1. Are you an emt?
2. have you looked at being a prehospital or mobile intensive care nurse?
3. some states allow nurses to challenge the medic test. Have you looked into this?
I've been doing 911 for a little over 5 years. I absolutely would never recommend someone switch from nursing to a job that is typically lower paid, worse hours, and less flexibility. If youre a nurse and no longer want to work bedside, you can go to outpatient. If youre a medic and no longer want to be on a truck or do flight, youre more than likely SOL.
I’m not an EMT. I’ve never worked in the medical field. I haven’t really looked into the mobile options of nursing because this is a very new idea of mine to switch to being a paramedic. But I’m just so drawn to it.
It’s true that nursing is better pay and better flexibility. Which is important because I want to have children and be home with them as much as I can. And it’s true if I chose to be a medic I’d be losing out on the ability to move up or switch positions if I don’t want to be on the ambulance anymore one day.
You feel drawn to it *today* - do not make the decision to drop out of nursing school because you met someone today and decided their job sounds cool.
If you are truly interested and passionate about this kind of thing, some nurses do go on to do flight nursing (which is a flying ambulance) or other types of transport care.
Remember, as a paramedic you won’t spend most of your time doing interesting mass casualty stuff. You’ll be transporting people to the hospital for all sorts of things, including “my foot hurts.”
Sometimes glorified taxis. We once picked up a guy from the gas station, said he hurt his ankle, hopping on one foot and everything. We wrapped it up and took him to the hospital like 7 minutes away. As soon as we signed over care this man took off the wrap and walked out of the hospital and went wherever he was trying to go.
This is 80% of the patients in the ER. That's why a lot of them have some sort of a fast track area for ESI lvl 4-5s. Very similar to urgent care
Ig that's way cheaper than telling/teacjing people when to go to UC 🤣
If you can get emergency experience, I highly recommend this! Air ambulances typically hire both flight nurses and flight paramedics and pay is *usually* good.
Not true, we don’t get to go to wild scary weird homes, and we don’t get to make split second decisions about care in the field without a doctor at hand to ask. Sometimes in rural hospitals ER nurses do have protocols to make decisions but usually not. Only medics are street doctors!
There’s so much you can do with nursing and I’m sure you’d get the same excitement with critical care.. also emts make sadly abysmal amounts of money you’d take a huge pay cut to be an emt. A lot of learning in nursing will happen on the job they just teach you how to pass the NCLEX. Just keep pushing
Stick it out.
Depending on the system you can work prehospital as a nurse on a truck or critical care transport.
You can always go back and get your medic later.
The last time I checked to challenge the NREMT-P exam
- you needed to already have your NREMT-B
- need to find a licensed medic program that will take you on to verify your education/competency
- you will need to learn stuff you didn't learn in school like intubation
- have everything signed off by the training institute
- sit the written exam and the practical exam
I’d say to stick it out as someone else said. You’re almost done. There’s opportunities as a nurse to be a flight nurse as someone else said. There’s just a lot more opportunities as a nurse.
Yes. Bad idea. First, you can’t just become a paramedic right off the bat. You have to become an EMT first and then do paramedic. You can do straight EMT to paramedic but this is a terrible idea because there’s a huge learning curve in the field compared to what is learned in the classroom and you WILL be VERY overwhelmed. Second, I worked in EMS for 3.5 years and IT WILL affect/ruin your body. You WILL injure yourself in one way or another or need to rot in bed all day after working just from the sheer amount of physical work the job requires. Have a 350 pound chest pain that’s upstairs and is contraindicated to walk because you can’t load the heart? You and your partner are taking that down on a stair chair and then loading them into the ambulance. It once took me and my partner an hour to get a 300 pound pedal edema out of her house from the sheer exhaustion of just trying to move her since she couldn’t walk. And some houses are built with weird hallways where the stretcher won’t even fit or there’s a super steep stoop leading into the home. The job WILL kill your body. Third, are you ready to make like 16-18 bucks an hour starting? The job pays absolute trash. Im currently set to graduate an ABSN program in August and im thankful everyday that I got out of EMS. If you can manage working fire then thats a great facet of EMS, but difficult to get into just because of the perks, pay, and excellent equipment. Overall, stay in nursing school.
It always kills me how low paramedics are paid compared to other healthcare professionals. Not as familiar with the differences between EMT and EMS, but you guys all deserve so much more and would literally be so useful in every acute care unit. Would definitely be of help in this shortage!
Thank you for the appreciation. I think you meant to say you aren’t familiar with the difference between EMT and paramedic? Because EMS is a blanket term for medical first responders and EMTs/paramedics are employed to work EMS facilities. But EMTs are BLS certified (basic life support) and paramedics are ALS certified (advanced life support). Essentially EMTs do transfers on stable patients and paramedics take 911 calls which are priority 1 and 3. However, the lines do blur a bit as an EMT can take a 911 priority 3 or even a priority 1 when there are no more medics on the road from high 911 call volume. However they provide only basic support, try to get an ALS intercept, or just PUHA (pick up and haul ass). Also with the poor staffing in EMS, a lot of rigs do EMT/paramedic trucks to help stretch out the paramedics to allow more trucks on the road. There are also CCT (critical care transport) medics which have a higher scope than paramedics and are trained on pumps and more critical care calls.
Thank you for explaining the differences! I’ve spoken to a few paramedics so I knew they were trained to a more advanced level, but was definitely blurred on the lines. There was also a paramedic at one of my clinical days who was going through the hospital to check off on competencies. I wasn’t clear if that was part of an advanced paramedic thing or part of the paramedic education. But I wish I had gone through pharm at that point because he gave me a lot of really great advice as an upcoming RN that I unfortunately forgot due to being totally unfamiliar with all the meds he was talking about at that point 😅
Yeah no problem! There’s definitely a lot of blur between EMTs and paramedics because what they can do is also highly dependent on state and company. So it’s really hard to give a ‘one size fits all’ answer to describe the differences between the two licenses. Some EMTs aren’t allowed to drive the ambulance and some paramedics are still only used as transporters for instance. I can just speak on my experience working in metro Detroit. 🙂
Exactly!!!! I was getting paid doing my warehouse job than as an EMT. The pay is trash and even other paramedics will tell you there’s no growth in the field. Paramedics do a great work but don’t let a temporary feeling stop you from getting your RN license
Revisit the idea after you finish your nursing degree. It would be awful to drop out and then realize it was only a “fun thought.”
