Most of the 12 hour shifts start in the AM, but there was only a handful of night cars (1 or 2 a night when I left. This left the 24s running most of the night calls).
The ambulance companies in Orange County are generally hiring contentiously and most have online applications.
The BEST way to get a job at a water park is to know the EMT supervisor. The supervisor at Wild Rivers (which is, unfortunately, supposed to close next year because the Irvine Company wants to build houses there. There is still Knott's/Soak City and, if you don't mind driving a bit, Raging Waters. Disneyland utilizes RNs for their first aid and have contracted with the city to base paramedics out of Downtown Disney) was a coworker of mine. I was called out of the blue one day (I got off from the ambulance job early because my partner had called off) to come in and cover for a few hours since the park's EMT-B didn't show up for the afternoon shift. I never actually imagined that I'd end up working at a water park before that call.
First off, if you want to work an amusement park (Knotts, Wild Rivers, Raging Waters, etc), you need to have some sort of ambulance experience (911 or transport). It's imperative to have some sort of perspective on evaluating patients. Unlike on an ambulance where you have the luxury of always ending up at an ER, you won't at an amusement park. You cannot backboard every person who walks in complaining of back pain, for example. You are not going to be calling an ambulance for every person that is suffering from heat exaustion or mild dehydration. On the same token, you need to know when a patient NEEDS to go to the hospital or NEEDS to follow up with their PMD. This isn't exactly as simple as it sounds.
95% of my patients just needed a band aid and a kiss on the boo boo (figuratively speaking), including some that really don't need a band aid at all. Some of these patients are going to ask if they need stitches, be honest if they do. The next 4.9999 percent just need a bottle of water/gator aid (never had a problem getting them for a guest) and a chance to lay down in the air conditioning or just need an icepack following a fall. In 2 summers of working there, I had to call an ambulance 3 times, all within 2 weeks. 1 was for a women who cracked her head open and was more freaked out than anything else (911), 1 employee tripped in food services and ended up breaking her wrist (non-emergent ambulance transport), and a child hit her head coming off of a kiddy slide (911 due to confusion and 'fainting spells' [know when you're really drowsy and your trying to stay awake so you basically end up bobbing your head as you catch yourself falling asleep? It looked like that]. Symptoms cleared up in the 5 or so minutes it took fire to arrive and the parents ended up AMA'ing). I'd say that an ambulance is called about 1-2 times a month, which isn't bad with an average of 5,000 guests visiting the park everyday.
I honestly had more support and supplies (AED, for example) at the water park than on the ambulance. I never really had any problems with my treatment decisions or the 3 times I needed an ambulance (technically speaking, the senior aquatics manager [basically the person in charge of the park at the time] "makes" the decision to call an ambulance with input from the EMT-B. In reality, this is more for logistics (does parking know that there are emergency units inbound that they need to direct to operations, is the patient going to be able to moved to the operations office/break area or will the responding medics and basics need to be escorted through the park to first aid?) than anything else.).
The other thing that you need to be able to do that isn't really taught well in basic school is documentation. While most patients only 'need' an entry in the "bandaid log" (name, age, time, location, CC (ex: cut to ____), and treatment (ex cleaned, antibiotic gel, band aid, tape). 'Major' incidents (especially if it involves a ride. "Major" doesn't necessarily mean ambulance either) utilize a separate form that's similar to an ambulance PCR. These are important for making sure that the rides are running properly as well as other incidents (I had at least one incident that was a person looking for a law suite).
The second way to get a job is to simply apply. Apply early, though, (at least a month before the park opens), because the schedule gets set pretty early. With only 1-2 shifts (my first summer the days were split into 2 5.5 hour shifts. The second summer it was 1 11 hour shift. The shifts are due to the parks hours of operation, hence the weird hours), there aren't that many shifts in a summer. All of the EMT's contact information (phone and email. There was only 5-6 EMTs employed and 2-3 people had 90% of the shifts. This was mostly due to availability, especially since this is a second job for most people) went out with the schedule, so if you needed a day off after the schedule was made you contacted everyone else to see if someone could cover/swap before contacting the supervisor.
