Paramedic Program at Health Career Institute
Paramedics are advanced pre-hospital emergency medical technicians. The Paramedic program at Health Career Institute will prepare the student for the cognitive and technical demands of providing life-supporting emergency care to patients.
As a Paramedic student at HCI, you can expect to learn from a combination of in-depth lectures on the procedures and best practices of this profession as well as hands-on learning labs and clinicals. Field experience will culminate the program so that you are prepared for the real-life medical situations.
Complete it in as little as 12 months
The Paramedic program at HCI can be completed in as little as 12 months. Students will have 45 credit hours, which will consist of 422 clock hours of theory, 150 clock hours of lab work, and 540 clock hours at an externship. Theory courses will cover the role and responsibility of Paramedics, illness and injury prevention, ethics, air-way management, venous access, medication administration, and therapeutic communications.
Paramedics not only need to understand the human body and how to treat various injuries and keep patients alive but also how to talk with patients who are in pain or frightened. People skills will be just as important as your medical knowledge/skills.
Hands-on labs and field experience
In the labs, students will get to practice patient care on simulated patients. This learning environment means that you will become more comfortable with the medical procedures before working on actual human patients. Simulated medical environments have proven effective in training medical professionals for the field.
The externship will give you the opportunity to apply everything you have learned from the theory lecture courses and simulated labs in the field and working with other medical professionals and actual patients. You will spend time riding in an ambulance under the supervision of certified EMT-Paramedics for 340 clock hours. The second part of the externship will be spent in the emergency room within a hospital for another 200 clock hours.
At the end of the program, Paramedic graduates will be prepared to take the Florida State Paramedic exam. Becoming a Paramedic requires a lot of hard work and determination, but the program at HCI will prepare you for the challenges ahead.