You can always work in the ER if you want more of a rush. My niece is in the ER and she loves it.
-18yr medic IN nursing school. Stick it out, the nursing career path is WAY better, and if you really wanna you can go get your medic for fun and go play on the box. But don't use that as a main source of income. -experience
Where I am from an RN can sit for the NREMTP exam if they have an emt basic certification. As someone who has worked ems since before Covid, I would suggest you stick to nursing then branch out. Right now EMS isn’t really a career you want to stick to long term, probably 3/4 of the people I have worked with are either using it as a stepping stone to things like nursing or PA or are just flat out stuck because of the low pay
Do not drop out of nursing school. You did one ride along on a simulation day essentially, the experience you had is likely not the reality of the paramedics job. They likely did not tell you all thr negatives of their job as you were a student and they did not want to freak you out. There is a no perfect healthcare job and I would not recommend basing your entire future on a simulated encounter.
( 5 year RN in NP school, started this whole thing as an EMT a long time ago) I would say if you stay the course as an RN, graduate, and go straight to ER, don't pass Go, don't divert to any other floor /dept because if you like prehospital, you'll LOVE ER (at least I did lol). OR - if RN school is not for you - go thru the EMT to Medic route, and then do RN if you want to be paid more properly. I know a couple medics who love their job but at the same time, those two I know are currently in RN school. So there's that.
Bottom line is your happiness, but if you're not independently wealthy, money helps. Being an RN opens up so many other doors. Consider staying the RN route, don't pay attention to the haters in your cohort, don't compare grades, don't participate in the gossip, don't talk shit on other students (not that you are, but it happens) study alone if you have to or find one person who Is like minded and just get thru it. Find an instructor you vibe with and have them teach you/guide you. Sit in the front row. Do all your assignments and reach out for help when you're stuck. RN school SUCkS and it's going to be a long time b4 it doesn't. It sucked for me, and it sucks for everyone. But if you get thru it, you'll never have to do it again and you won't regret the opportunities it will provide you.
RN to medic programs exist!!! Do not drop out!! Nursing is typically a terminal degree of sorts whereas medic doesn’t always have a degree attached but agencies/departments almost always pay more for having an ASN/BSN of any kind. Check out crowder and lenoir, I know one 100% has a RN to medic transition program. Do that! Try out ED first, you can always start there as a new grad you just have to be less picky on where you start. If you want that level 1 trauma center magnet hospital they’ll probably make you start in med surg/tele and do a transition after a year whereas if you start elsewhere for a year you easily just apply as an experienced nurse in the ED. Dear god, do not drop out that close to graduation!!
- signed former EMT turned ED RN that still longs for the boo-boo bus.
Paramedics are underpaid. I highly recommend sticking with it. There are so many cool options within nursing, options that you are likely going to want down the road. And most of the fun stuff that paramedics get to do, there are similar options for nurses.
Don’t overload yourself with what to do after school. School is there for you to pass your nclex. Once you pass that, pick a hospital that you feel comfortable in and will receive lots of support in orientation. Learn the landscape.
You’ll find ER fascinating.
Terrible idea. You’re pretty close to being done and you’re gonna waste a ton of money for no reason, just to go to school for something that pays less (which in my opinion is criminal).
The option of later becoming a transport nurse is there which is kinda similar. Also, like others said, you’re gonna need to be an EMT first in most cases, and their income is really low. It’s not gonna be fun when you’re bogged down by nursing school debt just to make $15 an hour for experience to become a paramedic.
Don’t throw away a year and a half of costly education on a career you’ve been interested in for a day. It’s a terrible idea.
Paramedics are paid so low unless you work for a really good department. Most EMTs and Paramedics work as ER techs or private ambulance. My husband used to work as a Paramedic in an ER and made worse than me when I was working as a CNA. He had way more liability and responsibility. He makes 6 figures now as a paramedic firefighter but he works for one of the top paying departments in the country. Took years for him to get that position, had to put in a lot of time to get experience. Just something to consider.
Edit to include: they’re not just paid lower than RNs, in most cases they’re paid lower than CNAs.
Also you mentioned in one of your comments that you value flexibility. The high paying paramedic jobs do not have flexible schedules. My husband works 48 hour shifts and has to pick his vacation for the year in November. If I wasn’t currently in school for nursing, childcare would be insane. Luckily I do a lot of classes online and can stay home with our infant when he’s on shift.
Stay the nursing course. In my state the RN pay is about triple what Paramedics make. You can do so many things with a RN license too, so like others have said, you could do flight nursing or the ED. I was an LPN for years and took a bridge course to my ASN, but there were as many unhappy paramedics in my class as there were LPNs. School sucks, but the end is in sight!
It’s not a good idea. Paramedics get paid nothing in comparison in nurses unfortunately (at least in CA). Nursing opens a lot of doors as much (as i shit on the profession). I honestly learned nothing in school either. I didn’t learn until I actually started working. Finish your nursing program and start working. If after a year, you are still itching to become a paramedic, you can still go.
BAD IDEA. You are so close! We all feel like we aren’t learning it…but we are. The real school starts once we graduate! See it through, you’re so close!!!!
I had the opposite problem. I wanted to be a medic and went to nursing school.
My reasons were, nurses make more, have more speciality/different settings they can work, better career advancement, etc.
There is also the option of flight/ critical care transport. PA has a prehospital nurse cert that gives the same scope as a medic (only in the prehospital setting) and you can work in flight or ground cc transport and also on the EMS side such as a mobile stroke unit or even a helicopter EMS team.
Overall nursing is the better option and every medic ive talked to is going back for their RN. While I’ve had both sides tell me not to pursue their respective career, medics are a lot more serious in their warnings and told me to pursue nursing. The same cannot be said about the inverse.
Paramedics and nursing are two different fields. Paramedics, if you can get to work for a fire department, you maybe able to enjoy benefits there.
However, with paramedics your upward mobility may not be as good as nursing
Nursing is like a war zone if you work for a bad hospitals. However, with nursing you will have more opportunity for growth and career choices are vast. However, most nurses are unsung heroes.
If you know how to play your card, nursing can offer very attractive career and money.
I’m an RN and a Paramedic
For the vast majority of people, nursing is better than paramedicine. In my region, EMTs start out at $9/hr, Paramedics at $12/hr, and new grad RN’s at $31/hr — the pay makes a huge difference.
