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Need Some Feedback - Pulling Out My Hair


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Here's my dilemma: I want to do EMS... really bad. I'm in the middle of EMT-B training, I don't intend to stop. The thing is this... I am making $11+/hour at my current position (I am a federal police dispatcher) and if I were to become an EMT-B here (the local company is AMR) I would be taking a 50% cut in pay. I can't take that kind of a cut. I'm the only person in my family that makes CONSISTENT money and with federal benefits... so I'm stuck. I REALLY want to be in EMS... but Paramedics in my area don't make as much as I do as a dispatcher. I'm really just looking for guidance and advice. Thanx in advance!!

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Welcome to EMS. Lower pay is the norm in this biz. I wish I could say otherwise, but there ya have it. Maybe you could volunteer somewhere on the side. About the only way to get paid what we're worth is to be apart of a municipal or hospital based service. Most are private in the US.

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are you precluded from working elsewhere while employed by the fed dispatch center? If so then volunteer might be the best option but maybe going on to paramedic school might be a better option. Does the government provide educational assistance?

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are you precluded from working elsewhere while employed by the fed dispatch center? If so then volunteer might be the best option but maybe going on to paramedic school might be a better option. Does the government provide educational assistance?

No. Only if it involves bettering my current position, which they didn't approve. No, I'm not precluded from working elsewhere... I will find out tomorrow if AMR hires part-time EMT-Bs. I hope so, because I don't want to give this up... I love it too much and feel like it's my calling. :|

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good luck to you. I would consider going on to paramedic school and going that route. In the end that is probably where you want to end up anyway right?

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My suggestion would be to find a paramedic school you can do part time, work your regular job and wait until you can find a service that will pay you adequately as a medic. Its not worth making $6.50 or so an hour as an EMT-B to work as one in your situation. The only experience you'd get is what its like to be constantly broke, lol. Or, even better, go to school part time for nursing, get your RN, then take the medic bridge course. If you really love EMS that much, you can work as a paramedic full time and pick up a shift part time here or there at a hospital as an RN and supplement your income. I know a great deal of paramedics who do this, and in retrospect, its really what I should have done too, if only because I want to smack the smug little smile off of the Medic/RN I know who makes $40/hr on the side, lol.

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Do you know the difference between an EMT and a large pizza?

A large pizza can feed a family of four.

If EMS is your "calling" (which many of us will contend is BS), then spend the next two years becoming a paramedic and then go find a career position that pays you a living wage. EMT is not a career. It's a job. And you are correct; only an idiot would trade a GS position for a simple low-paying job with no future.

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Do you know the difference between an EMT and a large pizza?

A large pizza can feed a family of four.

If EMS is your "calling" (which many of us will contend is BS), then spend the next two years becoming a paramedic and then go find a career position that pays you a living wage. EMT is not a career. It's a job. And you are correct; only an idiot would trade a GS position for a simple low-paying job with no future.

Then color me Idiotic and full of BS. I am sick of the governmental bureaucracy and all the mind-screwing they do on a daily basis. I really appreciate everyone's input and will probably go the route of Medic/RN. I know that the RNs at the hospital I work at make significant amounts of change and they are SCREAMING for any nurses, LPN or RN, to jump on board with a big fat enlistment check (to the tune of $5,000). Even though I also know of the crap that nurses take too. I have too many acquaintances that are nurses and they are ALL burnt out. My sister even gave up her RN career because she never saw her kids.

It's food for thought... even though I would like to be in the back of the ambulance yesterday. Patience was never my strong suit.

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Funny...we used to say that about drummers!

Then do yourself a favour and go to nursing school FIRST! Do NOT become a paramedic then go to nursing school. Nursing school first. Being an RN will allow you a better income with more flexibility to pursue a paramedic certification.

And I hate to be the one to break it to you, but all that bureaucracy from the feds can be found in non federal employment, too. Just because it's a non-governmental job doesn't mean it'll be any less insane. And I can almost guarantee you that you won't find the same benefits for the same cost to you in the private sector that you'll get as a federal employee. You need to look at the big picture and take everything into consideration (salary, benefits, vacation time etc...).

There's a lot to the saying about grass being greener. It's always greener until you get there. But then you look back on the grass on the side you just left...and guess what...not *that's* the other side of the fence and the grass, holding true to the cliche, is now greener.

Looking for a change? Do it smart. Go to nursing school first then pursue the EMS side. But be sure of what you're doing and why before making a poorly considered change.

-be safe.

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Thanx paramedicmike! My mind is changing every 30 seconds or so. Giving up the benefits that I receive with the government are hard to give up... I'm not sure what I want to do. I'm not giving up on the EMT thing, at the very least I will be a certified EMT-B in the end. Another experience... another certificate.

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