# 18 year old going to start as EMT, any help to get the job?



## Flykta (Jul 7, 2010)

I read here that anyone under 21 would have a difficult time getting a job for insurance purposes. So if there's any possibility.. which I'm going to at least try for - I want to look good on my resume so I have that better chance.

And even if I do wait until I'm 21, what things can I do to improve myself? Volunteer work? Is there any kind of test I can take on anatomy to prove knowledge about it?


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## Shishkabob (Jul 7, 2010)

It all depends on where you live/who you apply for if you can work under 21.

I was employed by AMR at 19, for both driving and patient care, however my current partner at his old employer could only do patient care.



As far as improving your knowledge to make your resume better-- go back to school.  Get A&P, get patho, get pharmacology, and get your degree in something.


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## medic417 (Jul 7, 2010)

Best thing to do is continue on and complete your Paramedic.  Then you will be older, better educated, and have a greater chance of getting hired.


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## adamjh3 (Jul 7, 2010)

Linuss hit it right in the head. The answer is "it depends." I'm only 18, well 19 tomorrow, and I work as a driver and attendant. There are a few companies around here that wouldn't hire me because I wasn't 21. If you keep at it you'll find a job.


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## Flykta (Jul 7, 2010)

medic417 said:


> Best thing to do is continue on and complete your Paramedic.  Then you will be older, better educated, and have a greater chance of getting hired.


I really was thinking about that. I definitely am continuing to Paramedic, *buuuut* I saw that it's good to have a years experience before continuing. 

I think what I'll do is:
Try to find a job, work hard at it finding one and if I can't, then I'll continuing to further education and so on. Not college, just EMS.
-----
I live in Utah btw. And what do you mean work for who?


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## Flykta (Jul 7, 2010)

Also, thank you for answering my questions. Helps aaaa lot!


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## mgr22 (Jul 7, 2010)

As Linuss said, if college is an option, do it while you can. You've got your whole career ahead of you. A degree will give you more choices.


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## adamjh3 (Jul 7, 2010)

mgr22 said:


> As Linuss said, if college is an option, do it while you can. You've got your whole career ahead of you. A degree will give you more choices.



+1. Get a degree, shoot, get one in something not related to EMS, so that if you do suffer an OTJ injury, you'll have something to fall back on.


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## somePerson (Jul 7, 2010)

woah, getting a paramedic card before even working as an EMT? Good luck passing an internship at any respectable FD/ambulance company when you have never stepped foot in an ambulance. Most good medic programs require a minimum of 6 months-1 year EMT experiance to apply anyway. 

Just call around all the ambulance companies. I got hired as an EMT at 19, but couldn't drive until 21.


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## TransportJockey (Jul 7, 2010)

somePerson said:


> woah, getting a paramedic card before even working as an EMT? Good luck passing an internship at any respectable FD/ambulance company when you have never stepped foot in an ambulance. Most good medic programs require a minimum of 6 months-1 year EMT experiance to apply anyway.
> 
> Just call around all the ambulance companies. I got hired as an EMT at 19, but couldn't drive until 21.



Good medic programs is a subjective phrase. Every program in NM reqiures just the EMT-B cert before you start class, no experience neccessary. And to be honest it shows how stuck in the stone age EMS is when it requires that people stop at every step on the way up. You don't see RNs having to start as CNAs, spend time there, then become LPNs, spend time there, then finally become an RN.

EDIT: I got hired on my first company at 20 as an attendant only


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## somePerson (Jul 7, 2010)

jtpaintball70 said:


> Good medic programs is a subjective phrase. Every program in NM reqiures just the EMT-B cert before you start class, no experience neccessary. And to be honest it shows how stuck in the stone age EMS is when it requires that people stop at every step on the way up. You don't see RNs having to start as CNAs, spend time there, then become LPNs, spend time there, then finally become an RN.
> 
> EDIT: I got hired on my first company at 20 as an attendant only




That may the case in NM, everywhere in CA 99% of programs require 1 year, a few only 6 months. RN's have years of clinicals to do while going trough Nursing school to get adjusted.

As a paramedic intern you have 20 (24 hour shifts) or more if 12's to prove you can be a competent medic. Good luck proving that to a preceptor that you can effectively run a scene/manage a patient with ALS type care while flawlessly managing all BLS skills (without even thinking), when you havent seen a call ran prior going to medic school.


