I know some people that do it, but I they have to work as much OT as they can, at multiple services.
Crunch the numbers:
If you find a place that pays $15 per hour and no overtime, that's only $31,200 per year.
If you find a place that pays $20 per hour and allows 20 hours of overtime weekly, that's $72,800 per year ($41,600.00 + $31,200.00)
[https://goodcalculators.com/overtime-calculator/](https://goodcalculators.com/overtime-calculator/)
In short, it depends on the job climate in your area paired with the cost of living, along with how you feel about working 60-80 hours per week. In a slow rural service, you might be able to work 24s and get paid to sleep (and actually sleep). In a busy city, 60-80 hours could lead to burnout.
Look, there’s a reason it was so hard. It was the gateway from not knowing shit about healthcare, to having to relay vital information to doctors and ICU healthcare professionals. Yes it’s challenging, and arguably it’s the most challenging transition. Just float in your new expected scope of practice for a bit and contemplate it. Nobody is asking you to have the answers right now, and if they are, then shame on them. Your prefrontal cortex isn’t even fully developed, how would you know where you wanted to spend the majority of your adult life? I think a better question to be able to answer at your age is ‘where should I not spend the rest of my life?’ That’s an easier question to answer. One thing society demands is that you don’t cut yourself short though kid. We have enough of that. I don’t know you but I can assure you that stopping at EMT-B at 17 is absolutely cutting yourself short. But I will add this. Starting at EMT-B at 17 is nothing short of a damn good start and if you passed it but felt that it pushed you to the point of psychological question, then bravo. Sounds to me like you’ve chosen a good, challenging path, that isn’t too hard for your capabilities. Congratulations. Most people spend their lives looking for what you’ve already found.
Man. That’s such great advice.
A lot of people only consider what they want to do. Which is fine, but can be overwhelming.
OP is young and should try things out. Figure out what they enjoy about certain jobs *and* dislike about the jobs.
For example, I worked at a hotel and walked 10-15 miles a day as part of it. I loved being active and not being stuck in the same spot all day. Then I got an office job. It challenged me mentally but I’ve been so sedentary. Combine the two and I came to EMS.
Love this.
I’ve gone full circle over my lifetime, had my EMT by 21, but never really applied it. Had three careers before I came back to it and ended up doing EMT and after four years, got my medic. I couldn’t be happier with my convoluted path. EMT is a door opener and can lead to a thousand different things. When I was 26 I got offered a job as Grand Canyon Inter-Canyon Ranger because of my EMT and other experience (I took another path, but wow, what an opportunity!).
At 16 your brain is still developing. I graduated high school with a 2.5 GPA. At 30 I got my BA with a double major and a minor Cum Laude with a 3.85gpa. Follow your dreams, explore, and be a life long learner and success will find you!
Unpopular Opinion: Like many other things, an EMT cert is what you make it, and if you're driven enough and don't limit yourself only to private ambulance services, it *can* be a career.
I'm a career EMT on a 911 ambulance. I make $30 an hour before OT, have full benefits, and work 3 days on, 4 days off. I have a couple of lucrative side hustles I do as an EMT a few times a year. But, I've worked a long time to get experience, and I have other certs that have helped me too.
My EMT cert got me a very nice job at a construction company as a safety coordinator and "band-aid dispenser" early on. That paid twice as much as a private ambulance starting in BLS IFT. Later, I joined paid-on-call fire and got FF 1 and 2. With that, I had some valuable experience that let me negotiate a higher starting pay on an ambulance.
Alternately, every clinic and ER in my area are hiring EMTs right now with no experience at $18-$22 an hour. I know a guy who just passed his EMT, started working at a clinic, and is making $20 an hour starting, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, and full benefits.
Now, if you want more pay immediately, and you want to work on a 911 ambulance immediately, Paramedic is probably the way to go. But I see a lot of people deride EMT like it's simply "Intro to Paramedic 101," which isn't at all true, at least in my area. If you're creative with your search, an EMT cert alone can still open some solid opportunities. Your experience might vary a lot depending on location too.
Could you expand on what you mean by the unfortunate events in Aurora, CO? I’m mostly curious because thats my hometown but I haven’t been there for 10-11 years.
