18 year old soon to be EMT

Fair warning, this is going to be another "harsh but true" post.

What I meant was take whatever job you get offered, most likely an IFT job, and learn the basics of how to actually be an emt. Not the textbook "scene safety, bsi, moi/noi, number of patients, additional resources and c spine" crap, but how to actually do the job. IFT may not be sexy, but you'll have the opportunity to actually be hands on with a potentially staggering number of patients in various stages of decrepitude and illness. Learning how to read a facility chart, what information you need, what questions to ask, how to communicate with the patients, vital signs, physical skills like loads lifts carries, driving and so on. These are the basics of the job. Without these, you are worthless.

I'm assuming this will be your first job. If I'm incorrect, I apologize. If I'm correct, then even if you were validictorian of your emt class(were there such a thing), you don't really have any idea what ems is about yet and you wont for awhile. You don't learn about being an emt in class. You learn the donkey skills and a little theory. You learn the job on the job. So go do the job. You're not getting a paid 911 gig fresh out of school unless your area is that desperate, in which case please let me know where not to live; but age restrictions aside you should be able to wrangle an IFT gig and get hands on with the patients. Then, down the road a bit, you can start chasing a town job.
 
Go to IFT, learn the local hospitals and how to get to them (main roads AND back roads). Learn home meds. See a pt and read what they are suffering from, then go home and study that illness and remember what it looked like. Take (a real) anatomy and physiology course. Above all, remember that despite what it seems, you still haven't seen much.

These things will help you become a useful EMT partner in a 911 system.


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PatrickJ1198 said:
Hello everyone I have a question about being an EMT as I have finished the course/all ride along hours and am scheduled to take the NREMT by the end of this month. Is it possible for 18 year olds to land a job as an EMT? In regards to area, I live in California.
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Possible? Yes. Probable? Not without some work experience; apply, and if not hired, see if you can volunteer a bit to build some experience, then apply again.
 
Not sure where in California you live but I would highly recommend looking into MedReach. Its a IFT company in Compton. I may be wrong but I believe they have a 911 contract with Compton Fire and Watts. I know for a fact they will hire 18 year olds, you just wont be able to drive. If you would rather work at a 911 company you could always do dispatch and OT in the field.
 
bmarie7 said:
I may be wrong but I believe they have a 911 contract with Compton Fire and Watts.
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Very wrong. Watts is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, only LAFD responds to 911 calls in Watts.
McCormick Ambulance has the Exclusive Operating Area contract with Compton Fire. No other ambulance company responds to 911 calls in those areas.
 
Jim37F said:
Very wrong. Watts is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, only LAFD responds to 911 calls in Watts.
McCormick Ambulance has the Exclusive Operating Area contract with Compton Fire. No other ambulance company responds to 911 calls in those areas.
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Medreach used to do backup 911 calls for Compton Fire up until a few months ago when that contract was given to McCormick. I just looked into it.
 
bmarie7 said:
Medreach used to do backup 911 calls for Compton Fire up until a few months ago when that contract was given to McCormick. I just looked into it.
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So did Explorer-1...yeah, I said it!:rolleyes:

It was actually AmeriCare (I know, I did a few...too many). Medreach was barely starting out when I left LA County. "Back up" just means they were umpteenth on a list of IFT fly-by-nights, so technically you may have been correct. Lol, "fire calls" still makes me smile.:)
 
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CALEMT said:
SMH...
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Whaaa??!!

Point being, any ambulance company can say they're "back-up 911" for XYZ city, read the fine print and stay with the more reputable agencies, and if you can't, or don't have much of a choice, bide your time; good luck, OP.
 
DrParasite said:
actually, its due to age discrimination, but it's legal to discriminate against the young, but not the old. But that's a rant for a different day.

Insurance rates are typically higher for younger drivers, but there is nothing preventing you from getting a job as an EMT at 18, other than the fact that California is over saturated with EMTs, some who have experience, and that whole age discrimination thing (many will take a 30 year old over an 18 year old, just because they are older). So while it isn't impossible, it can be an uphill battle.
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We choose not to pay higher insurance premiums by hiring people older than 21. Another place I work has a minimum age of 25 for the same reason (though it is not really enforced). I am not sure that this counts as discrimination.
 
Tigger said:
I am not sure that this counts as discrimination.
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I believe "age discrimination" isn't a thing until the to-be plaintiff is at least 40 years old.

EEOC.gov says, "The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) only forbids age discrimination against people who are age 40 or older."

An advantage of hiring young is you may have the opportunity to mold an employee's personality and work ethic a bit. The older/more experienced people get, generally the more difficult this can be ("If you've been dragging for 40 years and got this far, might as well keep dragging" kind of mentality). An advantage of hiring older is you probably skip the need to teach the life lessons of fraternizing in the workplace, stealing from work, customer rudeness, etc.

One of the things my boss in the ED told me during my interview 3 years ago (age 19) was that they wanted to hire people with the right personality and the right mindset for the job. They could teach employees any skills; that's the easy part.
 
