Needing some advice

Specialties Emergency

Published

I always thought I wanted to be either and ER nurse or work in the ICU. However I have been given the opportunity to get my EMT lisence and now I am wondering if I want to take the paramedic route.

I would love to hear from y'all that have done both. I finally got my first hospital job after being in LTC and now I am ready for the next step; I am just not sure what that should be!

Yes I know there is a big difference between a paramedic and an EMT. But you have to be an EMT before becoming a paramedic. At least where I live anyway. And I do plan on going on to that

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Specializes in ED, Pedi Vasc access, Paramedic serving 6 towns.
I have the utmost respect for Paramedics. They are a savvy bunch. Unfortunately, in my opinion, unless you work for a fire department or someplace like that, Paramedics are grossly underpaid for their expertise and life saving abilities.

I can vouch for that... Just switched from full time medic to full time nurse and literally doubled my pay, and that isn't counting differentials. I have been a medic for 14 years and a nurse for 11!! I did truly love being a medic, it's a fun job where you get to think on your toes and actually assess patients and make treatment decisions. The downside is that eventually your body gets older, the patents are getting fatter every year (no lie!), and ER nurses get meaner and more burnt out.

The poster is right in saying that there isn't any place to go, once you are a medic you are a medic, unless you want to do flight (you can be a flight nurse instead and make about 20K more) or fire department. I think EMS is a great job, but most people cannot keep doing it well into their 50s. Also if you work private EMS you have no awesome pension waiting for you when your back and body can't do it anymore. I did it full time for 20 years before switching to nursing, and I loved every minute of it. That being said it's ok to go do the EMT and medic thing, but just have a plan B in mind. I went to nursing school right after I finished medic school because I knew this day would eventually come, and I wanted to still have some way of having a viable income to live off of. My friends that I work with are now in there 40s and 50s are now scrambling to get nursing school or some other education done so they can get out of EMS, because they too are either bored or sick and tired of picking up 400 lb people off the floor that don't want to take care fo themselves! I don't think i will every love nursing like I loved EMS, but I am hopeful if I find my niche... (which is why I am staying a medic per-diem)

Bottom line do EMS if thats what you love, but be prepared to go back to school at some point unless your intention is working for a fire department.

...and please for the love of god don't do any sort of bridge program, they are dangerous and not the right thing for patients! Nurses and medics think differently and have different responsibilities and they are not easily interchangeable!

Annie

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I am one of those hey I will try anything people lol. And I am just want to try something different. I have been a CNA since high school and everyone was always like nursing; but I am just not 100 percent about that and I have always wanted to try this. I think I would rather do this if I like it while I go to nursing school then be a CNA.

Talk about burn out. I got a job at the hospital and I love it, but I want a change of pace. I have no kids and I am not married so why not.

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New here (BSN,RN,CCRN,CEN,CFRN,NR-P) but I've been poking around for a few years. I'm a flight nurse (rotor) at my hospital but work the ED if I'm not flying. If you're anything like me, the ICU can be emotional and I have an abundance of it but I had to take it for my cert. The ED is fast paced, which I like, because I don't have them long enough to get attached. Silly as it sounds, I get paid more as an ED nurse than I do as a flight nurse but I rather be flying. Nursing is the only field for me and I wish you the best.

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I did the same thing. I ran EMS for 4 years while going to RN school. Being an EMT really helped hone my assessment skills and made it easier to pick out the "sick" patients quicker. It also eased the transition by getting me comfortably assessing patients; funny enough, the toughest thing non-experienced providers had to deal with was touching their patients, something you get intimately familiar with as an EMT and as a CNA. The most important thing that I learned while working as an EMT was determining if a person was sick or not, and if I had the resources to handle my patient then and there or if I needed to call for help. These two questions need to be evaluated inside of 5 seconds; the other 25 are used to figure out what resources you need exactly, be it a medic, a helicopter, firefighters, cops, or all the above. If you can do that, you are head and shoulders above your classmates for a good while.

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