EMTs: Advice Needed

[ThomasR]

Fellow Pre-PAs & PAs that chose EMT as primary patient-care experience, how was your experience like? In what setting did you utilize your knowledge in and what did the work consist of?

 

I am one month away from certification and feeling resigned to the fact that my scope of work will be very limited… I chose emergency medicine in lieu of nursing assistant because I thought it would provide me a broader scope of practice and build confidence. I am finding out, however, that EMTs in my region/county are constrained to inter-facility transportation in private ambulances. This is very discouraging given the amount of information I’ve had to learn and practice... I am almost two grand into this program and feeling regretful of not having challenged the CNA exam instead.

 

With competition rising, I am aware that I will need as much experience as possible for school applications. As such my short-term goal is to find work as an ER Tech after I complete various other certifications and obtain experience. Although, if my experience is limited to transportation I find the odds unfavorable.

 

Any suggestions?

[UGoLong]

I started out as an EMT basic with a volunteer fire department and loved it. That's out as an option in your part of the country? I didn't make any money at it, but I had a good "day" job. I sometimes worked 100 hrs a month in EMS and 40-50 hours a week at the day job. It was a great foundation.

 

The ER tech approach is a very good one, especially if you can't ride EMS. You will get to see quite a variety of patients and conditions, as well as be exposed to physicians and PAs who could ultimately recommend you for school.

 

Good luck!

[dream2pa]

i am an EMT-B and worked in trauma center for a year. my responsibilities included phlebotomy, splinting, finger stick, helping with codes like CPR, transporting patients to different areas of hospital, vitals, occasional wiping if we have a total care patient , helping doctors Pas and NPs with anything they need from holding down peds patients to setting up supplies for various procedures like LP, central line and ext. i learned a lot and definitely prefer EMT over CNA.

[EMEDPA]

with my emt I worked as both an er tech and a phlebotomy tech. after college I went right into paramedic school and worked as a medic for 5 years.

[linusfreckles]

When I first got my emt certification the only job companies would hire me for were interfacility transports. As boring as it might sound, I learned alot about the medical side of EMS, whereas working 911 I encounter trauma jobs majority of the time. During the 3 years working transport, I developed alot of skills such as patient interaction and finding an efficient flow working with patients. That experience helped me transition to the 911 side fluently, whereas I have worked with new emts working 911 who should have worked transport to start off. Also when I worked transport, we would receive alot of emergency calls from nursing homes and private residences.

 

I also work as a nursing assistant at an orthopaedic hospital where my job consists of taking vitals, walking patients to the bathroom, am care and changing bed sheets. It's definitely different experience from working ems but it's good experience working in the hospital and seeing how everyone's role falls into place.

I honestly do not like working as a nursing assistant. The interactions with patients are great and I enjoy talking to them but I never have enough time to spend with one patient. Working ems I am able to focus on one patient at a time (sometimes up to 3) and not have to worry about cutting off my patient short because someone else is ringing their call bell.

As messed up as this sounds, working ems I save the patients ass while working as a nursing assistant I kiss it.

 

I would suggest to work as an EMT and find whatever else you can handle. Get as much different experience you can to make sure that healthcare is where you want to be. Alot of people get burned out quickly in healthcare because they don't know what they are getting themselves into.

[ThomasR]

I started out as an EMT basic with a volunteer fire department and loved it. That's out as an option in your part of the country? I didn't make any money at it, but I had a good "day" job. I sometimes worked 100 hrs a month in EMS and 40-50 hours a week at the day job. It was a great foundation.

 

The ER tech approach is a very good one, especially if you can't ride EMS. You will get to see quite a variety of patients and conditions, as well as be exposed to physicians and PAs who could ultimately recommend you for school.

 

Good luck!

 

I'm not a 100% sure, but I think volunteering with the fire department isn't an option here. I don't know if that's attributed to living in a metropolitan city or just Florida having weird laws. I will verify with my instructor.

 

ER Tech would be ideal and I'm working for it but it seems to draw more medics than EMTs.

 

Maybe I just need to relocate?

 

 

i am an EMT-B and worked in trauma center for a year. my responsibilities included phlebotomy, splinting, finger stick, helping with codes like CPR, transporting patients to different areas of hospital, vitals, occasional wiping if we have a total care patient , helping doctors Pas and NPs with anything they need from holding down peds patients to setting up supplies for various procedures like LP, central line and ext. i learned a lot and definitely prefer EMT over CNA.

 

Wow, that is fantastic experience. What was your title? How did you obtain the position? What area was this in? I'm open to relocating for this kind of experience.