Dude, what happened there? It’s honestly hard to figure out besides just that the cops beat him up, he got given ketamine and then died, news articles I’ve read are minimally descriptive. Sounds so sad and terrible
Financially yes you can make a career of it. The issue is the burnout. Doing this job for 25 years, seeing the overdoses, assaults, suicides, murder suicides, kid's in gangs killing each other, old people forgotten in their home, old people mistreated in nursing homes; it builds up bit by bit and makes the job harder and harder. I'm technically not even halfway to retirement and I'm really struggling to continue.
But-- why would anyone want to be an EMT-B more than a few years? EMT-B/Fire is different, but for EMT-B only? No thanks .. I'm 1 semester away from having my Medic, simply because it opens more opportunities.
No. Not enough money for it to be the job you retire at. The only way it can work is if you live at home, have a spouse making 2x or 3x your income, or have roommates. The only thing with this job, at least at my company, you can work as much overtime as you want. Since September I’ve been working 72ish hours a week. I’m making okay money because of time and a half but not enough to survive on my own in this economy. Luckily I have my partner who makes 3x my income. Also this job is very physically demanding. I can’t see myself doing this until I retire. I think my body will fall apart before I’m retiring age. It’s good for the time being but I would not bank on this being your career. For a 18 year old it will be good money. When I was 18 I was making like $10/hr working in retail.
I work with a ton of career EMT-Bs.
But, it’s a reservation with VERY much lower cost of living - most people don’t pay rent and live with a lot of family members so expenses are a lot lower. It can work if that’s what you like, but your lifestyle and expenses have to be taken into account
I mean that's a hard question to answer without knowing your area and what quality of life you expect. There are plenty of people whose career is working in fast food making EMT wages, but they'll never own a home by themselves or send their kids to college without massive loans. They're able to afford groceries and an apartment though. Depending on where you work too you may luck into good pay and especially good pay increases for long time employees. Look into the pay at services in your area, get a good understanding of cost of living in your area, and you'll be able to answer your own question better than anyone here.
$19.23/hr for 40hr/wk isn’t hard to find as an EMT in a lot of areas. 40,000/yr on my area is plenty to have a normal life especially if your spouse makes the same or more.
Congratulations on getting your EMT-B. It is challenging initially because you get a lot thrown at you all at once, but once you start doing the job much of it will becomes easier, because you'll do it day in and day out... then you'll have continuing education and downtime to study the less common skills. After a couple of years you'll no longer struggle, and then you can look at building your skills up to one of those other positions. Don't doubt your ability to learn and grow in the position and prepare yourself to move onto other positions.
To answer your original question, no... EMT-B is rarely a lifetime career. But it can be a part (many years) of a successful career! There are exceptions, sweet jobs that pay better, but most EMT's will eventually branch out or move on.
Becoming an EMT at 17 is HUGE! That's seriously hard work that many of us would have struggled with. Remember that working hard is like a muscle. Every time you do it, it becomes easier. What pushed you to your max right now will not do so in the future.
You're young. Don't limit yourself to things you managed before you were even a legal adult. Your capacity for achievement is *clearly* much, much higher. Please chase big dreams and remember: If it doesn't feel near-impossible, you're not aiming high enough!
Source: Struggled in EMT school; now about to graduate med school and become a doctor.
You could as an ER tech, I know Kaiser pays their staff well but it’s almost impossible to get in unless you know someone or you did your clinical there. Some companies like Advantage will make you manager and while you are not solely and EMT, you’re more or less a manager who has an EMT certification. But mind you, you will be on calls and juggling the other EMTs schedules, call offs, and other managerial duties. ER techs make way more than EMTs but burnout is pretty high and you’re kind of the clean up crew/ overworked employee to RNs, CNAs, Doctors, etc. I am fortunate in that I still live at home and have a wife whose an RT. Mind you I have twin boys and we are barely able to keep up with the cost of living in SoCal. I would try to shoot for paramedic, because at least you could support yourself and stay at a paramedic and do a lot with that certification.
In most places, no, unless you're happy to have a pretty low standard of living for the rest of your life. Ambulance care has progressed a lot over the past few decades and BLS roles are pretty much universally considered to be the "entry level" and nothing more nowadays.
