An hour away is better than nothing at all but just let her know how extremely comptetive this field of work is and that your career might not start as quickly as it would if she agreed to move a little further. Suggest to her that you promise to stay in state where ever you decide to go that way you can always drive home.
couple things: first off, most of the higher paying jobs require at least a year or two of experience before they will hire you. So don't be surprised if places won't even interview you without you even knowing if you passed your EMT test.
salary depends on location.
Networking is the other thing that is paramount in this field. can you get a job without knowing people? absolutely. if you know people who already work for the company, or you know the management/supervisor, and they know you can do the job, it will help you greatly in getting a job.
one other thing to keep in mind is that some places have differnt versions of on call pay. my clinical coordinator is "on call" at her per diem job most nights during the week. she gets like $50 to do nothing as a medic assuming there are no sick outs. if there is a sick out, she comes into work the entire shift (to ensure adequate coverage for her 911 ALS agency). Other transport companies will pay you to be on call in case a transport comes in. it all depends on the size of the company and how much they want to pay you.
