Going to start school in fall for EMT-1 couple questions

[46Young]

The OP'er wants to be a FF/medic. Here's my advice:

Keep your day job, go to EMT school in the evenings, and work per diem afterward as an EMT. If you're willing to take a 30k/yr pay cut, that means that you could potentially save 20k cash each year, in addition to any EMT side work. 40k in two years, 60k for three years. The Frito Lay benefits will likely be much better than any private EMS service, and jobs are scarce nowadays.

I highly recommend getting your medic trough an EMS AAS degree. It'll make you a more proficient medic than most in regards to book smarts. Also, the fire service values highly those with degrees nowadays. Promotions either require degrees or give weight towards promotional list scores to put you near the top. If you have a degree coming in, you'll climb the ranks all the quicker. The sky's the limit, and there's so many directions you can go.

You'll need to decide if you want to do the EMS degree where you are, or out of state. In either event, you can knock out all the pre reqs and fluff classes (gen electives, psych, soc, etc) before you enroll so you can hold down FT work hours if you need to. You can use the 40-60k savings to live on if you can't find FT work. The Frito Lay job may not jive with the medic school schedule, unless you run your own route and can structure your route around school. I used to work on a snapple route in my early 20's as a driver and also preselling before I got my EMT. That 40-60k will also make a great down payment for a house after you get through your rookie year. You could also invest that money in deferred comp and have hundreds of thousands in retirement. Ask me how.

CA, OH, and FL are oversaturated with medics from what I hear. The Carolinas don't pay much for the most part. Forget about getting on in NJ and NY. You can apply back home regardless of where you move, but you'll have a fairly easy time getting on in the MD/DC/ Northern VA area. Don't confuse getting on with passing the recruit process, though. My dept as well as others have an ALS ambulance internship process that must be passed in order to be released into the field. Fail and you're out of a job. I hope you're generally interested in EMS, because you'll be riding a txp unit at least as much as a suppression piece, no matter how long you're on the job. If you're just using EMS as a free pass onto the dept, you'll be miserable. We take EMS seriously here. You can't drop your medic unless you promote out of it. You'll be let go if you do. Don't forget that you need to pass the entrance exam, CPAT, medical, poly, and psych.

You could have your medic by the time you're 26 or 27, and be hired before you're 28 if you do it the way I suggested.

Edited March 7, 2010 by 46Young

[CanadaEMT]

Am I the only one who finds EMS exciting? You see crazy stuff all the time and you help people (some calls are BS and stupid) but i enjoy my profession a lot!

[Dustdevil]

Am I the only one who finds EMS exciting? You see crazy stuff all the time and you help people (some calls are BS and stupid) but i enjoy my profession a lot!

Absolutely! But it is far, far from the thrill-a-minute roller coaster that television makes it out to be. And I believe that anyone in this field for more than six months honestly feels a little disappointed in the excitement level that is their reality, as opposed to the one they envisioned.

[Kiwiology]

Ah, you too should go away. Here's why ....

... (some calls are BS and stupid) ...

No, they are not. I have not been to a "boring" or "bullshit" call in my life! Anybody who says that shows a lack of understanding and empathy with your patients and a wider perspective of people's needs in general. It's also likley to rub off on how you come across and talk to your patients.

I've been to jobs where you can tell who I am with just doesn't care, doesn't want to be there, honestly just doesn't give a fuck. It is sooo obvious by the way the Officer speaks, how they act, what they say and the bitching they do about the job afterwards. Sure I've been to jobs where as the person is speaking all I can think is wanting to shout "stop saying things!" at the top of my lungs and crawl back to bed but I won't let it show.

Doesn't matter how tired you are, how much food you haven't eaten, how much your body aches, how many jobs you've done that you consider to be stupid and a waste of time; your callers have called YOU because they have very real needs be they medical or otherwise and YOU have a duty to try to help that person with thier problem.

