IFT or 911?

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akemt

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I've seen many threads with this topic. I am a new EMT and have one more day of training with an IFT company. However, due to submitting various applications to different companies, I have an offer for a 911 company as well. I don't know which to pick. I understand IFTs are what you make of it, is slower paced, you master vitals and talking to patients. 911 is what I went to school for and wanted to do. I don't know if starting with an IFT company is the best for me, granted I have no emt experience, or taking the opportunity to start as 911 and get experience and learn that way. Please help!!
 
What are the reputations of each? Both private? Me personally I learned a lot as an ift emt and medic. But happy I am now a 911 medic. Do I regret my ift days no. But I'm happy to be done with them for now.
 
FireWA1 said:
What are the reputations of each? Both private? Me personally I learned a lot as an ift emt and medic. But happy I am now a 911 medic. Do I regret my ift days no. But I'm happy to be done with them for now.
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yes, they are both private companies, the 911 company is for Doctor's ambulance
 
Are they offering you a job, or are these just interviews? If you are interviewing, interview everywhere.

If 911 pays more, I'd do 911. If IFT pays more, I'd still consider 911, but then it becomes more questionable. I would not give up 911 to do IFT to get experience. Many people do IFT as a way to get experience to get 911 jobs.

I feel like IFT experience is mostly overrated. A lot of the stuff you can learn from it you can learn in 911 as well. Not all calls are out of a home or on the streets; You are going to get 911 calls out of skilled nursing that utilize IFT. Many 911 calls don't require rapid load and go, so you will have plenty of time to learn the patients chart. You'll have plenty of time to talk and assess the patient. In IFT, you probably won't get a chance to do a lot of your BLS skills like splinting, backboarding, putting the patient on oxygen, or wound care.
 
Aprz said:
Are they offering you a job, or are these just interviews? If you are interviewing, interview everywhere.
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I started with the ift, im almost done with field training with them. The 911 i already interviewed and was invited back for their PAT test this upcoming week.
Ift is paying more than 911. You bring up good point that you wouldnt give up 911 to do Ift.....
 
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I started out as an "IFT", I did dialysis and some IFT for a few months while I was also doing Volunteer 911 at the same time. I personally learned way more from my 911 experience then I did from IFT. But, it all depends on what you end goal is. If you wanna be the "best" you have to be good at everything. If you wanna only do IFT your whole life IFT is the way to go. If you wanna do 911 your whole life 911 is the way too go. Your defiantly going to be learning on the job and while doing things with 911. IFT alot of your skill you will either never touch or do once in a blue moon because the patient deteriorated on their way to a different facility. IFT is not for everyone and 911 is not for everyone. So it is up to you on what you wanna do.
 
Are we talking about a dedicated 911 truck or an IFT truck that occasionally will catch a city hit? There is a big difference. My company runs both IFT and dedicated 911 BLS trucks. While our IFT basics get more city experience than most other companies, they aren't strictly speaking 911 EMTs.

Take the better job. That might mean the most money, the better schedule, better equipment, shorter commute. Figure out what you want from a job and take the closest offer you get. I wouldn't work for a hanky chop shop for less money and crap benefits just because I *might* get to do an emergency occasionally.
 
Why not both? Full-time for whomever pays better and part-time/per diem to get a sense of the other side of the coin? If one or the other doesn't work out for whatever reason, you have the ability to just swap them around or simply leave as needed.
 
I did both for years; started as a Volunteer at FD based 911 did it for 4 years, and then got a FT job at a private doing mainly IFT (with some 911) and stayed at FD, they switched from Volunteer to FT/PT paid.
Loved them both. did it for 8 more years like that, then took a new job in a different state, working 911 for the federal government, did that only for 9 years, still doing it, and now working PT for a private 911 service too.
 
Akemt, you say you're already training with an IFT company. Why not stay there long enough to see how it goes, rather than leaving abruptly (and possibly burning a bridge) for what might turn out to be the wrong reasons?
 
So, in LA County, your odds of getting sick patients are actually higher on IFT than 911. That holds true for most places. As a basic, you'll likely be exposed to legions of the fragile, sick and injured on IFT, and you'll be it....the expectation is that you 'manage' them as well as possible. 911 in LACo is pretty basic anyway, so it's not like you're going to be doing a whole lot as a private B in any event.

Long-term advice, you need to look outside of LA County. EMT at Hall, move north or out of state entirely, etc. Go somewhere where you can go to medic school and get better at your craft. If you want to do 911, quit limiting yourself to LACo. Come out to Texas. Here at Cypress Creek, you, as a brand-new Basic, can literally be the junior partner on a P/B team that runs all 911 in a metro area the size of Atlanta or Denver. Same certs, same experience, same training you've got, but while you're running dialysis or looking for 'experience' in reps, my partner is doing everything except literally pushing drugs and the like (because I am all about teaching people). Sinking King tubes, ventilating, suction, obtaining and seeing 12-leads, making decisions, etc? They're doing that, because my job as a medic isn't just patient care, it's professional development. Come move out somewhere where you can be more than a stretcher fetching van driver.
 
akemt said:
LifeLine
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Everyone here has real good advice for you to consider.

