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Competition is tough for joint university/college BSc-paramedic program

Unique 911 program

U of T's Scarborough College and Centennial College are next door neighbours. But a shared postal code isn't the only thing they have in common.

DAVID CHILTON -- Special to the Toronto Sun

[ 2007-10-24 ]

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Centennial's Paramedic students work alongside Toronto EMS and Sunnybrook hospital staff to solve a mock medical crisis, which may include a contamination scenario or mass casualty accident. (Photo courtesy of Centennial College)

There's also their combined BSc-paramedic program that confers a four-year University of Toronto science degree and a two-year paramedic diploma on graduates of the joint course.

Ellen Bull, chair of Health and Wellness Studies at Centennial, says between 20 and 25 students are admitted to the program every year from high school, and competition is tough since it's the only one of its kind in the country. Tuition is about $5,000 a year.

Enrollees spend their first year entirely on their U of T science studies, completing their paramedic training in the second and third years of their degree studies, which qualifies them to work as paramedics in the province while they finish their fourth and final year of the BSc.

In addition to the joint program, Centennial's standalone paramedic program takes about 80 students a year. Bull says a at least one-third to 50% of them already have a degree.

Bull says her classes are about two-thirds men and one-third women. Part of the reason for the imbalance is physical. Men in general are larger and stronger than women, so they do better in provincially mandated lifting tests -- although Bull is quick to point out that it isn't only brute force that counts; lifting technique can go a long way to levelling the playing field. New provincial standards require a pair of paramedics to be able to lift a 200-lb. person in addition to coping with various items of equipment that push the total to about 250 lbs.

Irrespective of stream -- or gender -- all paramedic applicants must upgrade to an F Class (van) driver's licence and pass a police check.

Not surprisingly, applicants are young. Bull says her broadest age group is 21 to 25. "It (paramedicine) is a bit of a risky and exciting occupation so that attracts the young," she observes.

Stephen Reid, an associate professor of zoology at U of T and the university's director of the joint program, points to research that shows that after about seven years paramedics tend to move onto something else, so a degree is useful to have and may open a path to management or some other endeavour.

The classroom demands for the U of T portion of the program are the same as those for similar programs, Reid says, but the paramedic side of the training requires more of the students' time.

For example, in the first year of their paramedic training students go hospitals and labs to observe and learn; in their second year they go out in the field with a preceptor for exposure to the sharp end of a paramedic's life. In total, students have to complete more than 400 hours of work placement.

As well as youth and a liking for risk, students attracted to the program are "very motivated, take charge types" who are enthusiastic about paramedicine, Bull says. "They're very focused. They' re already prepared for what's going to be a very good career."

Paramedicine is a good career on two levels. There's the importance of having trained men and women to tend to us at car crashes and other emergencies. And then there's the security the job brings. The hours are inhospitable, true, and the work site sometimes gory, but Bull says the employment rate of her graduates was 97% last year.