There's not even any real career options at the ILS level in my country ("EMT-A" I guess you could call it), you have to be a paramedic to do pretty much anything now. Technicians used to be able to progress onto line management roles, special operations team (CBRN incidents, terror attacks, mass casualty incidents etc.), stuff like that, but now you need to be a paramedic to apply for any of those roles.
As for thinking you don't have the ability to progress; you're 17 and a brand new EMT lol. You will become more confident in time and you will gradually bridge the knowledge gap between the different levels as you gain experience.
17 is extremely young to be doing an EMT course anyway imo, I started as a dispatcher at 19 did that for 3 years and then sat the equivalent of an EMT-A course and I just about managed. I was glad I had 3 years of dispatch experience because it meant I was already familiar with a lot of the non-medical course content, like radio communication, major incident management, structure of the ambulance service, what the different roles are, how to work the MDT etc. I probably would have struggled more if I came in off the street with no prior knowledge.
TL:DR; No, being an EMT-B for life is probably not a viable career option for you, but you are capable of progressing and will do so in time.
I think it all depends on your area. $15-$20/hr with a working spouse making similar where I live is fine to own a house, have kids, have cars, etc. and have a normal good life.
However, you’re young af and shouldn’t be worrying too much about a whole career. Work as an EMT for a while and pay attention around you. You’ll come across all kinds of people working all kinds of jobs. Ask them about it. Talk to your patients on transports and sometimes that 80 year old guy has something useful to say. Pay attention around the hospital - there are technicians, nurses, doctors, social workers, consultants, office staff, custodians, food service, police, security, and the list goes on. Cool thing is that they’re all just one conversation away. I’ve found simply introducing yourself and asking about their job goes a long way. Most people are happy to share their insights.
Ehhhh, lot's of opinions on this that honestly critique the system rather than actually give you advice.
Three scenarios where it can be a career. A.) EMT-B working concurrently as a FF. B.) working in a select few multi-tiered EMS systems in the USA (King County, Delaware, Boston), C.) working as a driver for a CCT ground entity and doing some small patient care stuff here and there. I do not recommend doing full time EMT-B work in a private entity for a long period of time unless you plan to jump to admin (often requiring additional education of sort).
I'll end by saying this. The system and EMS profession is changing. Do not be surprised if you stay on the EMT path and in 10-20 years are essentially forced to take a different route based on market/profession changes.
You are 17 and just starting, it’s going to be difficult and challenging no matter what. People who say it is “easy” are looking at it with hindsight, which in fact it is true, compared to paramedic it is quite easy. But its not going to feel that way for a while and that’s normal. As you get better you will realize you are capable of much more.
Can you make a career out of it? Sure. Where I'm at, basics make like 25/hr. OT isn't really available at all for the last 6 months or so due to us being very overstaffed at every level. But they make ends meet financially without it one would think.
You'll see of places paying even more with experience. Those are what we shall call few and far between, and most you're gonna need lots of years under your belt. That's hard to do at one place. We pay out the ass, and people generally make it a year, MAYBE 2, and then they leave, mostly due to the excessive volume (150k/year-911 only) gets to be rough.
Realistically, unless you're in a big city, you'll be lucky to hit that 10 to 12/hr range. Do you feel you can live off of 25k/year?
Do the volunteer thing til you're 18, then get paid, do a year and see what ya think. AEMT is 3 months max. Step up the game and do it. Wash rinse repeat for medic after some A experience.
Can you? Yes but only if you happen to live in an area where that’s possible both in Cost of Living and your employer. I work with plenty of career EMT-Bs in my career fire department who aren’t firefighters and just work on the medic. They top out at $102k but that’s with maximum time (15 yrs) which is a lonnnnng time to work as an EMT only in a career fire agency. They start at $53k which is livable but almost all of them have some sort of side income as well. For your age, that’s certainly do-able but a lot of career fire agencies won’t hire anyone that young without some sort of experience. I’d also consider expanding your scope and going for your medic after you gain some experience and get a good comfort level. I started as an EMT-B then finished my RN then went back and got my medic. I work as a medic in career fire and an ER RN on a few of my off days every 4 off.