[QUOTE="Grimes, post: 638097, member: 23817An advantage of hiring young is you may have the opportunity to mold an employee's personality and work ethic a bit. The older/more experienced people get, generally the more difficult this can be ("If you've been dragging for 40 years and got this far, might as well keep dragging" kind of mentality). An advantage of hiring older is you probably skip the need to teach the life lessons of fraternizing in the workplace, stealing from work, customer rudeness, etc.

One of the things my boss in the ED told me during my interview 3 years ago (age 19) was that they wanted to hire people with the right personality and the right mindset for the job. They could teach employees any skills; that's the easy part.[/QUOTE]

What you're saying has merit, but it's a sword that cuts in two directions. While you have the opportunity to mold gelatinous humans into good employees, you also have to deal with the outright nonsense of forcing children to be adults. Punctuality, job performance, chain of command, reliability, accountability and so on. All of these things are supposed to be learned long before you take an adult job. Perhaps. Or always the case, but that's the idea.

If sally sixteen year old doesn't show up for her grocery bagging job, nobody is going to suffer through more than a long checkout line. Same if she comes to work hungover. If Ricky rescue doesn't turn up for work, people will wait longer for an ambulance. Perhaps not in a life threatening way, but even a return from dialysis is serious enough business.

I'm not saying don't hire 18 year olds. What I'm saying is that the opportunity to mold them into good adults doesn't come without a coat; that cost being taking juveniles and giving them an adult job. You have to be willing to accept the fact that they don't know how to adult yet. Perhaps the late teens of the 1950's, but today's teens aren't the same.
 
hometownmedic5 said:
If sally sixteen year old doesn't show up for her grocery bagging job, nobody is going to suffer through more than a long checkout line. Same if she comes to work hungover. If Ricky rescue doesn't turn up for work, people will wait longer for an ambulance. Perhaps not in a life threatening way, but even a return from dialysis is serious enough business.
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If you think only teenagers don't show up to work, or show up chronically late, or show up to work hungover, than we obviously experienced two vastly different EMS systems.
Grimes said:
I believe "age discrimination" isn't a thing until the to-be plaintiff is at least 40 years old.

EEOC.gov says, "The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) only forbids age discrimination against people who are age 40 or older."
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That's because older people have AARP and other lobbying groups to convince politicians to pass laws that only protect their interests...... it's also the reason teenagers have the highest insurance rates, despite teenage and elderly drivers pose a higher risk to other road users than other drivers

and I didn't say it wasn't a thing, I said age discrimination against the youth was legal

If you think age discrimination doesn't exist when it comes to the younger people:
http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/09/...discrimination?page_all=1&slreturn=1487709031
https://freechild.org/discrimination-against-youth-voice/
http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/age-equality-five-examples-discrimination-young-workers/
http://www.youthrights.org/research/library/young-and-oppressed/
https://psychologymagpie.wordpress....on-against-young-people-is-alive-and-kicking/

Disclaimer: I am not a teenager, so most of these web pages don't apply to me.
 
Hey y'all so quick update: I'm still 18 and an EMT-B but I also got ACLS certified and took an ECG and Pharmacolgy class and also recently got my driving license. I'm now going to apply to different ambulance services but I've heard a number of services don't let 18 y/olds drive for insurance reasons so should I still get an ambulance certificate (in LA County btw).
 
PatrickJ1198 said:
Hey y'all so quick update: I'm still 18 and an EMT-B but I also got ACLS certified and took an ECG and Pharmacolgy class and also recently got my driving license. I'm now going to apply to different ambulance services but I've heard a number of services don't let 18 y/olds drive for insurance reasons so should I still get an ambulance certificate (in LA County btw).
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What does an ACLS certified EMT-B do?
 
NomadicMedic said:
What does an ACLS certified EMT-B do?
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Um, holds my Epi, doy?!:D

He's just being an enthusiastic go-getter. Why not apply for ED tech jobs in the meantime while waiting for a spot with an ambulance company, @PatrickJ1198? It's better pay, and you can still learns the ins and outs of in-hospital EM.
 
VentMonkey said:
Um, holds my Epi, doy?!:D

He's just being an enthusiastic go-getter. Why not apply for ED tech jobs in the meantime while waiting for a spot with an ambulance company, @PatrickJ1198? It's better pay, and you can still learns the ins and outs of in-hospital EM.
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Sounds like a good idea. Also do you happen to know if the 6 month minimum work experience to apply for medic school only applies to jobs in a rig?
 
PatrickJ1198 said:
But will it fulfill my 6 month minimum work experience to get into medic school or does that only apply to working in a rig?
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Oh, I can't answer that. Only the program(s) you are interested in applying can. Many of them having varying "EMT experience" requirements.

There is, however, no substitute for learning the prehospital side of things from gurney ops, to mobile medicine, to hoofing it up a flight of stairs to find gamgam wedged between her bed and wall in a dimly lit, musty room, etc.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...
 
Move out of LA County if you want to be a paramedic.

Best advice you'll ever get. Come to Texas!
 
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