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I took the NOLS WEMT course in California two years ago. It was an excellent course. I started with no medical background and I learned a tremendous amount. I took the course to see how I liked medicine and to get my feet wet. It's a very hands-on course and that helps a lot. It's one thing to read about it and listen to a lecture, and another thing to get out there and do it.
There are usually several minor scenarios everyday. They get out the moulage and other classmates act injured/sick. Over the course we had two major scenarios. The best part of the scenarios is seeing how you perform under a little stress. I'm glad I took the course.
To really get the most from the course you have to put a little time into it outside the classroom. The way the NREMT questions are worded is difficult, we studied practice NREMT tests to understand how they make their questions. I don't remember any specific examples but sometimes the NREMT tests were the obstacles. To cram what is usually a semester course into 4 weeks takes a lot of work. The wilderness part of the training sometimes got put off so we could adequately cover the NREMT material.
The ER shifts and ambulance ride along were great. In the California you do your ER rotations at the Fresno hospital, which is the 2nd highest trauma unit in California. There's lots of gang violence and almost every group before mine got some gun shot wounds and stab wounds. All we had was a guy come in who almost cut his hand off with a skill saw.
There were mostly granola types there in California. The course was actually held at a hostel about 30minutes from Yosemite so that didn't help. There were two contractors in the course and everyone else were hippies. I recommend the course to anyone looking to get their EMT-B.
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