dilemma with volunteering

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Natka303

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Where I currently moved to there are plenty of firehouses who are accepting emt volunteer applications. I have yet to start the process but what is bothering me is the issue that I might need a car. I live 15 minutes away walking distance from each fire house in every direction. No one seems to have the duty crews I heard about where I can do a shift or two every week. East meadow FDNY seems to operate in the terms of We will page you and you run to us to make the call.
I can't afford a car. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I really want to be an emt volunteer, I would like to know from your experiences if this is possible with my current car less situation.

Or should I just take an emt course, pay for it and just hope to find a job without volunteering?

thanks for all your help guys
 
first off...do you have an emt cert at all?...secondly, if you are needed as an "on call" and need to get there quicky a ride situation is pretty important. If you do apply, let them know about that after you submit the application. Also due to lack of transportation, that station may not be the best idea. Maybe look at volunteering at a hospital where the time is definitivly set and you will not be required to get up from your house or wherever when the tones go off.
 
feldy- i am going to take a class this summer. but i can also volunteer at a hospital? how is that accomplished? do i need to get certified as a basic emt or as a paramedic in order to be in the hospital?

thanks for the info
 
I don't think many people can afford to have cars in the city. I know their are volunteer ambulance corps in Queens but this is not FDNY. Why not work as an EMT per diem?
 
that's what i am trying to figure out.
would it better to be a volunteer first or to take the class and hope to find a job?
 
would it better to be a volunteer first or to take the class and hope to find a job?
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You can not volunteer most places without a certification of some sort (at least doing anything meaningful or interesting). It should be pretty straightforward as to what the answer to all of your questions are here.

BTW, some stations will allow "in house" call from the station. That is you stay at the station during your shift. This was the practice we used for the combination (part paid/part volunteer) department I was supervisor at. The first out paid crew and the frst out volunteer crew (as much of it as was available to be scheduled, most of the time it was at least two of the three crew members) would be on station and would respond out immediately. When both units were out, normally additional "non-scheds" (volunteer personnel who were available but had not signed up for the shift) would respond to station to provide staffing for the two remaining ambulances. The system worked remarkably well and there were very few times (normally early weekday afternoons) where we had no available personnel for the third or fourth ambulance.
 
no the answers are not straight forward usafmedic45 as my questions is not about certification but about volunteering vs. actual job.

Okay... let me rephrase....
if i sign up to be an emt volunteer then i will have to take the course and become certified. that is self explanitory.
the questions is...
is it better to volunteer as a certified emt or to just hunt on the job market for a position after the class?
there are two options here. I take the class and volunteer. OR i just take the class and start looking for a job.

at the firehouses that are near my house there are no shifts for volunteers. which makes this difficult as i do not have a car so i will not be able to make the calls on time thus i am trying to figure out the best option where i do become a certified emt and will be actually able to put the certification to use aka volunteering or job.
 
Depends on your plans after you are certified.

Do you have a day job that pays more already and just want to give back to the community? then volunteer.

Being paid always beats working for free.

What are your plans after certification? School, Job, pan handling, raising kids? Lots of variables you provided no information about.

I am not keen on volunteering in EMS, but in some places it is a neccesary evil.
 
Veneficus said:
I am not keen on volunteering in EMS, but in some places it is a neccesary evil.
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Sssssssh .... don't tell the Johnnos.

I hear turnover down at FDNY*EMS is super duper high, could work in your favour.
 
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get a bicycle or a moped.

that will cut your 15 minute walk down to 6-7 minutes...
 
If you dont have any type of cert, you're kind of putting the cart before the horse.

I should warn you, if you're in a bad financial situation, becoming an EMT is not likely to get you out of it. If you can get the training for free go for it, but otherwise youd be better off taking a CNA class, theres a lot more jobs out there for them and it pays better, although it is hard work.

Good luck to you.
 
Getting certifed generally takes about 6 months (some courses are shorter and some are longer). In my opinion, I would take a course and also try to look for some volunteer work. Many fire stations will want you to be certified (liability reason) if you are going to be running calls in the field. however, when you are in class you can look into doing ride alongs and in hospital volunteer work with patients. It may not be exactly what you are looking for now but you need to start some where to gain some type of experience. Where i live, even though it is mostly private companies that run 911 BLS with hospital ALS, it looks better if you already have your cert. That being said, i would get on the phone and call some places...who knows, if they hire you, they could put you through the course and foot the bill.
 
I believe there are a few volunteer ambulance services in Queens. Flushing, Jamaica Estates-Bayside, Whitestone, Forrest Hills.

I would say find whichever one is closest for you, and find out what their requirements are. Some will provide training, etc.

NYC volunteer ambulances are interesting. Many of them are linked enough to the community where people will call their number for an ambulance, rather than 9-1-1 - which is becoming necessary again now that FDNY has (unless the decision was changed) kicked "voluntary" ambulances (which is not just volunteer squads, but hospitals, too) out of the 9-1-1 system. In a city the size of NY, I guess there is plenty of ambulance "business" to go around.
 
There are EMS agencies in Suffolk County that allow you to volunteer in-house once a week. Some don't require EMT certification -- they offer RTE-type courses instead (I'm not saying I support that).

Volunteering helps you decide whether you want to pursue EMS, either as a vocation or as a hobby (and I'm not saying I support that, either).
 
thanks guys.
thats what my plan to run there or get a bike. the plan is to finish undergrad in nutrition and apply for med school. but i do not want to go right away to med school. i want to get a better feel for emergency medicine.
 
we need an EMS and medical school sticky

If you are going to use EMS as a means to get a feel for or try to demonstrate a commitment to medicine you will have to spend years. Simply having a cert isn't going to make a difference.

Emergency Medcine.

You could spend an equal number of years in EMS and still not understand the nature of emergency medicine. Just read this site. There are plenty of people here who erroneously think "emergency" should or has to do with actual life and death regularly. You could see much more and actually a more accurate version of EM and what it really involves in a few shifts in the ED. You could also speak to an actual doctor about it.

Medicine is also such a large body of knowledge that while learning it you might find something you never thought of or heard of before that interests you.
 
FDNY does not have volunteers. There are volunteer agencies that are independant. When they respond to 911 calls they are under FDNY command.
 
mgr22 said:
There are EMS agencies in Suffolk County that allow you to volunteer in-house once a week. Some don't require EMT certification -- they offer RTE-type courses instead (I'm not saying I support that).

Volunteering helps you decide whether you want to pursue EMS, either as a vocation or as a hobby (and I'm not saying I support that, either).
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What is this RTE you speak of?
 
RTE is "Responding to Emergencies." It's a first-aid course.
 
Natka303 said:
thanks guys.
thats what my plan to run there or get a bike. the plan is to finish undergrad in nutrition and apply for med school. but i do not want to go right away to med school. i want to get a better feel for emergency medicine.
Click to expand...

Prehospital emergency medicine!=Hospital emergency medicine. It's a comparison of apples and oranges for no better reason than one will always examine, diagnose, treat, and either admit (or get a service to admit if the EM physicians don't have admitting privileges) or discharge. On the other hand, the vast majority of EMS providers do an examine, maybe provide symptom relief (and a lot of that is only if the cookbook says so, not because of independent analysis and decision making) with no real concept of disposition past it being someone else's problem or the long term care of the patient. EMS experience can be helpful, but it isn't some sort of holy grail when it comes to health care experience and medicine.
 
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