I think a lot about how difficult an EMT class should be. It’s considered an entry-level role in healthcare, but medical terminology and anatomy don’t come naturally to most people, and many students are surprised by how much the class asks of them. Some fall too far behind and throw in the towel, or decide to try again later.

I’d rather you know what you’re walking into. In this episode, I compare EMT training to learning music. Anatomy, patient assessment, and every other skill are individual notes, and each one takes real time to learn. With practice, the notes become melodies, and eventually you can play the full song: caring for someone on the worst day of their life.

We also talk about the plates you’ll keep spinning outside the classroom, like work, family, and everything else, and why you should decide ahead of time which one gets your attention if one starts to wobble.

If you’re thinking about becoming an EMT, start here.

Chicago EMT Training offers EMT certification courses in Chicago with Spring, Summer, and Fall cohorts. Learn more at www.chicagoemttraining.com/nextclass

Most of our students sit in that classroom because they're starting out. Dr. Joe Kent sat in it while already forty-plus years into practicing medicine — as an infectious disease physician who spent the pandemic on the other side of the numbers everyone else was just reading in the news.

He took our EMT course in the summer of 2026 as a way to gain some practical skills and spend some time with his daughter Katie.

Today we're talking about what it's like to go back to the beginning on purpose — what COVID actually looked like from inside it, what he saw sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with the next generation of providers, and what he wants that generation to carry with them that his own didn't always have.

This is Dr. Joe Kent.

Connect with Dr. Joe: herbkent@comcast.net

Tori M has been with CET for almost three years! Originally from California, she moved here for medical school at UIC College of Medicine. Her love of emergency medicine and longing to reconnect with the work after moving led her to find us through some mutual friends and we're grateful for the time she shares with us.

Connect with Tori: vmoll1@uic.edu