This is a little long winded:
When I was 26, I decided that I needed to do more than work off the books as a Snapple delivery man and a bouncer. I wanted a decent career with benefits and retirement. I thought about what career could fit that criteria. I recalled that two of my cousins worked FDNY EMS, so I talked with them, and decided that EMS was a career I would enjoy, and the money was decent ($14-$20/hr for EMT's at NS-LIJ, $22-$30/hr for medics). I worked per diem for a private at $9.50/hr just to build a resume and got hired by the hospital seven months later. About two years in, my wife and I were expecting our first child, and we were barely getting by bill-to-bill.
So, I had to decide between nursing school and medic school. 3 years vs 13 months, for the same money if I just pulled two extra tours a month. The plan was to do FDNY EMS, but while in the process one of my former co-workers came up to visit from Virginia where he was hired as a FF/medic. He told me all about it, so I lost interest in FDNY EMS and began the process down South. I really didn't see myself sitting on street corners getting my stones busted by the conditions Boss for 25 years for not enough money and 25% less pension than FDNY fire. The hospitals are all 401k or 403b, so screw that.
I failed one poly and thought I failed the second (they do that routinely as a tactic to illicit confessions), so took a job in a Third Service in SC while my wife was still agreeable to leaving NY. That place was undesireable to me. All of the burnout issues were present there. About three months in, I received a job offer from my current employer, so I left after five months or so in SC.
$53k in the academy, $71k after clearing ALS internship, now a $84k/yr base four + years in with a promotion already obtained, excellent benefits, 25/55 pension w/ a 2.8% multiplier, and a three year DROP. I had always wanted to do fire as well as EMS, so this just worked out perfectly. My employer supplies me with all the tools necessary to do my job in EMS well, and I ride the bus typically two days out of every three. Last year I grossed $128k w/OT and another few grand from my per diem hospital based medic IFT job, and I'm paced to hit $140k this year.
THAT's why I've stayed in EMS. Excellent working conditions with ample benefits and pay. At this point in my life, with a wife, two children, a mortgage, and a retirement to fund, addressing these needs is the point, addressing these needs is of paramount importance. I still enjoy EMS work, at least the acute cases and patients that are truly appreciative,but 10+ years in I'm sure that I would have burned out had I stayed either in the NYC 911 system or in SC.
You see, I had no intention to financially martyr myself for the good of EMS. I decided that if I wanted to stay in the field, it would need to be with an employer that would take really good care of us. So, I sold out and went fire based. I still do the exact same job I did previously at least two days out of every three, with top of the line equipment and decent protocols/guidelines, and I also have an engine full of people to carry my equipment and the pt as well. No more six floor walk-ups with just me and my partner, humping all our equipment and then taking all of that back down along with the pt. I can ask questions and gather info while other people do vitals, package the pt, and deliver them to the back of my bus, where I can go to work. I can do this for 40 years if I want to.
Capiche?
Edit: Almost forgot, in addition to the money, I wanted to be able to do more for my patients - that was of equal importance to the pay, truth be told. I'd felt handcuffed as an EMT-B - I have a reasonable idea what the pt needs, or maybe I would like to know so that I could help them, but don't have the education or diagnostics, so I give them air and chair until someone that can actually help shows up. Like I said, I still enjoy paramedic work when it actually makes a difference. Frivolous calls kill my motivation and job satisfaction, but the working conditions at this career definitely mitigate that. Where else do you get to sleep and exercise on duty, and knock out degrees OTJ?