Imagine if you're a preceptor, and your intern has to actually think his way trough of how to C-spine someone because they never done it as an EMT, be able to take BP's in noisy enviroments, fumble with the gurney, fumble with an OPA on a code because it's the first time they have seen a dead body,  or switch an O2 tank, I know in any FD/ambulance around here it would throw big Red flags and the rest of your soon-to-be short internship will be hell.

Not saying it can't be done with zero EMT experiance, but I wouldn't reccomend trying it if you want to actually pass your internship.


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## Flykta (Jul 8, 2010)

Attendant is the person not driving, correct?


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## Flykta (Jul 8, 2010)

Ah and I definitely want experience. I don't want to pass it up to just go straight for Paramedic. I'm only saying if I can't get a job (which I'll be working hard to get), then I'll go for more education. 

No college for me, not quite yet

Edit: aghahha whoops for the double posting. I didn't know I could edit! Whoot!


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## reaper (Jul 8, 2010)

If you are in CA, then by all means get experience. Since you are stuck in a flawed EMS state.

If you are elsewhere, Go straight to medic. Find a pt job while in school. I will take a green medic in clinicals, over an experienced EMT any day. Takes me more time to straighten bad habits and myths that they learned, then it does to train from new.

Why not start learning with a full knowledge of the human body and medical knowledge, then get experience with minimal knowledge and a first aid course?

If this is what you know you want to do, without a doubt. Then go straight through and don't stop till you have a degree in hand. You keep saying no college yet, but EMS is college and you need to go through to your degree.


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## Shishkabob (Jul 8, 2010)

somePerson said:


> woah, getting a paramedic card before even working as an EMT? Good luck passing an internship at any respectable FD/ambulance company when you have never stepped foot in an ambulance. Most good medic programs require a minimum of 6 months-1 year EMT experiance to apply anyway.



Bull snap.


I had practically no EMT experience.  Are you saying that me being Salutatorian was a fluke, or that I'm a bad Paramedic?




In fact, California is the only state that I know off hand that most schools require experience before starting medic... so you're essentially saying that every Paramedic in the other 49 states suck at their jobs.  

Nice.





somePerson said:


> As a paramedic intern you have 20 (24 hour shifts) or more if 12's to prove you can be a competent medic. Good luck proving that to a preceptor that you can effectively run a scene/manage a patient with ALS type care while flawlessly managing all BLS skills (without even thinking), when you havent seen a call ran prior going to medic school.




The goal of the internship is not to prove that you are a competent medic, it's to prove that you have the knowledge base of a NEW medic.  You're not expected to get everything right, and always make the right decision.   It's commonly accepted that the first year of working as a lone medic is where you truly learn the most and learn to be your own medic.


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## Flykta (Jul 8, 2010)

reaper said:


> If you are in CA, then by all means get experience. Since you are stuck in a flawed EMS state.
> 
> If you are elsewhere, Go straight to medic. Find a pt job while in school. I will take a green medic in clinicals, over an experienced EMT any day. Takes me more time to straighten bad habits and myths that they learned, then it does to train from new.
> 
> ...


Right _now_, without a doubt, this is what I want. (I don't know how it'll be in the future) but no doubt, I want this.

I thought EMS was vocational trade school. Sorry, maybe I'm being completely ridiculous, but feel free to correct me. I am unsure of things.

This is confusing me now. I would go to school for EMS, but I don't plan on situating myself in college


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## JPINFV (Jul 8, 2010)

somePerson said:


> As a paramedic intern you have 20 (24 hour shifts) or more if 12's to prove you can be a competent medic. Good luck proving that to a preceptor that you can effectively run a scene/manage a patient with ALS type care while flawlessly managing all BLS skills (without even thinking), when you havent seen a call ran prior going to medic school.



So basically those programs are using EMT experience as a crutch because they either can't or won't provide a high enough quality and time frame to ensure that they are producing functional paramedics.  How are these good programs again?


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## JPINFV (Jul 8, 2010)

Flykta said:


> I thought EMS was vocational trade school.



It, unfortunately, is more of a vocational trade than a profession in it's current state. Ideally, though, it should be at least an associates degree.


