That's interesting. Never really thought of that concept. I undetstand in EMS not every call is a life saving emergency, but I respect what role the job plays in a community. I guess I shoulder have worder that a little better
EMS Tips for young people.
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That's interesting. Never really thought of that concept. I undetstand in EMS not every call is a life saving emergency, but I respect what role the job plays in a community. I guess I shoulder have worder that a little better
Have you considered moving somewhere else for a year and getting some experience?
How are job opportunities in neighbouring states? Going and living / working somewhere else for a year might be a good way to get both some life experience, and improve the resume.
You can't do much about your age. It's like a non-modifiable cardiac risk factor (or would that be a survival factor, never mind). People are going to point it out, and all you can really do is say, "Yes, I'm young, but I care about what I'm doing, I'm working hard to improve myself, and I'm happy to be in this field". You can't demand that anyone respect you, you can just hope that as they get to know you this happens.
Getting more education is never a bad thing for anyone. If you can afford university, there's a good option for something to do while you're getting older.
I would strongly encourage you to finish your degree, even if you relocate. It's much easier to do before you have a mortgage / wife or husband / kids, etc. I did my undergrad between 26-30, while working a full-time urban ALS slot. It was hard, and I sacrificed a lot. It was worth it, but it would have been easier to do it the other way around.
medicnick83
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My advice for BLS guys (new guys) I posted on my blog a while back...
LINK
Obviously, like I have said before, it's for ZA people.
LINK
Obviously, like I have said before, it's for ZA people.
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Well put, finish the degree and try to relocate. I have family that lives in Arizona. Would you think that would be a good place to relocate to? Also has anyone ever relocated and how did it work out. Sounds like a lot of work just trying to get your certs transfered over to another state and to not even be promised a job or anything.
I've never worked in the states, and I've never been to California. But I can say that Arizona is spectacularly beautiful. I visited for a few weeks in 2005, and loved it.
I moved about 3 hours from my home town for my first EMS job, just before my 19th birthday because it was the only place I could find doing 911 work at the time. I've also lived in 3 different countries. I'm not going to pretend relocating is easy, but if this is your passion, sometimes you have to make sacrifices. I'd just be careful with the degree. It might seem now like you could drop it for a couple of years and pick it back up, but things might not be that easy. I've met quite a few medics who've regretted dropping out of university to pursue EMS.
It might be. You might have to write national registry, or state exams. These probably cost money, and you may be shelling out to another registry body for licensing fees. You may have to keep paying money to CA while you're gone.
But if you know there's a lot of EMT-B jobs where you're thinking about heading, and you're having a lot of trouble in CA (and it sounds like a lot of people are), then it might just be worth it.
I tell you, if I was 19, and lived in the US, I'd be happy to give southern Utah, Arizona, Texas, a shot.
Steam Engine
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From my understanding Park Medic is a level unique to the National Park Service, and is somewhere between an NREMT-I/99 and Paramedic.
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I'd guess working as an amusement park medic would be similar to my beach job minus watching people fail at swimming and playing on our beach patrol jet skis and boat hah. We had lots of cuts, scrapes, ground level falls with the random chest pain, stroke like symptoms and syncopal episode mixed in.
Usually not serious but things do go bad from time to time.
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Being young makes it tough to have a strong resume. Being that I am 20, there just has not been a tremendous amount of time to gain "life experience," and I think I've made a stronger effort than most.
However, in much of EMS, it is not going to be your resume that gets you hired, it's going to be your ability to provide what the company wants. At lowest level, an ambulance company is hiring because they need bodies to fill shifts. You could have the greatest resume in the world, but if your availability does not correspond to what the company needs, you aren't getting hired. So, if possible, be upfront with the company and tell them you will work any shift, at any time, with little notice. I know for a fact that this why I got hired out of a pool of 170 people for 20 positions when there were certainly people more qualified than me.
Working without a schedule is not great. You never have a good partner for a significant amount of time and the opposite seems to be true for bad partners. The 530am phone calls asking if your available suck a lot(and if you're available and the new guy you pretty much have to jump on that shift to gain credibility). But it gets better pretty fast. If you show that you are dedicated to the company, they will start to work with you on scheduling once you have some time on.
I realize that this is not option for some people, given family and whatnot. When you're young though you are less likely to have these problems, so now is the time to make a few sacrifices and get a job so you can get experience. Down the line you might not be flexible enough to make these sacrifices, but you at least you can say that you worked on a truck for x years, giving you a significant leg up over future competition. An experienced EMT or medic is going to find that getting a job is lot easier, generally speaking.
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I had a similar experience too. Working as student-athletic trainer by nature means I don't see a ton of serious illness or injury. 20 year old college athletes are not real likely to have an MI or CVA or anything like that. But I do see literally thousands of "patients" a year, which definitely allowed me to get over my inherent shyness and learn to interact with the people I was caring for and be comfortable in a healthcare environment. I think many in the 18-21 crowd are not comfortable in the healthcare environment, so such experience could be very beneficial. I know it definitely helped me once I got a job on an ambulance since I didn't have to learn to talk to strangers about their health problems.