Newbie EMT here!

[EMTboy]

Well Hi! This is my first post, so howdy to y'all!

Mine is a complicated story..

I grew up in the Chicago area, then moved to Colorado last year and took an EMT course (and I passed, I'm just now a registered EMT-B *yay*), now I'm moving back to the Chicago area (Evanston). As soon as I get back I'll be looking for a job. I'd like to be in an ambulance, but I wouldn't mind an ER tech-type position as well. I know the Fire Lt. in my home-town who will sponsor me to go to Paramedic school next year and after I'm certified I'll have a position available with that Dept. In the mean time though I need to make some money to save up for EMT-P school.

I have a million (or so..) questions that I hope all the more experienced people will be able to help me with.

-What are the best agencies to work for in that area (especially in terms of salary, flexibility, types of calls, ect..)?

-Are there any Hospital-based agencies in the area? Or what are the non-private services (especially that hire EMT-Bs)? (I had my clinicals with Poudre Valley Hospital which had it's own ambulance service that co-oped with the local Fire Dept and I really liked the way that system worked.)

I'm considering even skipping the job search and just volunteering with Americorps for a year.. Would that be a good idea in your opinion? The pay is a stipend of about 800-1100 a month and I would probably work in an emergency preparedness program (for terrorism and disaster events) Would it be beneficial (directly) at all for my EMS career?

-I'm not yet EKG or IV certified, can I and where are places I can certify at?

-How does it work becoming ACLS and/or ATLS certified? Is it a class or course like IV? Where can I find one?

-One thing I really want to do is become a flight medic. What is the best path to accomplish this?

-Long-ways down the road I'm considering the possibility of becoming a nurse or even going on to medical school, again what's the best route to get there?

-Any advice for a fresh green eager-beaver EMT-B?

-Oh yeah, For those that are EMT-B or P with a fire service, how does it work, what is the structure? DO you ride in the truck or on a bus? Are you a Fire Fighter or 'just' an EMT or Medic?

Thanks for your help!

[Niftymedi911]

Welcome to the forums.

I'd like to offer you some friendly advice.......

Before other people around here start posting, I'd just like to direct your attention to the search function in the yellow menu bar at the top of your screen. That button will be able to answer a majority of all your questions and for your benefit, would HIGHLY reccomend you use it prior to posting or asking questions that have been asked numerous times. Also, if you do post on the forums, be PREPARED to defend your postion. A lot of people post thinking their the best thing since sliced bread, get their toes stepped on and have a sour attitude the rest of the time. Use this site as a education yet informative position. There are a ton of highly epxerienced and educated personnel here. They will help you, just don't ask which LED's to put in your POV or what sticker to put on your POV bc you'll not like the answer......

Happy posting!!!

Nifty

[spenac]

DO you ride in the truck or on a bus? Are you a Fire Fighter or 'just' an EMT or Medic?

Thanks for your help!

I ride an ambulance not a truck or bus.

I am never "just" an EMT or Paramedic, I am a Pre Hospital Medical Professional. If that is how you feel about EMS might do well to not join our field.

If I've misunderstood I apologize if not then above stands.

Edited May 23, 2009 by spenac

[Niftymedi911]

See what I mean............

Edited May 23, 2009 by Niftymedi911

[EMTboy]

I ride an ambulance not a truck or bus.

I am never "just" an EMT or Paramedic, I am a Pre Hospital Medical Professional. If that is how you feel about EMS might do well to not join our field.

If I've misunderstood I apologize if not then above stands.

Lol.. that's why I used the '' .. (specifically what I meant is: Do you only handle EMT responsibilities or do you undertake Fire Fighter duties aswel?)

Of course I don't feel that way about EMS, why else would I spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on education for it?

Anyway.. You only partially answered my question. You were answering a question aimed at Fire-Medics of Fire-EMTs, so I assume you are one of them. Which one are you, and how is EMS structured into your Fire Dept.? I know different Depts handle EMS differently, so I'd just like to know the different ways it works.

Thanks!

Edited May 23, 2009 by EMTboy

[spenac]

Lol.. that's why I used the '' ..

Of course I don't feel that way about EMS, why else would I spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on education for it?

Anyway.. You only partially answered my question. You were answering a question aimed at Fire-Medics of Fire-EMTs, so I assume you are one of them. Which one are you, and how is EMS structured into your Fire Dept.? I know different Depts handle EMS differently, so I'd just like to know the different ways it works.

Thanks!