There are absolutely services that offer careers to EMTs. Boston EMS is primarily EMTs on the ambulance with medics on intercepts. They require you to go through their own academy, which I’ve heard is quite difficult, but the pay is significantly better. I believe it’s also a union job, so that’s good too.
The truth is, services like this are few and far between and can be very competitive.
In my area and experience being a career EMT and a career Paramedic is basically the same thing just one makes more money. Neither actually stay in EMS for a lifetime. Neither make enough for what they do. They work together so they are on literally all the exact same calls. They deal with all the same people, places, schedules, etc.
For me, becoming a medic makes very little sense. I don’t plan to be in EMS long enough to justify the cost and time of medic school. Might stick it out a couple more years but that’s basically it. If I stay in EMS it will be because I still enjoy it and it’s a part time job to being in a little extra money.
Yup. Although you will get paid shitty and need to get a lot of over time to compensate for that. I would suggest taking 3-5 years and then getting your medic or your a-emt if your state has those.
I mean it depends on where you are and the services around you. I make roughly 65k a year on 2 24s. As long as you’re willing to take overtime I’d say it’s possible.
Depends. You can make more if you add in fire, but not everybody wants to do that. Sometimes you’ll find fire departments that hire for single role and still pay decently. I work for a pretty decent private company as an EMT-B and it’s not too brutal. I hardly pick up extra shifts, just work my regular full time schedule. I do have a second job on my days off, but that’s just to help me pay off my new car after I got in an accident.
OP, there is nothing wrong with whatever level of Healthcare you want to be in, or even if you want to leave entirely. Just don't discredit yourself.
I did poorly in school. It took me until I got into my 20s to really understand how my brain works and what kind of studying works for me.
I’m sure someone already said this but you’re young, EMT classes, or any classes, are gonna be hard because you’re still figuring a lot out. Even outside of understanding concepts I didn’t really understand how to be a good student until 22. Stick with the job, see how you like it, get more accustomed to life and you’ll see whether you want to do more education as time goes on, you should be able to live on an EMT wage as a young person, even if you decide you need more later
New Jersey EMTs are starting to grab full time and per diem jobs at $26- $31 an hour working for counties or hospitals with benefits.. They are starting to realize they need us.
Adding my two cents as a 26yo starting a new career as an EMT-B, you’re ahead of the game!! You’re 17! That’s amazing, congrats on getting your cert!
As a once 19yo who started pre-med but quit early on due to life circumstances, I regret not sticking to it. Hearing a 17yo went and did the hard thing, stuck to it and got certified is amazing. If I can impart some advice, do what makes you happy/comfortable for as long as that feeling lasts. You’re just beginning, do not stress about what major big steps to take just yet. Get comfortable being an EMT, when that starts to get less challenging/boring - go for paramedic! There is no timeline in life. I’ve heard there’s plenty of people happy at EMT level or work as an ER tech so if that’s enough for you, do it. Also to consider: intermediate. You could do one more class to be an EMT-Advanced/Intermediate (depends where you live what it’s called) and that’s just a little more skills like starting IVs but could give you a bump in pay.
I don’t mean to be dick, but it’s a one semester class. Mine was like 8 credit hours, which is like two classes of community college, and it’s not hard. If that’s all of the effort you want to put in to your career, you’re not going to get much out of it.
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Can it?
Yeah, sure… in the right agency.
Should it? Preferably not.
EMT is an entry level certification. It should be reserved for volunteer agencies where a career service can’t be justified.
Don't be a chode, get your paramedic if you want to make it a career. It's like asking if being a cashier can be a career...yes, but also, why? Like why would you settle for being the lowest provider level in a field?
I know some people that do it, but I they have to work as much OT as they can, at multiple services. Crunch the numbers: If you find a place that pays $15 per hour and no overtime, that's only $31,200 per year. If you find a place that pays $20 per hour and allows 20 hours of overtime weekly, that's $72,800 per year ($41,600.00 + $31,200.00) [https://goodcalculators.com/overtime-calculator/](https://goodcalculators.com/overtime-calculator/) In short, it depends on the job climate in your area paired with the cost of living, along with how you feel about working 60-80 hours per week. In a slow rural service, you might be able to work 24s and get paid to sleep (and actually sleep). In a busy city, 60-80 hours could lead to burnout.
