Moving to Washington?

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Wildercase

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I'm new to EMS. I'm very excited and passionate about becoming an EMT, and then on to Paramedic.
I currently live in Arizona, and this summer I will be up @ Remote Medical Int. in Leavanworth, WA, getting my EMT-B, with the Wilderness upgrade.
I am determined to get right into the field, and to start a medic program as soon as possible. I plan on working in the field for 1 yr before starting my medic, as this seems like good idea and is generally required by most programs.
Im also interested in possibly moving to WA as I love the state and have heard good things regarding EMS in WA.

My questions are:
1) What are employment opps for EMTs currently like in WA?
2) What are the "best" schools in WA for getting Paramedic cert?
3) Will establishing residency affect my ability to get a job/get into a good program?
4)What ambulance companies offer Paramedic training?
5) Any advice...at all!?!(remember I'm brand newbie)

Thanks everybody, any, and all advice is greatly appreciated!!
 
IIRC to be certified in WA you have to have service affiliation. But I could be wrong. Our resident PNWers will be here soon to correct me
 
jtpaintball70 said:
IIRC to be certified in WA you have to have service affiliation. But I could be wrong. Our resident PNWers will be here soon to correct me
Click to expand...

Yep, for basic and above you must be affiliated with a service before the state will even process your paperwork.

As far as medic programs go, there are relatively few programs and they only take a limited number of applicants each cycle. Some programs only accept new applicants once every two years, others do it on a yearly basis.
 
Wildercase said:
My questions are:
1) What are employment opps for EMTs currently like in WA?
2) What are the "best" schools in WA for getting Paramedic cert?
3) Will establishing residency affect my ability to get a job/get into a good program?
4)What ambulance companies offer Paramedic training?
5) Any advice...at all!?!(remember I'm brand newbie)

Thanks everybody, any, and all advice is greatly appreciated!!
Click to expand...

1) Not much help here, I'm a volunteer.
2) Harborview Med Ctr-UW is supposedly pretty good. Central WA. Univ. is suppoed to be as well.
3) Not really sure about this. I'll got back to you on that. I'm guessing the whole process will be just as slow no matter what you do thanks to our tremendously efficiant DOH.
4) Tacoma FD is the only non-college WA approved medic program I know of. There may be more.
5) If you want to live on the good side of the state, come to the east side. If you want to make money as a medic, go out to the west side. But definatly came see the east side first. And hurry up before fire season sets in.
 
It seems like this comes up once a month... but from someone who lives in Seattle, here ya go:

My questions are:
1) What are employment opps for EMTs currently like in WA?

On the West side of the state, the opportunities for EMT-Bs are few and far between. I would call the outlook for getting hired here "bleak". The local community collges churn out a few hundred EMTs every quarter and there's just not enough jobs to go around.

2) What are the "best" schools in WA for getting Paramedic cert?

That's something you'll have to research on your own. There are only a few medic programs in the state. I attend TCC, and think it's a superior program for several reasons. PM if you want specifics on each program. Here's the list of approved paramedic programs in WA. Note that several are open to "approved applicants only" i.e.: Harborview is for Medic One, Seatlle Fire and other fire departments only. Tacoma FD is for Tacoma Fire only.

3) Will establishing residency affect my ability to get a job/get into a good program?

Get a job? No. Get into a program? Yes. You will not be able to get into a medic program in Washington without a year of EMT experience. Maybe NCTI waives this rule, but you'd be better off checking with each program you're interested in.

4)What ambulance companies offer Paramedic training?

Some fire departments will sometimes send FF/EMT staff through paramedic training. Many are now only hiring lateral, credentialed medics, as the expense of having a firefighter off the line, as well as paying tuituion, can be a bit excessive. No ambulance services are paying for medic school, that I know of. However, ALS in Yakima is paying for a bunch of basics to upgrage to ILS, for what it's worth.

5) Any advice...at all!?!(remember I'm brand newbie)

There's always a lot of questions about getting a WA EMT cert...

