Emergency Medical Technician

Answer 1

The Career

Emergency Medical Technicians are the healthcare providers who show up when you or someone else calls 911. Emergency medical technicians are trained to stabilize an injured patient and transport them to the emergency room for further assistance. This career requires a substantial comfort level with blood and injury, as technicians will deal with severe injuries from car accidents, falls, assaults, and other life-threatening incidents.

Being an EMT or paramedic is often a stressful job. You must be able to handle viewing and moving dead bodies, as well as resuscitate possibly dying patients and work with their families. This takes an emotional toll on many emergency medical technicians, and job turnover can be high.

Working conditions do not provide regular hours. An emergency medical technician may be on call for 24 hours straight, and one popular schedule involves a 24 hour shift, followed by 48 hours of rest, followed by another 24 hour shift. While it is not likely that you will be in the ambulance for the full 24 hours, you must be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Emergency medical technicians can also be found in emergency rooms. These employees will be known as the ER technician, and they will not treat serious injuries like EMTs on an ambulance.

Education And Training

There are several levels to emergency medical training. The first, EMT-B, produces what is usually known as the emergency medical technician. This is a certificate earned after several months of training, and EMT-Bs often do not see as many severe injuries as the higher levels of EMTs outside of rural areas. In urban areas, EMT-Bs generally drive the ambulances and take vitals.

The second level of training is EMT-I. This is a rare qualification, and many EMT training programs do not provide it. The next level is EMT-P, the paramedic. Paramedics are required to have EMT-B certification, but not EMT-I. Paramedic training involves completing either a yearlong training program or a two year associate’s degree program. The paramedic position is the most advanced EMT qualification.

Salary

EMT-Bs can expect to earn anywhere from $8-12 an hour, usually for the entire shift, whether they are on the ambulance or not. Paramedics earn anywhere from $12-20 an hour.

Job Outlook

Although job growth for EMTs is predicted to be only 9%, job prospects are expected to be good, especially because high job turnover rates for current EMTs is high. New workers will need to be recruited to replace old workers who leave the profession.