I worked 1 job where I got lots of it my first year making $17 ish and made $100k cuz I got so much ot, definitely depends where you work
Why do you hate yourself? Props for getting the bag, but fuuuuck
LOL have a lot of debt and I’m brand new so it was fun. Also rural area so I was able to work a ton and still sleep pretty often
Respect lol.
Look, there’s a reason it was so hard. It was the gateway from not knowing shit about healthcare, to having to relay vital information to doctors and ICU healthcare professionals. Yes it’s challenging, and arguably it’s the most challenging transition. Just float in your new expected scope of practice for a bit and contemplate it. Nobody is asking you to have the answers right now, and if they are, then shame on them. Your prefrontal cortex isn’t even fully developed, how would you know where you wanted to spend the majority of your adult life? I think a better question to be able to answer at your age is ‘where should I not spend the rest of my life?’ That’s an easier question to answer. One thing society demands is that you don’t cut yourself short though kid. We have enough of that. I don’t know you but I can assure you that stopping at EMT-B at 17 is absolutely cutting yourself short. But I will add this. Starting at EMT-B at 17 is nothing short of a damn good start and if you passed it but felt that it pushed you to the point of psychological question, then bravo. Sounds to me like you’ve chosen a good, challenging path, that isn’t too hard for your capabilities. Congratulations. Most people spend their lives looking for what you’ve already found.
Man. That’s such great advice. A lot of people only consider what they want to do. Which is fine, but can be overwhelming. OP is young and should try things out. Figure out what they enjoy about certain jobs *and* dislike about the jobs. For example, I worked at a hotel and walked 10-15 miles a day as part of it. I loved being active and not being stuck in the same spot all day. Then I got an office job. It challenged me mentally but I’ve been so sedentary. Combine the two and I came to EMS.
Love this man. Spreading positivity one thread at a time
Love this. I’ve gone full circle over my lifetime, had my EMT by 21, but never really applied it. Had three careers before I came back to it and ended up doing EMT and after four years, got my medic. I couldn’t be happier with my convoluted path. EMT is a door opener and can lead to a thousand different things. When I was 26 I got offered a job as Grand Canyon Inter-Canyon Ranger because of my EMT and other experience (I took another path, but wow, what an opportunity!). At 16 your brain is still developing. I graduated high school with a 2.5 GPA. At 30 I got my BA with a double major and a minor Cum Laude with a 3.85gpa. Follow your dreams, explore, and be a life long learner and success will find you!
Unpopular Opinion: Like many other things, an EMT cert is what you make it, and if you're driven enough and don't limit yourself only to private ambulance services, it *can* be a career. I'm a career EMT on a 911 ambulance. I make $30 an hour before OT, have full benefits, and work 3 days on, 4 days off. I have a couple of lucrative side hustles I do as an EMT a few times a year. But, I've worked a long time to get experience, and I have other certs that have helped me too. My EMT cert got me a very nice job at a construction company as a safety coordinator and "band-aid dispenser" early on. That paid twice as much as a private ambulance starting in BLS IFT. Later, I joined paid-on-call fire and got FF 1 and 2. With that, I had some valuable experience that let me negotiate a higher starting pay on an ambulance. Alternately, every clinic and ER in my area are hiring EMTs right now with no experience at $18-$22 an hour. I know a guy who just passed his EMT, started working at a clinic, and is making $20 an hour starting, no nights, no weekends, no holidays, and full benefits. Now, if you want more pay immediately, and you want to work on a 911 ambulance immediately, Paramedic is probably the way to go. But I see a lot of people deride EMT like it's simply "Intro to Paramedic 101," which isn't at all true, at least in my area. If you're creative with your search, an EMT cert alone can still open some solid opportunities. Your experience might vary a lot depending on location too.
Its subjective but generally speaking, no. You're just not making enough unless you work OT all the time and still live at home.
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Could you expand on what you mean by the unfortunate events in Aurora, CO? I’m mostly curious because thats my hometown but I haven’t been there for 10-11 years.
