needs "basic" advice.

[tamaith]

hello,

I would like to get some advice/ opinions about a new job opportunity. first a little back round on me. I am an EMT -B working for a private company doing transporting ( non 911) mostly to and from dialysis but do some runs to the e.r. my boss and co-workers are great ( like a little family we are). A co-worker came up to me yesterday and asked if i wanted to work in the hospital where he works as an emt b in the stroke ward. like any opportunity there are pro s and cons .

first the pros : no stair chair. 401 k, more experience, partial pay of tuition ( medic or nursing school).

cons: hour drive each way. my current boss will demote me to part time even if i work 40 hours there,which means i loose health insurrance. less time in ambulance ( where i love being).

I m also weary of it not working out then do i go back to my current employer and beg to make me full time again. i know above i said my boss is great, but my boss is also strict. I also know if you get to comfortable you'll never grow. before this i was looking into vol one day a week with a 911 company to get experience. i love being in the ambulance, but a 401k would be excellent. My co worker said he brings home about 100 to 150 more a week working full time there then i do working full time at my current job. any ideas or suggestions i would appreciate thank you.

[FireMedic65]

I think you should take any opportunity you can get, to get involved with patient care. Yes, those patients need a ride to the dialysis, or to get their eyes checked, you are trained to provide emergency care. Go do that.

I first started doing the non-emergency transports and wheelchair runs. That did not last long. I did not become an EMT to be a wheel chair taxi driver. I wanted to do 911, and that's what told my boss.

You will get a lot of patient care working in the hospital. I would jump at that opportunity. Get the most experience you can, where ever you can. If that means doing volunteer BLS stuff, go for it. You can read all the books you want on patient care, but they will be useless without the experience in using those skills and treatments you had read about.

[tamaith]

thanks fire, i would love to work for philly fire rescue. which i know means going to medic school. i just saw an ad for frankford hospital to work up at sesame place. i think i might go for it. sometimes i just feel like i " can't " screw over my employer esp since i just got a raise. but i got to train myself to stop being " nice" and do what i want to do which is 911 and stop thinking i don't want to hurt others feelings. does that make sense.

[FireMedic65]

You have to do what is best FOR YOU. Sometimes that might mean some sacrifices on yourself, but it needs to be done.

[fiznat]

I'm not sure if the amount of "patient care" is really going to be all that much more at the hospital. It may well still be a good job, but I wouldn't make this change based on the idea that you're going to be treating patients. As an inexperienced EMT on a floor you will be the absolute lowest on the totem pole, and will probably be stuck doing mostly stuff that nobody else wanted to do. Scut work.

That said, the tuition reimbursement sounds like a good deal, and you can't argue with the bigger paycheck. If not now, then eventually you will outgrow this transfer service you're on. IMHO you should start thinking about what your long term goals are and what job is going to best get you there.

Edited March 11, 2009 by fiznat

[Dustdevil]

first the pros : no stair chair. 401 k, more experience, partial pay of tuition ( medic or nursing school).

cons: hour drive each way. my current boss will demote me to part time even if i work 40 hours there,which means i loose health insurrance. less time in ambulance ( where i love being).

Plus 5 for doing a quantitative analysis of the situation. Weighing the pros and cons is always a good step. Then you balance that with what your heart is telling you. I'm not sure I understand your list though. The hospital would give you a 401k and tuition reimbursement, but not insurance? That seems a little weird. But if that is correct, big deal. With that extra $150 a month, you can easily buy insurance and still have money left over, so you haven't really lost anything. I wouldn't get too excited about the 401k though. It's not like you're going to be there for a career.

I don't think that "experience" is going to be a big factor on the hospital job, medically speaking. They're not going to bestow some advanced scope of practice upon you just because you're in a hospital. But what you will get is a lot of valuable exposure to advanced medicine that you can absorb like a sponge, and use to improve your knowledge base. Additionally, you will get a lot of experience simply dealing with patients psychosocially, which is more than half the job of EMS. This sounds like a good opportunity that is much preferred to any IFT experience.

Much respect for taking your relationship with your current employer into consideration. Never burn bridges. There is no reason that you should have to leave him high and dry with no notice. And you're not the first employee to ever leave, so don't get too hung up on how indispensable you are to him, lol. He's been through this many times before you. Nobody becomes an EMT because they look forward to a thirty year career running IFTs. If EMS (or even nursing) is where you ultimately want to be, then this job is not particularly constructive for you.