[DiggySRNA]

Try seeing if you can find a job in the ER department as an ER-Tech.

[Timon]

Getting an ER Tech job typically means networking your way in. You should consider the IFT experience and then find a way in to a hospital. That may mean volunteering, hitting up friends / family, or getting any position possible at a hospital and schedule a meeting with the Director of the ED.

 

You can always challenge the CNA exam, so why sweat it? If anything, you're learning great skills now that will come in handy in PA school and especially in clinical rotations. Especially with the fact that you can actually make decisions as an EMT-B running IFTs versus as a CNA you're taking your orders from the RN most the time (and it's usually the stuff the RN doesn't want to do themselves).

[dream2pa]

I was an EMT BASIC I acquired the certificate during a 14 week summer course . I applied for a trauma hospital and was lucky enough to get hired . So far I have accumulated 4000 hours of on hands health care experience and 1000 hours working as a scribe .

[UGoLong]

I'm not a 100% sure, but I think volunteering with the fire department isn't an option here. I don't know if that's attributed to living in a metropolitan city or just Florida having weird laws. I will verify with my instructor.

 

ER Tech would be ideal and I'm working for it but it seems to draw more medics than EMTs.

 

Maybe I just need to relocate?

 

I don't know Florida law but many areas of the country -- some not all that far from cities -- are still served by volunteer and part-time paid services. I'm sure someone associated with your EMT program can tell you how far you'd have to drive to get to one. 

 

I live in Columbus, OH, which is in a very urban county. We still have one pseudo-volunteer department and lots of volunteer or part time paid departments in the surrounding rural counties. 

[GreatChecko]

I'm not a 100% sure, but I think volunteering with the fire department isn't an option here. I don't know if that's attributed to living in a metropolitan city or just Florida having weird laws. I will verify with my instructor.

 

ER Tech would be ideal and I'm working for it but it seems to draw more medics than EMTs.

 

Maybe I just need to relocate?

 

 

 

Wow, that is fantastic experience. What was your title? How did you obtain the position? What area was this in? I'm open to relocating for this kind of experience.

 

Many states allow this. Dig around and you will find hospitals that will allow techs to do these things. The more rural the state is, the more their EMTs can tend to do. There are a few states that allow EMTs to start IVs and push some meds. FL is a bit restrictive when it comes to EMTB scope when you look across the country. 

 

The issue you might run into is that many of these ED tech positions may want previous experience, so working for a bit doing interfacility transfers may be where you need to start.

 

As for volunteering with fire in Florida, its uncommon in South Florida, though Palm Beach County does have one volunteer fire house that acts as reserve. North Florida does have quite a few volly departments. None that I have found run EMS. All the counties in FL usually have an EMS system, with fire doing first response, which is much of what they will do, so it might not be a bad thing if it's a busy department. If you want to relocate, consider going somewhere maybe more rural, many departments actively recruit EMTs.

 

Working as an ED tech can be a lot of fun and worth it. It's great experience and worth working up to. Don't neglect trying to volunteer in an ED to try and work into a tech position. It's what I did and it led me into a dream job at a Level I trauma center.

 

Good Luck!

[Forensikchic]

I work as a EMT-B part time in Texas.  I run with a 911 service in a rural county.  Most of our calls are 45 minute to an hour transport unless we fly them. We fly all the major traumas, heart attacks and strokes but we have to do the CPR until the chopper can get there.  I take care of the basic calls I get on my shift, otherwise I just drive.  We have nursing homes that we transfer to the hospital and its like IFT but we are a 911 service.  We do not bring them back after their hospital visit!  I love those calls because I get to take care of the pt then.  I have really enjoyed working with pts as an EMT-B.  There are tons of volly fire departments around my area too.  Some of them dont use EMTB's but some do.  I think it would be worth looking into. 

 

I work 24-36 hour weekends EVERY weekend at EMS and I have a full time "day job" and teach at a local college.  I run with EMS because its in my blood.  I love the pts!  Good luck on your journey.  I dont think you have wasted your time at all.  Even IFT will give you pt care experience and that's what you need, not necessarily the skill set of a paramedic.  You will learn all those skills and more in PA school.  You need to get used to treating patients, the compassion, listening skills that come with that.. You will get plenty of that with IFT.  Remember a lot of elderly people really just want to be listened to and cared about.  They need you to be compassionate.  Some medics I work with are met with hostility from some of the elderly and I can see it is because the medic is not being attentive and the pt gets the feeling that they don't care.  That seems to change when a basic gets on board and really listens to them and gives them gentle reassurance.  Its all in how you treat people.  Hope that this helps you.