Female Stressing hard about being EMT

[JennaBadger]

Hi,

I am signed up for an EMT class because I thought that working as an EMT/ER tech would be a good way to get clinical experience for an ABSN. I'm starting to have really cold feet about the EMT thing. Everyone tells me that EMT does not fit my personality. I am female, happy go lucky, silly, not super competitive but I do think I could work well under stressful situations. (And I am intelligent and a critical thinker!) I really care about people and I would love to be able to be there in a time of stress and reassure them. I am just worried that I will completely not fit in with personality of the EMTs, especially if they are mostly men. Absolutely no offense meant towards men, but I often feel ignored/not taken seriously by both men and women because of my happy-go lucky personality. I am afraid that my personality will just not work well with being an EMT.

Has anyone else (especially female EMTs) experienced this?

Thank you so much!

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

Everyone tells me that EMT does not fit my personality. I am female, happy go lucky, silly, not super competitive but I do think I could work well under stressful situations. (And I am intelligent and a critical thinker!) I really care about people and I would love to be able to be there in a time of stress and reassure them.

The people giving you advice are obviously not EMTs. When I worked EMS, laughter is needed to keep your sanity some days. You see some traumatic stuff and need an escape from your high stress, adrenaline high.

[KatMill2312]

This is ridiculous. I am a female EMT and I would consider myself to have the personality traits you listed: silly, happy go lucky, etc. Now, I AM competitive but I don't think that is a male trait nor one required for EMS or medicine in general. I DO think that a sense of humor is critical in dealing with what EMS throws your way, they call it "gallows humor" in fact. Many of us start with it, almost everyone ends up with it.

If you want to be an EMT do it. Are there more men in the field? Yes. Do they treat me less than or differently? No. I'm expected to know my stuff, pull my weight (sometimes literally) and do my job. Now there's always exceptions to the everything, but don't let a few naysayers put you off something you want to do.

[ItsThatJenGirl, CNA]

I went to an information session and interview for a local EMT program and half the applicants were female. Everyone was very nice and friendly. I didn't end up joining the program, but that wasn't because of the people (I found out I could work as an ED tech after one semester of nursing school).

If you want to do it, you should!