While I don't think the hospital job is a huge opportunity that you can't pass up or anything, I do think it is much better for your future, as it is going to do two very important things:

1. Get you off the IFTs, which often involves a schedule that makes it difficult to attend school.

2. Get you tuition reimbursement for medic or nursing school.

Both of those are necessary to get your future started right now, so I definitely would not pass this up.

I am not clear from your post whether you are considering both nursing and paramedic, but it seems so. If so, I very strongly recommend that you go to nursing school first, even if you want to be a paramedic more. Generally speaking, nurses make much better medics than medics make nurses. Becoming a nurse first follows the firmly established principle of optimum education, which is to establish a broad foundation of knowledge before specialising in emergency care. To do otherwise is back-assward, and turns your educational pyramid upside down. Not to mention that it is a LOT easier to go to medic school on a nurse's salary and schedule than it is to go to nursing school on a paramedic's salary and schedule. And either one is going to take the same two years, with all the same prerequisites, so you save no time by going medic first.

You've got an entire career ahead of you to get on an ambulance. Don't sacrifice your educational stability to rush it. Good luck!

[tamaith]

dust sorry for the misunderstanding. i would loose my health insurrance from my current transporting company im not to sure if the hospital gives insurrance to pt or only ft employees something i have to ask.also i would go to medic school not nursing. and as fire mentioned above i have to do what is best for me. what is going to take me to the next level. my co worker said basically what i would do at the hospital is assist nurses, cpr , take vitals, transport pts to different floors. learn how to to iv's and and take blood. and hook pts up to heart monitors. he also mentioned that would get paid while in training ( one week). i feel like i have to make a move , my skills are slipping away since dialysis trips are 99 percent of what i do. just don't want to burn bridges or seem unappreciative to my current boss esp since i just got a raise i was even thinking of working 40 hrs transporting and 20 hours at hospital to start to even see if i like the hospital setting. i would be considered part time at the transporting company since i would have a second job. but still have my foot in the door incase the hospital doesn't work out.

[crotchitymedic1986]

more pros and cons to consider:

1. Hospital work usually means "work", which isnt to say EMS isnt, but you can expect 8-12 hours on your feet working, with little down time or break time.

2. Hospital insurance usually sucks, unless you are with one of the giant mega hospital chains. Things that are covered now, may not be covered there, and it may be more expensive each pay-check.

3. Working for a hospital usually earns you tuition reimbursement for medically related training (maybe not paramedic unless they have an EMS service).

4. You need to figure out what you love, regardless of pay or benefits. Nothing worse than being stuck in a job you hate because you cant lose pay or benefits.

5. Hospital may be more boring than what you are doing now.

My advice, start at the hospital part-time, try it for awhile (all jobs are perfect for the first month), then decide when and if to switch.

[Jeepluv77]

You also might want to look into whether you may be able to expand your scope of practice. A few of the hospitals here train emt-b's (in the er, i don't know about wards) for iv access and 12 lead ekg. Of course, those skills can only be used in the specific hospital/system that trains you, and you generally must repeat them if you transfer to another hospital/system, but it sures beats the hell out of butt-wiping all day. Also, they generally pay around $10/hour pre-training with a bump to between $12-13 after. Not too terrible for entry level. Just thought it may be worth looking into. You still won't be able to put anything in those iv's but saline, but it's a start.

[Asysin2leads]

My suggestion would be in your current situation to take the job in the hospital, and here are my reasons why.

1. 401k is as you said, a good thing. Start saving now. You can roll it over and as Albert Einstein said, there is no more powerful force in the universe than compound interest.

2. Even partial pay of tuition is a great thing. I'd check the clauses about how long you have to work for the employer and such, but getting grants to go to school is a beautiful thing. If they are offering you a loan, be sure to read the fine print about interest rates and make sure you can't get a better deal through the Department of Education's programs.

3. This is a biggie and most people don't take this into account. Working in EMS, particularly as an EMT-B, is inherently risky. At this point in your career, even a minor complication from work, be it legal, physical, heck even mental, can have major consequences in your career. Your back and your knees are very easy to injure and very hard to fix. Trust me.

Anyway, you sound like a very intelligent person who has done some great research into your prospects, and I'm sure you will do well no matter what you decide.

Edited March 12, 2009 by Asysin2leads