If yall see my last post I was so close. Didn’t waist anytime to retest! Time to become an IFT demon 😭

How often is it that you guys have second or even third jobs? Cost of living is going through the roof and I feel like not enough companies are increasing wages. I didn’t get into this for money, but shit I might have to leave BECAUSE of money. I see so many firefighters have second jobs like moving and stuff and I think it’s so fucked up how literal first responders can’t support themselves with one job.

What do yall do for second jobs? Do you feel like you get paid fairly for your experience?

Edit- Disclaimer, I don’t want this to be a political post about the current state of the economy at all. Please don’t make it one.

I’ve already tried 3 different types of 5.11 boots and they always hurt my heels when standing still. The only comfort I get from them is walking extended periods of time. Weird thing to explain but it always happens when I’m wearing those boots. Never my regular shoes.

Ive never been diagnosed but I might be flatfooted. Any suggestions or recommendations? I don’t want to keep trying 511 boots. I’m currently using some Timberland, they’re slightly more comfortable but they don’t have the easy slip on feature or zipper.

I work 48 hour shifts so being able to take off my boots at night is a plus. Any help is welcomed, thanks in advanced.

I put in my notice at my current ambulance job and don't plan to find another. I've been in this for about 10 years at this point (first 3 as a basic) and it's just eaten me alive. The sad part is I love the job. I love medicine, talking to patients, learning new things everyday, I even love the moments of chaos.

What I hate is these gluttonous private companies that treat us as pawns in a poorly played game so that some asshole several states away can make passive income. Laughable insurance and PTO, no union where I am and no one sticks around long enough to bother changing that. The company runs their own 1-month card mill EMT program so they always have some fresh warm bodies to burn out so they don't give two squirts of piss about job satisfaction, even for the medics and CCT RNs.

Where I live the only options for medics are other similar private companies or fire. I just can't jibe with the culture in fire departments. Also 24 hour shifts would tank my health in the long term, I tried it for a short time.

I applied to nursing school. I teach ACLS/BLS on the side and I'm lucky enough to have a partner who works in healthcare as well who understands my position and is willing to support my financially while I get this figured out. He's glad I'm quitting. I might even go back to bartending for a while.

I don't want to sit in vehicles for hours on end. I want adequate lighting, climate control, and access to bathrooms. When I was an ER tech it was a pay cut but jesus christ my mental wellbeing was never better. I even learned more because I could spend more time with the critical cases while the knee pain x5 years I didn't have to write an entire chart on sits in the waiting room. I know nursing is far from perfect and has its own set of issues but the job doesn't have a hard ceiling the way EMS does on upward mobility.

Anyway, I'm short on sleep and this wasn't well-articulated so thanks for reading. Best of luck to you all.

Hello, current EMT and aspiring paramedic here, with a bit of a unique question. Currently I have 2 years of EMS service under my belt and I hope to get into Medic school where I am this coming fall in 2026. I also hope to land a job in the PNW as a medic sometime in the future and live/work out there.

My question is, would it be better to move as an EMT and then work with a service/department until they push me through a medic school, or would it be better to do it here with my current service and then move out and land a job as a medic?

TLDR: Medic in Maine and then move to PNW or move to PNW and do medic school there.

I am a 18 year old about to go to college. Within my college is a 4 year degree to become a paramedic. I am very consistent in saying that this is what i want to do. It is something I have alwaya considered and now i want to know if its really worth it. Is getting a degree in this field better than going through the other routes. I was told by my college counceler that I would have a way greater chance of getting to higher positions with such a degree, if thats actually true. One thing i always hear is the pay isnt the greatest. Keep in mind I have a big passion to do this, but also I do not want to be struggling financially anywhere down the road. I do understand there are overtime hours, but im not sure how much they will help. I also dont know the benefits that come along with doing such a thing. Please try and help me understand it all, its something i want to do, but Im unsure because of what I hear from others.

Hello, so I’ll cut right to the chase. I’m in medic school right now at the end of my didactic. We’ve been running simulations and the other day we were running traumas. So my “call” was adult male who jumped out of his vehicle going approx. 55mph. When I AOS I go through my assessment list, c collar jaw thrust make sure airway is open clea maintainable and delegate bvm so I can get a story from family on scene. Long story short my pt seizes and vomits (pt was also GCS 3 the whole time) so I give versed per local protocol and tell my instructor that I’m going to suction. Instructor says my pt has lock jaw and is still vomiting. I can’t RSI in my protocol so I skip that, bag compliance is becoming difficult so I tell my instructor at this point I’d needle cric. The jaw is locked I can’t open it to suction and the airway is compromised. I receive a “fail” because I “could’ve used a French tip to suction through the nose” now to me that seems useless because a French is so small it would take forever to suction and furthermore I didnt want to stick anything in the nose because I was concerned for ICP. So to the medics in here, do you guys agree I should’ve suctioned or was a needle cric indicated?