Given the two choices, I'd pass on lifeline and go with Doctor's. You could do better than doctors (Hall, Care, Lynch), but you could do a lot worse than doctors (Lifeline).

You won't be doing more than driving between two hospital buildings at lifeline. Though Doctors has a contract like that too, the IFTs you'll get will be better and you have the possibility of occasionally getting pulled into the 911 system. Additionally, after some time, you can transfer to other AMR divisions.

At the same time, since you're already hired at lifeline, why not ride it out there until you can get hired elsewhere. Care has all the contracts and have been gobbling up every employee they can.
 
RocketMedic said:
So, in LA County, your odds of getting sick patients are actually higher on IFT than 911. That holds true for most places. As a basic, you'll likely be exposed to legions of the fragile, sick and injured on IFT, and you'll be it....the expectation is that you 'manage' them as well as possible. 911 in LACo is pretty basic anyway, so it's not like you're going to be doing a whole lot as a private B in any event.

Long-term advice, you need to look outside of LA County. EMT at Hall, move north or out of state entirely, etc. Go somewhere where you can go to medic school and get better at your craft. If you want to do 911, quit limiting yourself to LACo. Come out to Texas. Here at Cypress Creek, you, as a brand-new Basic, can literally be the junior partner on a P/B team that runs all 911 in a metro area the size of Atlanta or Denver. Same certs, same experience, same training you've got, but while you're running dialysis or looking for 'experience' in reps, my partner is doing everything except literally pushing drugs and the like (because I am all about teaching people). Sinking King tubes, ventilating, suction, obtaining and seeing 12-leads, making decisions, etc? They're doing that, because my job as a medic isn't just patient care, it's professional development. Come move out somewhere where you can be more than a stretcher fetching van driver.
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Your advice is solid. But I don't recall seeing much in the way of sick when I worked BLS IFT. I can appreciate how sick an ESRD patient is, but it's not something that EMS is really equipped to do much about it. Same with radiation and the like.
 
akemt said:
I've seen many threads with this topic. I am a new EMT and have one more day of training with an IFT company. However, due to submitting various applications to different companies, I have an offer for a 911 company as well. I don't know which to pick. I understand IFTs are what you make of it, is slower paced, you master vitals and talking to patients. 911 is what I went to school for and wanted to do. I don't know if starting with an IFT company is the best for me, granted I have no emt experience, or taking the opportunity to start as 911 and get experience and learn that way. Please help!!
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Where are you from? Your county can make the difference. I worked 911 for a few weeks and currently do IFT’s in LA County and over here, the only differences between 911 and IFT are code 3 driving, shift hours, and responding locations. 911 companies receive calls with FD and 99% of the time fire is already there with their ALS resources with assessments, immobilizations (if needed), and treatments already finished so all you end up doing is transport, ALS assist, and paperwork all the way to the ER. Sometimes you won’t even take vitals en route because there’s a fire medic in the back with his lifepak. In IFT as a BLS unit, you have way more interaction with the patient as well as even taking vitals yourself every call. Again, this is in LA county so if you ever find yourself here in need of an EMT job, there’s my input.
 
I'd just like to shamelessly plug Texas EMS here, again. My EMT-B partner and a student single-handedly managed a difficult airway with BLS means and pre/re-oxygenated her to the point where the (difficult) intubation was safe and routine. You won't get to do that in SoCal.
 
RocketMedic said:
I'd just like to shamelessly plug Texas EMS here, again. My EMT-B partner and a student single-handedly managed a difficult airway with BLS means and pre/re-oxygenated her to the point where the (difficult) intubation was safe and routine. You won't get to do that in SoCal.
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Two people did something single handedly? What was one of them doing, whistling? Moral support?
 
Don't do Lifeline. Look at their past and history including their members of management. I would do Doctors which are owned by AMR which means you can eventually transfer any where. Or leave the county entirely.
 
RocketMedic said:
your odds of getting sick patients are actually higher on IFT than 911. That holds true for most places.
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that's not true at all. dialysis runs, transports to doctors offices, hospital discharge, and a psych transfer for IFTs, chest pains, diff breathing, any other medical or trauma for a 911 call (pretty much anything you can imagine). yeah, you might get a nursing home / contracted facility who gives you guys a 911 call when they should really be calling 911, and yes, many 911 calls don't require an ambulance, but please don't outright lie to the new guy and tell him he will see sicker patients doing IFT than on 911.
 
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