Seattle vs Chicago, getting a inside understanding.

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MedicGirl414

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Hello everyone,

A little background, I'm 27, hold a Bachelors Degree and living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I hate it here. I also hold an EMT-B and work for an IFT, the only 9-1-1 privates is over 2hrs away and FD is out of the question for many reasons. I have always wanted to move back up north, originally from Jersey, but I've been drawn to both Seattle and Chicago. I know both are big cities and expensive and competitive. My ultimate goal is to climb through the chain, into Medic, ER Nurse and hopefully Flight Nurse. (Yes I know its almost impossible to land this job, but I'm not one to let obstacles bring me down) So with this move I want a better understanding of what each city has to offer for this game plan and what I'm looking at initially as an EMT-B in each city. I have all of the forms to apply for both states, what I'm looking for is that 1st person insight to help me further my decision.

I know WA is overly competitive in EMS and to actually work in Kings county, I would have to re-go through school (out of the question), so I have been looking at the surrounding counties at private EMS. From what I understand to actually obtain my license in WA I must be employed by EMS in WA, being NREMT cert holds no real barring for me in this state? Or am I reading into this wrong? I have been looking into rural/metro since we have them here in FL and would like to have the experience with the company before making the move. Can anyone provide any other Private 9-1-1 companies in the surrounding area of Seattle that are decent to work for? From what I've read WA is suppose to be the best of the best, which I'm sure every city believes, but I want a place that will challenge me intellectually and keep me sharp.

I know IL has recently stripped all fire medics of their bunker gear, does this mean you know longer need fire certs to run with the county medics? Do they run 2 medics or a medic and EMT on the trucks? From what I understand, there is no process to obtain a license in IL beyond simply applying for reciprocity. Does anyone know of any different? Can anyone provide Private 9-1-1 companies in the surrounding area of Chicago that are decent to work for? I would like to stay near the city, but not necessarily always in the city.

Any and all input is welcomed, and thanks in advance-
 
In the areas surrounding King County, you'll find R/M, Falck, AMR and Olympic. You're correct, you need to be employed by an agency to get a certification. And frankly, aside from the fire departments and KCM1, none of them are decent to work for. It's mostly IFT.

I worked for TriMed as an EMT and both Olympic in Brem and ALS in Yakima as a medic. Both were fun, but by no stretch, a career... or even a decent, livable wage. KCM1, while not my cup of tea, is an incredible place to work, great pay, awesome equipment and fantastic benefits.
 
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Go to nursing school, get your RN, then challenge across/down to paramedic.

Better money, better options.
 
RocketMedic said:
Go to nursing school, get your RN, then challenge across/down to paramedic.

Better money, better options.
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Yep.

If you know you want to get into flight nursing eventually, don't waste time with medic school. Spend that year or so on nursing school instead. You can still do EMS part time as an EMT.

And flight nursing isn't that hard to get into as long as you have the right background. It's easier to find a good flight job as nurse than as a paramedic, actually.
 
My understanding is that Chicago Fire pulled fire gear off their ambulances. There are plenty of fire medics left in the state.
 
Wow, thanks everyone! I've been back and forth with skipping Medic and going straight into nursing, but for here in FL the general suggestion is to do Medic then bridge over. I guess I was using that as a standard elsewhere. I'll re-look into the schools in both states for nursing school options. I'm just nervous about the WA requirement of being employed, I've heard stories that it took 6-18 months before landing a job, and already making a cross-country move to not have employment waiting isn't something i'm keen on doing. I am glad to hear Flight nurse isn't as difficult as Flight medic though- again thanks for the insight everyone!
 
MedicGirl414 said:
I am glad to hear Flight nurse isn't as difficult as Flight medic though- again thanks for the insight everyone!
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Don't get me wrong; standards for flight nurses are generally high and the competition is usually keen, especially with the really good programs. It's just that there are more jobs for FN's than for FP's, and also fewer applications per opening for FN's as compared to FP's.

