Hey fellow EMS providers,
Anyone know anything about Metro Area Ambulance or EMS in North Dakota in general- looking into a potential job there and would like any insight that anyone can provide.
Thanks!
Howdy,
I see that you're from L.A., and if you plan to move to North Dakota we should talk. I live in South Dakota, in the state's largest city (165,000), and we use Rural Metro for most of our 911 and IFT calls, but the surrounding communities are served by MedStar and some volunteer outfits.
While I don't have any direct feedback to give you about Metro in N.D., you should ask yourself whether this would be the state for you after having lived in L.A. South Dakota is sparsely populated, many Native American reservations, and very, very rural. You're about an hour away from a town in any direction. North Dakota is even worse. It's even less populated, more rural, and frankly the weather sucks more there than it does here in South Dakota -- and South Dakota winters can be BRUTAL. And in the Dakotas it's "winter" 6 months of the year or more.
I bring all of that up because as I've spoken with folks who are cops here or EMS here, one of their chief regrets about working here is the weather. Jobs here are highly competitive in these two fields as well. You might actually have better luck in South Dakota, as Sioux Falls (where I live) has two major hospitals, including a trauma center, a heart hospital, two children's hospitals, a V.A. hospital, and several ambulance providers inside and outside of Sioux Falls. I'd also check West River (meaning the Rapid City area on the Western half of the state). The West Side of South Dakota is absolutely gorgeous with the Black Hills and National Parks. The East Side is flat farmland. Imagine the East Side of South Dakota as a state and you'll have North Dakota.
Bleh.
M.