County card?

[super_chris]

I've got a question here. I was told that I would need a "county EMS card" before I could get hired by AMR(or anywhere). I called the county clerks office and they sounded pretty clueless which makes me think that I'm lost.

If the county card exists and I need it, how do I get it? If it doesn't what do I need to get hired?


Oh yeah, and thanks ahead of time.

 

[Summit]

It's a California thing...

 

[russianemt85]

Hey fellow Californian. Im an EMT-B from Santa Clara County up north and what I did was. I went to the Santa Clara County EMS agency and applied for a county card (badge). So you should go to your county agency and apply for one. It took me about a month to get mine cause first of all the EMS agency people did not ask me for my identification papers so they delayed my card until I could prove who I was:wacko:. Second the card was lost in the mail so had to drive to the agency and get a new one. But I have it so its cool. Well good luck with the card and finding a job.

 

[super_chris]

Hey fellow Californian. Im an EMT-B from Santa Clara County up north and what I did was. I went to the Santa Clara County EMS agency and applied for a county card (badge). So you should go to your county agency and apply for one. It took me about a month to get mine cause first of all the EMS agency people did not ask me for my identification papers so they delayed my card until I could prove who I was:wacko:. Second the card was lost in the mail so had to drive to the agency and get a new one. But I have it so its cool. Well good luck with the card and finding a job.

Hey hey. Thanks man. I just found it. I was wondering what the "REMS" was in my notes.

 

[SafetyPro2]

For future reference, there's a page with links to all the Local/County EMS Offices on the California EMS Authority website.

For the EMT-1 level, certification in any county certifies you state wide. Expanded scope can and does vary from county to county though, so be aware of that...for example, some counties allow EMTs to assist with EpiPens while others don't. If you do want to transfer your cert from one county to another, you can usually do it pretty easily if you can show current certification and CE in another county. I just went through renewing my EMT cert up here in Santa Cruz County after having moved from Los Angeles County...I was up for recert, so made sense to change and it's actually cheaper up here. All I had to do was take the skills test (since I was due for that), turn in my CE hours, show my current card and CPR cert and pay the fee.

 

[super_chris]

I just got back from REMS and everything's been handled and I get my card in a week or two. Thanks again guys

For future reference, there's a page with links to all the Local/County EMS Offices on the California EMS Authority website.

For the EMT-1 level, certification in any county certifies you state wide. Expanded scope can and does vary from county to county though, so be aware of that...for example, some counties allow EMTs to assist with EpiPens while others don't. If you do want to transfer your cert from one county to another, you can usually do it pretty easily if you can show current certification and CE in another county. I just went through renewing my EMT cert up here in Santa Cruz County after having moved from Los Angeles County...I was up for recert, so made sense to change and it's actually cheaper up here. All I had to do was take the skills test (since I was due for that), turn in my CE hours, show my current card and CPR cert and pay the fee.

I understand that my emt certification is statewide. Are saying that I only need one county card to work anywhere in the state? And I'm sorry for the ignorance, but what does CE stand for?

 

[bstone]

Continuing Education

 

[SafetyPro2]

I understand that my emt certification is statewide. Are saying that I only need one county card to work anywhere in the state?

Yes, a valid EMT cert from any county is recognized in any other county in the state, so you only need to have one certification. It's generally best to be certified in the county you primarily work in, but you can work in multiple counties on any cert. I've been told that some counties may require you to at least take their expanded scope test even with a valid cert from another county, but I'm not aware of any specifically. When I was in LA County, some of the folks I worked with had Riverside County or San Bernardino County certs.

Be advised that some counties can get picky about CE (LA County technically requires CE from a county-approved provider, but has never given me a problem with the rare out-of-county CE certificate) and may also require skills testing to be done by a county-approved tester (LA County does require this...Santa Cruz County was willing to accept a skills test from LA County though).

 

[super_chris]

Continuing Education

Simple and to the point.

Yes, a valid EMT cert from any county is recognized in any other county in the state, so you only need to have one certification. It's generally best to be certified in the county you primarily work in, but you can work in multiple counties on any cert. I've been told that some counties may require you to at least take their expanded scope test even with a valid cert from another county, but I'm not aware of any specifically. When I was in LA County, some of the folks I worked with had Riverside County or San Bernardino County certs.

Be advised that some counties can get picky about CE (LA County technically requires CE from a county-approved provider, but has never given me a problem with the rare out-of-county CE certificate) and may also require skills testing to be done by a county-approved tester (LA County does require this...Santa Cruz County was willing to accept a skills test from LA County though).

Luckily I don't plan to be working outside of Riverside county for a while. But I still need to know this crap.

Thanks again Chris, you've been very helpfull.