Scope of Practice, San Fran vs. Los Angeles

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bengalmorris

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Hey guys,

This is my first post here so forgive my ignorance if this topic has already been covered- I searched briefly but couldn't seem to find any related threads.

I'm currently an EMT working out of LA County doing mostly IFTs, but plan on enrolling in the Mt. San Antonio paramedic program as soon as I have my required 1200 hours of pre-hospital experience. However, I've heard from many sources that working as a paramedic in LA County is not the way to go... Both for a lack of 911 jobs (unless you're Fire, which I'm not too interested in) and for the limited scope of practice.

Because of this, I've been thinking about making the move to the Bay Area after I graduate... I've heard there's some private companies with some good 911 contracts, and that the EMS field is simply better all around.

Does anyone have some experience/insight they could share on this? I'm not one to base my decisions off the opinion of the few disgruntled EMTs I work with, so please let me know if I'm totally off the mark as well...

Thanks!!
 
bengalmorris said:
Hey guys,

This is my first post here so forgive my ignorance if this topic has already been covered- I searched briefly but couldn't seem to find any related threads.

I'm currently an EMT working out of LA County doing mostly IFTs, but plan on enrolling in the Mt. San Antonio paramedic program as soon as I have my required 1200 hours of pre-hospital experience. However, I've heard from many sources that working as a paramedic in LA County is not the way to go... Both for a lack of 911 jobs (unless you're Fire, which I'm not too interested in) and for the limited scope of practice.

Because of this, I've been thinking about making the move to the Bay Area after I graduate... I've heard there's some private companies with some good 911 contracts, and that the EMS field is simply better all around.

Does anyone have some experience/insight they could share on this? I'm not one to base my decisions off the opinion of the few disgruntled EMTs I work with, so please let me know if I'm totally off the mark as well...

Thanks!!
Click to expand...


Bay Area and So Cal EMS are like night and day. Read some of my old posts. I don't feel like typing it all on my phone again.

A lot of California haters on this forum though (or in general) lol.

Take an opinion from someone who has actually lived and worked EMS in Nor Cal. Anywhere in the Bay Area you get hired by a 911 provider and your guaranteed to make almost double the hourly than our So Cal counterparts.

There are some progressive systems in Nor Cal too. A lot of b autonomy and treatments that make sense for the patient.
 
I don't know the scope of practice in the San Francisco Bay Area versus other parts of California. I've read several different counties protocols and policies, and they seem to vary little (eg paramedics in SF County can do nasal intubation, ALCO paramedics can administer sodium thiosulfate and atrovent) / seem to be the similar throughout California.

I have to agree though that the San Francisco Bay Area pays both their EMTs and Paramedics in 911 a lot better than most of California from what I can see, but it's very competitive and difficult to get in.

I've been an EMT in the San Francisco Bay Area for about three years, it took me a year to get a job, and I am still working for an IFT-only company for $11.96/hour (starting pay at my company originally was $11.50/hour, but I believe they decreased it). 911 in the county I live in and counties near me are very exclusive, they respond to 911 only, and start pay for an EMT at some companies like Rural/Metro (San Jose, not Milpitas) is $17.25/hour. I've seen Rural Metro (911 in Santa Clara County) has had openings three times since they started operations three years ago (twice in the past four or five months, once three years ago), and Paramedic Plus (911 in Alameda County) keeps putting up openings for EMTs and Paramedics kinda randomly, and mostly relies on you calling a guy to get the job, but from what I've been told, things are falling apart, there are a lot of part timers, it's difficult to get shifts, etc. I successfully got a hold of the guy, but was offered only to interview for their IFT division called Patient Plus starting pay $15.88/hour I believe.

I think EMS is very hard to get into out here, and the only positive is that the pay is slightly better in IFT compared to other areas, and the pay in 911 is really good compared to most areas. I have a ton of friends, some who got their EMT certification around the same time as me, who still haven't gotten EMT jobs.

Like everywhere else, we very oversaturated with both EMTs and paramedics, and pretty undereducated compared to most other areas (eg EMTs aren't trained to use King airways, pulse oximetry, check blood glucose, and paramedics aren't expected to interpret 12-leads, they cannot activate a STEMI based on their interpretation). In my paramedic class out here, the instructor laughed when we got to the RSI section of airway management, said "you'll never do that", and then clicked *click click click* to the part of the powerpoint he knew.
 
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