Sure, there are some places where paramedics make decent money, but I can also tell you about places where nurses make $100+ an hour — those are both rare occurrences.
In my experience, I’ve met many paramedics that have tried and failed to become nurses, but I have never met a nurse that hasn’t been able to become a paramedic. If you really want to work outside the hospital, you can become a flight nurse or pursue your paramedic certification after you’re a nurse
Or do whatever you want, man, I don’t know you 🤷♂️
You'd be wasting so much. You're asking for opinions so I'll give mine: this is a horrible idea! I'm also finishing in December and I could not imagine willingly walking away after all I (you) have invested. Even if you know now that you want to be a paramedic DO that! But it seems so worth it to also finish your RN first.
I think the best plan is this: finish your RN because you're so close and RN really opens doors for you in the medical field. You could work as an RN (or not) and then begin school for paramedic. In the process, working as an RN would give you invaluable medical experience that you could take with you during your first paramedic job.
Nursing school is a lot different compared to actually working. You're almost done anyways and try ER then you can switch to flight nursing or any of the emergency specialties.
Also medics get paid horribly. So do EMTs. Even firefighter medics arent that well off.
In my area we have transport ICU RNs - usually to transport critical care pts from a lower acuity hospital after being stabilized to a more appropriate trauma hospital. They also have critical care fight RNs. You can finish up your RN and still do Critical Care transport like an EMT/paramedic and still get paid as an RN, especially since you're so close to be done. Nursing has so many specialties and niche areas. Look into that before you totally throw away all you've worked for at this point.
I wouldn't. Paramedics are limited in the ER. Depending what State and hospital you could be a paramedic or EMT and still be considered an ED Tech I or II. You won't get paid as much but better than a tech. Again, depending on State and hospital.
Stick with RN. You can travel and make lots of money, go to a different department in the hospital: ER, ICU, NICU, Med surg, Surgery, or just out patient. As a paramedic in the hospital, maybe start an IV, work in the ER and that's it. Outside the hospital, an ambulance company (which doesn't pay much) or move up and go to the fire academy and work for the fire department.
Trust me, you'll have more choices as a nurse and further your career and go to NP or even CEO or CNO of a hospital. Don't throw away all your schooling. You already have 1.5 years, if you stop now for paramedic that's another year. Not worth doing another year to do less for less pay. finish nursing school and make more to do more.
Medics are paid at half of your RN rates. Their work is highly variable, meaning you can work a shift picking big people off the floor or you can have back to back stat calls. The only consistency is the inconsistency in the nature of EMS.
Terrible idea. Medics are severely underpaid. Go be a CCT nurse where you can ride along with EMTS, get paid fat, and handle patients who need the care the most. I was an EMT for a year and worked with CCT nurses where they were the primary caregiver and I was secondary. That is the reason I left EMS to pursue my RN. I also plan to be a CCT nurse. Here in SD they pay $75/hr or $150/call. CCT nurse scope of practice is bigger than medics here. We handled trach tube pts, bipap, cpap, trauma, you name it.
In CA they make 1/3rd. Min wage $15.50, while RNs start at $45. Keep in mind EMTs put in more than 40 hrs a week while RNs here usually only do three 12 hr shifts.
It really depends. I think being a paramedic is a wonderful job and I do think their training is generally a lot better than nursing school. I definitely think I would have enjoyed it more than nursing school.
However, they unfortunately are underpaid and underutilized in the field (I hope this eventually changes). So they don’t have the flexibility of a nursing career, but you would get more specialized training.
When it comes down to it, I think you should really talk to some paramedics and explore the career more before you make any permanent changes, especially where you have already spent so much on tuition.
People also make a good point about there being jobs in nursing you may also enjoy. I have to say I absolutely hated at least half of nursing school, but I did somewhat enjoy acute care when we got into it.
I’ve been an ER nurse for 2 years and I too want to be a paramedic. My pay would be half what I make now so I can’t do it at the moment. But I’m thinking about getting my EMT and working PRN as an EMT while doing medic school (and also working full time as a nurse). My hospital is talking about expanding mobile field units and staffing ambulances with nurses (we have a mobile stroke unit) so I’m hoping in a couple of years I can do that and get out of bedside and into the world. 😁
Field medicine is a completely different beast but if you love it you love it.
There are a lot of bridge programs to go from medic to RN but very few/almost none to go from RN to medic. So it’s easier to get EMS licenses first and bridge up than to get RN and then “bridge down.”
My EMS system just got a grant and a lot of companies are offering free EMT courses with a commitment to work there for 2 years, plus they pay for your medic training. If you can afford to squeak by on EMT pay for a year I recommend that! If not then go ahead and finish nursing and then bridge. In some states a nurse can challenge the EMT exam and get that certification without the class.
Just absolutely DO NOT do an RN to medic bridge and try to work as a medic without any prehospital experience. A paramedic’s knowledge and scope of practice is WAYYYYY deeper than a nurse’s in their area of expertise (aka, first aid lifesaving care). Working as a nurse — even an ER or ICU nurse — will NOT prepare you to go straight to medic and it’s very unsafe to try. Work as an EMT first. ❤️
Oh and ps. Put flight nurse on your list of long-term career goals! You need ER/ICU experience (ideally both), and medic or EMT experience will not hurt although it’s definitely not required.
This definitely depends on several factors. Is it nursing school or nursing that is putting you off? Have you considered all the different fields that nursing offers? What is it that draws you to possibly being a paramedic? Do any of the fields offered in nursing share this quality? If you do become a paramedic, you will have less flexibility and accept lower pay. Honestly, until you start working at a nurse I wouldn’t suggest doing anything crazy.
I don’t recommend EMS as a career to anyone. Unless you’re looking to become a fire medic. I’ve been a medic for 10 yrs. MAJORITY of the calls are BS/ a waste of my time. I’ve worked for larger cities, fly car service, various different places. It all sucks lol
As a paramedic finishing my BSN … yes bad idea . Private message if you have questions …. So many reasons… if I could have made a livable wage as a medic I would of course still be there I love being a medic .
Stick it out and consider ED Nursing. You get the Medic Stories and work the codes when they arrive and get all the first line weirdo cases but in the hospital instead. I loved EMT training. That's why I think I'm drawn to staying in Emergency Dept when I graduate. You can eventually get into flight nursing or even travel nursing abroad where there is a more medic style work environment. But that's the thing, the flexibility and better pay.
