ER Tech vs EMT

[Djax99]

I was wondering if anyone had any input on being an ER Tech vs an EMT. I just recently got my EMT license and was wondering which experience would be more valuable and would overall be the better experience. I was wondering if people that had previously worked as an EMT or as an ER Tech could speak about their experiences.

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[Princeton Medical Student]

Both are valuable in a different way. As an ER tech you will mostly be doing vitals, moving patients, etc depending on the facility. You will get a pretty good understanding of how an ED operates. The downside is that there is very little assessment that you will personally will be doing outside of setting the patient up on the monitor. As an EMT you do quite a bit more. For the duration of the transport you are the sole medical provider for the patient with all of the responsibilities that this requires. You get a very different perspective on medicine, learning about issues that affect your community in a much closer way then you would from the ER itself. That said, you have far less exposure to physicians and thus it’s harder to build connections for shadowing etc.

 

[YCAGA]

ED Tech. Physicians don’t work on ambulances so EMT won’t give you a very good idea of what a physician does or even what other members of hospital based healthcare do…so like nurses, RT, your fellow techs, etc.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

ED Tech. Physicians don’t work on ambulances so EMT won’t give you a very good idea of what a physician does or even what other members of hospital based healthcare do…so like nurses, RT, your fellow techs, etc.

Physicians do work in EMS, though it is not super common. EMS teaches you more about patients, their living conditions etc quite a bit more in comparison so it isn’t really a one sided thing.

 

[Shunsui]

Agree with both comments above. Both are valuable experiences so what do you think you'd enjoy more? Personally, I'd rather learn the dynamics of the hospital/ER because that's where our time will be spent throughout med school but EMTs will definitely have more involvement in patient care. Can't go wrong either way.

Also, have to test the job market where you are. Some places might want ER techs with previous experience whereas coming off EMT ride alongs, you'll already have established some connections to secure a job pretty easily.

 

[YCAGA]

Physicians do work in EMS, though it is not super common. EMS teaches you more about patients, their living conditions etc quite a bit more in comparison so it isn’t really a one sided thing.

I didn’t say physician don’t work in EMS. I said they don’t work on ambulances, because they don’t. Maybe 1-2 HEMS operations use physicians on helicopters. We don’t use the Franco-German model of EMS in the US because we are AMERICAN 🦅

Models of International Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Systems

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov