Questions of possible future emt

Kristina howell

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sorry if this is the wrong place to post.

I'm currently a CNA I'm doing pre reqs for nursing but anatomy is ridiculous and I'm tired of being in school ( I got a different degree and changed my mind and went back to school so sense 2013) I was thinking of becoming an emt and then a paramedic. I have some questions though.

What are the work schedules like? I heard 48 hours straight?

What is pay like? I work in tacoma Washington. If that matters.

Is it something you can do your whole life? Or will your body give up on you.

Are there different areas to go into or is it all riding around in an ambulance?
 

DesertMedic66

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sorry if this is the wrong place to post.

I'm currently a CNA I'm doing pre reqs for nursing but anatomy is ridiculous and I'm tired of being in school ( I got a different degree and changed my mind and went back to school so sense 2013) I was thinking of becoming an emt and then a paramedic. I have some questions though.

What are the work schedules like? I heard 48 hours straight?

What is pay like? I work in tacoma Washington. If that matters.

Is it something you can do your whole life? Or will your body give up on you.

Are there different areas to go into or is it all riding around in an ambulance?

1: going to depend on your area and company/department. Some are 10hrs, 12hrs, 16hrs, 24hrs, 48hrs, 72hrs. It really just depends.

2: pay is complete **** compared to nursing. Nursing pay is twice as much as a starting medic or even more.

3: if you find a good department that has everything you want then yes you can retire from it. We have several medics at my company who have been working for +25 years.

4: Going to depend on your area once again. There are ambulance medics, fire response medics, fly car medics, offshore medics, oilfield medics, cruise ship medics, helicopter medics, fixed wing medics, hospital medics, urgent care medics, teaching positions for medics, theme park medics, i'm sure I missed some other positions.
 

DesertMedic66

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Is it easy to find a job?
Once again it's going to depend on your area. I'm not familiar with Washington so I don't have any clue there. For right now in CA there is a shortage of medics which means when I fell down the stairs last night I got 5 job offers on my way down. For EMT positions in CA we are not hurting as bad for them but there are still a lot of open positions.
 

StCEMT

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Desert medic already answered your questions, so just gonna a drop this. If your reason to not pursue nursing is you are tired of school, I don't think you are gonna like going the medic route. Medic school has a lot of anatomy and other things that you will have to learn. There is no getting away from it if you stay in the medical field. Choose the field that interest you the most and suck it up when it comes to learning time. Either route will have a lot. If you actually want to work in EMS because it interest you, then go for it.
 

Hold My Beer

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In Washington especially Pierce and King counties you will be limited to private 3rd service companies like AMR, Rural Metro, Falk, and Tri-Med, or Olympic Ambulance further west. The pay sucks 11-13 /hr depending on which company you choose. Each company offers their own shifts which is a variety of several shift lines. You will run some 911 calls but typically you will be responding with fire departments who control the calls (you're basically their *****.) Overall the job is fun and people working in this industry are usually good to work with. Get your EMT and try it out. EMT will also allow you to get a Tech job in an ER which pays a lot better and is more aligned to your original goal of nursing.
 
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