Medic from NZ, wants to work in Canada/US?

Silly

Silly

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Hey guys!!
I'm new to this forum, but it looks perfect for all the questions I need to ask!
I currently live in Wellington, NZ and have been a volunteer medic with our ambo service here for coming up to 4 years. I just received my first medal for my service. I work in both frontline ambulance and events and am currently sitting on a PHEC (Pre-Hospital Emergency Care) certification and am hoping to upskill to a National Diploma in Ambulance this year which will take my qualification to AO (Ambulance Officer), this is one step down from paramedic.

I am looking at going on a working holiday to either the US, Canada or the UK, pretty much where ever I can get the best out of my holiday. I'm having a bit of a tough time though because I want to work for an ambulance service during this time. I have emailed a couple of ambulance service providers asking what they can offer me etc, but has anyone done anything similar? How exactly does one go about taking their training to another country?
Any info would help!!!

Steff.
 
As far as the U.S. goes, I'd imagine every minute of your "working Holiday" would be spent trying to get certified to work!

You MIGHT have a chance at getting to ride-along, but it's doubtful you'd be allowed to touch anybody :rolleyes: let alone get paid for your time. I'd love to hear otherwise, but for sure you'll have to make arrangements WAY in advance.

Good luck!
 
How hard would it be to get my current qualifications cross credited?
 
Mate you've been dipping into the ketamine have you not? :D

The US is twenty years behind us .... a Primary Care Paramedic in Canada has less of a scope than our Diploma Officers and nearly twice the education and you will be overeducated to work as an Emergency Care Support Worker in the UK, they have nine weeks training and are not allowed to touch patients.

Oh, and get with the times, Diploma Officers are now called "Emergency Medical Technicians" ....

*Brown heaves a little, ondansteron, quick!

Brown
Intensive Care Parasortakindanotreally
 
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I concur with Brown. Had you said you were wanting to move to the US I would have asked why in God's name would you want to become downwardly mobile?
 
Stick to the commonwealth countries. The US doesn't work on a points-based system for employment visas, and "paramedic" isn't a job in such short supply and high demand, as to be EB-3 worthy.
 
I don't know where your training would be in our standards. But here is a link to what you would have to meet for here. If your medical director can sign off on your meeting equalvency you could send it in for registration consideration. However this has nothing to do with Immigration and being allowed to work in Canada. I suggest you contact the Canadian embassy for information on working in Canada.

http://www.gov.ns.ca/health/ehs/paramedics/policies.asp

http://www.gov.ns.ca/health/ehs/paramedics/policies/6001 Policy Paramedic Registration.pdf

http://www.gov.ns.ca/health/ehs/paramedics/policies/AIT Compliant Application April 1, 2009.pdf
 
Wow...sounds like I'm in for a mammoth task then...
I'll most likely go through an agency, IEP for example, as they help with visas, bank accounts, insurance etc. All the things I wouldn't dare travel without.

Would I be better off attempting to study in another country before attempting to work there? Eeeek everything is so complicated!
 
Silly said:
Wow...sounds like I'm in for a mammoth task then...
I'll most likely go through an agency, IEP for example, as they help with visas, bank accounts, insurance etc. All the things I wouldn't dare travel without.

Would I be better off attempting to study in another country before attempting to work there? Eeeek everything is so complicated!
Click to expand...

Mate lets be honest, you have a five day course behind you and while being proficent with the dexterities of psychomotor aspects of thier scope of practice (eg giving a tab of GTN or some glucagon) a National Diploma Officer is horrendously undereducated when it comes to the theory behind what they are doing. You want to know why the National Diploma was developed? So the pair of hands assisting the paid Officer could do something so he did not have to watch over them every two seconds and so the volunteer only crews did not have to call for backup/R50/R51 for everything. Oh and it also had something to do with the volunteers *****ing that PRD and cells and tissues on the National Certificate were too hard.

Brown does not mean to be harsh but if you were a Paramedic (what WFA used to call an ALS-B Officer) and had a couple years of experience behind you Brown would say go for it.

Even at the National Diploma level you do not have the education for Canada to even look at you (they study for two years full time to get a scope of practice that is about 2/3 of what you will be), the US labour market is oversupplied and twenty years behind the rest of the world and the UK probably won't look at you because you will be there for a year max and most ECSWs are just getting in to go the backdoor route to State Registered Paramedic.

Do the degree bro seriously.
 
I have been trying for 3 years to get into a degree, this is my 3rd year of being put on a "wait list". Even though I previously studied health for a year and a half and have been working in an ambulance for the past 4 years I still get waitlisted over people who have better NCEA marks than I, even though half of these kids drop out before 2nd year or decide that paramedic isn't all it's cracked up to be.
I'm not some talentless idiot who thinks being a paramedic would be fun, I genuinely have a passion and a massive dedication towards paramedic and have been working my *** off to try and reach my goal but it's been a massive massive struggle for me so far and I'm kinda lost, I don't know where to go from here.

I'm lucky I'm still young enough that all the rejection from uni's here hasn't put me off so far, but this is mostly because I actually KNOW I have a career in this field and that I am capable of getting there. I will keep applying to every where and why where I can though because I don't give up that easy!

Your words are harsh but true Brown, where are you based?
 
Not saying you are mate Brown if Intensive Care Paramedic is your goal you should stay here and work towards that rather than spend a year trying to get somewhere which will probably amount to jack.

Have you looked into AUT? What about this new online degree pathway?
 
Yeah man I was at AUT, but I failed 2 papers and now they're saying I can never study health at AUT again. There's not stand down period or anything, I just can't go back!

I'm in the process of writing to the heads of AUT to challenge it because it seems like a bit of a joke. I passed all the paramedic papers but failed the ones about green house gases and about how children develop...
 
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