LVN soon to be EMT

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kevinradoc

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So long story short I just passed my boards for vocational nursing and now I am starting Emt school at North orange county ROP. I did this for many reasons: 1. when i did er rotation during nursing school i had so much fun and just really fell in love with ems 2. I hope someday to become a flight nurse or Physician assistant 3. trying to build the ultimate resume

My question is hopefully by the end summer i will pass the nremt and get all my certs. But where should i apply to? Currently i am doing home health and it is certainly the last place i want to be. I feel like I should apply to an 911 ambulance company so that I may really get some hands on experience and really just get out there and save lives which is way more interesting then working a nursing floor. But the greedy side of me is saying work at a clinic or convalescent home and get paid more. Would my chances be greater if I applied to a 911 company like CARE or AMR with a nursing license along with emt. Or maybe should i apply as an er tech as my knowledge in nursing would help the emergency department.

Any guidance, opinions, and suggestions are welcomed :)
 
Apply for BSN school.

Seriously. Depending on what part of the country you are in, it will be very difficult for you to get a job as an EMT, the LVN cert will probably do nothing for you in that respect. LVNs are also falling out of favor in many hospitals. The only place I run into LVNs are at SNFs or as medical assistants in clinics. Flight agencies want RN experience in the ED or ICU. So, you are better off just going to BSN school.
 
Aidey said:
Apply for BSN school.

Seriously. Depending on what part of the country you are in, it will be very difficult for you to get a job as an EMT, the LVN cert will probably do nothing for you in that respect. LVNs are also falling out of favor in many hospitals. The only place I run into LVNs are at SNFs or as medical assistants in clinics. Flight agencies want RN experience in the ED or ICU. So, you are better off just going to BSN school.
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I know flight agencies want RN and where LVNs typically work I am just looking for work right now to get some experience as I go back to school slowly but surely. Ill be 20 by the end of my summer emt program. I just wanted to get my foot into something and gain some experience.

Would have an LVN license really not go well for apply to ambulance companies
 
Really. I've never seen LVN listed in a job announcement for an EMT or Paramedic position.

Honestly, I wouldn't even go to EMT school. You'll make more money as an LVN. Go get your BSN and then work on bridging to paramedic, only if necessary. CARE is in SoCal right? Horrible job market in CA. Right now there are more EMTs in CA than there are trees in the Amazon. You're under 21, which can limit who will hire you due to minimum ages for insurance. EMTs who do manage to get jobs end up working IFT or wheel chair van.
 
Aidey said:
Really. I've never seen LVN listed in a job announcement for an EMT or Paramedic position.

Honestly, I wouldn't even go to EMT school. You'll make more money as an LVN. Go get your BSN and then work on bridging to paramedic, only if necessary. CARE is in SoCal right? Horrible job market in CA. Right now there are more EMTs in CA than there are trees in the Amazon. You're under 21, which can limit who will hire you due to minimum ages for insurance. EMTs who do manage to get jobs end up working IFT or wheel chair van.
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Yea i think that was one of my biggest obstacles to overcome being underaged and living in Cali haha. I just wouldve thought having an lvn license would allow me to stand out.

But thank you aidey

So does anyone else say/think otherwise to aidey
 
I would pretty much echo what aidey said. Go for the BSN. As an RN, you'll have the ability to challenge the Paramedic written/do the internship rides and get licensed as a Paramedic. Then you can do EMS the way you really want. In the meantime, get some time as an LVN under your belt as you get your prereqs out of the way for a BSN program, then do it. Save some cash so that you can easily afford to not work for a while during your RN clinicals.

Honestly, if I'm looking to hire an EMT, I'm going to hire someone who is willing to be an EMT and not an LVN who is looking for something fun. Believe me, you'll get better pay as an LVN than you will as an EMT, and if you're going for RN, it's more directly applicable experience. Later, EMT will help you with skills you won't learn as an RN. The thought processes will be different because the two fields (EMS and Nursing) are just that different from each other.
 
+1 to what everyone else has said so far.

I live in CA, it's super hard to get an EMT job, extremely limited scope of practice even for EMTs, poor pay, LVN won't help you get a job as an EMT except being abke to say you have some healthcare experience ir you are lucky enough to get an interview.

Just like to quickly add that there isn't too much life saving. As an EMT, you won't usually even be able to appropriately treat pain.
 
Alright last question then.

