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I know that this post is over a year old, but in case any other people want info on this subject, I'll go ahead and post the information I know: People who've already posted on this board are right- physicians whose primary, full-time function is direct pre-hospital field care are few and far between in this country. Physicians are more utilized in direct EMS patient care in other countries- such as the UK. Go on Youtube and search "London Ambulance Service Doctors" Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth_Davies_(doctor) Or https://londonsairambulance.co.uk/our-service/our-people There is also an organization called the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP)- an organization consisting of EMS medical directors and other physicians who have a professional interest in EMS. You might want to try contacting them for more information and perspectives. They have worked to advocate for EMS in the greater healthcare community, as well as to make EMS a recognized subspecialty of Emergency Medicine. In fact, a physician I worked with was one of the first to take the EMS subspecialty board certification exam a few years ago. http://www.naemsp.org/Pages/default.aspx There are also a few HEMS (Helicopter EMS) services in the US- as people have mentioned- that still utilize physicians as direct patient care providers on their aircraft. University of Cincinnati AirCare is one of them: http://www.aircareandmobilecare.com/Staff.aspx UCAN (University of Chicago Aeromedical Network) is another: http://www.uchospitals.edu/professionals/ucan.html University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center (STC) has a physician response team called the GO-TEAM, which consists of a trauma surgeon and a CRNA, who respond via air or ground ambulance. http://umm.edu/programs/shock-trauma/professionals/ems/go-team I believe New Jersey also has a similar team. Keep in mind, though, that EMS response is not the team members' full-time responsibility. They work in their respective roles in the hospital and are called out on a case-by-case, emergency basis. One of the physician medical directors of the service I volunteered with was also a member of a volunteer fire company in that system, and had an SUV with a county radio designation. In this capacity, they would respond to calls when they felt the patient might benefit from their EM physician scope of practice on scene or during transport. There are also emergency medicine (EM) physicians who serve on SWAT teams as tactical physicians- something I've heard of, but honestly don't know much about. Another career goal to consider is to become the full-time medical director of an EMS service- like what Dr. Brent Myers did with Wake County EMS in NC. These positions are few and far between, though, and are considered the pinnacle of physicians' careers who have a passion for EMS- achieved after many years of education, training, perseverance and networking. There are many EMS physician medical directors out their who practice emergency medicine full-time in their respective hospital emergency departments, yet serve as medical directors on a part-time basis (or as part of their administrative responsibilities). If you really want to become a physician in the U.S. and still have an involvement in EMS, you might want to make your peace with practicing EM full-time in a hospital emergency department. Like ParamedicMike said, you can complete an EMS fellowship after residency. This would give you added experience and credentials to become an EMS medical director, as well as to function in the field on a part-time basis (whatever your system and time constraints allow you to do so).

As someone who happens to be openly gay, and having volunteered as a paramedic in fire stations that were more/less conservative, I feel like I can speak from my own experience on this subject. As ParamedicMike and others said, some of it depends on where you work and what mix of people you have in your service/station/department. As far as my own experience goes, I was out to nearly everyone I volunteered with- although I didn't feel comfortable coming out to people right away. Most people didn't accept it to the point that they wanted to march in a pride parade with me, but they didn't mind it to the point that we couldn't work together (and even have fun at times). Some people even said: "wow, that's cool...so and so in my family is gay, too." One of the older members even came up to me once and said: "nobody here cares that you're gay...they care about what kind of person you are." When people at the station did like me, they liked me because I was who I was, not because was gay or straight. One of the guys even felt comfortable enough to bear-tackle me every other time I came into the station- as a way of showing affection. So the experience you have will depend on who you are as a person and how you generally mesh with others in your agency. People in more religiously conservative communities may not be as open-minded to accepting people of different sexual orientations. Although I will tell you- tolerance and acceptance can be found in the strangest of places- just like intolerance and hatred. I think there is one overarching theme re: this subject that is true regardless of where you work in EMS: that what ultimately matters most is the kind of person and EMS provider you are, NOT your sexual orientation. It matters a lot more that you work hard, are a team player and step up to the plate when others are counting on you to help. The 3 year old with 2nd degree burns to their chest who's screaming bloody murder won't care who you sleep with; neither will your partner if they're driving and you can't use a map book to navigate them to an unfamiliar address at 0300 hours. My point is: if you're one of those people who gets ego satisfaction in being different from everyone (and flaunting it loudly), then EMS (or firefighting, for that matter) is probably not for you. And that goes for anyone who wants to loudly and obnoxiously flaunt their personal differences at work- no matter what those differences encompass. If you are, however, willing to set your personal differences aside, put on a uniform and do a job as part of a team with a common mission (for the greater good of your community), then by all means, get into EMS. PS: I think people have differences in opinion as to what constitutes "flaunting your sexuality in other people's faces." In my book, casually bringing up the fact that you're gay or that you have a same-sex partner (in the context of normal conversation) doesn't constitute obnoxious behavior. More conservative people might beg to differ with me here.

Wow...I've heard of lots of northerners moving down to the South (NC in particular) for the (supposedly) "lower" cost of living and the warm weather, but I seldom hear of people doing the opposite. I hope you like it up north. I kind of miss it myself.

