EMS in North Dakota

[rcmedic]

I'm looking to relocate to Eastern North Dakota area, most likely Grand Forks or East Grand Forks, MN. I was wondering if anyone on here is familiar with the EMS structure out there. I'm going to guess that a lot of it is volunteer/rural EMS. How are things? Interesting? Busy? Slow? Anything. I'd like to hear anything at all about it. :-)

Oh, another question is this.. do rural EMS providers participate in search & rescue operations or are there other organizations there that specialize in that? (Out here, there's a few specialized S&R operations)

Basically, I want to hear from people that are familiar with it. Sorry if I'm bad at composing lucid questions today.

(Yes, I know that it snows there. I'm looking forward to it.)

[Richard B the EMT]

What a coincidence, as my brother lives and works in Grand Forks. I've hyperlinked this string to him, requesting a contact name, number, and/or address for EMS to send you. Hopefully, I'll post further information within 48 hours of this posting.

[Parker]

I live approx 40 miles N of Devils Lake. I am involved in rural volunteer EMS. Since Richards brother is from GF I will let him try and answer your questions, he sould know alot more about the ambulance services in that area than me. If you have additional questions you can e-mail me at starpark22@yahoo.com.

about the S&R, we have Lake Region Search and Rescure come from Devils Lake, although we have not needed them for years.

[rcmedic]

Oh, great.. thanks! Yeah, even seemingly random information would be great to me. I'm hopng to move there in a year or so although the exact time frame might depend on the ol' significant other & her job.

We've both visited the area and absolutely LOVED it. Might even go back and spend New Years there as well.

[flyingnurse]

I am the Manager of Emergency Services for Altru in Grand Forks. We provide ALS for the city of Grand Forks and a large portion of GF county. At this time our units are dual paramedic. We do use EMTs but only for special event coverage (hockey games, races, etc.). Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) we have a very stable staff and therefore a very limited number of openings per year. Other ALS providers in the area are FM Ambulance in Fargo (a much larger organization so a greater number of openings), Valley Ambulance in Grafton (volunteer with some paid call) and two or three other volunteer services that have some ALS capability. I hope this helps.

[rcmedic]

Hey, thanks for the information. Like I said, it will be a couple of years before we move out there (I'd move tomorrow if I could, though) so maybe the area will have grown a bit and more openings will exist.

Having a stable crew is a good thing - means that they're happy with the job. Right?

My soon to be fiancee works in clinical research at the Stanford Hospital.. if you know of any research jobs there, drop me a note!

If at all possible, I'm going to try to get my EMT-P while I'm still out here.. but that'll be a while after I finish my -B and start working..

I didn't think about Fargo either. How bad is the drive up Hwy 29? I could happily live somewhere in the middle. Last time we were out there, it took a little over an hour from Grand Forks to Fargo, but the roads were clean & dry. I don't know how it is during bad weather.

Oh, and if you happen to have any random photos of the area, feel free to send them my way.

/me is painfully sick & tired of living in California.

[Richard B the EMT]

My brother is researching per my request on your behalf, but it seems you have some information already.

Grand Forks and Fargo are 70 miles from each other, figure about an hour travel time between them.

[Ztenec]

I've been gone way too long Two quick things about Altru in GF, 1) Hospital based and 2) very nice people. That is about what I know of them. FM (Fargo-Moorhead) I know a bit more about. They have Medics and Basics ~15k calls a year, on occasion they ask you to drive a "Ready Wheels" which is their local transport vehicles. Most of the shifts there are 12 hrs with a few 8hrs during daytime.

Wage is less in Fargo than it is in Grand Forks or other ND/MN areas due to the surplus of EMTs They have several classes a year and 2 medic classes (one 2year night time and one 11 month daytime).

I would also say that FM people are nice to work with, they have a good relationship with the other communities.

Their website is www.fmambulance.com

Any other questions feel free to ask And ND isn't as bad as people think it is... sometimes 8)

[thecroc]

fm ambulance is great place to take classes right now im takeing my emt-b class with them and loving it

[EMTBgirl]

Don't go to Grand Forks. Go to FM Ambulance in Fargo, North Dakota. They are awesome people to work with!!! I was in their explorers program for two years and just took the summer EMT-B course. I would highly recommend these guys, they're the best in the business!