Starting EMT-B, thoughts?

KirkAndrzejewski

KirkAndrzejewski

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I will be starting my EMT-B in January at my local hospital. I live in a rural town in Mid-Michigan. None of the hospitals around or private services are hiring. The closest place hiring is Saginaw County, which if anyone knows is just 2nd to Flint, MI in terms of shootings and gang violence. (In a list of cities with most murders per year in the US, Flint is 3rd, Saginaw 5th, and Detroit 6th).

So basically, even if I get a job after basic, which I hear is VERY VERY difficult, especially in rural areas, I would be working with a lot of gang violence and shootings, etc.

Currently I am in my senior year of high school and I'm working as a CNA in a nursing home. My parents and family want me to attend college for Nursing, but I know emergency medicine is where I want to be. I was offered a few small scholarships to Saginaw Valley State University, but I'm not sure if I want to attend. Even if I were too take up a nursing degree, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but in the ER, and I know it may take 10 years to get enough experience and pull to get in the ER. Its not that I don't enjoy taking care of the elderly in my community, or that I don't want to be an RN later on in life, I just feel like I'd be helping my community a lot more if I was in EMS, and I'd rather make 30k a year and love my job than make 60k and know I would want to be somewhere else. Even my high school counselors are furious with me. I have a 3.8 GPA and 31 ACT score and I'm turning away college to become an EMT, and later on a Paramedic. Basically, the point of this thread was for me to ask the opinion of my peers. Would you do the same in your position? And what are your thoughts on working in areas with a lot higher rate of crime? Lastly, do you enjoy your job? I know that EMS is a very rewarding career, and I can't wait to be a part of it.
 
EMS and nursing are two very different jobs. It's not as simple as they're both in healthcare. me personally, I couldn't do it. My wife, who started off as an EMT, is more happy in the ICU than she ever was in the field. They're two totally different jobs that you really need to experience before you can make a proper decision.

Don't get caught up in the nurses have to ask permission for every little thing bs. Nurses in the ER and ICU very often work on standing orders just like providers in the field do.

If it takes you ten years to land an ER spot, you're doing something wrong.

You'll likely see far more truly sick patients in the ER or ICU than you will in the field. EMS unfortunately has far more BS than legitimate calls. EMS is not nearly as "high speed, low drag" as you might think.

Don't downplay the financial aspect, either. Right now it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. In 5-10 years when you're completely on your own and having to work 60-80 hours a week to bring home enough to pay the bills, you'll rethink the importance of income.

Go shadow a nurse in the ER. Then see if you can ride along as a third for one of the local ems systems. Try and stay as unbiased as you can while evaluating the two. If you're already passionate about the medical field, don't discount the physician route, either.
 
Starting EMT-B soon

I will be starting my EMT-B in January at my local hospital. I live in a rural town in Mid-Michigan. None of the hospitals around or private services are hiring. The closest place hiring is Saginaw County, which if anyone knows is just 2nd to Flint, MI in terms of shootings and gang violence. (In a list of cities with most murders per year in the US, Flint is 3rd, Saginaw 5th, and Detroit 6th).

So basically, even if I get a job after basic, which I hear is VERY VERY difficult, especially in rural areas, I would be working with a lot of gang violence and shootings, etc.

Currently I am in my senior year of high school and I'm working as a CNA in a nursing home. My parents and family want me to attend college for Nursing, but I know emergency medicine is where I want to be. I was offered a few small scholarships to Saginaw Valley State University, but I'm not sure if I want to attend. Even if I were too take up a nursing degree, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but in the ER, and I know it may take 10 years to get enough experience and pull to get in the ER. Its not that I don't enjoy taking care of the elderly in my community, or that I don't want to be an RN later on in life, I just feel like I'd be helping my community a lot more if I was in EMS, and I'd rather make 30k a year and love my job than make 60k and know I would want to be somewhere else. Even my high school counselors are furious with me. I have a 3.8 GPA and 31 ACT score and I'm turning away college to become an EMT, and later on a Paramedic. Basically, the point of this thread was for me to ask the opinion of my peers. Would you do the same in your position? And what are your thoughts on working in areas with a lot higher rate of crime? Lastly, do you enjoy your job? I know that EMS is a very rewarding career, and I can't wait to be a part of it.
 
You have your whole life ahead of you. Don't be in such a hurry to get on the street as an EMT that your forfeit the college experience as a college-age kid. I dropped out of college after two years to run off & join the airlines. I had no direction, no motivation and no end goal while I was in college those two years, yet I still value those years as an INCREDIBLE and irreplaceable life learning experience. Go to college while you're "college age", because I can tell you from personal experience that trying to go back and "finish up" later is a HELL of a lot harder than it sounds when you're in your mid-30s, with two kids and life has caught up with you.

Perhaps a Public Safety Administration degree or something along those lines would get you off to college, and get a degree that you're interested in. Here's a program at Eastern Michigan: http://www.emich.edu/extended/programs/undergraduate/public-safety-administration.php

Don't be in such a hurry. You've got your whole life ahead of you, don't miss out on the college experience. You don't have to do a nursing degree program if you don't want to, but don't throw in the towel on the whole experience altogether.
 