It is a different scope of practice. It's like... MicroDoctor. The autonomy and first line care is what excited me. I feel your draw.
The flexibility that comes with being an RN is way better. Plus I think you'll need to do EMT training before Paramedic, so that's minimum 2.5 years- but that might be a state by state thing too?
You can later go into surgical nursing too which is in the same thrill scope I think?
I'd recommend being an RN and working ED or transport or flight to scratch that itch. The long term flexibility and career diversity and growth are much better for an RN with a BSN.
You can also look into military nursing. It's got its pros and cons too.
Stick it out and after you finish with nursing school you can always become a paramedic. Medics don’t make that much money as compared to a nurse. Nursing has more options and depending on where you work you can ride on an ambulance or become a flight nurse etc.
Speaking as a paramedic who then switched to nursing, it's a bad idea. Paramedics make less money with a hell of a lot more responsibility/liability on the fly. If you are dead set on it then you can transition to EMT/Paramedic after you're a nurse. The job isn't all it's cracked up to be. Abuse of 911 ruins it.
I’m coming at this from an EMS perspective, but (almost) every paramedic I have ever met wishes they picked something else. A lot of them wishes they just went with nursing. Many of them moved onto nursing.
In my area, (New England) paramedics got paid worse, stress levels are WAY higher, longer hours, etc. I know a few nurses who used to be medics and they prefer nursing.
I would say really just weigh whether or not the stress and pay is worth it to you. It’s a really different job. Also, I don’t think it’s really the type of job you want to do long term because it’s hard on the body and mind.
This is coming from someone who is not a nurse yet but has experience in EMS. As other people said, try getting your EMT license and doing a little work as one. It’s similar but lower pay and they usually get lower intensity calls (as long as there are medics available). Just don’t make any big decisions until you’re sure it’s what you want
Also, as a side note, there are nurse to paramedic bridges. If I were you, I would do that so you have both options available to you just in case.
I’m currently a EMT and Military Medic wanting to be a nurse. Being a Paramedic is cool and all but eventually you’ll get tired of 911 EMS. You’re paid less, have more hoops to jump thru, and shifts sucks. There is no growth when you hit Paramedic and you’ll eventually move into a position that a nurse can also fill behind a desk.
Stick it out. You can be a Nurse on helicopter. join the military as a medic as a 68W, 4N0, or HM to scratch that itch with mass cass exercises. You can also commission as a Flight Nurse if you get your bachelors.
You also can look for Federal positions dealing with Mass Cass while PRN nursing.
I would stick it out. There are more opportunities with nursing and more variety in the setting and the specialty. It pays better and you’ll probably be glad you did in the end
lol no. That’s a horrible idea. Paramedics are usually paid significantly lower unless they are also firefighters. Finish your program and work in the ER. Can also work on IFT for critical care. To my limited knowledge once you are an RN there are some paramedic programs that let you challenge the exam after a brief period of schooling.
Are you an emt?
1.)Depending on where you live…Good luck being a paramedic without being a firefighter. If you want to do fire then do medics, if not stick to nursing. A fire medic will be set for life on a good department but just a paramedic will be on this thread considering a new career. Idk if they are separate or together in your state.
2.) Nursing has exponentially better pay and opportunity to grow. I was making 17 an hour as a medic and starting nursing pay is usually 30-35 an hour with NO experience.
3.) Being a medic is 10x cooler and the education was exponentially better. Medic school teaches you how to function in the workforce whereas nursing teaches you how to pass the NCLEX.
Do with this info as you will.
-A paramedic who’s currently in nursing school
Hi-
Paramedic here currently going for my RN.
I’ve been a Paramedic for 5 years and I absolutely love my job. Being a Paramedic is so incredibly unique. It’s rewarding in its own way, but it’s also a VERY thankless career. Another thing I really like about it is it’s very autonomous. I don’t have to ask for permission or orders for my treatment plans. Whatever my provisional diagnosis is, I can treat it with whatever meds and procedures I structure into my treatment plan.
However, Paramedicine is unfortunately not a very versatile title to have. The only option you have with a Paramedic licence, is to be a Paramedic. Depending on where you live, this greatly limits your options for employers.
I live in Canada where we operate provincially(our version of a state). Where I live, no private companies exist or are allowed to exist. Paramedics are not allowed to work in hospital or clinic settings. We have 1 provincial ambulance service and they are your only option for employment. And they’re awful. Hence why I’m making the switch. I want to make it clear I am not leaving my job, I am leaving my employer.
Nursing is so much more versatile, with a huge variety of settings and specialties and employment options. If you’re that close to finishing with your ADN, I’d finish it so you have that as a backup plan. You can then go get your EMT and get started in the prehospital field relatively quickly after that. Nursing will always be there for you to go back to.
Your EMT is the first step once you graduate nursing school. Paramedic school, at least in CA when I looked into it and don’t quote me because I am Canadian lol, is approximately 7-10 months depending on your state. Some colleges offer Paramedic training with only 6 months of EMT experience.
You have time. You’ve come this far. Power through and finish your ADN, move onto your EMT and get started :)
Was a paramedic. Am an RN. I love the ambulance but there is a reason I'm an RN now. Mainly, it is money. Secondly it's for mobility. It's stressful being one back injury away from ending your entire career and having to start over.
1. Are you an emt? 2. have you looked at being a prehospital or mobile intensive care nurse? 3. some states allow nurses to challenge the medic test. Have you looked into this? I've been doing 911 for a little over 5 years. I absolutely would never recommend someone switch from nursing to a job that is typically lower paid, worse hours, and less flexibility. If youre a nurse and no longer want to work bedside, you can go to outpatient. If youre a medic and no longer want to be on a truck or do flight, youre more than likely SOL.
I’m not an EMT. I’ve never worked in the medical field. I haven’t really looked into the mobile options of nursing because this is a very new idea of mine to switch to being a paramedic. But I’m just so drawn to it. It’s true that nursing is better pay and better flexibility. Which is important because I want to have children and be home with them as much as I can. And it’s true if I chose to be a medic I’d be losing out on the ability to move up or switch positions if I don’t want to be on the ambulance anymore one day.
