Teenage EMTs - YouTube Video

[BushyFromOz]

I took an EMT course a year and half ago during the summer break from school, the entire class was made up of high school students, the youngest was 17 and the oldest 18. In the state in which I live in you must me 17 years old for the state and 18 for national. Anyway we all took the National EMT-Basic test and all of us past on our first try. I do not believe that a 16 year old should be in charge of a patient or even certifid in EMS, they just started to rive and experience some sort of indipendence from their parents, I know I could not of handled the calls when I was 16. I am now 19 years old and am starting my Paramedic course in a couple weeks. I love EMS and am going to be in EMS for a very long time!

:shock:

Crikey.... thank goodness for common sense

[Guebuddy]

I m a EMT B and only a teenager and run calls just like every adult.

[JakeEMTP]

I m a EMT B and only a teenager and run calls just like every adult.

There is a difference between 19 and 16. Do you answer the tones while you are sitting in High school? I would hope not.

[spenac]

There is a difference between 19 and 16. Do you answer the tones while you are sitting in High school? I would hope not.

I hate to think it but I think we just a got a quick 3 poster to chat. If not I would like to hear his intelligent in depth explanation of his point of view.

[MedicAR]

I don't think most teenager are socially/psychologically ready for EMS. I'm 37, I've been in this job for seven years and have my fair share of "ghosts." Not disembodied spirits, but bad memories of bad calls. There is no way I was ready to handle them at 18. I've been on two calls that were career enders for two young crew members. I don't know their ages for certain, so let's just say 18-23 to be safe.

There's more to this job than driving fast, CPR, and controlling bleeding. There's the ability to effectively communicate with people from divergent backgrounds. You can't explain everything to everyone in the same textbook manner, it has to be accessible to each individual and it's important for us as professionals to recognize when we are and are not getting through. It's important to recognize when able to ask for help and not be afraid to do it, both on and after a call. It may be even more important to recognize when a fellow crew member is in need of help and be the listener they need or send them to someone who is.

Training is important in this field, but so is life experience. Teenagers generally don't have the latter.

[firemedic37]

I have a question for all of the older ones (over 30 when entering EMS), why do you not want younger people (17 - 20) entering EMS? I agree that 16 is to young to handle the situations that we find ourselves in, however why not 18? Is everthing still revolving around 21? I recently was looking for work at a larger service but no one would hire me because I am not 21.

Also I want to point out that not only young people end their careers because of something they have seen, but every age group has people that end their careers in EMS because of soemthing they saw. Yes I have bad memories of calls but I know that I did everything possible for them and that nothing could of changed the outcome of the call (I am on a ALS Service so I usually have a Paramedic with me). I may be 19 but I know how to do my job.

[JPINFV]

I can think of a few reasons why people would push for a minimum of 21 to work on an ambulance.

1. Have you ever worked with a partner of the same cert level that couldn't drive? It sucks running calls all day where you either have to attend all calls or drive all day. Being able to switch between driving and attending is nice, as well as being able to put the person with special experience in the back for more difficult patients (psych patients, for example). Sure, this is a non-issue if you're working a basic/paramedic truck, but basic/basic or paramedic/paramedic combinations are a different subject.

1.A. Driving There's a reason that my insurance dropped from $200/month to $100/month when I turned 21 and I am getting a late insurance Christmas present this year of another $10/month discount (full coverage, no accidents, no moving violations). As much as I think that this is age and sex discrimination (young people don't have an AARP to keep our rates low), I can see why this is the case. It was sad the amount of people at my last ambulance job that was paying $200/month or higher for liability insurance. Older=more mature and more driving experience=better driver=less likely to kill everyone on board in an accident.

2. Education. A lot of people here would love to see at least an associates degree before being able to step onto an ambulance as a crew member, especially as the one responsible for patient care. If you can't start working till you become 20, but can start your education at 18, then you will be able to fill that time with a proper education (Basic education =/= education in the slightest sense).