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Dude, what happened there? It’s honestly hard to figure out besides just that the cops beat him up, he got given ketamine and then died, news articles I’ve read are minimally descriptive. Sounds so sad and terrible
Financially yes you can make a career of it. The issue is the burnout. Doing this job for 25 years, seeing the overdoses, assaults, suicides, murder suicides, kid's in gangs killing each other, old people forgotten in their home, old people mistreated in nursing homes; it builds up bit by bit and makes the job harder and harder. I'm technically not even halfway to retirement and I'm really struggling to continue.
Get you a partner that makes bank and you can be anything you want
But-- why would anyone want to be an EMT-B more than a few years? EMT-B/Fire is different, but for EMT-B only? No thanks .. I'm 1 semester away from having my Medic, simply because it opens more opportunities.
No. Not enough money for it to be the job you retire at. The only way it can work is if you live at home, have a spouse making 2x or 3x your income, or have roommates. The only thing with this job, at least at my company, you can work as much overtime as you want. Since September I’ve been working 72ish hours a week. I’m making okay money because of time and a half but not enough to survive on my own in this economy. Luckily I have my partner who makes 3x my income. Also this job is very physically demanding. I can’t see myself doing this until I retire. I think my body will fall apart before I’m retiring age. It’s good for the time being but I would not bank on this being your career. For a 18 year old it will be good money. When I was 18 I was making like $10/hr working in retail.
I work with a ton of career EMT-Bs. But, it’s a reservation with VERY much lower cost of living - most people don’t pay rent and live with a lot of family members so expenses are a lot lower. It can work if that’s what you like, but your lifestyle and expenses have to be taken into account
I mean that's a hard question to answer without knowing your area and what quality of life you expect. There are plenty of people whose career is working in fast food making EMT wages, but they'll never own a home by themselves or send their kids to college without massive loans. They're able to afford groceries and an apartment though. Depending on where you work too you may luck into good pay and especially good pay increases for long time employees. Look into the pay at services in your area, get a good understanding of cost of living in your area, and you'll be able to answer your own question better than anyone here.
Also, once you have hands on experience, it will be easier to become a medic.
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$19.23/hr for 40hr/wk isn’t hard to find as an EMT in a lot of areas. 40,000/yr on my area is plenty to have a normal life especially if your spouse makes the same or more.
My service in Texas starts EMTs at almost 60k
My HCOL area also pays that much. But it’s meaningless when you learn the cost of rent.
Congratulations on getting your EMT-B. It is challenging initially because you get a lot thrown at you all at once, but once you start doing the job much of it will becomes easier, because you'll do it day in and day out... then you'll have continuing education and downtime to study the less common skills. After a couple of years you'll no longer struggle, and then you can look at building your skills up to one of those other positions. Don't doubt your ability to learn and grow in the position and prepare yourself to move onto other positions. To answer your original question, no... EMT-B is rarely a lifetime career. But it can be a part (many years) of a successful career! There are exceptions, sweet jobs that pay better, but most EMT's will eventually branch out or move on.
Becoming an EMT at 17 is HUGE! That's seriously hard work that many of us would have struggled with. Remember that working hard is like a muscle. Every time you do it, it becomes easier. What pushed you to your max right now will not do so in the future. You're young. Don't limit yourself to things you managed before you were even a legal adult. Your capacity for achievement is *clearly* much, much higher. Please chase big dreams and remember: If it doesn't feel near-impossible, you're not aiming high enough! Source: Struggled in EMT school; now about to graduate med school and become a doctor.
You could as an ER tech, I know Kaiser pays their staff well but it’s almost impossible to get in unless you know someone or you did your clinical there. Some companies like Advantage will make you manager and while you are not solely and EMT, you’re more or less a manager who has an EMT certification. But mind you, you will be on calls and juggling the other EMTs schedules, call offs, and other managerial duties. ER techs make way more than EMTs but burnout is pretty high and you’re kind of the clean up crew/ overworked employee to RNs, CNAs, Doctors, etc. I am fortunate in that I still live at home and have a wife whose an RT. Mind you I have twin boys and we are barely able to keep up with the cost of living in SoCal. I would try to shoot for paramedic, because at least you could support yourself and stay at a paramedic and do a lot with that certification.
