Acadian ambulance service.

[basic2be]

Just returned from a trip to New Orleans and surrounding areas, anyone on here work for Acadian ambulance, is it as great of place as their website says it is? Just curious....

[parabrandi]

HAHAHAHAHA....sorry for the loud laughter, but I used to work for Acadian. Of course their web site makes them look wonderful! But seriously, how many places do you know of have to offer HUGE sign on bonuses and make you sign a 2 YEAR COMMITMENT? You will be spanked, spanked and spanked again and before it's all said and done, you will take on the "beaten wife syndrome" and actually think you deserve it. They, of course, have their finer points...excellent training and top of the line equipment. But, you will be nothing but a pulse and will be treated as such.

[Dustdevil]

There is a mixed bag of good and bad. It is a good, stable company that is professionally managed, and does the best they can do with what they have to work with. Unfortunately, the raw materials of quality EMS are lacking in Louisiana. And pretty much, most of the problems at Acadian can be more attributed to the state of EMS in Louisiana as a whole, and not really the company itself. There are a lot worse places to work than Acadian. But the pay there is really low, even in a relatively low cost of living state like LA.

Go offshore with them and it's a different story.

Biggest plus - Stability of a large, established company with good training and lots of different places to work.

Biggest minus - Politics of a large, established company with a faceless bureaucracy that is carried on the back of a lot of minimum wage, 120 hour EMT-Bs, that thanks to their own in-house training, are a disposable dime a dozen.

[Richard B the EMT]

Hey, parabrandi: Why are you holding back? Tell us what you really feel!

[flight-lp]

But seriously, how many places do you know of have to offer HUGE sign on bonuses and make you sign a 2 YEAR COMMITMENT?

Not too many offer a sign on bonus that large. A 2 year commitment for $10-20k is pretty fair in my book. Career minded individuals would look beyond the short 24 month period and see the benefits from long term employment with them, such as insurance, retirement, and working for one of the most stable EMS agencies in the country. I too have worked for them, really had no complaints. Yea, their ground pay was low, but the experience is what you make of it................................

[akroeze]

Not too many offer a sign on bonus that large. A 2 year commitment for $10-20k is pretty fair in my book. Career minded individuals would look beyond the short 24 month period and see the benefits from long term employment with them, such as insurance, retirement, and working for one of the most stable EMS agencies in the country. I too have worked for them, really had no complaints. Yea, their ground pay was low, but the experience is what you make of it................................

If it is not prying, why do you no longer work for them?

[flight-lp]

1. Oil industry at the time went south. Rigs were coming in and not going back out.

2. Add to that 2 major hurricanes, plus 2 deaths in the family, and thats all my wife could take at the time. 3. I found a better offer closer to home.

That was also in 1998............ 8)

When I am done with my current gig, I may consider going back to them............Who knows................

[firedoc5]

Since my family is from LA and from having lived in LA, I've known Acadian fairly well. Like any place, especially as large of an operation as they have, there are pro' and con's. Which out weighs the other I don't know. Sorry.