The simple answer is;

1) Get hired or volunteer with an EMS agency. In other words, get affiliated.
2) Meet the WA reciprocity requirements.
2) Submit the paperwork to WA DOH.

The reciprocity page (with all the forms) is here: http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/emstrauma/reciproc.htm

Please note: It takes a while to get your paperwork through the system. A friend of mine moved from CA to WA and it took over three months for his cert to be approved.

So, if you're serious about it... start the process NOW.

And, here's the current lowdown on BLS ambulance jobs in the Seattle Area:

AMR has a huge backlog of applicants, and isn't hiring anyone anytime soon. They do BLS ONLY transports for Seattle Fire as well as Federal Way and Auburn. They also have an ALS/BLS division that works in Pierce County.

TriMed in South King County once again just hired a large batch of EMTs, so no spots there now, although there may be some openings in soon. Best bet is just apply and keep trying. TriMed does NOT hire for part time or day crew (with the very odd exception.) The majority of their hires are for 24 shifts. TriMed does BLS for most of the South King County Fire Departments and a large number of IFTs. They will also be staffing two brand new Nurse/CCT cars soon.

From what I hear from friends at Rural/Metro, they are still way overstaffed and there is still a hiring freeze.

There are a couple of other spots you may want to check ... Northwest Ambulance in Marysville may still be looking and I think that Olympic in Lacy is looking, too.
 
Could always go become a Tech at Seattle-Grace man I hear Arizona Robbins is hawt :P:P:P
 
MrBrown said:
Could always go become a Tech at Seattle-Grace man I hear Arizona Robbins is hawt :P:P:P
Click to expand...

It wasn't funny the first time you posted this on a Washington EMT thread, and it's still not funny. -_-
 
n7lxi said:
It wasn't funny the first time you posted this on a Washington EMT thread, and it's still not funny. -_-
Click to expand...

I was amused
 
n7lxi said:
It seems like this comes up once a month... but from someone who lives in Seattle, here ya go:

My questions are:
1) What are employment opps for EMTs currently like in WA?

On the West side of the state, the opportunities for EMT-Bs are few and far between. I would call the outlook for getting hired here "bleak". The local community collges churn out a few hundred EMTs every quarter and there's just not enough jobs to go around.

2) What are the "best" schools in WA for getting Paramedic cert?

That's something you'll have to research on your own. There are only a few medic programs in the state. I attend TCC, and think it's a superior program for several reasons. PM if you want specifics on each program. Here's the list of approved paramedic programs in WA. Note that several are open to "approved applicants only" i.e.: Harborview is for Medic One, Seatlle Fire and other fire departments only. Tacoma FD is for Tacoma Fire only.

3) Will establishing residency affect my ability to get a job/get into a good program?

Get a job? No. Get into a program? Yes. You will not be able to get into a medic program in Washington without a year of EMT experience. Maybe NCTI waives this rule, but you'd be better off checking with each program you're interested in.

4)What ambulance companies offer Paramedic training?

Some fire departments will sometimes send FF/EMT staff through paramedic training. Many are now only hiring lateral, credentialed medics, as the expense of having a firefighter off the line, as well as paying tuituion, can be a bit excessive. No ambulance services are paying for medic school, that I know of. However, ALS in Yakima is paying for a bunch of basics to upgrage to ILS, for what it's worth.

5) Any advice...at all!?!(remember I'm brand newbie)

There's always a lot of questions about getting a WA EMT cert...

The simple answer is;

1) Get hired or volunteer with an EMS agency. In other words, get affiliated.
2) Meet the WA reciprocity requirements.
2) Submit the paperwork to WA DOH.

The reciprocity page (with all the forms) is here: http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/emstrauma/reciproc.htm

Please note: It takes a while to get your paperwork through the system. A friend of mine moved from CA to WA and it took over three months for his cert to be approved.

So, if you're serious about it... start the process NOW.

And, here's the current lowdown on BLS ambulance jobs in the Seattle Area:

AMR has a huge backlog of applicants, and isn't hiring anyone anytime soon. They do BLS ONLY transports for Seattle Fire as well as Federal Way and Auburn. They also have an ALS/BLS division that works in Pierce County.

