Are you at your forever department?

[u/iheartMGs]

EDIT: I really appreciate all the feedback from everyone! Pretty cool to hear all the different responses! Stay safe brothers/sisters and wish everyone the best of luck throughout your careers!

Title says it all. Curious how many members have found their forever depts and why you made it your home for the rest of your career. The culture at my department is simply amazing. The chiefs know every member by first name and your put into a leadership role pretty early on if you’ve earned the trust of the officers. They will send you to virtually any training, deploy you across the nation, etc. Let’s hear what you have.

[u/SmokeEater1375]

I’d say so. About a year ago it wasn’t going too hot and a lot of guys were looking to move on due to some administration decisions. Now it’s mellowed out and I equate it to “growing pains.” We’re getting busier and hiring more people, especially younger people. Medics are hard to find. We need more staffing. Blah blah. Same problems everybody else has. But in reality it’s not all that bad. We just gotta refine those problems. We get left alone during day to day stuff and we keep things pretty traditional. We get paid pretty well.

I spent a lot of my early EMS career working busy cities and while I like the hustle, it’s hard to pretend like that’s healthily sustainable for 30 years. The department I’m at now (we run our own ambulance) is definitely steady and possibly one of the busiest suburbs in the area. It’s a good amount of calls without being overwhelmed. We also neighbor two not-so-nice cities so we catch plenty of “fun.” Also, nobody will ever admit we catch enough fires but for a small town we definitely get our fair share, not including mutual aid.

I myself had thought about leaving but only for a big city but I’m now also at the point where I just want to be a productive part of this department growing and laying a good foundation for the future. I don’t really want to go anywhere else anymore.

[u/iheartMGs → u/SmokeEater1375]

Solid response. I tried working for a dept that ran a few ambulamps and I just couldn’t imagine doing that for years. I’m lucky enough to not have to do that anymore, but if it works for you and you enjoy it then that’s all that matters.

[u/SmokeEater1375 → u/iheartMGs]

Yeah I get it. I went to school and sacrificed a lot to be a medic, so I want to use those skills. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy fires more but I also feel like I directly help others more on medical calls. We also have a little more freedom when we’re on the ambulance in the sense that we can go out and run errands a bit easier, watch some co-worker’s kid’s sports games, and we’re technically available from the hospital so we can shoot the shit with other crews and the nurses too without really delaying anything.

We have rotating assignments and you get more time off the ambulance as your seniority goes up. And no officers work the ambulance so you can kinda promote out of it. Also, due to lower staffing, if there’s a fire, unless there’s a victim at the front door on arrival, we beach the ambulances and go to work as firefighters so it’s really not terrible.

[u/iheartMGs → u/SmokeEater1375]

Having the freedom to move about is definitely a perk; no one to pester you as long as your responding and handling business as usual. For sure a sigh of relief. All the medics I’ve ever talked to same the same thing as far as sacrificing personal time/life. I couldn’t do it that’s for sure. I’ve got 3 kids and a wife. I already catch an earful how I’m not home enough at times. Great thing about being a medic is that it does open up a lot of opportunity else where that most non red patches don’t have access to.