Sticking with EMS

[leviathan]

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How many here are in medical school/residency/post-residency and are still working on the ambulance? I have this crazy notion that I will continue to do occasional shifts during medical school and beyond, but I wonder if any of you out there have actually had similar feelings and followed through with it? Is it practical to do a couple shifts here and there just for the enjoyment?

 

[psychbender]

I'm currently finishing my third year of medical school. I kept my paid EMS/Transport job through first and part of second year (~24-40 hrs a month), and have continued with my volunteer squad (150hrs/month in first year, now only ~100/month). We have someone from each class at my school on the squad, and we tend to help each other out a bit. As long as you can be flexible and balance the needs of school with your desire to still run EMS, it is entirely feasible to do both.

 

[pseudoknot]

I'm an M1, and I do a 12 hour shift (1800-0600) every eighth night for a volunteer rescue squad. I know there are some who have continued through M3 and M4.

 

[jbar]

It also depends on where you are going to be going to school in relation to where you are. I still ski patrol with my old patrol because it was easy (already have the certs, done the training, etc) I stopped working on an ambulance in part because it was too much of a hassle to get resiprocity, find a local squad that would take me, go through their training etc. If I had gone to med school back where I was working on an ambulance I might have done a few shifts here and there.

Now don't bite my head off people. I think it's great those who are in a good situation where they can work on an ambulance while in school. But really take a look at what you are going to be getting out of continuing to work on a rig at your current level. Are you going to be wasting time doing transfers or do you have a nice station where you can sit and study and run a call now and again? Also really think about what you are learning. I was getting to the point on the ambulance where on most calls I wasn't learning much, those exciting and challenging calls were getting fewer and father between. When you are in medical school there is so much information that you are supposed to be learning, and most (not all) ambulance calls don't teach you that stuff if you've been working the street for awhile.

I started doing shadowing and working in the ED during my first year. I've learned so much about emergency medicine and pathology. I still miss being on the street. If you find a good chance to do some shifts during school go for it, but be open to the possibility that you might get to a point where you say "this is making my schedule hell, I'm behind on my work, and I feel like I'd learn more doing something else."

 

[leviathan]

"this is making my schedule hell, I'm behind on my work, and I feel like I'd learn more doing something else."

I'm personally interested in keeping up with EMS because of the enjoyment of it, not because of any learning opportunities. Are there any physicians out here in residency or beyond that still do the occasional shift? If not, why not? Lack of time, lack of interest, or interests that have redirected into new areas, etc?

 

[viostorm]

I still do 8-12 hours / week on ambulance and I'm a MS3. During 1st and 2nd year I did 24-36 hours / week paid EMS.

I will caution you it DEFINITELY hurt my grades 1st and 2nd year. I ended up with a bunch of passes, now I'm kicking myself because damn it would be nice to be AOA for applying for residencies.

If you are thinking of a competitive specialty, I recommend just hitting the books and hanging up EMS until after 1st and 2nd year.

 

[jbar]

I'm personally interested in keeping up with EMS because of the enjoyment of it, not because of any learning opportunities. Are there any physicians out here in residency or beyond that still do the occasional shift? If not, why not? Lack of time, lack of interest, or interests that have redirected into new areas, etc?

If you enjoy it it may be doable, depending on where you go to school. I'm just saying keep an open mind if it starts dragging you down.

As to the shifts during residency or as an attending, I think there have been discussions on here before as to some of the legal issues regarding working EMS as a doctor. The short version is that there may be concerns with if you'd be working in the capacity as a doc or if you can say "I'm not a doctor today, I'm just a medic." Also may be a concern over if the ambulance service has more liability with a doc riding than a medic or EMT. I think final answer on that is that there isn't a national standard for these issues, and how much of a problem it would be varies based on the state, agency, and medical director.

(Being the medical director for service would prob be one of the easiest ways to get out there. You have more say in who gets to ride, and the service is already working under your license, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue if you do too. I know a lot of services have their med director respond out on fly cars)

 

[deleted6669]

I echo what was said above about medical directors in the field. easy to do.
I have a good friend who is an em pa who continues to work 1 twelve hr shift/week on an als unit as a senior medic despite full time employment as an em pa and added responsibilities as his hospital's disaster coordinator.