My wife was killed in a car accident. They said her heart was not beating when they got there, they got a pulse for a short time then it went away again. When I got the toxicology report from the coroner it said she had ketamine in her heart blood. Is this something they would administer? It's not in the medical report. Was this something she must've been taking or is it logical that the paramedics would use it in this situation?

As the title states…I have several questions about how my son was saved because of the excellent care at the scene of his accident but I’m not sure where to ask this question. Can anyone direct me to the best place to ask? Thank you so much! ~A forever grateful mom.

Someone posted a comment a week or 2 ago to someone else’s post that said studies have shown that basics on the ambulance and medics in a chase car is the best way to run. Anyone know about these “studies?” I’m trying to make it happen in my department.

Edit to add, right now my department puts the medic on the ambulance and has to go transport every run, a basic chases in the car. The medic has to transport even if it’s a BLS run because “wHaT iF tHeY gEt a NoN bReATher oN tHe wAy bAcK fRom thE hOspItAl?”

Hey all, im just curious, I got all of the required vaccinations as a child, including the hep b vaccine. But I did a titers, and im not immune to it? Has this happened to any of yall, and if so, what did yall do about it?

Department of like 10 medics or so. Each medic in your department specializes, and is only allowed to do, one intervention.
Ie, you could be the Medic that only handles Esophageal Varices. Or the Medic that only handles poop/shit calls.

If you show up to a call and it ends up being a differential diagnosis that you do not specialize in, you are to call backup for that specific Medic to arrive.

What one would you chose?

To start this is im a fire medic who use to work private ems. Im really disappointed in the profession. We don't require paramedics to have any formal education thus people don't get paid. We often loose protocols because people dont train or educate themselves. (Not talking about evidence based medicine). I know there is great paramedics who have passion and seek education but as whole why is there no drive? Nurses took the time to make themselves marketable by getting a BSN. Several other countries have paramedics that is a bachelor's degree. Yes it's a headache but it's a bargaining tool. It's a baseline to build our skills and scope not loose it. What do you all think?

Hey yall! I’m currently an ER nurse. However, I’ve been very interested in getting my medic. How do you guys like the job and do you feel you enjoy what you do?

Thanks

A question for colleagues from the USA: In pictures/documents from the rescue service, I only ever see L15 or other, inseparable patient monitors. I once heard that disassembled patient monitors such as the Corpuls C3 are banned in the USA. Is that right? Greetings from germany 🇩🇪👋🏻

Because they are a Pair a Medics!

My 9 and 1/2-year-old patient told me this joke while being transported to the children's hospital. I had to share with the group.

Partner and I got called out to an adult male having heart issues. Upon entering the house, FD had pt on the monitor and pt was laying on his back with his feet elevated on a chair. Pt is AAOX4 and says that he feels like his heart is fluttering and racing. Pt says that he had gotten back from the gym and that the rapid palpitations began 30 minutes after he had been home as he was drinking his protein shake. Pt states that he felt dizzy on onset of the palpitations. Pt also says that he has had palpitations in the past and that he was able to resolve them upon forcefully coughing. FD tells us that pt’s rate would go up to 160-180 in small increments. FD medic suggests Cardizem if it gets high again during transport. I tell him that I will consider it. Get pt on the stretcher and in the truck and I take a 12-lead with vitals. BP is 146/88, PR is 130-146, and O2 sat is 100% on room air. The strip above is the 12-lead I obtain. I place an IV, hang fluids, and we get going. During transport, pt remains stable, but still complains of feeling like his heart is racing and fluttering. Whenever his palpitations would speed up, he would say, “Oh! Here we go again”. About after 400mL out of 500mL of NS given, he still complains of feeling his heart race. He asks me if there is anything I can do to slow it down. I notice his rate is back up to 146-158 and so I give him 10mg Cardizem by IV and let it work. After a minute or two, I ask him if he feels any different and he tells me that he can’t tell because the whole situation is making him so anxious still. I look at his rate and it is now 112-127. Just as we pull into the ER, I see that he is back into the 130-140 range.

Does this sound like A-Fib with RVR? Does my treatment seem appropriate? I am a new medic and worried I made a mistake somewhere. Any help is appreciated.

I was a Paramedic for 27 years, including 4 years as private contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan. I had several additional certs (HAZWOPER, Flight Medicine, Confined Space Rescue, others).

I destroyed my knee on the job last year. Multiple surgeries later (and rehab) i can get around fine. I can go up and down stairs, I can walk, but I can't meet the physical demands of the job. I can't kneel down and tube a patient and then assist in carrying a patient down 5 flights of stairs an hour later. And now I'm 51, I just don't bounce back like I used to.

I miss the rush of responding, and I miss the people I worked with (even a few of the assholes, lol). I've landed on my feet, so I'm not worried about "What to do now", i just miss the career i spent 27 years doing.

Enjoy it while you can.