I think the OP posted this in two forums.. maybe a mod can merge so you have one conversation going?
 
Im currently in Nursing school. It is a lot of work, but you can still practice during the weekends. Where I am, we see maybe 4 calls a shift with a 10min transport time to the clinic and a 30min transport to the hospital.

I work Friday evening to Sunday morning, and during my down time I study with one of the Nursing students in the class ahead of me that also works those hours.

I am just like you- I would rather work in critical care. There are hospitals, at least in both areas I am in, that will allow you to work in the ER as a fresh out of school RN due to the fact that you have experience in EMS.

The other thing you could do is pick up a part time job as an ED Tech at a local hospital. When you get out of school, that ED Tech job is another thing that will help you get a job as a Nurse right out of school.

I was up in the air for a long time about what I decided to do. I had a full ride to paramedic school (Associates of Science for Paramedics), and enough scholarships to pay for half of nursing school (Bachelors of Science for Nursing), and here I am in Nursing school.

I highly recommend going to school. IF you don't like it, or it is a struggle for you, you can leave, with the knowledge that you tried, as opposed to not going, and wondering how you would have done.
 
STXmedic said:
If you're already passionate about the medical field, don't discount the physician route, either.
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Meh. I think with the way that the healthcare system is going right now, Physician wont be as popular anymore because the hospitals are going to have lots of restrictions on them, and with technology these days. physicians wont have as much patient contact anymore. IMHO if you want to get into advanced practice, PA or NP is a much better way to go.
 
EMT B said:
Meh. I think with the way that the healthcare system is going right now, Physician wont be as popular anymore because the hospitals are going to have lots of restrictions on them, and with technology these days. physicians wont have as much patient contact anymore. IMHO if you want to get into advanced practice, PA or NP is a much better way to go.
Click to expand...

Certainly a valid point. I did forget to mention mid-levels. However, as I said, physician is still an option to look into and not discount. There may be some changes, but physicians will certainly not become obsolete. Just because it's not something you would consider doesn't mean the OP should immediately put it out of his head.
 
Just because you're a EMT dosen't really mean that you have to work in the field. Most hospitals have EMT's in the ER, I believe they do the grunt work for the nurses however I'm not sure.

If you do decide to work in the field you can further along your education by completing a paramedic program, but keep in mind if you're a medic that is not working with a fire dept the pay is generally lower. Its STXmedic says keep in mind the financial aspect, even if you do need to make more money to support yourself you can go along and get a RN or a PA.

There are so many "roads" to travel in health care, don't just consider working one road.
 
KirkAndrzejewski said:
I have a 3.8 GPA and 31 ACT score and I'm turning away college to become an EMT, and later on a Paramedic
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This is the part I'm curious about. It's not necessarily a bad decision, but it's the wrong reason. I wouldn't turn down college education in order to pursue certification, especially when becoming a paramedic is basically an associates degree or equivalent anyways. Having a college education is helpful not only in terms of life experience and education and blah blah, but also because it is something that can make you stand out in fields where some people might not have a degree. So turning down a degree to do something like EMS isn't a great idea on its own. After all, you could do a degree in something like Emergency Medical Management and have a shoe in towards big FEMA gigs.

There are lots of good reasons not to go to college right now however! Among them are debt and the fact that most colleges, even the state colleges, are for-profit in that they will require you to take lots of dumb classes so they can take maximum money from you, and that the loans are predatory and will haunt you until you die. A lot of my young friends I've recommended not to go to college but instead to pursue trades (EMS, fire, carpentry, electricians, welding, etc.) But if you have a scholarship free-ride or something like this, I wouldn't turn down college.

This is just anecdotal, but I recently was talking to a guy here in MD who is just coming off probie status at our fire department. He mentioned that two things can be a huge step up for fire jobs, and those are having a degree, and wanting to be a medic. So having a college degree can still help.

Also there's no reason you can't get your EMT certs and then work EMS during college, even as a volunteer. Experience is experience.

If your passion is medicine, by the way, college will be necessary to move up in the medical realm regardless. At some point if you want to be a medic, you'll be doing college. And after that, if you want to be something other than a medic (RN, PA, physician, whatever) then you'll need the college. So again, if it's gonna be cheap or free, don't just put college aside. If it's gonna bury you in debt like it does everyone else, though, consider going without it, yeah.



Also, is there a reason you're bound to that specific area? It's true that in your area there might not be lots of EMS jobs, and it's also true that good EMS jobs in general generally don't just throw themselves at people, but as an adult you'll be able to move around after work, and I'd suggest it anyways just because that's a good thing to do in life. It's good to get some experience in cities and states other than your hometown, else your worldview can become narrow. But yeah, don't give up on EMS or nursing just because jobs aren't easy to come by in Saginaw Co. Try out some new places!
 
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