New, interested, have some questions!

[Darren]

First I suppose I will give everyone the life story!

I am a 26 year old from Monmouth County NJ who has had an interest in becoming an EMT & perhaps one day a Paramedic for a few years.

I have a 2 year degree in criminal justice, a degree path I chose because of a bit of family pressure to become a police officer. I just completed a background investigation and am currently waiting on a job offer from Customs and Border Protection along the northern border.

Slight problem with this though, I am honestly just not motivated by this at all. To throw another wrench in those plans, my significant other just ranked rather high on a statewide test for a state lab position, she seems thrilled with it and may find a quality job here in NJ.

This has me wondering how viable following a carreer in EMS could be. My primary concern at the moment is the pay. I have thought about the other issues in regards to stress, working holidays and everything else that could have come while looking into law enforcement and am fairly sure I am capable of dealing with them.

I have seen the numbers and searched the forum some, I have also called up a local company MONOC. to find hourly rates(though they said they were not sure...he said maybe $17 or $19 for paramedic, 9 or 11 for EMT-B) I was just wondering if anyone in NJ had any information in regards to overtime. Mandatory, volunteer, anything. I do not expect to be rich, but I am willing to put in the time to financially speaking be well enough off.

After paramedic what is there? I see alot of talk about nursing, and my wife has actually suggested that to me. But I am just unsure about spending all of my time in a hospital.

I am reading up as much as I can and searching the forums for useful information (RRyder , love your posts btw!)

I just signed up for the CPR/AED for a professional rescuer course, and am looking into EMT-B courses.

PS: I seem to get carried away when i start typing & thanks in advance!

 

[marineman]

Can't tell you about pay in NJ but you're numbers are close to what we get here in WI. EMT-B is right on and your medic numbers are just a tad high depending on the area.

A lot of EMS schedules run 24 hour shifts and are typically broke down into 48 and 72 hour weeks so there is some overtime with that schedule but it's still only 2 or 3 days of work each week.

In my company you have no chance of working a holiday except maybe for 2-3 hours until you have at least 5 years of seniority. Typically the senior medics will work it so they're on overtime, plus their holiday pay they really enjoy those christmas eve shifts.

Different areas have different designations as far as prehospital providers go, some have specialized critical care transport units that could require additional training beyond paramedic, others may not. My service is not a critical care transport but if you take the CCEMTP program they give you an extra $2/hour just for the knowledge. Once you reach paramedic rather than looking for somewhere higher to go you can focus on making yourself better as well as improving the profession and your pay will in turn get better.

 

[NJN]

Welcome to the life, NJ EMT-Bs if you can get hired as something other than transport will make depending on the area 8-15 starting, usually in the middle or lower end of that range. So expect to work a lot, your a little more south that I'm familiar with so we'll wait for BLSBoy to chime in on this thread.