I have adrenal insufficiency (similar to addisons) and if I don’t get steroids in an emergency I could die. My doctor told me to get a medical ID bracelet but from looking through past posts it looks like most paramedics don’t even check for them. I was trained as a wilderness first responder years ago and I was always taught to look for a bracelet. I don’t like advertising my illness to people so if it’s worthless, I’d rather not wear a bracelet. However, how would you know someone is having an adrenal crisis if you don’t look for bracelets?

So I was in a ride along when another emt told me, “if you aren’t going into fire then don’t do paramedic.” Is fire really the only option? I know paramedics can stay private, but I also heard they have options of working in a hospital, CATH lab. It was just how he put it that I’m like damn, all my dreams are flushed down the toilet cause I can definitely do 3 12 but not the 24,48 that most fire stations expect you to work. Did anybody just not go into fire? Where are you working now?

I’m a FF/Paramedic in the western United States.

Has anyone ever moved to a different country to pursue the same career.

I love this job. Lost faith in this country.

Hey everyone,
I’m about three-quarters of the way through paramedic school. I’ve finished all my classwork except for PALS and some neuro, and from here on out it’s just clinicals. I’ve got about 156 hours done out of the 540 required, have well over 95 pts under my belt so far(speaking to clinicals, obviously more in my work experience working in cobb/bartow 911 in ga) I've been working as a B for about 3 years, and I’m going the zero-to-hero route, straight from B to medic.

I’ve had BLS calls that stuck with me—like when we couldn’t get someone back—but I didn’t feel the same weight that the medic on scene carried. Now that I’m starting leadership rides soon, I’m feeling that shift more and more. I’ve watched medics on seizure calls or codes get flustered, and I feel for them, but I’ve also found myself thinking, “Man, what else could we have done?” And I know that soon that’s going to be me in that position.

On clinicals, I’ve had a few heavy cases. One in particular was a respiratory distress patient in the ER who just kept crashing. Even with the MD working the room, and everything thrown at this pt—tube, IOs, every ACLS protocol, all of it—she just kept desatting. I got to intubate and do some cool skills but still, it was one of those moments where you realize sometimes there’s just nothing you can do. The silence when everyone left the room and this lady was left alone covered by a blanket to wait for the coroner really bugged me, and don't get me wrong - I know we don't have the time, we have to get to the next patient. But it just felt too run of the mill, wrap it up, she's gone, cover her and call the coroner. Perhaps it was the idea that 'we got him to the hospital, boom, life saved' is mostly incorrect. There's a ton of responsibilty on your field choices that effect whether that guy is on an LVAD or in ICU for the rest of his life or can't form sentences anymore when speaking to his family because you took too long.

An overdose who had been clean 7 years and arrested overnight, got ROSC on scene but once we arrived to ED, MD told us he was essentially going to be brain dead. Wife, daughter, and grandmother all on scene, I couldn't have imagined

I guess what I’m trying to ask is…
Does that feeling ever go away? Am I overthinking this with the shift from B to P?
That “I could seriously mess this up” or “what if I miss something and this person dies?” kind of feeling.
Or is it more about learning to carry it? Is it maybe thinking about this with a different approach?

Is it just about building confidence and trusting your training? Do you eventually stop thinking “I could kill this guy” and start thinking “I can help this guy”?

And don’t get me wrong—I know not every call is life or death. I’ve been doing this work long enough to know that a lot of calls are routine, or quite honestly, just bullshit. But some aren’t, and those are the ones I think about.

I’ve had seasoned medics ask me straight up, “Why do you want to be a medic?” I’ve had others say things like, “When you kill that guy, it’ll stick with you.” or tell me how they've been trying to get out of the field for years.
And I’ve definitely seen the jaded side of this field too, and out of over 15 or so medics I'd asked/mentioned school to, only 2 or 3 of them said something along the lines of "That's great, state needs more medics, blah blah blah"

So I guess I’m just wondering.

Is the answer really just to stick to your training and trust the process?

Does the weight of that responsibility get easier to carry? Is this even a thing, or am I overthinking all this?

And for anyone who’s made a mistake before — how do you feel about it now?

Appreciate any insight. Just trying to figure out how to walk into this next chapter with the right mindset.

TL;DR Medic student struggling with thought of responsibility/mental weight from mistakes or calls I couldn't have helped no matter how much I tried. I know it is a given with the job, but going straight from B to Paramedic is a drastic perspective shift and I was just looking for any insight from anyone in similar positions/any medics.

My apologies if this post is ridiculous, and I may totally be overthinking it. Thanks for reading. I've been the hands for so long now, being the brains of the operation seems like a big adjustment. It's only I'm doing my best to make, I suppose I'm just reaching out in case anyone had any good insight.

I am not a paramedic but I have a questions for all you? I have cochlear implants as an MRI rip my implants out or spin my head snapping my neck. I heard that people wear bracelets or necklaces as I’m not very jewelry type of person. I was wondering other methods that I can let you all know if I was unconscious in a car wreck or in injured in construction industry.

Would a tattoo work?

I currently have a seat belt clip down by my buckle that says “No MRI (Cochlear implants)…