[MedicAR]

I have a question for all of the older ones (over 30 when entering EMS), why do you not want younger people (17 - 20) entering EMS? I agree that 16 is to young to handle the situations that we find ourselves in, however why not 18? Is everthing still revolving around 21? I recently was looking for work at a larger service but no one would hire me because I am not 21.

Also I want to point out that not only young people end their careers because of something they have seen, but every age group has people that end their careers in EMS because of soemthing they saw. Yes I have bad memories of calls but I know that I did everything possible for them and that nothing could of changed the outcome of the call (I am on a ALS Service so I usually have a Paramedic with me). I may be 19 but I know how to do my job.

My thinking is that the 23-27 age range is better for entering this field. More responsible, more settled, usually (but becoming less frequent) better educated.

Knowing how to do the job is one thing. Many people have passed their certification exams but have no clue how to do the work itself or think that their job is only running calls. There is a lot more to it. There is public image to consider. I assume it's similar around the world, in that the majority of our patients are older (55 and up). These people have a certain standard that they expect public servants to hold to and that includes appearances and attitudes. Generally younger employees don't live up to these expectations.

There is the ability to communicate effectively. It's a skill that comes with age. There is a level of confidence that has to be present and the ability to know that you've been understood.

And of course, as mentioned before, insurance. Statistics show young people to be more reckless in a vehicle. Lights and sirens don't help that kind of attitude.

I'm not entirely opposed to young people in this field, but it has to be very selective.

[spenac]

Honestly in a perfect world I see 16-22 only allowed as third riders. Why. To help get experience, to hopefully get a little more maturity. I might even consider 14 year old ride alongs to get young people interested enough in our profession so that they will be willing to attent the much more extensive education program I have established in my perfect world.

[PatrickW]

I can think of a few reasons why people would push for a minimum of 21 to work on an ambulance.

1. Have you ever worked with a partner of the same cert level that couldn't drive? It sucks running calls all day where you either have to attend all calls or drive all day. Being able to switch between driving and attending is nice, as well as being able to put the person with special experience in the back for more difficult patients (psych patients, for example). Sure, this is a non-issue if you're working a basic/paramedic truck, but basic/basic or paramedic/paramedic combinations are a different subject.

1.A. Driving There's a reason that my insurance dropped from $200/month to $100/month when I turned 21 and I am getting a late insurance Christmas present this year of another $10/month discount (full coverage, no accidents, no moving violations). As much as I think that this is age and sex discrimination (young people don't have an AARP to keep our rates low), I can see why this is the case. It was sad the amount of people at my last ambulance job that was paying $200/month or higher for liability insurance. Older=more mature and more driving experience=better driver=less likely to kill everyone on board in an accident.

2. Education. A lot of people here would love to see at least an associates degree before being able to step onto an ambulance as a crew member, especially as the one responsible for patient care. If you can't start working till you become 20, but can start your education at 18, then you will be able to fill that time with a proper education (Basic education =/= education in the slightest sense).

I understand what you're saying, but...

1: I agree, it would suck to be limited to either just driving or just patient care. I don't really know what else to say about that. I don't have any real experience with that, the service I work for treats me like any other employee with the same amount of experience and same level of certification that I have.

1.A (?): The reason your rates lowered so much was because you became a better driver on your 21st birthday? No, it's all based on statistics. I understand accident rates are highest in the young and the old. If we're going to be discriminating based on age, how about we can anyone older than whatever age we find an increase in accident rates? Apparently it doesn't work both ways.

How about if we find out that field errors statistically occur most often with hispanic males age 18-35 (just an example, don't stone me)? Clearly it would be in the patients' best interests to not hire any hispanic males within that age range, right? Of course we're not going to do that. What's the difference? We just need to be careful in our hiring process. Educate and train people correctly, and hold everyone to the same standard. What's wrong with that?

2: I'm all for higher education requirements. I'm in a paramedic Associate's Degree program right now. So long as the new requirements extend to every new EMT (no age discrimination), let's do it.