Have you ever wondered what do to with your career as an EMT or paramedic? The obvious choice is to work on an ambulance, either for a fire department, private company, or government run entity. But not everyone wants to work on an ambulance, not all ambulance jobs pay enough to support you, or maybe [...]
Have you ever worked for a remote or rural department or company and have also worked for a busy city department? Do you feel like you gained different skills because of the amount of time you were with your patients, whether it’s a lot of time or a little? Working for a remote or rural [...]
When EMS professionals report to work, it’s no surprise that a lot of our patients are going to be sick. It’s nothing new for us, but this means that we are exposed to sick person after sick person, germ after germ. This can be physically overwhelming for us sometimes. We often work long hours, running [...]
What do you do when your family is not supportive of your EMS work schedule? We work long hours, never knowing for sure what time we will get off. We work holidays, birthdays, and many other important days and nights. We can’t just call in sick or demand to get off work on time, just because [...]
If you have ever worked on an ambulance, you know that ambulance abuse happens. People call for an ambulance like they’re calling for a taxi. You pull up on scene, six vehicles sitting in the driveway, an entire family standing there, and the patient already has their bags packed, and they’re ready to hop in the [...]
Now days, it seems like everyone has Narcan… EMS, fire, law enforcement, jail and prisons, random business owners, even the general public, everyone has Narcan. There seems to be a shared mindset, that there are no side effects or consequences to giving Narcan. If someone is having an opioid overdose, Narcan might help reverse the effects [...]
Have you ever started a new job, and had to go through a training evaluation phase? That is a pretty common thing in EMS. Maybe you, yourself, are a training officer for your company. Companies and departments need to be certain that you are competent as an EMT or a paramedic. They need to ensure [...]
Have you ever responded to a patient who was in cardiac arrest? How long did it take you to get to the patient? Right now, the average 911 ambulance response is about 7 minutes. It might take you even longer, 10, 15, even 30 or more minutes to get to your patient depending on where [...]
How much weight can you lift? How much can you safely lift without hurting yourself? As EMTs and paramedics, we are expected to lift an enormous amount of weight several times a day. Now days, most of us have a Stryker gurney… the normal size, power Stryker gurneyweighs about 125 pounds, and the manual one weighs [...]
Have you ever had to work multiple jobs, just to make ends meet? Or do you have to work pretty much every day, just to pay the bills? In EMS, this is a common theme. EMTs and paramedics generally do not make that much money in America. For a profession that requires you to work long [...]