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## somePerson (Jul 9, 2010)

JPINFV said:


> So basically those programs are using EMT experience as a crutch because they either can't or won't provide a high enough quality and time frame to ensure that they are producing functional paramedics.  How are these good programs again?




You can turn a situation and view it anyway you want. You may look at it like that, and thinks its an inadequacy.

I look at is it's better to get experiance as an EMT-B especially working in a 911 system and get dialed on all your BLS skills and see medics run calls. Go to paramedic school and transition to applying those same skills along with all your new training. I guess we have different opinions. 

I wouldn't want a person that never worked on ambulance before and is suddenly a medic to work on me or be my partner. In my opinion, a good paramedic is a great EMT with some added skills.


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## clibb (Jul 9, 2010)

jtpaintball70 said:


> Good medic programs is a subjective phrase. Every program in NM reqiures just the EMT-B cert before you start class, no experience neccessary. And to be honest it shows how stuck in the stone age EMS is when it requires that people stop at every step on the way up. You don't see RNs having to start as CNAs, spend time there, then become LPNs, spend time there, then finally become an RN.
> 
> EDIT: I got hired on my first company at 20 as an attendant only



For the Paramedic schools in Colorado, you have to have around 6 - 12 months experience, right?


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## Flykta (Jul 9, 2010)

I notice a lot of *EMT-B* talk. That it is common and somewhat popular. Isn't -B the 2nd level of EMT? Why would it be more popular and frequent than the first.. -A?


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## TransportJockey (Jul 9, 2010)

Flykta said:


> I notice a lot of *EMT-B* talk. That it is common and somewhat popular. Isn't -B the 2nd level of EMT? Why would it be more popular and frequent than the first.. -A?


Of the EMT levels, basic is the lowest. The only one lower is MFR but that's not an EMT


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## TransportJockey (Jul 9, 2010)

clibb said:


> For the Paramedic schools in Colorado, you have to have around 6 - 12 months experience, right?



Not really  sure. Haven't bothered to look at them too close, and I've only been here like three months. From what I've been told, you can get into programs with little to no experience, but not completely sure on that


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## adamjh3 (Jul 9, 2010)

somePerson said:


> You can turn a situation and view it anyway you want. You may look at it like that, and thinks its an inadequacy.
> 
> I look at is it's better to get experiance as an EMT-B especially working in a 911 system and get dialed on all your BLS skills and see medics run calls. Go to paramedic school and transition to applying those same skills along with all your new training. I guess we have different opinions.
> 
> I wouldn't want a person that never worked on ambulance before and is suddenly a medic to work on me or be my partner. In my opinion, a good paramedic is a great EMT with some added skills.



He's not "suddenly a medic," that's why the internship is there, so they can gain experience with at least two people watching over their shoulder to make sure they don't mess up.


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## adamjh3 (Jul 9, 2010)

Flykta said:


> I notice a lot of *EMT-B* talk. That it is common and somewhat popular. Isn't -B the 2nd level of EMT? Why would it be more popular and frequent than the first.. -A?



B stands for basic. There are a couple levels above it before Paramedic (EMT-P) depending upon where in the country you are. Here in California we have (I think) First Responders (not EMTs, but basically medically trained) EMT-Bs, and I think they're introducing the AEMT (advanced EMT) and then Paramedic. 

Most people go Basic -> Medic with no stops in between. The only reason I'm stopping at basic is because I have to work for a year before I can get into medic school. I'm also going to get all my general ed out of the way before I go through medic school.


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## Flykta (Jul 9, 2010)

Ah. EMT-B = EMT-basic. *So what are the steps/levels before Paramedic?*


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## TransportJockey (Jul 9, 2010)

Take EMT-B course along with whatever prereqs you need to start taking pre-reqs for medic. Take pre-reqs for medic. Go to P-school. Not too hard


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## adamjh3 (Jul 9, 2010)

jtpaintball70 said:


> Take EMT-B course along with whatever prereqs you need to start taking pre-reqs for medic. Take pre-reqs for medic. Go to P-school. Not too hard



This. 

There are levels in between depending on what state you're in, but most here would advise against stopping. 

Does a Nurse stop and BSN and CNA on the way to getting their RN? 

Welcome to the messed up prehospital system of the USA


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