who to work for?

[guardian528]

Ok, so the reason I am getting my emt is because I needed it for a promotion in my lifeguarding job, but after some ride alongs I saw that I was really interested in ambulance work. So, I'll have my cert in around 4 weeks and I hope to work part time on an ambulance during the school year. Around here (santa barbara) AMR covers the entire county with 3 exceptions. One of those exceptions is the campus of ucsb and neighboring student community isla vista, which is run by ucsb's own ambulance. my dilemma is this: Working for rescue 7 (ucsb's ambulance) would be very convenient for me, as it is right next to me and they can schedule around school. However, they have a very small area to cover, being just the campus and isla vista(which is like 2 square miles). Basically, they run the same call day in and day out, drunks and OD's because college kids are stupid. Because of this, I want to apply at AMR, for the reason that they cover the whole city and go on a much larger variety of calls. More variety= more experience. Lastly, rescue 7 seems to be a haven for medics and emt's that have been fired from AMR, so it may be a little sub par.
My question is, based on the info I have given you, where would you prefer to work? Besides the obvious answer of 'do whatever works best' does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks in advance

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

If it were me...

I'd either go with the Campus deal or find another service outside your county. I should say that I am more than a little bias when ot comes to AMR. I worked for them for a year. I can't say that my experiences were a reflection on the entire company, my division, or AMR in CA, but my division was full of Medics and EMT's with the whole MONEY, MONEY, MONEY concept. Everyone put billing and "who has good insurence" before patient care. As a result the older people where cynical and burnout-ish and the younger folks (like me) were dragged down with them. In the time I was there I saw EMT after EMT join only to leave ASAP, including myself. Just because the folks at the Campus gig are former AMR doesn't mean that they were fired or are bad EMSers. As I said, I am bias and this is my OPINION based on my experience. (For all you out there with AMR in other areas, I hope you have it better and that my experiences are not a reflection on the entire company or the way they/you approach patient care. A defense of AMR on my account is not needed, as my thoughts are just that, my opinions.)

That said, put your application in with both! Working AMR will probably give you far more real experience than the Campus gig, but the Campus gig might be easier to get on with. I dunno. It took almost a year on a waiting list to get an interview with AMR for me. If you get on with Campus first, give them a go and let your personal experiences dictate your view on the type of medicine they practice. Then, if AMR gives a call, you can make a desision based on you life at that time. If AMR calls first, then you go with them and see if your experiences prove my opinion on AMR wrong; I hope so. Either way, it is always best to put you application into as many places as possible as soon as possible as often as possible (and personally do so if possible) and then wait to see what happens.

 

[Shishkabob]

I'm with AMR in Texas. Anyhow,


Who says you can't work both?

 

[amberdt03]

Who says you can't work both?

AMR does. i'm not sure about other AMR locations but i know that in dallas, my neop class had to sign a paper saying we wouldn't work for a "competitor", meaning private ambulance service, at the same time we were employed for AMR. i'm sure you had to sign one too when you were in neop.

 

[Shishkabob]

The way they explained it to us is a competitor is a company that does the same service in the same location as AMR, so for us that means anyone that does IFTs in DFW. They said we could still work for FDs because that's not 911.


If I chose to work for Wise Co. Ems that does 911, I'd be fine.

How this correlates to him is that the school does 911 in an area that AMR does not, so he should still be fine.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

The way they explained it to us is a competitor is a company that does the same service in the same location as AMR, so for us that means anyone that does IFTs in DFW. They said we could still work for FDs because that's not 911.

If I chose to work for Wise Co. Ems that does 911, I'd be fine.

How this correlates to him is that the school does 911 in an area that AMR does not, so he should still be fine.

Since AMR is always looking to expand and take over contract areas, competitor was explained to me to mean virtually any other ambulance providor. For instance, their was a city that 30 minutes down the highway from the "AMR city" I worked in and one of our employees of 8 years was canned when it was found out that he was moonlighing for them becaseu AMR had their eye on that city years earlier, but the contract was awarded to a local company. Their concern, as it was explained to me, was primarily a trade of "company secrets" and "providing aid to the enemy" and not a concern for the employees health.

 

[amberdt03]

The way they explained it to us is a competitor is a company that does the same service in the same location as AMR, so for us that means anyone that does IFTs in DFW. They said we could still work for FDs because that's not 911.


If I chose to work for Wise Co. Ems that does 911, I'd be fine.

How this correlates to him is that the school does 911 in an area that AMR does not, so he should still be fine.

i read his question as AMR does 911 for pretty much all of the city, except the campus. so if that is true then it would be a problem.


they did tell us that you could work for fire departments because there is no competition there, but not for a private service. wise county ems is technically a private service. if their contract comes up for renewal, AMR could put a bid in for it and "compete" against them(not likely though). so you might have a problem if amr found out. i'm gonna have to ask 510, next time i see one.