went over some of my documentation with me, and talked about the costs of the program, and how payment was expected up front, but they wouldn't mind making a payment plan as well, were they would charge a card monthly over the course of the program, which I thought was really great, because they didn't charge interest.
The program's refund policy is that they will pro-rate you a refund for however much of the class is left, if you can't finish it for whatever reason. So I'm sure as long as the student was "in the black" on their payments they wouldn't mind stretching things out a bit, which is really great, because the program costs $9000 before materials.
After I had a short discussion over costs, I was given a multiple choice test of EMT-B knowledge and a basic math/arithmetic test.
I wish I had gone over stuff a little bit before I took those tests, but I guess it doesn't matter now.
The math was all pretty straightforward, but I hadn't done any for a few years really, so I definitely spent some time cleaning out the cob-webs.
Afterwards, I had a discussion with the manager of the school. He talked about the school, and the hospital which is affiliated with it. He talked about the instructor I was going to have, he asked about any paramedics I knew, and what I liked about them. We went over the paperwork that I brought in. Any specific questions he asked me ("College? Anatomy and Physiology? Experience?") he had a check list for and he marked the answers, so I am guessing that part of the acceptance process is how many "points" you have on that sheet, I don't know if there is a minimum threshold or what, but I guess I did good enough.
We also took a tour of the facility. There were a few classrooms and some smaller skill labs. There was plenty of equipment to get familiar with, as well as a closet full of the drugs I would be learning about (except narcs). It was nice to see that the school had all the resources needed, right there, and there wasn't a need to "borrow" them from any hospital or fire department or whatever. I guess that is the kind of program I was looking for.
He also mentioned how many spots were open for the course, and I was surprised at how many applicants they had, but not really, being that there isn't a lot of options, like I said, in this area.
I made sure to show up with everything they had asked me to, and I was definitely dressed for an interview. I'm sure both of those things made a different, because talking to both staff members lead me to believe that a lot of folks don't really take the program's gravity seriously, and don't make it.
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