Hello everyone!
I'm new to this site and the EMT community in general. Currently I'm researching everything concerning what it's like to be an EMT to see if it's a career fileld for me and I would appreciate any feedback I can get to some of my questions. You might want to bear with me because I have a lot of questions and like to research things throughly and some of these might be stupid questions but
1) How stressful is the job? Everyone has heard of stories of burntout EMT's, crappy companies, 60 hours of work a weeks and firefighter unions taking up all the jobs. Are any of those true and how often do they occur and if they do, how do you deal with them?
2) What happens when you make a mistake (other then the obvious stuff)? Let me explain. I know people sometimes die as an occupational hazard but like anything in life there is a learning curve and people are going to make mistakes. Do you automatically lose your job over the fact that your mistake resulted in a person being hurt or dying? What are some of them that can get you fired or sued? What kind of insurance should you get to protect yourself?
3) What's an average day like? What's a really bad day like? What's a really good day like?
4) I live in California. What's the job climate like here meaning how hard is it to find a job here and what's the work environment and attitude towards EMT's and Paramedics in the state of California?
5) How often would one work a 12 hour or a 24 hour shift? Is that usual?
6) How much sleep does an EMT get on average? I know that question has a ton of variables depending on the job, time of day, weather and such but a rough average would be nice.
Those are about everything I can think of at this moment. Any answers and comments would be appreciated. Thanks again!