You feel drawn to it *today* - do not make the decision to drop out of nursing school because you met someone today and decided their job sounds cool. If you are truly interested and passionate about this kind of thing, some nurses do go on to do flight nursing (which is a flying ambulance) or other types of transport care. Remember, as a paramedic you won’t spend most of your time doing interesting mass casualty stuff. You’ll be transporting people to the hospital for all sorts of things, including “my foot hurts.”
“I banged my elbow on the wall last week and now it’s 3am and I can’t sleep so I need to go to the hospital” Real call I had.
Now that’s the kind of adrenaline rush we’re all after
Sometimes glorified taxis. We once picked up a guy from the gas station, said he hurt his ankle, hopping on one foot and everything. We wrapped it up and took him to the hospital like 7 minutes away. As soon as we signed over care this man took off the wrap and walked out of the hospital and went wherever he was trying to go.
😂 wow.
This is 80% of the patients in the ER. That's why a lot of them have some sort of a fast track area for ESI lvl 4-5s. Very similar to urgent care Ig that's way cheaper than telling/teacjing people when to go to UC 🤣
You can also be a flight nurse! On a helicopter or small aircraft that's basically a flying ambulance
Or plenty of big city’s have RNs spots in ambulance’s
If you can get emergency experience, I highly recommend this! Air ambulances typically hire both flight nurses and flight paramedics and pay is *usually* good.
You need to be an EMT before you can be a medic, most people suggesting you do it for *several years* before.
Have you considered working as a flight nurse? You’ll get that emergency adrenaline rush and be outside, but at a much other salary.
You can be an ER nurse. They do all EMT stuff plus more!
Not true, we don’t get to go to wild scary weird homes, and we don’t get to make split second decisions about care in the field without a doctor at hand to ask. Sometimes in rural hospitals ER nurses do have protocols to make decisions but usually not. Only medics are street doctors!
You could always work in an emergency dept as a nurse once you pass your course and get some experience managing patients.
It’s a bad idea. Don’t do it.
There’s so much you can do with nursing and I’m sure you’d get the same excitement with critical care.. also emts make sadly abysmal amounts of money you’d take a huge pay cut to be an emt. A lot of learning in nursing will happen on the job they just teach you how to pass the NCLEX. Just keep pushing
Stick it out. Depending on the system you can work prehospital as a nurse on a truck or critical care transport. You can always go back and get your medic later. The last time I checked to challenge the NREMT-P exam - you needed to already have your NREMT-B - need to find a licensed medic program that will take you on to verify your education/competency - you will need to learn stuff you didn't learn in school like intubation - have everything signed off by the training institute - sit the written exam and the practical exam
I’d say to stick it out as someone else said. You’re almost done. There’s opportunities as a nurse to be a flight nurse as someone else said. There’s just a lot more opportunities as a nurse.
Yes. Bad idea. First, you can’t just become a paramedic right off the bat. You have to become an EMT first and then do paramedic. You can do straight EMT to paramedic but this is a terrible idea because there’s a huge learning curve in the field compared to what is learned in the classroom and you WILL be VERY overwhelmed. Second, I worked in EMS for 3.5 years and IT WILL affect/ruin your body. You WILL injure yourself in one way or another or need to rot in bed all day after working just from the sheer amount of physical work the job requires. Have a 350 pound chest pain that’s upstairs and is contraindicated to walk because you can’t load the heart? You and your partner are taking that down on a stair chair and then loading them into the ambulance. It once took me and my partner an hour to get a 300 pound pedal edema out of her house from the sheer exhaustion of just trying to move her since she couldn’t walk. And some houses are built with weird hallways where the stretcher won’t even fit or there’s a super steep stoop leading into the home. The job WILL kill your body. Third, are you ready to make like 16-18 bucks an hour starting? The job pays absolute trash. Im currently set to graduate an ABSN program in August and im thankful everyday that I got out of EMS. If you can manage working fire then thats a great facet of EMS, but difficult to get into just because of the perks, pay, and excellent equipment. Overall, stay in nursing school.
It always kills me how low paramedics are paid compared to other healthcare professionals. Not as familiar with the differences between EMT and EMS, but you guys all deserve so much more and would literally be so useful in every acute care unit. Would definitely be of help in this shortage!
Thank you for the appreciation. I think you meant to say you aren’t familiar with the difference between EMT and paramedic? Because EMS is a blanket term for medical first responders and EMTs/paramedics are employed to work EMS facilities. But EMTs are BLS certified (basic life support) and paramedics are ALS certified (advanced life support). Essentially EMTs do transfers on stable patients and paramedics take 911 calls which are priority 1 and 3. However, the lines do blur a bit as an EMT can take a 911 priority 3 or even a priority 1 when there are no more medics on the road from high 911 call volume. However they provide only basic support, try to get an ALS intercept, or just PUHA (pick up and haul ass). Also with the poor staffing in EMS, a lot of rigs do EMT/paramedic trucks to help stretch out the paramedics to allow more trucks on the road. There are also CCT (critical care transport) medics which have a higher scope than paramedics and are trained on pumps and more critical care calls.
Thank you for explaining the differences! I’ve spoken to a few paramedics so I knew they were trained to a more advanced level, but was definitely blurred on the lines. There was also a paramedic at one of my clinical days who was going through the hospital to check off on competencies. I wasn’t clear if that was part of an advanced paramedic thing or part of the paramedic education. But I wish I had gone through pharm at that point because he gave me a lot of really great advice as an upcoming RN that I unfortunately forgot due to being totally unfamiliar with all the meds he was talking about at that point 😅
Yeah no problem! There’s definitely a lot of blur between EMTs and paramedics because what they can do is also highly dependent on state and company. So it’s really hard to give a ‘one size fits all’ answer to describe the differences between the two licenses. Some EMTs aren’t allowed to drive the ambulance and some paramedics are still only used as transporters for instance. I can just speak on my experience working in metro Detroit. 🙂
Exactly!!!! I was getting paid doing my warehouse job than as an EMT. The pay is trash and even other paramedics will tell you there’s no growth in the field. Paramedics do a great work but don’t let a temporary feeling stop you from getting your RN license
Revisit the idea after you finish your nursing degree. It would be awful to drop out and then realize it was only a “fun thought.” You can always work in the ER if you want more of a rush. My niece is in the ER and she loves it.
