Questioning EMT career, maybe nursing is the answer

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johnnyB

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I just finished EMT class and I'm already questioning if I like this. I'm in my 30s and did a career change because I always wanted to be involved in a profession that helps people.

I did two years of college back in my 20s and I'm now trying to decide if I should just go back to school and I can probably have a Bachelors in Nursing in two years or so (guessing because I did two years of college already). I guess I'm sort of just venting because I don't know what to do. I'm sort of worried about the whole "male nurse" stuff too if I go down this road. If any experienced EMT's here could go back and finish a 4 year nursing degree do you think it'd be smart to do it? I'm pretty sure my father would pay for it...while I don't take hand outs generally I know he is well off and would support it.
 
Just because you went to college for two years does not mean a bachelors will only take you an additional two years. Nursing programs have pre-requisites. So it will depend how many pre-requisites you have. You will also have to see if your credits are transferable, and if they are still valid.


If you don't like EMS, choose a different career path. If you really want to be a nurse, go to nursing school.

And there's tons, TONS of male nurses, so I don't understand why your concerned with being a male nurse. I'm a paramedic, which is a predominantly male field, and I was never concerned with being a female medic. The only issue I have encountered is having to share a restroom with a station full of guys. It's awful.
 
I think we are missing some info before any advice is given. What about it are you not liking? There are certain aspects of healthcare that you will experience in any area be it as an EMT, paramedic, nurse, or doctor, and if its those things causing you to question whether it's right for you, nursing school could be a huge waste of time and money.
 
If you just finished your EMT class, how do you know you don't like it?

Nursing is a great career because, unlike being a paramedic, you have many, many options on places to work and types of nursing to do.

I've found being a male an asset and advantage, if anything. Many female nurses will openly tell you that they love having guys around rather than all females, and they actively recruit male nurses. Don't believe all the femi-nazi crap. Nothing like being the only dude in an ICU on a slow overnight with 10 other RN's and techs, all of them female. It's quite an education.
 
I think you should get a job as an EMT - you will learn a lot about what the various healthcare careers are like. You'll interact with patients, families, nurses, doctors, ER techs, etc etc. It will help you figure out where you want to go.

While you're working as an EMT, you can start taking classes and working on your bachelor degree. Some courses are required for pretty much every healthcare job - I'd recommend starting off by taking general chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, statistics and calculus. This way you'll be making progress regardless of whether you end up wanting to go to nursing school, PA/med school, rad tech school, etc.
 
COmedic17 said:
Just because you went to college for two years does not mean a bachelors will only take you an additional two years. Nursing programs have pre-requisites. So it will depend how many pre-requisites you have. You will also have to see if your credits are transferable, and if they are still valid.
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also remember, many nursing programs will only accept certain credits if they are less than 5 years old by the time the program starts. so you might have to retake some of your courses, even if you got an A in them.

If you want to do nursing, do nursing. If you want to be an EMT, be an EMT. If you want to be a paramedic, be a paramedic.

or you can work as an EMT, go to paramedic school (which is typically easy to get into), finish the prereqs for the nursing program of your choosing, apply for said program, and complete nursing school while working as a medic.
 
I went from EMS to RN. Once you've completed all the prerequisites and you're accepted to a program, you'll only need 2 years to complete most RN programs. I have a Bachelors that happened to complete those prereqs so if I ended up going for a 2nd Bachelors (BSN) or an Associates (ADN), the classwork would have only taken 2 years. As a nurse that happens to be male and a Paramedic, I have found that I've been generally readily accepted at my job as an ER nurse.

Nursing is usually very different from EMS and the thought process behind what we do is different between the fields. If you want to be a nurse, do nursing. How you get there is up to you. If you want to do EMS, do it and how you reach your goals is up to you.
 
where do you plan to work? There's a lot of different opportunities for being an emt. Fire and Ambulance services are not the only ones. There's also stuff like Casinos and other entertainment venues that have to have an emt on duty 24/7...
 
What is it that you don't like about EMS? Is it the environment? Lack of promotional opportunities? Pay? Schedule?

These are things you'll have to answer for yourself.

Have you done a walk along with a RB? Did you follow a Nurse or a Tech during clinicals? I'd advise seeing if you can shadow an RN before you commit to Nursing school. What happens if you invest all that time and money into yet another job you don't liek
 
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