I thank you for asking these questions, I will answer them, but you should next time search the forum or Google.
You NEED to get your state EMT certification, ambulance driver certificate, and medical examiner card (green card) before you even apply for EMT positions.
Since you live in San Jose, the closest EMS Agency to you is Santa Clara County EMS Agency (
976 Lenzen Ave., San Jose, CA 95126). You need to have your NREMT card, NREMT certificate, class completion certificate, skill competency verification form, AHA for the Healthcare Provider,
LiveScan*, appropriately filled out the
EMS Personnel Application (EMS 901), and two government issued IDs (e.g. CA Driver License and Passport). You'll need to pay $75 to the state, and $50 to the county.
Policy 200,
Policy 201,
Santa Clara County EMS Agency - EMT Certification & Paramedic Accreditation
*You can do your LiveScan at Santa Clara's Sheriff Office (
55 Younger Ave., San Jose, CA 95110). I believe they require an appointment.
To get your ambulance driver certificate, you should go to DMV, ask for the necessary paperwork. They should give you the same form you filled out for your CA driver license or CA state ID, but there is a check box "Ambulance Driver Certificate" that you need to check off. You should also get DL 51. When I got DL 51, the green medical examiner card was already attached to it, but if not, I've read that some clinics have them. You can buy a $5 blue handbook of ambulance driving. You'll need to take a written test. There used to be a website where you could look up some of the questions word to word verbatim, and people would tell you to Google "AMR EVOC". The site has been down, but you can look up the questions (without answers). It's mentioned
here. You'll also get the DMV LiveScan form (you can do this at Santa Clara's Sheriff Office also). DMV is generally just as confused as you are about ambulance driver certificates.
Ambulance Driver Certification
If you plan on working in Santa Clara County, you'll need
SEMS (this is a walk in class that includes ICS 100 and NIMS 700; your company may be able to introduce you to SEMS),
ICS 100,
ICS 200,
NIMS 700,
IS 704,
AWR 160, and
IS 3. After you're hired by a company in Santa Clara County, you'll have to wait for a system ID badge to work in the county, and within three months of hire also attend a county orientation.
Policy 214
You are responsible for your certifications, not your company. Your company may or may not help you.
Each company is different. Sometimes you'll dress up like James Bond, and the company will think it's overdone. Other companies will think you're an asset they want for their company. Sometimes you'll dress semi-causal, and you won't be seen as profession, or maybe just professional, but laid back, exactly the kind of guy that'll get along with our current staff. Some companies only take application online (e.g. Royal Ambulance). It may or may not help you to walk in to shake babies and kiss hands (I always get this part mixed up!).
Each company offers different hours. A lot of them seem to have 12 and 24 hour shifts. My company has 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 24. 12 and 24 hours are only for dedicated critical care transport (CCT) rigs and advance life support (ALS) rigs. I've done a couple of 12 hour shifts, and I loved it. I've never done a 24 hour shift.
Call types and volume are going vary by company, location, AND time. At ProTransport-1, crews from the Palo Alto station regularly get long distance transports during the daytime. For those who don't, it's usually slow (<3 calls). I work graveyards out of Palo Alto. We have gone several days without calls. Usually they are not long distance. I worked out of Oakland both daytime and graveyards. During the day, we'd get at least 5 calls. They were rarely longer than a couple of miles (3.1 miles from Eden Medical Center to John George Pavilion felt like forever compared to a lot of our transports). During graveyard, we'd get at least 2 calls a night, usually psychiatric holds, and the transports just as short as the day.