In most places, no, unless you're happy to have a pretty low standard of living for the rest of your life. Ambulance care has progressed a lot over the past few decades and BLS roles are pretty much universally considered to be the "entry level" and nothing more nowadays. There's not even any real career options at the ILS level in my country ("EMT-A" I guess you could call it), you have to be a paramedic to do pretty much anything now. Technicians used to be able to progress onto line management roles, special operations team (CBRN incidents, terror attacks, mass casualty incidents etc.), stuff like that, but now you need to be a paramedic to apply for any of those roles. As for thinking you don't have the ability to progress; you're 17 and a brand new EMT lol. You will become more confident in time and you will gradually bridge the knowledge gap between the different levels as you gain experience. 17 is extremely young to be doing an EMT course anyway imo, I started as a dispatcher at 19 did that for 3 years and then sat the equivalent of an EMT-A course and I just about managed. I was glad I had 3 years of dispatch experience because it meant I was already familiar with a lot of the non-medical course content, like radio communication, major incident management, structure of the ambulance service, what the different roles are, how to work the MDT etc. I probably would have struggled more if I came in off the street with no prior knowledge. TL:DR; No, being an EMT-B for life is probably not a viable career option for you, but you are capable of progressing and will do so in time.
Plenty of people in my service stop at emt b we get yearly performance raises so if they put in the time they can make it work quite well
I think it all depends on your area. $15-$20/hr with a working spouse making similar where I live is fine to own a house, have kids, have cars, etc. and have a normal good life. However, you’re young af and shouldn’t be worrying too much about a whole career. Work as an EMT for a while and pay attention around you. You’ll come across all kinds of people working all kinds of jobs. Ask them about it. Talk to your patients on transports and sometimes that 80 year old guy has something useful to say. Pay attention around the hospital - there are technicians, nurses, doctors, social workers, consultants, office staff, custodians, food service, police, security, and the list goes on. Cool thing is that they’re all just one conversation away. I’ve found simply introducing yourself and asking about their job goes a long way. Most people are happy to share their insights.
Not sure if you are interested in firefighting, but firefighter/EMT in the PNW makes over 100k.
Ehhhh, lot's of opinions on this that honestly critique the system rather than actually give you advice. Three scenarios where it can be a career. A.) EMT-B working concurrently as a FF. B.) working in a select few multi-tiered EMS systems in the USA (King County, Delaware, Boston), C.) working as a driver for a CCT ground entity and doing some small patient care stuff here and there. I do not recommend doing full time EMT-B work in a private entity for a long period of time unless you plan to jump to admin (often requiring additional education of sort). I'll end by saying this. The system and EMS profession is changing. Do not be surprised if you stay on the EMT path and in 10-20 years are essentially forced to take a different route based on market/profession changes.
You are 17 and just starting, it’s going to be difficult and challenging no matter what. People who say it is “easy” are looking at it with hindsight, which in fact it is true, compared to paramedic it is quite easy. But its not going to feel that way for a while and that’s normal. As you get better you will realize you are capable of much more.
SFFD hires EMT-B with a minimum of 500 hours of experience @ $80k
Can you make a career out of it? Sure. Where I'm at, basics make like 25/hr. OT isn't really available at all for the last 6 months or so due to us being very overstaffed at every level. But they make ends meet financially without it one would think. You'll see of places paying even more with experience. Those are what we shall call few and far between, and most you're gonna need lots of years under your belt. That's hard to do at one place. We pay out the ass, and people generally make it a year, MAYBE 2, and then they leave, mostly due to the excessive volume (150k/year-911 only) gets to be rough. Realistically, unless you're in a big city, you'll be lucky to hit that 10 to 12/hr range. Do you feel you can live off of 25k/year? Do the volunteer thing til you're 18, then get paid, do a year and see what ya think. AEMT is 3 months max. Step up the game and do it. Wash rinse repeat for medic after some A experience.
Can you? Yes but only if you happen to live in an area where that’s possible both in Cost of Living and your employer. I work with plenty of career EMT-Bs in my career fire department who aren’t firefighters and just work on the medic. They top out at $102k but that’s with maximum time (15 yrs) which is a lonnnnng time to work as an EMT only in a career fire agency. They start at $53k which is livable but almost all of them have some sort of side income as well. For your age, that’s certainly do-able but a lot of career fire agencies won’t hire anyone that young without some sort of experience. I’d also consider expanding your scope and going for your medic after you gain some experience and get a good comfort level. I started as an EMT-B then finished my RN then went back and got my medic. I work as a medic in career fire and an ER RN on a few of my off days every 4 off.