Getting a good job as a flight paramedic is very difficult, even if one is well-qualified. Even those who well exceed the minimum requirements generally have to know people and be very persistent and patient. As a nurse you still have to be well-qualified, but assuming you are, and assuming of course that you interview well and do well on the pre-employment testing, you will find a position before long.

At one of the programs I worked at, we would typically get 20-25 new applicants for every FP opening that we had coming up (we would just add them to the pile of 50+ resumes that had already trickled in since the last time we interviewed), and we usually didn't even advertise the openings. The one time we did advertise openings on a well-known HEMS website, we got well over 100 resumes from all over the country for a single open position. We'd usually take that stack of 50-150 resumes, look through them, and throw out any that didn't exceed our requirements. Then we'd rank the rest in some very unscientific way, and invite the top 5 or so to come interview. If we already knew you and liked you, OR if you already had flight experience, then your chances of being invited to interview were infinitely higher. If your resume looked like crap or your email was hopelessly misspelled it went to the bottom of the pile or in the garbage (communication skills are very important), no matter how many letters you had behind your name. I have no doubt there there were probably many people who we never talked to who would have worked out great, but we only had so many position and so much time to hire for each one. And this was for a small program with only two bases. We only had a couple openings per year typically. For a much larger program, you probably have to multiply the number of resumes they have to choose from several times.

FN openings were very different. We would occasionally get a FN resume out of the blue, but there was no steady steam of them like for FP's, and no deluge of them prior to an opening. We actively recruited nurses from area ICU's and ED's who were colleagues of our current flight nurses. Even so we usually didn't have more than a handful of qualified applicants to choose from per opening.
 
DEmedic said:
In the areas surrounding King County, you'll find R/M, Falck, AMR and Olympic. You're correct, you need to be employed by an agency to get a certification. And frankly, aside from the fire departments and KCM1, none of them are decent to work for. It's mostly IFT.
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DEmedic- Quick question for you- I have read through almost all of the Seattle related posts and your always one to speak up, which has giving me quite an insight to the area... & I have read your comments about "don't do it" "stay away" and such... Which doesn't quite scare me, but I've learned from experience is the ones that know best tend to speak up. Idk where else you have worked but is there a state in your opinion that would be better suited for an EMT-b looking to progress quickly through the chain up to Flight nurse and actually wants work at their cureent level, not constantly running BLS or IFT the entire time?
 
Sure. Lots of the Texas services come to mind right off the bat. REMSA in Reno seems to be a decent place to start and grow. Hennepin County MN looks like a decent service. There's a lot of them out there... you'll need to look at all of them and make a list of the things that are important to you. I'm sure many of the other medics here can weigh in on decent places to work.
 
Thank you so much, I will add those two to my research list. How do you like Sussex Co? I have family in mid-jersey, and have batted back and forth with moving back to that corner of the country- from my understanding DE has chase medics and standard BLS trucks- do they have flight programs or does the chase trucks cut that out?
 
I loved working for Sussex. I think it's one of the premier EMS agencies in the country, even though it's lesser known. If I didn't get sucked back into my previous career, I never would've left. It's a career department.

Sussex, and all of Delaware, runs county based ALS chase trucks. All of the Ambulance services, with the exception of Dover and some Wilmington, is provided by volunteer/paid fire department and ambulance squad BLS trucks.

There are some private companies, but they do not do any 911 ALS, and are limited mostly to BLS interfacility. At this time, to be an ALS 911 paramedic in Delaware you have to be employed by a county service. There are some interfacility paramedics, that work for lifestar, but they don't run any 911.

Most scene flights are handled by Delaware State Police. In Sussex, if you RSI a patient, you'll fly along with the state police in the helicopter. Kent and New Castle County do not currently perform RSI. There is also an air methods service (life net) that flies Interfacility and some scene flights, based from Christiana. They also have an airship in Georgetown.

Sussex is one of the harder services to get hired by. They have a very rigorous interview and a long FTO training period. But, paramedics that complete the program are incredibly strong and capable.
 
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