I went to a job the other night which you might consider "stupid". It was a girl about ten who had a high temp and was a bit chesty because she had tonsillitis. It was a simple job, give her a bit of pamol and see you later sort of thing; no drugs, no lights and sirens, no cardiac arrests. Didn't require an Intensive Care Paramedic and flashy stuff you see on Trauma. The crux of this job was that the mother had called us because she couldn't get down to the after hours pharmacy and her kid was sick, as a parent she was worried about her child because she was sick.

To me that job is not stupid, it's not worthless, it's not bullshit, it's not anything like that and if you see simple, unexciting jobs (perhaps like this one) as being boring or bullshit then go away and come back when you have gown up. Little simple jobs (perhaps like this one) are about meething people's needs and showing them you care and will help in whatever capacity you can because this person is in some situation they cannot deal with (which might just COINCIDENTLY be slightly medical in nature) so the LAST THING they need is YOU coming in with the attitue of "this job sucks, I can't be bothered dealing with it and want to go back to the station and watch telly!".

Edited March 14, 2010 by kiwimedic

[Dustdevil]

I have not been to a "boring" or "bullshit" call in my life!

I have. They're called FD stand-by and rehab.

But other than that, I agree with you.

[rock_shoes]

No, they are not. I have not been to a "boring" or "bullshit" call in my life! Anybody who says that shows a lack of understanding and empathy with your patients and a wider perspective of people's needs in general. It's also likley to rub off on how you come across and talk to your patients.

Aye and there be the rub. A huge number of patients do not need an ambulance or emergency medical care of any kind. Many patients need mental health, public health, "safe-ride" (a most excellent program in the downtown eastside of Vancouver that gives people a safe ride home when they require it), police services, or social services. This is actually one of the things that differentiate an ok medic from a great medic.

It's the difference between just being a paramedic and becoming an "out of hospital care provider." The best medics I know consistently strive to ensure the patients they see are referred to the appropriate service. What is required to best serve this portion of the public is a targeted patient referral system. A patient referral system that can start and be implemented before these patients are taken to hospital would be ideal. This frees the responding unit to take another call sooner; it prevents someone who, though in need of care, does not require emergency care from taking up space in an ED; and it ensures the patient receives the care they need more promptly.

I know many medics refer to these as BS calls, but they are not BS. They are glaring examples of a failure to provide the correct resource at the correct time. They're also examples of a failure to educate the public in how to seek the correct assistance at the correct time.

One of the best call examples I can think of is the following. An elderly gentleman called us out complaining that he felt his blood sugar might be "out of whack". On arrival we found him to be completely coherent and uninjured. His chief complaint was that he did not know how to work his new BGL monitor and he was concerned his BGL could be too high. To be on the safe side we took a full patient history, vitals etc. (including BGL) which all checked out well WNL. This alleviated the gentleman's concerns prompting him to refuse hospital transport. Instead of just taking the transport refusal and leaving we took an extra few minutes with the man that I'm confident prevented further calls not actually requiring emergent care. We took the extra couple of minutes to program the man's BGL monitor, show him how to use it, and discuss diabetic care. I haven’t had a call to this man's residence since and yes he's still alive.

[Kiwiology]

One of the best call examples I can think of is the following. An elderly gentleman called us out complaining that he felt his blood sugar might be "out of whack". On arrival we found him to be completely coherent and uninjured. His chief complaint was that he did not know how to work his new BGL monitor and he was concerned his BGL could be too high. To be on the safe side we took a full patient history, vitals etc. (including BGL) which all checked out well WNL. This alleviated the gentleman's concerns prompting him to refuse hospital transport. Instead of just taking the transport refusal and leaving we took an extra few minutes with the man that I'm confident prevented further calls not actually requiring emergent care. We took the extra couple of minutes to program the man's BGL monitor, show him how to use it, and discuss diabetic care. I haven’t had a call to this man's residence since and yes he's still alive.

You're onto it mate! Seems that cuppa brewing and a ten minute chat are within the scope of practice after all

Work wonders they do.