Canada, Eh?

[NERDulance]

I have a strong desire to move to the Northwest Territory of Canada. I love it. I love the cold, the darkness, the northern lights, etc. I hate the bugs, though, but I guess it is a good thing that summer only lasts a couple of months or so before the big freeze settles in. ^_^

I will become an NREMT here in the U.S. in July and want to start some preliminary research on the matter. Do any of you have any information that can help me get the ball rolling? I would really appreciate that!

- The NERDulance

 

[MrBrown]

An NREMT what? B? I/85? I/99? P?

Canada has two levels; Primary Care and Advanced Care Paramedic which are light years ahead of the US.

One of our Canadian folk will surely pop in and give you more relevant details but generally if you're a Basic you're gonna have to go back to school for up to two years to get PCP.

 

[viccitylifeguard]

give this school a call WWW.CCOFEMS.ORG they can give you all the info you need on getting certed
I AM CANADIAN and soon to be a certed EMT here in alberta

 

[viccitylifeguard]

i didnt see the complete last post you can get you pcp/emt equilivant in less than 6 months dependant on pracitum times

 

[Outbac1]

Well for starters unless you are a Canadian citizen you need to contact the Canadian embassy in Washington to see about Visas, work permits, immigration etc. After that you need to contact the health authority in the NWT to see if they will accept your Cert.

As Mr. Brown says things here are much different than in the USA. An EMT-B is more or less equal to an EMR, Emergency Medical Responder (aka MFR, Medical First Responder). An EMT-I is getting closer to our PCP, Primary Care Paramedic. However most of our PCP courses are considerably longer than many EMT-P courses. Then we have ACP and CCP, Advanced and Critical Care Paramedics. These take years and thousands of hours work to get.

I don't think you will get much work as an EMT-B here. As an EMT-P however the door is open a little wider.

Best of luck and thanks for thinking/considering Canada.

 

[fortsmithman]

Here in the NWT we don't have any type of legislation or registration bodies. Here in the NWT and i some areas in the province of Alberta there are 3 levels EMR, EMT, EMT-P. Alberta does not use the terms PCP or ACP. They use EMT in place of PCP. They use EMT-P in place of ACP. If an eastern Canada PCP tried to call themselves a paramedic in front of an ACoP registered EMT-P they would most likely get an earful. There are only 3 paid EMS services and 1 air ambulance service 2 of the paid ground EMS nickel and dime there employees from what I hear. The remaining service is in our capital city. The Yellowknife fire dept. To join you have to be an EMT/PCP and a trained firefighter. Our air ambulance service needs the members to either be An RN or EMT-P/ACP with at least 5 yrs experience. All ground EMS in the NWT is BLS only our air ambulance service (medicnorth) is the only ALS provider in the NWT. A growing number of EMS personnel here in the NWT are getting registered with the Alberta College of Paramedics. My advice when selecting a EMS program is to make sure they are accredited by the Canadian Medical Association. http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/50602/la_id/1.htm