Asians in EMS

[homingmissile]

So I've visited the station I'll be volunteering at (after I get through EMT-B class) and I got a look at the duty roster. That and from the general impression I'm getting from reading and watching EMS stuff has lead me to this question:

Are Asians a rarity in the EMS profession?

I'll pose this question to you guys who've been in the field for a while. You guys have encounter many Asian co-workers in your time? I'm getting the impression that Asians who end up in the medical field don't end up in emergency medicine.

 

[NomadicMedic]

So I've visited the station I'll be volunteering at (after I get through EMT-B class) and I got a look at the duty roster. That and from the general impression I'm getting from reading and watching EMS stuff has lead me to this question:

Are Asians a rarity in the EMS profession?

I'll pose this question to you guys who've been in the field for a while. You guys have encounter many Asian co-workers in your time? I'm getting the impression that Asians who end up in the medical field don't end up in emergency medicine.

Depends. Are there a lot of Asians where you live? In Seattle, I worked with a fair number of Asian EMTs. Where I live now, not so much.

 

[STXmedic]

Uhh.... que?

I mean... I don't know a whole lot of asians just in general. I guess proportionitly it's fairly normal... I don't see why being asian would mean you don't want to be in EMERGENCY medicine... I know one or two asian medics. But I also only know a handful of asians in general.

 

[Aidey]

Some areas are more diverse than others, and my guess is that it heavily depends on how diverse the local population is. According to the 2010 census only 3.5% of the population where you live is Asian, which is roughly 60,000. So the short answer is no, there are probably not a lot of Asians in EMS where you live.

 

[VCEMT]

There are many here in California. I've even seen Asian women taking the CPAT and testing with L.A. City. L.A. City and L.A.Co. have many Asians amongst their ranks.

 

[FourLoko]

They're too smart for EMS silly. They're nurses and doctors.

We have one big guy named Chang at our company though. He's on his way to med school if I remember correctly.

/stereotype

 

[Sasha]

So I've visited the station I'll be volunteering at (after I get through EMT-B class) and I got a look at the duty roster. That and from the general impression I'm getting from reading and watching EMS stuff has lead me to this question:

Are Asians a rarity in the EMS profession?

I'll pose this question to you guys who've been in the field for a while. You guys have encounter many Asian co-workers in your time? I'm getting the impression that Asians who end up in the medical field don't end up in emergency medicine.

Yes they are because they go to med school not medic school.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

They're too smart for EMS silly. They're nurses and doctors.

We have one big guy named Chang at our company though. He's on his way to med school if I remember correctly.

/stereotype

Did you seriously just say EMS'ers arent smart enough to be a nurse...................

 

[abckidsmom]

Are we seriously talking about an entire race of people here?

I thought we tried to leave this kind of behavior behind about 50 years ago.

 

[RocketMedic]

Here in the Borderland, we've got a lot of Hispanic EMS professionals, with a healthy mix of everyone else. Probably a lot more Hispanic medics than our counterparts from Iceland or Scandinavia have.

In other news, the sky appears blue and water is indeed wet.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Who really cares? Honestly?

 

[homingmissile]

The reason I ask is because I'm Chinese myself. I've heard that after a while EMS people end up associating exclusively with other EMS or medical-field people and that got me to wondering about how many (or how few) fellow Asians I might end up having in my social circle further down this road.

I have taken into account the low overall percentage of the population that is Asian, too. Naturally, that will reflect somewhat on the demographic of any profession in the country.

On the other hand, I don't think it helps anyone to pretend complete race-blindness and say you don't notice one way or the other and can't give me any kind of straight answer. <_<

All the same, thanks for sating my curiosity with the honest replies, guys. (Hey, that rhymed)

 

[Shishkabob]

How many midgets are in EMS? How many people with glasses are in EMS? How many red heads are in EMS?


Really, what does it matter? Why make thread as if you NEED to have Asian friends, or other races aren't up to snuff?

 

[STXmedic]

Midgets?! Where?!

 

[Veneficus]

My first mentor in the fire service was of asian ancestory. He is the only one I have ever met.

I do know many asian doctors and nurses though.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

Midgets?! Where?!

Circus EMS!

 

[mycrofft]

Perfectly good thread. I was born (1950something) into a community with 27% Japanese Americans, and the EMS numbers were zero long after we had Asian folks throughout the PD; we even had the first popularly elected Japanese -American mayor in the continental US before we had Asian EMS. The answer was it was done through the FD, and that was tilted through custom and physical standards (including minimum height, which eliminated most women too) to admit we folks of the caucasian persuasion.

I think it is a good question to ask per se, but as far as ascribing reasons, unless we are Asian ourselves, we are asking to be off-track and acting as inadvertent racists.

(PS: plus points for folks NOT using "orientals", "Asiatics", or other terms).

 

[SliceOfLife]

Nope dumb thread. It's really sad some of you feel the need to group and devide people. We are all American or if your outside of the US then some other nationality, but our goals are the same, provide for our family's and help the community. If the op is looking for friends strictly in his ethnicity then I feel sorry for him and hope the mods wouldn't support his pseudo racist endeavors. I bet you would find better friends if they shared other commonalities besides skin color.

To show you how ridiculous your original question is "Asains in EMS" I'm sure in China close to 100% of EMS providers are Chinese.

 

[bigbaldguy]

It's "little people" not "midget".

 

[Aidey]

Nope dumb thread. It's really sad some of you feel the need to group and devide people. We are all American or if your outside of the US then some other nationality, but our goals are the same, provide for our family's and help the community. If the op is looking for friends strictly in his ethnicity then I feel sorry for him and hope the mods wouldn't support his pseudo racist endeavors. I bet you would find better friends if they shared other commonalities besides skin color.

To show you how ridiculous your original question is "Asains in EMS" I'm sure in China close to 100% of EMS providers are Chinese.

You sound more judgmental than anyone else in this thread. It is not unusual for humans to seek out people who have similar life experiences to themselves. It is also not unusual for a member of a minority group to ask about the presence of said minority group in a chosen profession. Often, a persons life experiences are based on things like their age, gender, ethnicity and culture.

We know nothing about the background of the OP aside from the fact that they are Chinese. It is very likely that the OP is looking for people with other commonalities besides skin color, and sometimes those commonalities involve looking for people who are the same ethnicity. Skin color and culture are NOT the same thing and I HIGHLY doubt it is just about finding friends that look the same. What would you tell someone who is asking if there are a lot of single mothers in EMS? Or people over 55?