Hey, I did five years in NYC for a hospital based 911 provider in Queens, 3 as a basic, and two as a medic. I tried Charleston County EMS a county third service provider for six months, and hated it. I was then hired as a firemedic for Fairfax Co. Va, where I'm currently employed. Unfortunately, the emt-medic career ladder is limited, although it's a very fufilling and fun job, in my opinion. Your options are to work for private ems, hospital based ems($$$, excellent bennies, 401k/403b), or municipal third service(pension, maybe civil service/union, maybe job security). After working with CCEMS, and hearing of other experiences with third service agencies, I would never go back. Fire based ems get the best deal, hands down, be it cross trained personnel, or single role medics/emt's. If someone would like to post some quality third service agencies, I'll gladly stand corrected. I love EMS, but I would never go back to an EMS only agency. I grew tired of being unappreciated, kicked around, and working for an inferior salary/benefits relative to fire based EMS. So, your remaining career paths include CCEMT-P, flight medic(private, hospital based, or police a-la Maryland State Troopers, or Fairfax Va PD). You can aspire to be a PA, RN, or RT. You can also become a firemedic, which offers excellent working conditions, benefits, and career advancement. As a medic, you can acquire your assosciate RN through a community college online, save any state clinical hour requirements. That's my next step. You may also come to find that you genuinely love EMS, and will be content to be a field medic for life. However, odds are that you'll eventually face burnout for a variety of reasons, which is typical for this line of work. Just know that there are many options out there. You can also work as an ER tech with your EMT-B. Good luck!
Am I insane?
- Thread starter jmgst71
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reaper
Working Bum
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Working a busy 911 service is not for everyone. It is grueling work and you will run nonstop. There are plenty of third service systems that are great and put anything else to shame. But, you will get treated, how you let them treat you. There is no such thing as "forced overtime" in a Right to work state. They will do that ,if you let them do it. Their first job is to cover shifts and some supervisors will do anything to get it done. That is where you need to step up and take control. I will take a County third service over FD anytime!
At CCEMS, relief is a one for one basis, so if you don't have relief, you're stuck for up to 48 hours total. You can also be recalled to fill another unit, as well. They referred to this as forced overtime. In NY, it was referred to as being mandated. Twice monthly, you're on call for a 12 hour block, so you must stay local. This is for no additional compensation, save OT for hours worked. CCEMS is a good ole boy type of organization, with the attitude of "If you don't like it, leave, and don't try to change things, this is how things are, and will continue to be". They didn't advise me of this during my interview. I didn't like the setup, but I needed to keep quiet until Fairfax hired me, as I moved 780 miles from home for the job, and the rent needed to get paid. I didn't complain, but I left at the earliest opportunity. Medic turnover is huge there, and things are unlikely to change in the near future.
Go with nursing if you can. The Baby Boomers are getting older every day, and there's allot of them! They're going to need nurses. Check out the future of the job market for all professions and you'll see health care (nursing) ranks right up there. And there are other options available as a nurse - flight nurse, traveling nurse, etc. You're young enough to get the education and still have a long career ahead of you. Why not go for it? If you later decided to get into EMS and you're already a nurse, you've got a huge head start!
"To get things you've never had, you've got to do things you've never done".
"To get things you've never had, you've got to do things you've never done".