Interview for ED Tech Position (Paramedic)

[jamonic1]

I have an interview coming up and I really want this job so I am asking for any pointers. The job was advertised, wanted: ED Tech, requirements: EMT training, job description: will be responsible for helping pt. with insurance forms and further paperwork (not a lot of pt contact)

I will be the first paramedic they have considered for this position. I would like to point out how my skills would be very useful (working with Pt.)

Any ideas?

[tcripp]

While I'm not sure I can help you answer the question, I find myself curious about why they are putting a paramedic in the position of a paper pusher that will have little patient contact and (please don't take this the wrong way) but why you would want to be in that position with your skill level? Is this to get your foot in the door and there is room for advancement with someone with your skill set?

Toni

[DFIB]

Do you know why you are the first paramedic they consider for this position? Because every ED tech I have known or heard of were EMT-B.

Dude, you are a medic. You are where I really, really want to go and are applying for a job that an EMT can do. Do you see some escalation benefit in the hospital that would cause you to shortchange your training? Are they offering that good of a pay? Is it a job to tie you over until something else comes along?

I in no way want to come off as critical, and I surely don't wand to dump on your ambitions, but I would like to understand what you are thinking.

[chbare]

ER tech pay can be quite good and pay much better than the field. Also, the hospital benefits packages may be better. Several street medics work as ER techs in my area and are pretty much working at an EMT-I level within the hospital but they make bank and work well with the nurses and physicians due to the rapport that has been established from their transfers of care.

[tcripp]

ER tech pay can be quite good and pay much better than the field. Also, the hospital benefits packages may be better. Several street medics work as ER techs in my area and are pretty much working at an EMT-I level within the hospital but they make bank and work well with the nurses and physicians due to the rapport that has been established from their transfers of care.

But that isn't the position as he has described it...?

[chbare]

Maybe not; the techs that I speak of have different areas of focus. Some simply gather patient information and perform ECG's all day and others are involved with direct patient care. I am not quite sure of the exact definition and responsibilities of the OP's prospective position. However, if the pay and benefits are better than what an ambulance in his/her area could offer, I would not fault the person for considering the position.

[paramedicmike]

I have an interview coming up and I really want this job so I am asking for any pointers. The job was advertised, wanted: ED Tech, requirements: EMT training, job description: will be responsible for helping pt. with insurance forms and further paperwork (not a lot of pt contact)

I will be the first paramedic they have considered for this position. I would like to point out how my skills would be very useful (working with Pt.)

Any ideas?

My first idea is to take a look at the parts of your post that I've bolded. The job is advertised as not having a lot of patient contact yet you're trying to sell yourself for your patient contact skills. Do you see the disconnect there?

If this is a job you really want, for whatever reason, you need to find a better way to sell yourself. As someone who has done hiring in the past, a sure fire way for me to not hire someone was for the candidate to tell me all of their marketable skills that had little to nothing to do with the job I was trying to fill.

CHBARE listed a lot of positives about working for a hospital. In this economy, too, you kinda' have to take a job as you can find it. However, unless you're trying to break into the system with plans of switching positions/moving up you're setting yourself up to be seriously underemployed. Honestly? That raises a lot of questions about you as an individual and as a potential employee. Some of those questions might not be fair based off of one post on an anonymous internet discussion forum. Seeing as your interviewer will kinda' be coming from a similar perspective, specifically not having any info about you besides what you present like you've done here, you would do well to re-evaluate your selling points.

Get a copy of the job description (from the hospital website?) and if it's really a job you want tailor your resumé and your presentation to fit what they have listed. Move forward from there.

All the best.

[tcripp]

Maybe not; the techs that I speak of have different areas of focus. Some simply gather patient information and perform ECG's all day and others are involved with direct patient care. I am not quite sure of the exact definition and responsibilities of the OP's prospective position. However, if the pay and benefits are better than what an ambulance in his/her area could offer, I would not fault the person for considering the position.

I don't fault him...just want to make sure his eyes are open as he makes his decisions.

You see, he described it as a non-contact position but he is looking for info on how to show his skills will work for a patient contact position.

Edited August 25, 2012 by tcripp

[Just Plain Ruff]

The position you showed sure sounds like you are taking the job of a ED Clerk and not a tech.

If that is actually the job you are taking then you are going to have hardly NO patient care exposure but you are going to get a bunch of exposure to a area of the hospital that will open many more doors for you if paramedic doesn't work out.

You could leverage this position into additional jobs at the hospital in insurance billing, reimbursement and eventually a management level position in their billing department (but those are usually reserved for ladies who have been there for centuries and have scowls on their faces that have been there for years).

Think of what the experience of hospital billing could bring to your ambulance service???? If you can take what you learn in the hospital billing arena and bring it to your EMS billing think of how you can help your EMS colleagues write their reports to get a more billable report? Think of if your billable rates went from 50% to 65%, think of what that would mean to your ambulance services bottom line. Your pay could go up, and your equipment that you rely on so much could be replaced on a more steady basis keeping your service more in line with the times.

I"m not saying that this will happen but having someone who knows how the hospital bills and can take that knowledge and help integrate it into EMS can't help but make a better EMS system especially if your EMS system in the only one in town with your hospital.

Something to think about.

Good luck.

[fire911medic]

I'm confused reading this simply because usually an ER tech functions much in a CNA capacity (in fact many hospitals in this area hire CNA's or require the EMT's to get CNA training). This sounds more like a clerk's position, however I do understand some smaller hospitals float their clerks to occasional patient care positions, but this isn't usual. Hiring straight paramedics (as a medic, not as a tech) is getting more and more popular to ease the patient load on nurses. Here they may triage, be active care in fast track for minor injuries, be the IV *itch for nurses and in trauma, accompany patients from small hospitals to larger on transfers, accompany them to CT, MRI, various tests, etc and critical patients to their rooms. I've not seen them function primarily in the capacity you describe.

I know many medics hire onto hospitals as a way to get them to pay for additional training (most with the goal of getting their RN). Nothing wrong with this at all. Others do it as a way to get experience or do skills or knowledge to move into higher care capacities such as critical care medics that their local services can't provide the volume or protocols to allow them to move up. I learned a ton in my time working in the ER, got to see and be exposed to things that I would likely never seen on the truck for many of the services I worked for simply due to them being rural. It's come in great in my current job where I see much more. If this is your plan, look to a different hospital, I don't believe this position or facility is going to give you what you are wanting. If it's just money you are wanting (yes I know even CNA's make more in many facilities than medics on the street) then fine, but keep working a service PT to keep your skills. Don't use it, you'll lose it. I would venture to say that the people interviewing you will view you as overqualified (with the thought you'll likely not stay long or are using them) and choose a more appropriate candidate for the position - like a clerk. Sounds like you've got ambition and looking to move up. Try a lateral move to a different style of EMS if it's a challenge your seeking. I've tried all types and learned incredibly in each one so give that a look. Best wishes to you.