As nurse as well especially being an LVN it is extremely difficult to find a job as well. SNFs and many clinics require experience, but there was one job I got a call back on which sort of had me thinking of EMT sort of. It was an urgent care clinic and they had ask me if I had any ER/urgent care experience I said besides clinical rotations that was it, and then i got the horrid sorry we are looking for someone with that kind of experience. So i looked back at the job posting to see the list of duties which are duties I see emt do they just wanted an LVN. For instance EKG, splinting, etc etc. Now in nursing school I learned all that but i wanted to reinforce it greatly as I had not done this at all during clinicals.

So my question now is do you think it would be easier as a nurse with an emt license to get a job as a nurse ANYWHERE. At least i would have greater triaging skills and all that kind of stuff. Im just so frustrated. And i love education so i wouldnt think emt would be a waste of time.
 
kevinradoc said:
So my question now is do you think it would be easier as a nurse with an emt license to get a job as a nurse ANYWHERE. At least i would have greater triaging skills and all that kind of stuff. Im just so frustrated. And i love education so i wouldnt think emt would be a waste of time.
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EMT is at minimum 110 hours classroom time with one 10 hour ride along. My program exceeded the minimum, 118 classroom time and a 12 hour ride along. -.-

In the local programs here, and I assume in California, they teach Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) for triage. You check respiratory, perfusion, and mentality (RPM) starting with the closest patient to you, and you work your way out.

1. Ask everyone who can walk to go to a certain spot. They are minor/walking wounded (green).
2. If they don't have an open airway, attempt the head tilt chin lift, if it doesn't open, label them deceased (black).
3. If their respiratory rate is >30 or <10, label them immediate (red).
4. If their respiratory rate is 10-30, I've seen perfusion checked two different ways:
Use one of these methods
- Is capillary refill <2 seconds?
- Can you palpate a radial pulse?​
5. If their capillary refill is >=2 seconds or you cannot palpate a radial pulse, label them immediate (red).
6. Ask them one of the four questions used to assess mentality: person, place, time, and event. If they answer it incorrectly, label them immediate (red).
7. Everybody else is delayed (yellow).

A techniques I've heard of is you and your partner scissor through the scene so you do not miss anyone.

There have been discussion on this forum about triaging. Some members believe that there is no one efficient algorithm that can be used to triage; prehospital care providers need to learn more, triaging well can be difficult, and use sound judgement to triage based on the situation. The algorithm I mentioned above is what is taught in EMT I believe in most schools in California.

There isn't much to triaging if you go by the EMT curriculum. At two of the local programs here, and I assume again most of California is like this, they spend one day on it, usually give a couple hour lecture on the above, and then practicing it once or twice. At both programs, they merged it with extricating patients from vehicles, backboarding, and although they didn't teach Incident Command System (ICS) at either program or even mentioned it specifically, the instructors did introduce some concepts afterwards (how smug of them).

EMTs are not allowed to interpret EKGs in most counties in California if any.

Ironically both programs I went to went over splinting once in one day, and that's it.

I honestly believe it will not be worth your while. I'm saying it in a harsh way, but EMTs are pretty much ambulance drivers/gurney pushers (at both programs I attended, only one went over how to use a gurney, they said "red makes things moves" and that was all they ever mentioned in how to use a gurney). The only drugs they can administer in counties in my area (in California) are oxygen and oral glucose, they can "assist" with the patient's personal medication (usually EMTs are introduced to nitroglycerin, albuterol, epi pen) which means they can instruct you on taking it/put it in your hand, but they are not allowed to actually administer it to you themselves, the patient has to be the one to do it.

I think you are fantasizing what it will be like. It's not like what most people imagine it to be especially in California.
 
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To put it bluntly...from cart pusher to gurney jockey. Get your RN.
 
RN Bsn - $60k bls.gov
LVN - $45k lvnsalary.org

Based on salary, I think RN Bsn is agreat choice, but how about other factors? Working time and conditions, Degrees, Benefits? I need some help, thanks in advance!
 
LouisDelRey said:
RN Bsn - $60k bls.gov
LVN - $45k lvnsalary.org

Based on salary, I think RN Bsn is agreat choice, but how about other factors? Working time and conditions, Degrees, Benefits? I need some help, thanks in advance!
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I'd suggest that a better forum to ask that kind of question would be allnurses.com as they specialize in nursing, just as we specialize in EMS. We, of course, welcome all providers, but we try to keep the focus on EMS.
 
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