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what should i know about the life of an emt?


rtjackson

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Hello All!

My name is Rose, I am a college senior who's thinking about taking an EMT course in los angeles. Honestly this is kind of something I just stumbled upon, but the more I think about this path the more I get excited. I especially love the freedom it would give me to travel, as I am still young and have not found my place in the world yet. EMT is a very portable profession and EMTs are important everywhere. I just want to know before I invest the time and money in a course if theres anything really important i should know about being an EMT. Please, words of wisdom, warnings, advice, any and all are welcome.

Cheers!

Rose

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Job markets for EMT's are often overcrowded and in many places, you will be hard pressed to find full time employment due to the numbers of volunteer providers willing to take calls for little to no compensation. Unfortunately, the pay is often not particularly good and benefits vary quite a bit as well. If you want a career, you will need to strongly consider paramedic school and even getting a good job is no guarantee at that level. In addition, back injuries are a common problem and frequently cause career ending conditions for many pre-hospital providers.

The work varies quite a bit and yes, it can be exciting and quite fulfilling at times.

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To add to what's been said having an EMT cert from California won't necessarily help you much. Many States have their own certification process. For something like EMT they can be a little picky (in part because of the oversaturation of EMTs).

ETA: This is to say that EMT is not as portable as you might think if another State won't accept your certification (which can and does happen).

This is not to discourage you. Rather, this is to let you know just what you're up against. Paramedic may be a better option. Nursing, PA or medical school may be an even better option.

Edited by paramedicmike
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Since you already will have a degree. Look into a 2 yr degree iRN. You will be able to travel and find work just about anywhere. The pay will be better , the benefits will be better & the work is a little less strenuous .

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When I first started as an EMT I got my certs in Kansas, Missouri,Iowa, nebraska and Illinois as well as Florida. I said what the hell, I could go anywhere and do anything.

Then the reality of the low pay that a emt made which was diddly hit me and I realized that all the stuff that I had gathered would cost more to move than I was willing to pay.

So I divested myself of a bunch of crap and decided that I would look into moving somewhere exotic like Iowa or Florida and found that in 1992 the market was oversaturated with EMT's in the places I would want to work.

I was haughty taughty and didn't want to work Rural, I wanted a busy 911 service that got all the calls. Now I don't wish to work urban, I want rural as it's better in MY opinion.

So I realized that for every job for an emt out there, there were 50 emt's trying to get that one job and many of those jobs you had to be a hosejockey. I had no desire to be a firefighter.

So I had a decision to make. Be an emt for insanely low wages or get more education and be a medic or go even further.

I took the 2nd route, got my medic and there you are. But that opened a whole new set of issues.

You now at that time the registry was NOT a standard, so you had to travel to each respective state you wanted to possibly work in and take their state test unless that state gave you reciprocity and as a medic they usually did not give reciprocity unless they fully accepted national registry and at that time only about 8 states accepted the registry.

So with low medic wages at the time (not much better now but adjusted for inflation), I was only able to travel to nebraska, Iowa and kansas to become licensed in those states,and believe you me, Kansas, nebraska and Iowa are no where near glamorous states.(HA HA).

So as you can see, even back then, our licensures are NOT as portable as you think they are.

So my advice to you is this. Get your emt and work in california for a little while to make sure that you really like the emt life since in your original post you say you just stumbled upon the emt life and now you are looking at it as a way to travel to country(at least that's how I read it). It would suck if you spent all this time learning this stuff and spending all this money to open this portal to this US travel lifestyle and you end up hating this type of work.

Once you have determined that you do indeed like this type of work, get your medic from a degree granting university and then decide what state you might want to go work in and go get your license there as well.

But remember, when you leave one pasture to go to a supposed greener pasture there are often times, many brown blades of grass in the pasture you move to.

Good luck, let us know what you decide.

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A lot of good advice has already been posted up. You will hardly never get out on time. You will see a lot of stuff that will definitely make you feel different. Your back will hate you for life. The starting wage is horrible. People most of the time do not appreciate the work you do. Bad weather always equals to a bad day at work. Despite all of these bad and negative sayings about EMS I still love it and want to do it. I'm pursing my Paramedic certificate and I could not be more happier than ever. Oh, and I have a way better paying job than my EMT work, but I love what I do with EMS more. It's not for everyone, for me helping people is the best feeling ever. EMS is one big family of brothers and sisters.

Good luck, keep us updated.

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THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! PLEASE KEEP POSTING ANYTHING YOU THINK WILL HELP!

the most important thing in my life is my integrity. i am a driven individual who is looking for HARD work. even with all of the cons you guys have brought up, i still think this will be a good thing for me. in fact, after reading these posts i think i want to take it up a notch and really pursue a paramedic certificate. you guys rule! i say a prayer every time i see an ambulance speed through an intersection, seriously you all are amazing!

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