NHTI Why Paramedics

Hi and welcome to the NHTI Why series. I’m Keith Wilding and I’m the department chair and lead instructor for the paramedic emergency medicine program here at the college. And I want to tell you why our program of paramedic emergency medicine is so exciting. First of all, what is a paramedic you might ask? Well a paramedic is an advanced lifesaver who provides care for sick or injured people inside and outside the hospitals and in a variety of settings. You certainly probably know that we are on ambulances, fire engines, and even on helicopters. But did you know, you can find us in emergency rooms, doctors offices, you can even find us on oil rigs and cruise ships, and then there’s even venues such as sporting events and concerts. The average salary for a paramedic is about $40-$50,000 a year but that very much depends the state, the service you’re working for and the amount of overtime you’re willing to work. The bureau of labor statistics actually expects in the next decade that there will be a 10% increase in jobs for EMS and paramedics. And that’s more than double the national average. So why NHTI’s paramedic program? What makes us different than the others? Well first of all we have small class sizes. Our class size maxes out at 15 which is a very low student to teacher ratio. Typically in labs no more than three or four students to one instructor. Speaking of our courses, our courses are top by highly educated folk. All of our providers and educators have at least a bachelor’s degree at this time. We include on our staff two physicians, a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant, a nurse and eight paramedics. And these are the same folks that you’re going to see throughout the entirety of your time instructing you. Whether that be in the lecture area, whether that be in lab, or whether that be in the clinical sites. Speaking of clinical sites, we have just a limited number of hospital sites, just two to three. They are staffed while students are there with faculty to make sure that the students get the most out of their time in the hospital. When going out to the field for their ambulance ride time we only use high-volume sites and assigned preceptors where these students have one preceptor for the entire my of their 360 hour ride time. As well as the things that make us different from other places is we are the only associate program for paramedics in New Hampshire. As well as, NHTI does provide on-campus housing for those who are interested in that. When our graduates finally leave us, we have a 100% pass rate in the national exam but with the written and practical. And 100% of our students go on to be paramedics. And those statistics will stack up against any other program out there. If you’re interested in more information about our program please find us on the website at NHTI.edu or follow us on social media, you can look up NHTI Paramedics. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!