TriMed in South King County once again just hired a large batch of EMTs, so no spots there now, although there may be some openings in soon. Best bet is just apply and keep trying. TriMed does NOT hire for part time or day crew (with the very odd exception.) The majority of their hires are for 24 shifts. TriMed does BLS for most of the South King County Fire Departments and a large number of IFTs. They will also be staffing two brand new Nurse/CCT cars soon.

From what I hear from friends at Rural/Metro, they are still way overstaffed and there is still a hiring freeze.

There are a couple of other spots you may want to check ... Northwest Ambulance in Marysville may still be looking and I think that Olympic in Lacy is looking, too.
Click to expand...

Excellent reply and 100% on the money. This should be a must read fo every one that has thougts about moving to WA with the desire to work in EMS and or fire. With all the people that come on here and seek the same information it should be a sticky.

I would like to add if you don't have a particular place in mind that you do your research. You could help yourself greatly if you plan your move around the right department or agency. You want to look for a department where you actually pull duty shifts,this will get you the best bang for your buck. Its not going to be much help to your resume if you are only running a few calls each month (seriously). A combination paid/volunteer department would be a good choice because you would most likely shift along side a paid medic either on an ALS engine or on a medic unit. It wont matter if your interested in fire or not because many departments are mixed fire/EMS.

Another thought is to find a hospital with an ER that uses ER techs,most but not all of the hospitals in WA use ER techs or patient care technicians. You would pick up a great deal of patient care skills and add a nice little star to your application for medic school.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Level1pedstech said:
Excellent reply and 100% on the money. This should be a must read fo every one that has thougts about moving to WA with the desire to work in EMS and or fire. With all the people that come on here and seek the same information it should be a sticky.

I would like to add if you don't have a particular place in mind that you do your research. You could help yourself greatly if you plan your move around the right department or agency. You want to look for a department where you actually pull duty shifts,this will get you the best bang for your buck. Its not going to be much help to your resume if you are only running a few calls each month (seriously). A combination paid/volunteer department would be a good choice because you would most likely shift along side a paid medic either on an ALS engine or on a medic unit. It wont matter if your interested in fire or not because many departments are mixed fire/EMS.

Another thought is to find a hospital with an ER that uses ER techs,most but not all of the hospitals in WA use ER techs or patient care technicians. You would pick up a great deal of patient care skills and add a nice little star to your application for medic school.
Click to expand...

Good points, althought it should be noted, every ED (at least in King and Pierce Counties) that hires EMTs as ER techs require at least one year of field experience. And, the ED experience won't count toward your patient contact requirements when applying for medic school. Sad, but true.

There are several volunteer fire departments on the West side where you can get trained and get good experience as an EMT. Do some research, and good luck. It's not impossible to work as an EMT over here, just takes a lot of time and tenacity to get a position.
 
n7lxi said:
Good points, althought it should be noted, every ED (at least in King and Pierce Counties) that hires EMTs as ER techs require at least one year of field experience. And, the ED experience won't count toward your patient contact requirements when applying for medic school. Sad, but true.

There are several volunteer fire departments on the West side where you can get trained and get good experience as an EMT. Do some research, and good luck. It's not impossible to work as an EMT over here, just takes a lot of time and tenacity to get a position.
Click to expand...

In Clark county you can get into SWMC and Legacy Salmon Creek with no field experience but with it being so competitive there are going to be plenty of applicants with field experience up to and including medics. I also forgot that in WA state all techs need to be a current CNA(also required before submitting an application for nursing school). I should have remembered that. I was offered a tech position at both hospitals but with no CNA and no time to sit through the course I was out of luck. The reason I work across the river and not in my local ED is I never got my CNA. I wish I would have known of this requirement eleven years ago when I got into EMS. I can however work in the ED in WA to get my required sticks for recertification but not in a paid position doing the same job,the system is odd to say the least. We should give him a hearty welcome to WA state EMS.
 
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