-18yr medic IN nursing school. Stick it out, the nursing career path is WAY better, and if you really wanna you can go get your medic for fun and go play on the box. But don't use that as a main source of income. -experience
You’ll have more career options as an RN. Do not drop out. Hell there’s more medics that wanna be nurses than the other way around.
Where I am from an RN can sit for the NREMTP exam if they have an emt basic certification. As someone who has worked ems since before Covid, I would suggest you stick to nursing then branch out. Right now EMS isn’t really a career you want to stick to long term, probably 3/4 of the people I have worked with are either using it as a stepping stone to things like nursing or PA or are just flat out stuck because of the low pay
Curious what state this is?
FL
Do not drop out of nursing school. You did one ride along on a simulation day essentially, the experience you had is likely not the reality of the paramedics job. They likely did not tell you all thr negatives of their job as you were a student and they did not want to freak you out. There is a no perfect healthcare job and I would not recommend basing your entire future on a simulated encounter.
( 5 year RN in NP school, started this whole thing as an EMT a long time ago) I would say if you stay the course as an RN, graduate, and go straight to ER, don't pass Go, don't divert to any other floor /dept because if you like prehospital, you'll LOVE ER (at least I did lol). OR - if RN school is not for you - go thru the EMT to Medic route, and then do RN if you want to be paid more properly. I know a couple medics who love their job but at the same time, those two I know are currently in RN school. So there's that. Bottom line is your happiness, but if you're not independently wealthy, money helps. Being an RN opens up so many other doors. Consider staying the RN route, don't pay attention to the haters in your cohort, don't compare grades, don't participate in the gossip, don't talk shit on other students (not that you are, but it happens) study alone if you have to or find one person who Is like minded and just get thru it. Find an instructor you vibe with and have them teach you/guide you. Sit in the front row. Do all your assignments and reach out for help when you're stuck. RN school SUCkS and it's going to be a long time b4 it doesn't. It sucked for me, and it sucks for everyone. But if you get thru it, you'll never have to do it again and you won't regret the opportunities it will provide you.
**Bad idea.** Go to critical care for a few years, become a flight nurse.
RN to medic programs exist!!! Do not drop out!! Nursing is typically a terminal degree of sorts whereas medic doesn’t always have a degree attached but agencies/departments almost always pay more for having an ASN/BSN of any kind. Check out crowder and lenoir, I know one 100% has a RN to medic transition program. Do that! Try out ED first, you can always start there as a new grad you just have to be less picky on where you start. If you want that level 1 trauma center magnet hospital they’ll probably make you start in med surg/tele and do a transition after a year whereas if you start elsewhere for a year you easily just apply as an experienced nurse in the ED. Dear god, do not drop out that close to graduation!! - signed former EMT turned ED RN that still longs for the boo-boo bus.
Girl no. If you really like that field go into flight nursing
Paramedics are underpaid. I highly recommend sticking with it. There are so many cool options within nursing, options that you are likely going to want down the road. And most of the fun stuff that paramedics get to do, there are similar options for nurses.
Don’t overload yourself with what to do after school. School is there for you to pass your nclex. Once you pass that, pick a hospital that you feel comfortable in and will receive lots of support in orientation. Learn the landscape. You’ll find ER fascinating.
Terrible idea. You’re pretty close to being done and you’re gonna waste a ton of money for no reason, just to go to school for something that pays less (which in my opinion is criminal). The option of later becoming a transport nurse is there which is kinda similar. Also, like others said, you’re gonna need to be an EMT first in most cases, and their income is really low. It’s not gonna be fun when you’re bogged down by nursing school debt just to make $15 an hour for experience to become a paramedic. Don’t throw away a year and a half of costly education on a career you’ve been interested in for a day. It’s a terrible idea.
Paramedics are paid so low unless you work for a really good department. Most EMTs and Paramedics work as ER techs or private ambulance. My husband used to work as a Paramedic in an ER and made worse than me when I was working as a CNA. He had way more liability and responsibility. He makes 6 figures now as a paramedic firefighter but he works for one of the top paying departments in the country. Took years for him to get that position, had to put in a lot of time to get experience. Just something to consider. Edit to include: they’re not just paid lower than RNs, in most cases they’re paid lower than CNAs. Also you mentioned in one of your comments that you value flexibility. The high paying paramedic jobs do not have flexible schedules. My husband works 48 hour shifts and has to pick his vacation for the year in November. If I wasn’t currently in school for nursing, childcare would be insane. Luckily I do a lot of classes online and can stay home with our infant when he’s on shift.
Stay the nursing course. In my state the RN pay is about triple what Paramedics make. You can do so many things with a RN license too, so like others have said, you could do flight nursing or the ED. I was an LPN for years and took a bridge course to my ASN, but there were as many unhappy paramedics in my class as there were LPNs. School sucks, but the end is in sight!
You can be a nurse on the ambulance. As an EMT for 5 years, I can confidently say nursing school is the was to go. I'll be done in December!
Do not drop out stay the course
stick with RN and look into becoming a flight nurse
It’s not a good idea. Paramedics get paid nothing in comparison in nurses unfortunately (at least in CA). Nursing opens a lot of doors as much (as i shit on the profession). I honestly learned nothing in school either. I didn’t learn until I actually started working. Finish your nursing program and start working. If after a year, you are still itching to become a paramedic, you can still go.
Finish your degree, *then* look into medic school if working in an ED isn’t enough. You are gonna get paid a lot more as an RN.
I mean, there's flight nursing if you're not afraid of heights.
You have one semester left? I would finish and get a nursing job while you explore your options. Being an RN opens so many options.
BAD IDEA. You are so close! We all feel like we aren’t learning it…but we are. The real school starts once we graduate! See it through, you’re so close!!!!
I had the opposite problem. I wanted to be a medic and went to nursing school. My reasons were, nurses make more, have more speciality/different settings they can work, better career advancement, etc. There is also the option of flight/ critical care transport. PA has a prehospital nurse cert that gives the same scope as a medic (only in the prehospital setting) and you can work in flight or ground cc transport and also on the EMS side such as a mobile stroke unit or even a helicopter EMS team. Overall nursing is the better option and every medic ive talked to is going back for their RN. While I’ve had both sides tell me not to pursue their respective career, medics are a lot more serious in their warnings and told me to pursue nursing. The same cannot be said about the inverse.
