911 VS CCT

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HH1251

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Hello,

I have been a medic for a little over two years now. My goal is to end up in the HEMS world. My first year as a medic I worked rural and urban 911. However, recently I have moved more to the CCT side of things. If I continue to do mostly CCT for the next couple years will this hurt my ability to enter the HEMS world?
 
It’s going to depend on the specific companies that you are looking to get hired with. Most state for medics they want “3-5 years of 911 experience in a busy system”.
 
It MIGHT hurt you. Like desert said most want the 3-5 years of 911 experience. The service I work at has a ground grew and a flight crew. And when they hire the flight side... they prefer external 911 candidates. But every service is different. And if you do any 911 I would still count that.
 
If your goal is HEMS, you would probably be better served by staying in the 911 arena, at least primarily there. I'm not saying you shouldn't keep your toes out of IFT/CCT as that is a different world, but consider how the programs might need their Paramedic candidates to work. The programs that are looking for the "3-5 years in a busy 911 system" candidate are likely going to be needing that candidate to be the lead during scene calls. If you're mostly an IFT/CCT medic, you'll be good at doing those transports but potentially not so good at 911... or so the thinking likely goes.
 
Also, how do you feel with almost 3 years of combined rural/ urban 911 experience as a paramedic?

Do you feel confident enough to run a dynamic scene call with a nurse that more than likely has no out-of-hospital experience?

Will you be able to efficiently run these calls even if your partner might be as new as you to the air medical field, and have to perform in a confined space should the call turn from mundane to dynamic in-flight?

This isn’t meant as discouragement, and I only ask because I find the “3-5 years” requirement rather arbitrary.

While I certainly have seen 3 year paramedics that can and do function well in this environment, oftentimes the more you’ve seen and done (i.e., the longer you’ve been a paramedic) the more it shows. The same holds true for nurses in their respective duties.

I’m still a fan of 5 plus years, but that’s just me. I also think understanding—and experiencing—different roles a ground paramedic does (e.g., precepting, supervising, CCT) is invaluable.
 
Do both 911 and CCT. One full time one part-time is what I have always done since graduation from P school. Now I fly full-time and 911/Fire part-time. I also agree with VentMonkey that it should be 5 years +.
 
Like others have said, both is always good. Critical Care is great experience to have. Every program is different, some do almost exclusively CCT/IFT while others may be primarily scene calls.
 
911 as others have said, both is better. I came into flight with 4 years experience and felt under educated. Some CCT experience would have helped, but ground CCT isn't really a thing here.
 
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