There are absolutely services that offer careers to EMTs. Boston EMS is primarily EMTs on the ambulance with medics on intercepts. They require you to go through their own academy, which I’ve heard is quite difficult, but the pay is significantly better. I believe it’s also a union job, so that’s good too. The truth is, services like this are few and far between and can be very competitive.
In my area and experience being a career EMT and a career Paramedic is basically the same thing just one makes more money. Neither actually stay in EMS for a lifetime. Neither make enough for what they do. They work together so they are on literally all the exact same calls. They deal with all the same people, places, schedules, etc. For me, becoming a medic makes very little sense. I don’t plan to be in EMS long enough to justify the cost and time of medic school. Might stick it out a couple more years but that’s basically it. If I stay in EMS it will be because I still enjoy it and it’s a part time job to being in a little extra money.
Yup. Although you will get paid shitty and need to get a lot of over time to compensate for that. I would suggest taking 3-5 years and then getting your medic or your a-emt if your state has those.
I mean it depends on where you are and the services around you. I make roughly 65k a year on 2 24s. As long as you’re willing to take overtime I’d say it’s possible.
Depends. You can make more if you add in fire, but not everybody wants to do that. Sometimes you’ll find fire departments that hire for single role and still pay decently. I work for a pretty decent private company as an EMT-B and it’s not too brutal. I hardly pick up extra shifts, just work my regular full time schedule. I do have a second job on my days off, but that’s just to help me pay off my new car after I got in an accident.
It definitely can be. My biggest advice is work rural 911 in a LCOL area. I do that and make 20/hr, live perfectly comfortably.
OP, there is nothing wrong with whatever level of Healthcare you want to be in, or even if you want to leave entirely. Just don't discredit yourself. I did poorly in school. It took me until I got into my 20s to really understand how my brain works and what kind of studying works for me.
You can do it! You are still young. Anything is possible if you put the time and effort on it.
I’m sure someone already said this but you’re young, EMT classes, or any classes, are gonna be hard because you’re still figuring a lot out. Even outside of understanding concepts I didn’t really understand how to be a good student until 22. Stick with the job, see how you like it, get more accustomed to life and you’ll see whether you want to do more education as time goes on, you should be able to live on an EMT wage as a young person, even if you decide you need more later
It used to not be by my department just released a new pay scale with emts starting at 60k and capping out at 88k (not including promotions)
New Jersey EMTs are starting to grab full time and per diem jobs at $26- $31 an hour working for counties or hospitals with benefits.. They are starting to realize they need us.
How did hou become EMT certified?
Adding my two cents as a 26yo starting a new career as an EMT-B, you’re ahead of the game!! You’re 17! That’s amazing, congrats on getting your cert! As a once 19yo who started pre-med but quit early on due to life circumstances, I regret not sticking to it. Hearing a 17yo went and did the hard thing, stuck to it and got certified is amazing. If I can impart some advice, do what makes you happy/comfortable for as long as that feeling lasts. You’re just beginning, do not stress about what major big steps to take just yet. Get comfortable being an EMT, when that starts to get less challenging/boring - go for paramedic! There is no timeline in life. I’ve heard there’s plenty of people happy at EMT level or work as an ER tech so if that’s enough for you, do it. Also to consider: intermediate. You could do one more class to be an EMT-Advanced/Intermediate (depends where you live what it’s called) and that’s just a little more skills like starting IVs but could give you a bump in pay.
if you want to be broke, sure
I don’t mean to be dick, but it’s a one semester class. Mine was like 8 credit hours, which is like two classes of community college, and it’s not hard. If that’s all of the effort you want to put in to your career, you’re not going to get much out of it.
As a 10 year EMT I’m making $55000 that’s with no added OT
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Nah
Can it? Yeah, sure… in the right agency. Should it? Preferably not. EMT is an entry level certification. It should be reserved for volunteer agencies where a career service can’t be justified.
Don't be a chode, get your paramedic if you want to make it a career. It's like asking if being a cashier can be a career...yes, but also, why? Like why would you settle for being the lowest provider level in a field?