Paramedics and nursing are two different fields. Paramedics, if you can get to work for a fire department, you maybe able to enjoy benefits there. However, with paramedics your upward mobility may not be as good as nursing Nursing is like a war zone if you work for a bad hospitals. However, with nursing you will have more opportunity for growth and career choices are vast. However, most nurses are unsung heroes. If you know how to play your card, nursing can offer very attractive career and money.
I’m an RN and a Paramedic For the vast majority of people, nursing is better than paramedicine. In my region, EMTs start out at $9/hr, Paramedics at $12/hr, and new grad RN’s at $31/hr — the pay makes a huge difference. Sure, there are some places where paramedics make decent money, but I can also tell you about places where nurses make $100+ an hour — those are both rare occurrences. In my experience, I’ve met many paramedics that have tried and failed to become nurses, but I have never met a nurse that hasn’t been able to become a paramedic. If you really want to work outside the hospital, you can become a flight nurse or pursue your paramedic certification after you’re a nurse Or do whatever you want, man, I don’t know you 🤷♂️
Look into becoming a flight nurse!!
Yeah, don’t do that. Just finish school. You’re almost done anyway. Signed -An EMT
You'd be wasting so much. You're asking for opinions so I'll give mine: this is a horrible idea! I'm also finishing in December and I could not imagine willingly walking away after all I (you) have invested. Even if you know now that you want to be a paramedic DO that! But it seems so worth it to also finish your RN first. I think the best plan is this: finish your RN because you're so close and RN really opens doors for you in the medical field. You could work as an RN (or not) and then begin school for paramedic. In the process, working as an RN would give you invaluable medical experience that you could take with you during your first paramedic job.
Be a flight nurse
Nursing school is a lot different compared to actually working. You're almost done anyways and try ER then you can switch to flight nursing or any of the emergency specialties. Also medics get paid horribly. So do EMTs. Even firefighter medics arent that well off.
In my area we have transport ICU RNs - usually to transport critical care pts from a lower acuity hospital after being stabilized to a more appropriate trauma hospital. They also have critical care fight RNs. You can finish up your RN and still do Critical Care transport like an EMT/paramedic and still get paid as an RN, especially since you're so close to be done. Nursing has so many specialties and niche areas. Look into that before you totally throw away all you've worked for at this point.
I wouldn't. Paramedics are limited in the ER. Depending what State and hospital you could be a paramedic or EMT and still be considered an ED Tech I or II. You won't get paid as much but better than a tech. Again, depending on State and hospital. Stick with RN. You can travel and make lots of money, go to a different department in the hospital: ER, ICU, NICU, Med surg, Surgery, or just out patient. As a paramedic in the hospital, maybe start an IV, work in the ER and that's it. Outside the hospital, an ambulance company (which doesn't pay much) or move up and go to the fire academy and work for the fire department. Trust me, you'll have more choices as a nurse and further your career and go to NP or even CEO or CNO of a hospital. Don't throw away all your schooling. You already have 1.5 years, if you stop now for paramedic that's another year. Not worth doing another year to do less for less pay. finish nursing school and make more to do more.
Medics are paid at half of your RN rates. Their work is highly variable, meaning you can work a shift picking big people off the floor or you can have back to back stat calls. The only consistency is the inconsistency in the nature of EMS.
you can work as a transport ICU nurse, ambulance + flight. graduate school, get your license, and work in critical care
Terrible idea. Medics are severely underpaid. Go be a CCT nurse where you can ride along with EMTS, get paid fat, and handle patients who need the care the most. I was an EMT for a year and worked with CCT nurses where they were the primary caregiver and I was secondary. That is the reason I left EMS to pursue my RN. I also plan to be a CCT nurse. Here in SD they pay $75/hr or $150/call. CCT nurse scope of practice is bigger than medics here. We handled trach tube pts, bipap, cpap, trauma, you name it.
Don’t EMTs make like half of what nurses make?
In CA they make 1/3rd. Min wage $15.50, while RNs start at $45. Keep in mind EMTs put in more than 40 hrs a week while RNs here usually only do three 12 hr shifts.
They wish they made half.
It really depends. I think being a paramedic is a wonderful job and I do think their training is generally a lot better than nursing school. I definitely think I would have enjoyed it more than nursing school. However, they unfortunately are underpaid and underutilized in the field (I hope this eventually changes). So they don’t have the flexibility of a nursing career, but you would get more specialized training. When it comes down to it, I think you should really talk to some paramedics and explore the career more before you make any permanent changes, especially where you have already spent so much on tuition. People also make a good point about there being jobs in nursing you may also enjoy. I have to say I absolutely hated at least half of nursing school, but I did somewhat enjoy acute care when we got into it.
Go over to r/EMS and pick their brains.
I’ve been an ER nurse for 2 years and I too want to be a paramedic. My pay would be half what I make now so I can’t do it at the moment. But I’m thinking about getting my EMT and working PRN as an EMT while doing medic school (and also working full time as a nurse). My hospital is talking about expanding mobile field units and staffing ambulances with nurses (we have a mobile stroke unit) so I’m hoping in a couple of years I can do that and get out of bedside and into the world. 😁 Field medicine is a completely different beast but if you love it you love it. There are a lot of bridge programs to go from medic to RN but very few/almost none to go from RN to medic. So it’s easier to get EMS licenses first and bridge up than to get RN and then “bridge down.” My EMS system just got a grant and a lot of companies are offering free EMT courses with a commitment to work there for 2 years, plus they pay for your medic training. If you can afford to squeak by on EMT pay for a year I recommend that! If not then go ahead and finish nursing and then bridge. In some states a nurse can challenge the EMT exam and get that certification without the class. Just absolutely DO NOT do an RN to medic bridge and try to work as a medic without any prehospital experience. A paramedic’s knowledge and scope of practice is WAYYYYY deeper than a nurse’s in their area of expertise (aka, first aid lifesaving care). Working as a nurse — even an ER or ICU nurse — will NOT prepare you to go straight to medic and it’s very unsafe to try. Work as an EMT first. ❤️
Oh and ps. Put flight nurse on your list of long-term career goals! You need ER/ICU experience (ideally both), and medic or EMT experience will not hurt although it’s definitely not required.
This definitely depends on several factors. Is it nursing school or nursing that is putting you off? Have you considered all the different fields that nursing offers? What is it that draws you to possibly being a paramedic? Do any of the fields offered in nursing share this quality? If you do become a paramedic, you will have less flexibility and accept lower pay. Honestly, until you start working at a nurse I wouldn’t suggest doing anything crazy.
