Wanna-Be Newbie!

[kateemt]

Hi - Hope someone here can help...?

Here's the scoop - I have been considering which career path to follow for many years. WHy so long...? Well - I have been home raising my kids, and the timimg to persue whichever path I decide upon was never right. Now my children are older and in school (although still young - 1st and 3rd garders) - and I am finally narrowing down my thoughts. For the last, oh, 4 or 5 years I have repeatedly returned to either nursing or paramedic as a choice.

Which brings me to here....for advice/tips/help/anything you can offer on the harsh realities of EMT/PM life....?

I am also not really in a position to quit work and attend school f/t - a local college here offers a basic EMT course. I believe it runs for approx. 5 months. Is it possible to work and attend college at the same time? :wacko:

So many questions.....but I'll start out with just a few for now :blush:

1. What is the training progression like. Am I right to think once pre-recs are done, that one studies to be an EMT-Basic, has to work a year, and then can study to be a paramedic...?

2. What is the pay like?

3. How many hours a week does one work on average? Can you be choosey on shifts? Or not

4. Truthfully, how does this affect personal life - marriage/relationships/children. I expect shift work, but I was wondering if places offered, say, a 3 day 12 hr, with 4 days off......? Or something that works for family life at least a little.....?

5. If you work as an EMT_Basic for a year - do you continue to study? Or is it "on the job" training? Are you partnered with a seasoned paramedic?

6. Do you have to buy your own uniform and supplies or is it all provided?

Thanks so much everyone

 

[oldschoolmedic]

welcome to the club

We'll take your questions in order, or at least try...

1. Training is a linear progression from emt to paramedic.You start as a "brand new, know-nothing" emt and will have to work hard to impress everyone above you to go to paramedic school if it is a tech type program. This will take you approximately two to two and a half years. Should you decide to go the college route you will progress through emt to emt-intermediate, to paramedic during the course of your education. This option will take you approximately two to four years depending on the university or college.
All of the training requirements can be looked up on your state medical control web site( i.e. in SC it is the Department of Health and Enviromental Control ((DHEC to us))) Remember the requirements are state and region specific.

2. Pay is increasing, that is the best I can say. Govenment and private sector employers are still paying us as "by the hour" employees, like we work on an assembly line putting together widgets. I don't know how long it will take them to realize they are not paying me for what I actually do, but for my intellectual property of what I know how to do. They see us watching cable tv and sleeping, so it looks like a poor return on their investment. Eventually they will get the picture.

3. You will work as assigned. Shifts vary nationwide, county to county, service to service. The next town over might be working straight eight hour days, or like my county where we work a 24/72 shift. The hours will depend solely on your flexibility and who you employer is. Tell you up front, as a newbie it will not pay for you to be choosy about the shift hours. Work the hours assigned, pay attention, and learn something. This job isn't learned out of the books in your hands, but out in the public eye where every mistake is magnified a thousand times.

4. I hope for your sake your husband, or BF, understands what you do or what you are getting yourself into. If not, then good luck. Kids think we have a cool job, no doubt about it, but they aren't so understanding about it when mommy or daddy has standby on the "big days" (Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, etc...) and cannot be with the family. That's when it gets hard, very hard. I have four children who mean the world to me, but at some point in their lives they have all come up to me and asked me not to go to work today, cause they miss me. Remember, this job can call you away not just for your shift, but a week or more. I was called in one night for a hurricane, and told to bring four spare uniforms, food and enough money to last a week, they were dead serious. You will be subject to recall for things like that, and a lot of employers will terminate you for failing to respond to an "all-call."
You will learn to value the time you have with your family more than ever. Growing old will know longer scare you, but the idea of infirmity will terrify you. Your children will receive so many hugs they will have callouses, and lets just say your husband will reap the benefits from your occasional adrenaline/endorphin high.

5. You won't be alone out there. Depending on where you work and live, the crew may be made up of just about any combination of certifications you can imagine. As a newbie I would hope they put you with someone senior, preferably a medic with enough experience to bail you both out when things go badly. This whole job, your whole career is a learning process. We don't assemble machinery, we don't pour concrete. There is no point when you will learn everythin about the human condition. About the time I think I have seen all of the stupid things people can do to themselves and others, along comes some chucklehead who makes me step back and say, "DAMN, what the hell happened to him?" May you never stop learning.

6. This is another thing that will depend on your service. Where I used to work was very organized, like the military, and new recruits were issued everything they would need to run calls except underwear. They would give you a reduced allotment of uniforms and a new pair of boots every year. Another service gave us a uniform allowance, showed us the guidelines for the uniform then set us up with a uniform company to purchase our stuff. It gave some leeway to your personal preference. I need pants more often than most people, don't mind geting dirty as long as I can put on a clean pair after the call. So when my coworkers ordered three pair of pants, I ordered five or six pair of pants to get me through they year. Another place I worked did not provide uniforms at all, nor an allowance. That stopped when people started wearing whatever they felt like to work that day. No provided uniforms, no uniform policy in place, you cannopt discipline someone because his Buzzcocks t-shirt may have been offensive to some... still laughing at that place.

I hope this helps you to some extent, but ultimately the choice is yours. You don't say how old you are, so remember, this is a young persons game and you are exponentially more likely to injure yourself the older you are. I have found I do not bounce as well as I used to, regardless of how young I think I am. I always advocate nursing to people starting out. The career path is better defined, there is much greater diversity in positions, the pay is definitely better throughout your career, and I have yet to see a nurse who didn't work where there is central heat and air conditioning. For my two cents, go to nursing school, then become an emt or paramedic. This way you'll have something to fall back on if something happens (not that nursing is easy, sorry Mom for implying it is.)

 

[Celtictigeress]

Old school hit it on the dot....

There are times on your days off that you WILL recieve a call and not a "Can you come in" a "Bring so many uniforms ect..." I have a VERY understanding husband who tolerates the work...why?He knows its what I want to do..Im managing balancing school and work and from personal right now experiance it is HARD When Im at work I pull 12+ Hours and school is usually about 8 or more so you dont really get a day to rest and relax.. what you need to ask yourself is "Is this what I really want to do"

My advice call or go into the local Hospital....and ask to do a ride a long Some will actually permit it crew chief wise.....Just to sit back and see what actually occurs...I have no kids but my four legged kids but my friends in EMS have wives and children and there are times that they curse their job because a little boy calls "Daddy why arent you at my game I miss you"

Medic where in SC are you at?? I Just recently moved from there

 

[Guardian]

I would advise you to take an emt-basic course. This is approximately 3 months long, usually 4 hours twice a week. This will answer all your questions about ems. At this point you can go on to nursing being way ahead of the game with basic skills that will serve you the rest of your life or you can start a career in ems.

 

[kateemt]

Thank you!

Thank you all for your great responses. I showed my husband the posts, and he just about fainted at part #4 about the hubbies/BFs......LOL! He is very supportive though, and will back me all the way if I decide to follow this route. I am in my earky 30s, by the way. I am torn becuase of my children. If I was childless, I'd have been in this field for years by now

Anyway - your responses were both eye-opening and reassuring all at once. Thank you for taking the time to write such detailed replies!:blush: