Can I make enough as an EMT

[Sasha]

No, Paramedic is NOT a 2 year degree here in the US, unfortunately medic mills prevail and one can be done in as short as 6 months if they choose without any formal college courses such as AnP, Microbiology and others to name a few.

Actually, you can obtain a Paramedic AS degree in the states...

 

[jochi1543]

Let us not talk months of completing the class. Let us talk hours of classroom and hands on.

Do us a favor and post how many hours it takes to complete each level, classroom, hospital and ambulance.

As for our hours in the US, typically EMT B requires 120 hours.
Paramedic requires 500 or 800...not sure at the moment...Vent or Rid correct me please.

EMR/EMT-B hours are 90 hrs classroom and appx 50 hours of pre-reading for the accelerated class...EMT-A is 396 hours classroom instruction (including skills labs, etc), about 100 hours pre-reading, plus practicum. Practicums (practici? lol) obviously vary in length, but they said it will range from 1-6 months for the ambulance part. I think the hospital one is 10 days, not sure how many hours, but I presume 8-10 a day. I'm not starting mine till Feb, so I only have a limited amount of knowledge about the practicums.

With EMT-P, all I know is that it's 2 years of 5 days a week, 8-5. I don't know if practicum's included in that, or if it's extra time (I'm not planning on going on to EMT-P, so I don't know a whole lot about it).

EDIT: actually, even though our school's website says it's 90 hrs classroom instruction for EMR/EMT-B, I would say it was closer to 70, since 1.5 of the 10 classroom days were entirely devoted to exams, and we never stayed more than 7 hours in class on any day. I'm sure some instructors manage to take up the full 8 hours every day, though.

 

[akflightmedic]

Actually, you can obtain a Paramedic AS degree in the states...

I know, I have one.

Yes you can but it is NOT a requirement. You missed the context.

Oregon for sure and Kansas (I think) are the ONLY two states that require a degree for entry level paramedicine.

OR implemented this in 1998 and have had no issues with it. Why can the rest not follow suit?

 

[Ridryder911]

Why can the rest not follow suit?

Place both arms in the air and frantically thrash and move them around while stating and screaming one of the following.. "We can't find enough Paramedics as it is!.. .OMG they will want a ton of money & we barely have enough to break even!... There is no difference, the treatment the same!... If require that they will just go to nursing!....

Unfortunately, this is the idiocy that is spouting from EMS Administrators. Not realizing that those that degrees will probably be more stable if you pay and give decent benefits.

R/r 911

 

[Sasha]

Place both arms in the air and frantically thrash and move them around while stating and screaming one of the following.. "We can't find enough Paramedics as it is!.. .OMG they will want a ton of money & we barely have enough to break even!... There is no difference, the treatment the same!... If require that they will just go to nursing!....

It still tickles me everytime you use OMG! ^_^

 

[jochi1543]

So, how many hours is it for you guys for the 3 levels?

 

[akflightmedic]

You need to go and revisit our standards compared to yours.

I am not talking about EMR, which yes is the equivalent technically of our EMTB, but would not get you EMT B status if you came to America.

Let us not talk months of completing the class. Let us talk hours of classroom and hands on.

Do us a favor and post how many hours it takes to complete each level, classroom, hospital and ambulance.

When you provide that and then I lay ours down beside it, you will see why we get such low wages. Also, tell us what exactly each level covers during the education.

As for our hours in the US, typically EMT B requires 120 hours.
Paramedic requires 500 or 800...not sure at the moment...Vent or Rid correct me please.

No, Paramedic is NOT a 2 year degree here in the US, unfortunately medic mills prevail and one can be done in as short as 6 months if they choose without any formal college courses such as AnP, Microbiology and others to name a few.

Read here...

 

[jochi1543]

Read here...

It doesn't say anything about EMT-A, which is what I'm curious about.

 

[akflightmedic]

We have EMT Basic and EMT Paramedic.

Some states have EMT Intermediate or some other made up title in between that again varies in scope by which state you are in.

There is no EMT-A.

Typically, EMT Intermediate is a 40-80 hour course which will then allow one to do IV therapy, and in some states (Intubate and do first round ACLS meds or other drugs). Again, this varies state by state.

 

[fortsmithman]

It doesn't say anything about EMT-A, which is what I'm curious about.

ACoP removed the a from emt-a it's now just emt check the ACoP site.

 

[jochi1543]

ACoP removed the a from emt-a it's now just emt check the ACoP site.

Yeah, I know, but I've just seen a few ppl on here with EMT-A as their "training level" (as well as the EMT-I mentioned above).


EDIT: so is our Alberta EMT same as American paramedic? Do they also have PCP/ACP/CCP the way we do in Ontario, BC, and the like, then? Because I know our AB EMT is equal to PCP in other provinces, and our EMT-P is ACP. I have no idea what's the Alberta version of CCP, do we even have someone like that?

 

[fortsmithman]

Yeah, I know, but I've just seen a few ppl on here with EMT-A as their "training level" (as well as the EMT-I mentioned above).


EDIT: so is our Alberta EMT same as American paramedic? Do they also have PCP/ACP/CCP the way we do in Ontario, BC, and the like, then? Because I know our AB EMT is equal to PCP in other provinces, and our EMT-P is ACP. I have no idea what's the Alberta version of CCP, do we even have someone like that?

ACoP EMT is equal to an EMT-I
ACoP EMT-P (Emergency Medical Technologist- Paramedic) is equal to
Advanced Care Paramedic in the rest of Canada and EMT-P in the US.

And those from Alberta on here who put EMT-A should look at their ACoP registry card because it's EMT.

 

[EMTJDUB]

I don't know if there is a casino near you, but you might wanna see if they have EMTs there. I live in Missouri and the casinos here are reqired by law to have EMTs. I make around $13 an hour... it's not real exciting work... lotta down time (I'm at work right now), but the casinos generally pay well. Might be worth looking into. I spend most of my down time studying for my paramedic exam. B)

 

[tydek07]

Well, pay differs from company to company.

Usually over time pay is time-and-a-half ,as well is holiday pay.

Also, some companies are very strict on giving out over time hours.

Hard to say what the policies are for the company you are looking at.

 

[TransportJockey]

Place both arms in the air and frantically thrash and move them around while stating and screaming one of the following.. "We can't find enough Paramedics as it is!.. .OMG they will want a ton of money & we barely have enough to break even!... There is no difference, the treatment the same!... If require that they will just go to nursing!....

Unfortunately, this is the idiocy that is spouting from EMS Administrators. Not realizing that those that degrees will probably be more stable if you pay and give decent benefits.

R/r 911

I'm quite glad a lot of our services in this state love it when you have at least an associates in EMS, and we have a state college that offers a BS in EMS. Our state EMS Dept is talking about making it a requirement in the next 5 years for EMT-P to have a degree

 

[VentMedic]

Unfortunately the U.S. system has about 50 different names for the certifications with each state doing its own thing. Many of the certs granted by the state are just based on a single skill to make it different from another certification. A couple of states have over 6 EMS certs all based on a skill like "Defibrillation", "IV", "Intubation", "IV and Intubation".

One of our forum members, JPINFV, compiled this list recently and it is probably out of date as states continue to add more "skill certs" especially to the Basic level instead of just establishing a solid foundation of education to go with the skills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Technician_Levels_by_State

Right now I believe Oregon is the only state that has an Associates degree requirement. Texas differentiates as certified vs licensed by the Associates degree for Paramedic.

The availability of the Associates degree for Paramedics has been around since the 1970s. Unfortunately not that many obtain it once their get their "cert".