March 26, 2001
Dear Peter,
Chris and Val Hamann let me know that you have added
alumni updates to the website now, so I thought I'd let
you know how I've been faring since graduating in 1996. I
am currently a first year PA student at SUNY Stony Brook,
just like Chris and Val. It's pretty amazing that of the
four paramedics in the program, 3 of us are MCC alumni! I
suppose that says a lot about the quality of the our
education. The PA program is amazingly rigorous (~32
credit/hrs per semester), but I'd have to say that the
education we received at MCC has really given us an edge
in our Clinical Medicine courses, especially Cardiology
and EKG interpretation. It blows some instructors away
that paramedics know about such things as Chvostek's Sign
and Osborn waves!
Although the program takes up 99% of my time, I still
have the opportunity to work per-diem as a paramedic. For
the last 2 years I have been working for Rockland
Paramedic Services, who are the ALS provider for Rockland
County, NY. This is about 15 minutes north of New York
City. We operate double paramedic flycars in a busy
suburban/urban system, responding with volunteer BLS
ambulances. It's a great system to see a wide variety of
patients; you can be at one station working in housing
projects, and your neighboring medic truck will be
covering the mansions of Hollywood celebrities! If
anybody up north is interested in checking us out, we
have a nice website at www.rocklandparamedics.org.
Even after I graduate I still plan on working in EMS. I'm
sure that I will enjoy working in a hospital, but it can
never compare to working the streets.
Well, that about sums up my life at present. Please
pass my thanks along to Bob, Sharon, and all of the other
instructors that worked with you to give us such a great
education in emergency medicine. If any current students
or alumni would like to know more about PA school, please
let them know I'd be glad to answer any questions. They
can e-mail me at kevin.burns@uhmc.sunysb.edu.
Thanks again for everything,
Sincerely,
Kevin Burns, PA-S, EMT-P
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