Do not adjust your screens: ECA to EMT has landed

As you will have seen previously in Need to Know, more than 200 emergency care assistants (ECAs) have successfully passed their pre-entry exam to progress on the pathway to become a technician.

Chris, who works out of Cambridge station, recently attended the course and has written a valuable but witty ‘how to’ guide for his fellow students.

‘Do not adjust your screens: the ECA to EMT course really has landed’ highlights the dos and don’ts and the ‘tricks of the trade’ – including what course books are best to get, how much studying is required, and the biggest challenges.

Here for example, Chris takes the reader through some of the course content: “…having a good advanced understanding of the human anatomy and physiology is an absolute must! Anybody reading this thinking it is going to be a walk in the park is in for a big shock, remember it’s a pass/fail course and the anatomy and physiology is not covered in depth during the course at all, it’s down to you.

“Two months ago if you asked me to name and describe the 12 parts of a cell, describe the function of the pyloric sphincter or state how long in centimetres the small intestine is... well let’s just say there would have been a long, awkward silence. During the six week course your brain will at times feel like; a) it’s not working, b) it’s going to explode, c) it cannot retain any more information. But don’t despair…”

Simon King, General Manager for Cambridgeshire, said: “We're delighted to have proactive clinicians like Chris working for us and hope his advice will help others who might be wondering what the techician programme will be like.”

You can read Chris’ full account online. Sixty ECAs will now take up a place on the technician course in 2014/15, with the next round of pre-entry exams taking place in the autumn