Actually I am no longer fire as I disagree with how fire deals with EMS in the majority of city's. For a person to excel they need to specialize. If the fire department will let you "just" be a Paramedic in the good sense that you only work on the ambulance then you might be ok. If you have to rotate fire and EMS then you become distracted and often we find sub par patient care and very limited protocols which harms patients, basically you become a taxi driver as you are not allowed to perform hardly any medical interventions.

I hope you did not spend thousands of dollars for an EMT-B certification unless it was part of a college degree. There are 2 week courses for EMT-B as it is just a hair above a standard first aid class.

While waiting to enter Paramedic degree program go ahead and take college level A&P 1&2, microbiology, and other pre med courses to get you prepared.

See what I mean............

Bite me.

[EMTboy]

lol, I hope you don't feel that way about EMTs..

I actually took a really good 10 credit College course for EMT-B so it was well worth the expense.

Is it more common for Fire services to segregate the two or to integrate them?

[WolfmanHarris]

Welcome to the City. I'm not from Chicago, so I'll only respond to the couple of points I have some input for.

-I'm not yet EKG or IV certified, can I and where are places I can certify at?

Don't bother. EMS isn't skills and adding these things without a good foundation of knowledge is a waste of time. How much understanding do you think you'll get of cardiac physiology or fluid balances in a short workshop on ECG and IV therapy. Without the grounding in A&P and patho you're learning skills, not prehospital medicine. Hold off on these merit badge courses and get a proper education.

-How does it work becoming ACLS and/or ATLS certified? Is it a class or course like IV? Where can I find one?

Neither course is of real benefit to you as a basic. ATLS can only be audited by non-physicians, not taken for certification. ACLS is for healthcare providers and the course is of arguably limited utility even then.

-One thing I really want to do is become a flight medic. What is the best path to accomplish this?

Depends on the area but from my understanding most HEMS programs in the USA are RN centred with medics being in a secondary role.

-Any advice for a fresh green eager-beaver EMT-B?

If medicine interests you, go to Paramedic school as quickly as possible, preferrably a college program (I think they're Associates degrees in the states). EMT-B and Paramedic courses don't really speak the same language and you can pick up some bad habits to unlearn. That being said, this is HOTLY contested. Please use the search function to find the corpse of this horse.

-Oh yeah, For those that are EMT-B or P with a fire service, how does it work, what is the structure? DO you ride in the truck or on a bus? Are you a Fire Fighter or 'just' an EMT or Medic?

I ride in an Ambulance, though sometimes I take the bus as parking downtown can be expensive. Other than that I come from an area that is all third service municipal EMS. I will withhold my thoughts on Fire based EMS and once again strongly suggest you search this topic too. You'll find it among the top three overdone, knock-out drag down fights on this site.

I'd say our top three arguments are some variation on the following:

1) Education and experience? Basics good or bad?

2) Fire Based EMS, Good or Bad?

3) Volunteer vs Private vs Public vs Fire vs Hospital vs Circus based EMS?

Once again, welcome to EMT City! Keep an open mind, be willing to challenge your assumptions and don't take things personally and you'll do just fine.

Cheers,

- Matt

Edit: Shouldn't have taken that break half way through typing this. Things really picked up in the interim. Once again, I draw your attention to "don't take things personally." Some of the members here (myself included) can be REALLY unforgiving sometimes.

Edited May 23, 2009 by docharris

[spenac]

lol, I hope you don't feel that way about EMTs..

I actually took a really good 10 credit College course for EMT-B so it was well worth the expense.

Is it more common for Fire services to segregate the two or to integrate them?

Glad you took college credit EMT-B so you can end up with a degree.

Sadly most Fire departments force people to do both which leads to people that do not want to do both being forced to and either fire or EMS or both suffer.

[scubanurse]

Of course I don't feel that way about EMS, why else would I spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on education for it?

Thanks!

Sorry to be a bit off topic... but those two should be reversed in my opinion.... hundereds of dollars and thousands of hours...

Good luck on your training, read through the boards, use the search function on this site and you'll do fine... I don't know much about Americorps, but you would probably get better experience with an EMS agency doing clinical work in the field.

Don't know about Chicago, but I am in a suburb of DC and we are a fire/ems department. All career folk are a minimum of Fire/EMT-B, all volunteers are a minimum EMT-B... to be a Fire Fighter, you must have EMT-B though which I support. It works for us, and I like it a lot. Those who are happy doing both, can do both in the same department, yet those who want to do EMS only, are 100% supported as well.

Good luck on everything!