Paid vs. Volunteer EMT-B?

[premedmind]

I have two choices during this summer..

1. Stick with my local Fire Department, volunteering as an EMT-B (they also require me to take a "Fire-Medic" course...which I'm NOT looking forward to). Also I'm not looking forward to the 3 A.M calls during the night. I am actually getting sworn in tonight, so I would feel quite guilty leaving for a paid job.

2. Try to find a place to work and get paid as an EMT-B, when I get my certification this June. I could definitely use the, albeit, lousy salary as I am a broke college kid. I just don't want to spend my days driving an ambulance back and forth all the time, I want to take care of patients.

Are things different when your are being paid as an EMT as opposed to volunteering?

I am a real snob when it comes to devoting my time to something. I want to make sure I am getting 100% of my efforts back.

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[jbar]

depends on what the paid job would be. If you want to learn medicine and found someone who would hire you to work full time, 911 that would be a great experience. But be careful, many private services only hire EMTs to do transports and transfers, and then hire internally to do 911. In that case I don't think it would be worth doing, you could get stuck doing wheelchair transfers all summer and not see any good calls. Also take a look at their training programs, you could end up being in training all summer and not get fully cut loose till the end.

 

[leviathan]

It's been said before, but you can learn a thing or two by doing transfers for patients by learning about their medical history.

 

[jbar]

sure, you can learn from transfers. But usually people talk about it in terms of "you are stuck doing transfers for awhile while you wait for a 911 spot to open up, so learn all you can and make the best use of the time." But if I was choosing between doing transfers and volunteer 911 I'd stick with the 911. Another option the OP might want to look at is ED tech jobs. Sometimes they hire EMTs depending on the state. You get paid, get to see a lot of patients, learn a ton of medicine. Good all around fit if you can't find a paid 911.

 

[leviathan]

sure, you can learn from transfers. But usually people talk about it in terms of "you are stuck doing transfers for awhile while you wait for a 911 spot to open up, so learn all you can and make the best use of the time."

Hahaha, true true true. I'm just trying to make lemonade here, my friend.