# I am joining the Army National Guard.  I am going to be a medic.  In the civilian wor



## tgpii (Dec 8, 2006)

I am joining the Army National Guard.  I am going to be a medic.  In the civilian world I will be a certified EMT-b.  Can I get a job with that?  Will places look different on me because I got my training in the military? Can I work for a fire department, hospital, private company with that?  Anyone have any idea what starting pay would be?  

Tom P.
tgpii@yahoo.com


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## ffemt8978 (Dec 8, 2006)

(Moved to appropriate forum)

You may be able to get a job with a fire dept. or ambulance with your certs, and you may not.  You're military service may or may not give you more points in the hiring process but that depends upon the agency you're applying to.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.


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## jeepmedic (Dec 8, 2006)

Depends on your part of the country and what Certs you need.


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## tgpii (Dec 8, 2006)

To work on a fire department do you do firefighter and emt?


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## Guardian (Dec 8, 2006)

tgpii said:


> To work on a fire department do you do firefighter and emt?



Military service would definitely look good on a fire dept application, and so would an emt certification.  You don't have to be a firefighter to get hired but you will have to go through their training academy.


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## Guardian (Dec 8, 2006)

Basically, the more training and to a lesser extent experience you have, the more competitive your application will be.


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## tgpii (Dec 8, 2006)

what pays more a hospital, private company or fire department?


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## Guardian (Dec 8, 2006)

fire department


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## tgpii (Dec 8, 2006)

its the hardest to get right?  WEre do I find posting for jobs?


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## Guardian (Dec 8, 2006)

help wanted...just kidding, search the internet and you can find all this out.  Some FDs have tests (physical and mental) once a year to develop pool of applicants to hire from.


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## Guardian (Dec 8, 2006)

It sounds like you haven't given this much thought.  It's like me saying, "I wonder what pays more, doctor, lawyer, CPA"...you would say, those are three separate professions and each requires serious commitment.  Let me put it this way, you will be competing against people who have wanted to be firefighters their entire lives, people who like it so much they have done it for free (volunteer fire dept).  This is not something you just nonchalantly go apply for like a job at 7 eleven.


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## tgpii (Dec 8, 2006)

So is it more who you know or what you know?  You got a job and how you get it?


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## Guardian (Dec 8, 2006)

tgpii said:


> So is it more who you know or what you know?  You got a job and how you get it?



I got a job as a paramedic and that was definitely about what I knew more so that who I knew (because it actually requires some education beforehand).  I would definitely advise you to use the internet as your primary resource.  Nowadays, FD's and everyone else for that matter have great websites.  You can e-mail them to ask questions or look for job openings on the website too.


Don’t rule out becoming a volunteer firefighter either, you can get some good experience that way.


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## yowzer (Dec 8, 2006)

Everything I've ever seen is that military experience does not count towards time spent working as an EMT for meeting the entrance requirements of paramedic programs, nor does it allow you to challenge certification without going through a civilian school.


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## wolfwyndd (Dec 8, 2006)

Not to throw a monkey wrench into your plans, but technically there is no direct correlation between being a military medic and a civilian EMT-B or P.  The military may train you the same way, give you the same classes, skills, etc, etc, etc, but they don't give you a certification that's equivilant to a EMT-B or P.  You'd still have to take the National Registry EMT-B and / or P test (or whatever state test) before you could use you're skills in the civilain world.


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## Guardian (Dec 8, 2006)

wolfwyndd said:


> Not to throw a monkey wrench into your plans, but technically there is no direct correlation between being a military medic and a civilian EMT-B or P.  The military may train you the same way, give you the same classes, skills, etc, etc, etc, but they don't give you a certification that's equivilant to a EMT-B or P.  You'd still have to take the National Registry EMT-B and / or P test (or whatever state test) before you could use you're skills in the civilain world.



I've heard they do give emt-b


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## jeepmedic (Dec 8, 2006)

Guardian said:


> I've heard they do give emt-b



I think that you have to take the NREMT-B test. I will have to check it out though.


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## us_linguist (Dec 8, 2006)

*Been there*

Heya, first good luck on your service!  I've been in for nine. I was a medic with the 3rd ID in Iraq and I know of many of my buddies how have gotten out and transfered there skill over to civilian side. As some of our friends, have said it depends on where you go. Many places I've heard will allow you to take the certification test outright while some places I've heard of require you to attend full training/course. You should contact the individual agencies you plan on working in and ask them directly.

Also, once you are in be sure to speak with your education counselor. There is an army program called COOL (I forget what the acronym is) that is specifically designed to transfer military MOS training into civilian credentials! Be sure to ask before you leave your training!

Again good luck and thanks for your service!


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## DFDEMS (Dec 12, 2006)

All 91W (US Army Medics) are NREMT-B. That is a requirement to pass the school and it must be maintained to hold the MOS. In regards to experience as a medic in the Army it depends on where you go. Some medics are taught to intubate, all medics do IV’s and push some meds to a lesser extent. It wont help you at all in that regards unless you go to paramedic school and then only because you would have some working knowledge of it. I think you can get Trauma AIMS also which is an off the wall cert in some states.

All in all the biggest thing about being a medic in the National Guard is that you better know what you are doing. Some medics in the NG work at Taco Bell or UPS, etc and forget everything they were taught in regards to being a medic. When you go play army 1 weekend a month or 2 weeks a year and someone gets hurt they are coming to you and you better know what you are doing. 

There were some recent numbers put out in regards to US military deaths. Something like 60% of the soldiers that died did so because someone failed to place a tourniquet above the injury in a timely fashion. 10+% were because the patient didn’t get decompressed. Those are statistics, who knows but simple mistakes kill people and as I mentioned above you better know what you are doing if you choose the medic field because sooner or later someone is going to yell “medic”  and it’s all you.


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## DT4EMS (Dec 12, 2006)

DFDEMS said:


> All 91W (US Army Medics) are NREMT-B. That is a requirement to pass the school and it must be maintained to hold the MOS. In regards to experience as a medic in the Army it depends on where you go. Some medics are taught to intubate, all medics do IV’s and push some meds to a lesser extent. It wont help you at all in that regards unless you go to paramedic school and then only because you would have some working knowledge of it. I think you can get Trauma AIMS also which is an off the wall cert in some states.
> 
> All in all the biggest thing about being a medic in the National Guard is that you better know what you are doing. Some medics in the NG work at Taco Bell or UPS, etc and forget everything they were taught in regards to being a medic. When you go play army 1 weekend a month or 2 weeks a year and someone gets hurt they are coming to you and you better know what you are doing.
> 
> There were some recent numbers put out in regards to US military deaths. Something like 60% of the soldiers that died did so because someone failed to place a tourniquet above the injury in a timely fashion. 10+% were because the patient didn’t get decompressed. Those are statistics, who knows but simple mistakes kill people and as I mentioned above you better know what you are doing if you choose the medic field because sooner or later someone is going to yell “medic”  and it’s all you.



I didn't know they released that yet. A buddy just got home from working a hospital in Balad (sp)........ anyway he was telling me about some of the interesting things going on with trauma care. One of the pushes was to get a tourniquet on FIRST. I thought that was pretty interesting.

I also know the survival rates are way up. It will be very interesting to "see" where the lessons leanred in Iraq change the way we do things in the field. I mean EMS has the military to thank anyway.


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## fm_emt (Dec 12, 2006)

DT4EMS said:


> anyway he was telling me about some of the interesting things going on with trauma care. One of the pushes was to get a tourniquet on FIRST. I thought that was pretty interesting.



I just read an article on something similar. The thinking nowadays seems to be "stop the major bleeding before doing ANYTHING ELSE." The Nov issue of EMS Magazine had it in the tactical medic article. Interesting stuff.


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## BossyCow (Dec 18, 2006)

On the 'how to get hired' question..... the training is only part of it.  Get your certifications for the area in which you wish to practice.  Some MPD's will expect you to pass a test on the local protocols before putting their signature on the dotted line for you working under their license.  

Fire Departments are very, very, very competitive.  You have to be willing to stand in line for hours in order to be one of the 250 applications they hand out for the 4 positions they will be filling in the next year.  Your application has to make it into the short list for the testing, then physical agility, psych, oral interview, chief's interview and then pass a probationary period after that. 

If you really want to be hired, you will go through this process multiple times, getting (hopefully) a bit better with each test, interview, etc. If you get attitude from having to prove yourself or having people examine you closely, look into a nice business admin. degree.


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## tgpii (Nov 5, 2007)

*Illinois Army National Guard*

I am currently a member of the Illinois Army National Guard. My current job is a Combat Medic. With my training I have earned my National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT), Emergency Medical Technicians Basic (EMT-B) certification. My current rank is E-4 Specialist.


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