Oh yeah....if someone (or some entity) would pay me to travel around the world to visit beautiful places, I would love to do that, too.

If I could be anything, I would be a voice actor on a successful cartoon sitcom like Family Guy, The Simpsons, or American Dad. It never ceases to amaze me how flexibe some people's voices are. I'd say I'm better than a lot of people at doing voice impressions, but I'm nowhere near professional quality. I wish I had that kind of talent. So, either that or find some way to work with animals- especially dogs and/or cats.

In my experience, it's not always wasteful and dangerous to send an engine company to a medical call. I've personally seen a cardiac arrest patient saved because the local engine company was on scene in 5 minutes with their AED. The medic unit in this particular case was coming from the other side of town and had an extended ETA. That being said, however, sending them on EVERY medical call may not be a good thing.

If you're looking for education that's cheap, Durham Tech Community College in Durham, NC has some pretty good rates for EMT-Intermediate and Paramedic education. I don't know if those rates are for "in-state students," but believe me, those are the cheapest tuition rates I've ever seen: http://www.durhamtech.edu/html/current/noncredit/ems.htm The 911 services in NC (at least in the central part of the state) are mostly county-based 3rd services, and aren't bad either. Here's the link to NC OEMS: http://www.ncdhhs.gov/dhsr/EMS/ems.htm

At the last ambulance service I worked for (I'm in nursing school FT now), people would give me grief for having my nose in a protocol book, wanting to learn more, wanting to work hard and wanting to keep my truck clean. It's people like the OP's partner who hold EMS back from becoming a true profession. As others have said, these types are convinced that they know everything just because they have 5+ years of experience; or they get really complacent and do the bare minimum just to keep their jobs. More than a few people at my old service never even bothered to do the daily checklist on their trucks- and some got away with it, too. By no means am I saying that all EMS providers are like the ones I just mentioned. I've known plenty of providers who are excellent at what they do and want to learn more. Not too long ago, I was in a quandary about which professional route to choose. I chose nursing, because I felt (and still feel) as though only having a paramedic certificate wouldn't provide me with half the professional opportunities that a nursing degree would (including prehospital care opportunities). I still want to be involved in prehospital care, though, and think that doing both nursing and EMS would provide me with more opportunities to improve the system as a whole (especially in terms of changing EMS provider education standards). That's why I still keep up my EMT certification, and can hopefully get some more prehospital experience while I'm down here for school. After all, just keeping up your certificate without keeping up your experience is just as bad as having a lot of experience but no booksmarts (IMHO).

What the ----! I wonder if that tape was actually real! It's disturbing, but kind of humerous at the same time.

I can't see why the EMT's and the cop couldn't control their patient. Who the heck would just let a dk run loose like that, only to crash into the back door of a truck? If you listen closely to the video, you can hear one of the bystanders saying "I think we need to call a real am-BU-Lance." I wasn't there, but I saw enough to say that I could be in greater agreement with whoever said the latter.

Huh? Are you saying that to us ("you guys")? Or are you talking about the people described in our posts that got fired/didn't get hired? I'm assuming you were talking about the people described in our posts (not us). I, for one, still have my job, thank you very much. You'd think it would be common sense for people not to reveal too much about themselves on the internet, but some people are just too trusting of strangers in the world.

A medic I know didn't get hired at a service they applied to for this exact reason.

Yeah, that would definitely be ironic. Interestingly enough, there's a guy in my ER who works full-time as a career FF/EMT and works per-diem as an RN. There is another FF/EMT in his department who does the same thing. Actually, the original statement came from a Critical Care Transport nurse :shock: :? who said "you need to decide on a career path, because nursing and paramedicine are two different beasts." Well, there's some truth to that, but as I said, I know people who do both, so that kind of sunk her argument right then and there.

Thanks for the encouragement. As of right now, my plan is to go to RN school first. Some people have said to me "oh, you can just go to RN school and challenge the medic afterwards." I don't really think the whole concept of "challenging" the medic is such a hot idea, however. There are some people (such as flight nurses or nurses who are experienced EMTs + have tons of ER/ICU experience) who may do ok in terms of becoming medics in that manner. The majority of nurses, however, would probably not do very well on an ambulance having had zero field experience (riding for skills points doesn't count). I'm not a nurse (yet), nor have I gone through nursing school (yet), so I may not know exactly what I'm talking about. It just seems as though the "challenge" process is analogous to a "teach yourself paramedicine" course of study, in which you basically memorize the local protocols, get taught how to intubate by a doc, get some tubes in the OR, do a field internship and pass the medic exam. As I stated earlier, the "challenge" process is adequate for a handful of providers who already have all the extra training and experience. However, I just don't see how the majority of nurses could go from the hospital environment to the field without formal, structured training for the field environment first.

Bachelor of Arts in psychology EMT-Basic Certification My eventual goal is to become both an RN and a paramedic; I'm currently working as an ER Tech. Some people (including RNs) have said to me "oh, that's impossible- nursing and paramedicine are two different career paths." I personally know (and know of) people who got both kinds of education- and some who still do both- so that proves any doubters wrong.