Rural America, attracting medics

B

bushinspector

Forum Crew Member
Messages
39
Reaction score
4
Points
8
I live in rural America and we are looking to hire medics for our service. I know it is difficult to attract medics to our environment, but we are wanting to upgrade our service. We are willing to pay at the salary of some of the larger towns around us. We have local hospitals, and do have some transports up to 90 minutes. Would like to hire Basics and Paramedics to cover our county. We only average around 1.5 calls for a 24 hour period, and will pay the salary even if you make a run or not.
My thoughts were to have medics come from the large metro areas (60-90 miles away) and work 24 to 48 hours shifts. These medics would be running off of state protocols and will allow them to use them to the fullest extent possible. We are providing housing facilities, and very flexible with work schedules.

How can we attract seasoned medics?
 
May I ask what part of the country it is, maybe there is something about the region that might be attractive to some folk?
 
That is an issue that a lot of smaller agencies have. Most of the time your "target audience" for what you are looking for is going to be your really salty paramedic instructors who just want to run the occasional call but do not want to be in a busy system anymore, or the the Paramedics with 25 years that want to retire and get out of the "Busy big City." There is a lot smaller agencies that are in your same position because you do not have the call volume to support a New Paramedic and an FTO program.
 
I was stationed at Ft Sill for awhile, so that is my experience with Oklahoma, was not my favorite place lol
 
bushinspector said:
Oklahoma, Not very attractive, But the people is nice....
Click to expand...

yea...but I think you can attract good people if have good protocols, and appeal to the people who are looking for something more than the high volume and short transport times in the city. Your call volume seems super low, which will be a challenge to attract good people. Don't discount medics who are younger (1-2 years of experience in a busy 911 system), but are well educated, and are looking for a more liberal scope of practice and the challenge of managing patients for longer periods. Also, don't limit your options too much; consider a fly car ALS model, or even paid on call.
 
I work in a very rural area that attracted out of town medics by paying well and.offering long shifts. I work seven days on and seven off. Plus we have amazing protocols
 
There are plenty of people who would take you up on this type of arrangement. With that low of a call volume, you could even consider longer stretches. Check with the labor laws, etc but even a 2 week on 2 week off rotation would appeal to some. If you have housing provided and the perks are ok enough, plenty will do it. It does not have to be a monster salary either...do not be afraid to get creative.

Some may take it to build their CV and gain experience, others might be doing online schooling and this would be perfect retreat to focus, some may just want to semi retire.
 
If I could bring my wife I would probably do something like that in a few years.
 
FireWA1 said:
If I could bring my wife I would probably do something like that in a few years.
Click to expand...
YES, That was one thing that I left out. Not just your wife but the family as well. We have converted a old Armory over to our EMS building and we have full access to the whole building. We have built two bedrooms, full bath.
 
azemtb255 said:
yea...but I think you can attract good people if have good protocols, and appeal to the people who are looking for something more than the high volume and short transport times in the city. Your call volume seems super low, which will be a challenge to attract good people. Don't discount medics who are younger (1-2 years of experience in a busy 911 system), but are well educated, and are looking for a more liberal scope of practice and the challenge of managing patients for longer periods. Also, don't limit your options too much; consider a fly car ALS model, or even paid on call.
Click to expand...
The fly car is part of the plan after we get set up with more Paramedics. Right now we are allowing all the hometown medics to stay home until a call comes in, however it is costing us about two or three minutes of response time. If they had a fly car at their residence, they could respond directly to the scene. The basic medic could drive to the station and pick up the unit. After the call was over they could go back and pick up the fly car. Our towns are so small we can be anywhere in town in five to seven minutes.

Don't understand the paid on call comment. We pay per hour, even if you have zero calls or three. Nothing like getting paid for sleeping.......Our policy is that if a transfer does come in from the local hospital, we pay the back up personnel the same as if they was on the call.
 
Last edited:
bushinspector said:
YES, That was one thing that I left out. Not just your wife but the family as well. We have converted a old Armory over to our EMS building and we have full access to the whole building. We have built two bedrooms, full bath.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that has some real promise. It wouldn't help me out at this point in my life, but offering someone an opportunity to basically work from their home with their family with them for 1 or 2 week rotations? I know a ton of people who would absolutely jump on an opportunity like that.

That call volume would make me go absolutely insane, but that's just because I'm still young and slightly sparky. For a certain market, running 10 or so calls in a week with the fam could be a dream come true. I really hope you get this going and it becomes successful.

I think that's the way you need to market this. Progressive protocols, salary, and equipment are all important, but your difference maker is the housing+family. Bring that up in trade shows and you'll get interest.
 
chaz90 said:
Yeah, that has some real promise. It wouldn't help me out at this point in my life, but offering someone an opportunity to basically work from their home with their family with them for 1 or 2 week rotations? I know a ton of people who would absolutely jump on an opportunity like that.

That call volume would make me go absolutely insane, but that's just because I'm still young and slightly sparky. For a certain market, running 10 or so calls in a week with the fam could be a dream come true. I really hope you get this going and it becomes successful.

I think that's the way you need to market this. Progressive protocols, salary, and equipment are all important, but your difference maker is the housing+family. Bring that up in trade shows and you'll get interest.
Click to expand...
It is a difficult balance between local medics if I had one to two week rotations. I really want to keep the home medics happy as well. What I am trying to do is to fill in shifts between local medics.

When you say progressive protocols, we are allowing them to do anything the state will allow them to do.

Thanks for all the ideas, this thread has already been SUPER helpful.....Getting excited!!!
 
Is this Woodward?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top