6 months unconditional availability
- Thread starter martor
- Start date
EMS is stuck in the stone age because the job becomes undesireable for the majority of providers due to low pay, no career ladder, poor working conditions, sub-par retirement, and no job security. This is why EMS becomes a stepping stone job. At first, it's new and exciting, but eventually it wares on you.
When I got hired by my first NYC 911 hospital, I was on cloud nine! Four + years later and a year out of medic school, I was beginning the hiring process for a large Fire/EMS department. I got tired of sitting on street corners for not enough money, and no retirement. I'm sure that many others feel mthe same. I did my job well, but I was actively looking for an out.
The negative attributes of EMS are probably due to our low level of education and abundant supply of eligible workers, but the field is still something many people regard as transient, even though they never intended it to be.
Fire and police have job security, excellent working conditions, adequate retirement, a real career ladder, etc, so the employees will treat it more seriously than a transient EMS job. It's not right, but that's just the way it is.
Why should someone promise full availability for a $9/hr job, when the wise thing to do would be to better themselves with education while they work there? A $9/hr job is not a career, so it's unreasonable to expect the employee not to look for something better. Fire departments have rotating schedules that make traditional classroom attendance difficult, but they have the pay and benefits to justify that inconvenience. Should Costco or Starbucks demand full availability? They pay the same or better than an EMT, so why not?
Joe
Forum Captain
- 396
- 1
- 0
you make some great points. I guess what im struggling to understand is what makes fire any better. yea the pay is there but most ff i know have absolutely no education higher than what i do. (which is minimal). fire rolls to all the medical aids here and takes part is just as much pt care as i do. they just dont go to the hospital with us. they MAYBE get 1 structure every couple months.
theres a career ladder. atleast in most places. start as emt, (medic step optional), fto, *** supe, field supervisior, opp supe, regional positions etc. theres always somewhere to go. they perfer medic for supe spots but you want to get that anyway.
working conditions are no different to ff/leos. my current company and my new company have stations. currently im kelly schedule 24hr shifts. next company does 12s, 24s, 48s. 24s and 48s out of stations. cops chill for 12 hrs on shift why cant we? sub par retirement is true but if you have a 401k (like you should) retirement should be ok.
as long as there are shows like trauma and chicago fire people will flock to ems. admit it, its exciting! its fast paced, sometimes dangerous, fun! every job has too many applicants. the economy sucks right now. last fire test i took there were 10k+ people for 60 spots. yet most ff i have met love their job.
maybe alot of people are doing this job for the wrong reasons. i base 9.44 an hour working 24's. due to union issues we havent had a raise in the last year but with some ot this year im sitting right at 35k so far this year. thats not bad if you ask me. im 24, own a house, car is paid off, and bills are paid.
i guess what im trying to say is stop using ems as a stepping stone. maybe thats the reason we are so replacable. supervisiors expect it. you dont see cops and ff saying "oh by the way i can only work monday wed friday when im hired." maybe to be the best we have to act like the best and demand employees give a crap about their job. why should a company give 100% to an employee that is only going to give back 60% and complain the whole time?
ems is what you make of it. i can easily see my self doing this job as a career. the company i am going to is very career oriented. they expect you to be in it for the long haul. they shady fly by night ift companies have ruined ems.
Final words
I give 100% while on the job. I pick up shifts when i am asked because everybody else are studying for exams. Why is it so bad to ask for 2 days off? What if i had a family and i need to babysit during Tuesday and Thursday, would that be more acceptable than 2 days off for school?
Why is EMS a stepping stone because i dont want to spend 10-30 years working with no progress or work for minimum wage. I go to school so i can progress forward. EMT IS AN ENTRY LEVEL JOB. You can move on to become a ff/medic or nurse or doctor or even use the experience to figure out if you want to remain in the medical field.
I give 100% while on the job. I pick up shifts when i am asked because everybody else are studying for exams. Why is it so bad to ask for 2 days off? What if i had a family and i need to babysit during Tuesday and Thursday, would that be more acceptable than 2 days off for school?
Why is EMS a stepping stone because i dont want to spend 10-30 years working with no progress or work for minimum wage. I go to school so i can progress forward. EMT IS AN ENTRY LEVEL JOB. You can move on to become a ff/medic or nurse or doctor or even use the experience to figure out if you want to remain in the medical field.
- 7,882
- 2,848
- 113
EMT is a stepping stone job. There is no way around that. Barely has any education, barely makes any money. Why would you want to stay there?
Cops and FFs don't do the same because they make better money. Many of them also have degrees in their field (many police departments require a criminal justice degree at hire, definitely for promotion. This is becoming more prevalent on the fire side as well).
Why do I need to have full availability to be hired? The rest of the working world has a set schedule, why not me? Especially if I am working 10 hour or greater shifts, I now have at least three days off. Those days are mine, not the companies. I do not live to work, I work to live. Those that don't are headed for a break.
Really? Why does a good company make new providers work the crappy shifts? To prove that they "have what it takes." We hire for what we have open. If there are day shifts open, you'll be hired right onto one. If you can't work days and we have no nights open, then you won't get hired. Doesn't make us a good or bad company, just one that hires on need.
I do agree though, if you want a job badly, you need to be available. If school is keeping you from being a 100% available, you have to counter that somehow. One way to do this would be to offer to work any shift with little notice on the days you are available, even if it is off your set schedule. That's what I did and it worked for me.
At the end of the day though, you need to be realistic about whether or not the job is really going to fit in with your life.
Work to live, don't live for work.
- 7,882
- 2,848
- 113
Yes there is a career ladder even in private EMS, but is tiny compared to police and especially fire departments. The number of positions above straight line personnel is much less than that of a fire department. So while you can get promoted, it's a lot faster if your an FF just by sake of number of opportunities.
And at the end of the day, promotions and working conditions don't mean crap when the wages suck. The average city line FF makes more money than my field supervisor, and I doubt that's uncommon.