Effect of EMS on your life?

[medik8]

The fact that you have friends and loved ones mostly outside of EMS is to your advantage. It helps to keep this kind of perspective. It also helps that your wife will have other friends to hang out with when you're working. Expect that when you hang out with your EMS friends that your wife will be VERY bored unless there are other non-EMS folks to talk to there.

As a rookie medic, you can expect the shifts that a lot of folks don't want: overnights, really bloody early am, weekends, holidays. The advantage of this is that you can be home when most others are not. The disadvantage is that if your wife works normal-person-hours, you may not see a lot of each other.

Job availability varies by area. Many busy systems are very competitive and may not want to take you right out of medic school. Others will ONLY take rookies, hoping to train them up in the ways of that particular service. Getting a job running non-emergent transports for $9.25 an hour is very easy, and those services are always hiring no matter where you live. Not as exciting and glamorous as 911 work, but it's a steady job with a fair amount of job security.

The job is what you make of it. Very few people retire from it, having moved on to other career fields or stepped up to RT, RN, or MD/DO. Being 60 years old banging around to calls in the middle of the night is just not that appealing. The career ladder is limited, being that your choices of moving up usually entails becoming management or going into related work like teaching (ACLS, PALS, Paramedic) or consulting.

Ditto on what ak just said. Just remember, like in the ER, you can never beat the rack. What I'm saying is, there's always another call to be run if you hang around the station long enough, and there's always someone else that's sick (there's always another chart in the rack). Avoid the temptation to hold out for "the big one" or spend extra hours on shift waiting for it. Do your thing, clock out, go home.

It's a job like any other and a job like no other. You get to see some very neat things, make people feel better, and perform a valuable service to your community. It's an adrenaline rush at times, which is why many people get into it. When that rush wears off, it's easy to become disillusioned, or to spend your time and effort looking for the rush again. At the same time you will see many things which will bother you, which will defy explanation, and Barbara may not really understand that part. As ak said, don't live the job, and this will help stay in perspective.

'zilla

:thumbright: Well said, Doc!

[AnatomyChick]

Doc brings up good points... My best advice to you is take all of the information you've been given here... talk to your wife about it, then make your decision.

Best of Luck to you!

[retired_medic61]

It ruined my life for sure.....

[chicagoambo]

21 yrs a paramedic and i still look forward to going to work everyday!We experience what others don't fathom,good and bad but I would not trade the life changing thoughts and experience we receive daily.

[GhostMedic28]

After 10 years in this field, I still look forward to going to work. I love this job and I don't think I could see myself doing anything else that's not related to EMS.

[Niftymedi911]

I tell you what, I've only been in EMS for 1 year, and everyone that says not to let in get to you that everything else is more important is the God's honest truth, any newbies thinking about EMS, you should take heed to every post on this forum. I know from experience what they are talking about, I got easily consumed by EMS as a young one at the age of 18 I started. I breathed EMS, I lived EMS, well let me tell you EMS wont give you a breath back, EMS wont live in you. If you notice that this happens, you need to take a break, if your able to. Go on a vacation, tell your mind that you can live without focusing on EMS. B/c thats all your mind is thinking about is EMS. I work 24 hr shifts 24 on 48 off, and with the shortages we have we can volunteer for OT called OTSB we wear a pager and if it goes off we're given a 24 hr OT assignment. Anyway, to make a long story short. I used to work 48 on 24 off. 24 reg. 24 OT and 24 off. That was my schedule so if I work 3 24 hr shifts in a week I work 5 days out of 7. Even on top of that we also have monthy inservices for operational updates, medical guideline updates. So I used to have an extremely busy schedule, I got so tired one day I got a rude awakening by my duty officer when I was late for one shift. So lets just say I stopped being so consumed by EMS. I learned from experience. So I hope newbies would take heed..... DONT GET CONSUMED!