>>16928849
hey OP, I'm an EMT

where do you live and were you hoping to pursue this in a professional or volunteer capacity?

>>16928871
Hi, thanks for responding. I live in Kentucky. Around Lexington.

I'd like to be a professional but might also volunteer with the local fire department on the side.

I'll be doing my EMT class at a local community college.

>>16928893
ok well my experience may not be as relevant to you since I don't know the situation with KY EMS so you should really ask your instructor about that but where I work in NY just outside of NYC your options are to work for a private EMS agency which either do a mix of 911s and medical transports (though with most, but not my company, they wont let you do 911s right away) or agencies that strictly do medical transports only, or working 911s in the city itself under the auspices of the FDNY. Lots of people I work with are volunteer firefighters on the side as well and some even volunteer with volunteer ambulance corps though god only knows why.

Do you have any idea who you want to work for and what the deal is with them? I'd do your research because a lot of professional EMS agencies really do not have their shit together at all and unfortunately treat and pay EMTs like shit.

Anyway as for your class my advice is just to read the book, study hard, and try not to stress too much. I was working when I went through EMS school so it was difficult for me to really put in the hours to get the knowledge locked in, rather than just know enough to get by which was unfortunate but I made it through. All you need to do is commit yourself to the end and you'll make it, its really not that hard, and I've been told that NY's test is one of the most difficult.

Btw you say you want to be a medic, that's great, but I would advise against going to medic school until you have atleast a year as a 911 EMT but ideally closer to 3. ALS is nothing without a solid foundation of BLS.

If you had any specific questions please ask.

>>16928930
Thank you for the well thought out response

It isn't as extensive here. My dream job is firefighter but I would enjoy just as much being a 911 ALS medic.

What kind of hours do you work? From what I understand most EMTs and medics are doing either three 12s or two 24s

>>16928930
Also no offense but I don't wanna wait 3 years before going to college. I'm already 25 years old and don't want to be much older before going full medic.

>>16928956
right now I work 8 hrs tues/wed/thurs and 12 hrs on friday but its not my ideal schedule. My company has it so you can bid for open shifts every month, and if you get it then its yours until you give it up. We just recently picked up the contract to do 911s in my hometown since the company that was doing it here went bankrupt, so I'm trying to move over to 3 12 hour shifts here, it may take some time to get that schedule though. And anyway that's just my company I'm sure others are completely different.

Be sure as soon as you get you EMT card you apply for the LFD the next time they have an exam. I applied to join the FDNY EMS back in September and just got my list number from them last week, and its 1254 so yeah that's gonna be atleast a 2 year wait.

If you're already 25 you should probably have a plan B in mind for the FD since most of them wont let you join after 30 and it can take many years to get in since there's such high demand for those jobs. I wouldn't recommend being a medic as a long term career, people burn out quite quickly and I am convinced that paramedics are the most underpaid and underappreciated professionals in the world.

>>16928990
What would you recommend instead of medic?

>>16928997
if you like medicine: physician's assistant, RN, surgical tech

if you like emergency services: fire or police

if you really enjoy both then get your medic and then get a degree in emergency management and try to become a field supervisor.

Personally I love Emergency Services but medicine is really not my strong suit so I'm trying to move over to PD, the police in my area have a big interest in ESU (EMT cops) so I'd probably try to go in that direction. I know there's no way I could ever go back to working in an office after I've worked a job where every day is different and you're going into people's homes and whatnot. Everything else just seems mind numbingly boring by comparison now.

Really the problem with EMS is that its not taken seriously as the third branch of emergency services so its extraordinarily underpaid and overworked, it also has very weak or no unions relative to fire and pd, because of these poor conditions nobody wants to stay in EMS and it never gets better, its a vicious cycle.