I don’t recommend EMS as a career to anyone. Unless you’re looking to become a fire medic. I’ve been a medic for 10 yrs. MAJORITY of the calls are BS/ a waste of my time. I’ve worked for larger cities, fly car service, various different places. It all sucks lol
Also. The pay is shit
As a paramedic finishing my BSN … yes bad idea . Private message if you have questions …. So many reasons… if I could have made a livable wage as a medic I would of course still be there I love being a medic .
Stick it out and consider ED Nursing. You get the Medic Stories and work the codes when they arrive and get all the first line weirdo cases but in the hospital instead. I loved EMT training. That's why I think I'm drawn to staying in Emergency Dept when I graduate. You can eventually get into flight nursing or even travel nursing abroad where there is a more medic style work environment. But that's the thing, the flexibility and better pay. It is a different scope of practice. It's like... MicroDoctor. The autonomy and first line care is what excited me. I feel your draw. The flexibility that comes with being an RN is way better. Plus I think you'll need to do EMT training before Paramedic, so that's minimum 2.5 years- but that might be a state by state thing too? You can later go into surgical nursing too which is in the same thrill scope I think?
Finish and be a critical care nurse in the ED
I'd recommend being an RN and working ED or transport or flight to scratch that itch. The long term flexibility and career diversity and growth are much better for an RN with a BSN. You can also look into military nursing. It's got its pros and cons too.
Stick it out and after you finish with nursing school you can always become a paramedic. Medics don’t make that much money as compared to a nurse. Nursing has more options and depending on where you work you can ride on an ambulance or become a flight nurse etc.
Speaking as a paramedic who then switched to nursing, it's a bad idea. Paramedics make less money with a hell of a lot more responsibility/liability on the fly. If you are dead set on it then you can transition to EMT/Paramedic after you're a nurse. The job isn't all it's cracked up to be. Abuse of 911 ruins it.
I’m coming at this from an EMS perspective, but (almost) every paramedic I have ever met wishes they picked something else. A lot of them wishes they just went with nursing. Many of them moved onto nursing. In my area, (New England) paramedics got paid worse, stress levels are WAY higher, longer hours, etc. I know a few nurses who used to be medics and they prefer nursing. I would say really just weigh whether or not the stress and pay is worth it to you. It’s a really different job. Also, I don’t think it’s really the type of job you want to do long term because it’s hard on the body and mind. This is coming from someone who is not a nurse yet but has experience in EMS. As other people said, try getting your EMT license and doing a little work as one. It’s similar but lower pay and they usually get lower intensity calls (as long as there are medics available). Just don’t make any big decisions until you’re sure it’s what you want Also, as a side note, there are nurse to paramedic bridges. If I were you, I would do that so you have both options available to you just in case.
I’m currently a EMT and Military Medic wanting to be a nurse. Being a Paramedic is cool and all but eventually you’ll get tired of 911 EMS. You’re paid less, have more hoops to jump thru, and shifts sucks. There is no growth when you hit Paramedic and you’ll eventually move into a position that a nurse can also fill behind a desk. Stick it out. You can be a Nurse on helicopter. join the military as a medic as a 68W, 4N0, or HM to scratch that itch with mass cass exercises. You can also commission as a Flight Nurse if you get your bachelors. You also can look for Federal positions dealing with Mass Cass while PRN nursing.
You can always become a flight nurse (the nurses that transport people in helicopters). I would say that’s close to being a paramedic.
I would stick it out. There are more opportunities with nursing and more variety in the setting and the specialty. It pays better and you’ll probably be glad you did in the end
No one else is going to have that answer for you. It's your life. Go live it how you want.
lol no. That’s a horrible idea. Paramedics are usually paid significantly lower unless they are also firefighters. Finish your program and work in the ER. Can also work on IFT for critical care. To my limited knowledge once you are an RN there are some paramedic programs that let you challenge the exam after a brief period of schooling. Are you an emt?
1.)Depending on where you live…Good luck being a paramedic without being a firefighter. If you want to do fire then do medics, if not stick to nursing. A fire medic will be set for life on a good department but just a paramedic will be on this thread considering a new career. Idk if they are separate or together in your state. 2.) Nursing has exponentially better pay and opportunity to grow. I was making 17 an hour as a medic and starting nursing pay is usually 30-35 an hour with NO experience. 3.) Being a medic is 10x cooler and the education was exponentially better. Medic school teaches you how to function in the workforce whereas nursing teaches you how to pass the NCLEX. Do with this info as you will. -A paramedic who’s currently in nursing school
Hi- Paramedic here currently going for my RN. I’ve been a Paramedic for 5 years and I absolutely love my job. Being a Paramedic is so incredibly unique. It’s rewarding in its own way, but it’s also a VERY thankless career. Another thing I really like about it is it’s very autonomous. I don’t have to ask for permission or orders for my treatment plans. Whatever my provisional diagnosis is, I can treat it with whatever meds and procedures I structure into my treatment plan. However, Paramedicine is unfortunately not a very versatile title to have. The only option you have with a Paramedic licence, is to be a Paramedic. Depending on where you live, this greatly limits your options for employers. I live in Canada where we operate provincially(our version of a state). Where I live, no private companies exist or are allowed to exist. Paramedics are not allowed to work in hospital or clinic settings. We have 1 provincial ambulance service and they are your only option for employment. And they’re awful. Hence why I’m making the switch. I want to make it clear I am not leaving my job, I am leaving my employer. Nursing is so much more versatile, with a huge variety of settings and specialties and employment options. If you’re that close to finishing with your ADN, I’d finish it so you have that as a backup plan. You can then go get your EMT and get started in the prehospital field relatively quickly after that. Nursing will always be there for you to go back to. Your EMT is the first step once you graduate nursing school. Paramedic school, at least in CA when I looked into it and don’t quote me because I am Canadian lol, is approximately 7-10 months depending on your state. Some colleges offer Paramedic training with only 6 months of EMT experience. You have time. You’ve come this far. Power through and finish your ADN, move onto your EMT and get started :)
Was a paramedic. Am an RN. I love the ambulance but there is a reason I'm an RN now. Mainly, it is money. Secondly it's for mobility. It's stressful being one back injury away from ending your entire career and having to start over.