EMT Opportunities around Bragg?

[b_sav]

Hello all,
I'm a recently separated Army veteran, new to the Bragg area. I have a few months before my next adventure starts, and will soon be a newly minted EMT. Does anyone here know of a good volunteer (or paid) opportunity in the area that would provide quality experience? My goal is to get experience and meet good people. Long term goals involve getting to SOCOM, but that will be a couple years down the road.

 

[Devildoc]

Cumberland County EMS/Cape Fear Valley Health is your best bet. I know they have openings for FT and PT EMTs, but I don't know in what capacity. I'd also look at neighboring FirstHealth of the Carolinas (they run EMS in nearby Hoke, Moore Counties). I have no idea about volunteer departments.

Stay away from convalescent transport agencies. Yeah, you get paid, but there's zero clinical exposure and it's just not fun.

 

[Cookie_]

Stay away from convalescent transport agencies. Yeah, you get paid, but there's zero clinical exposure and it's just not fun.

I can't agree with this more. I had a number of classmates go work for ambulanz and the like because AMR only paid $11 something a hour and they paid $18.

Only one of them got on with the FD/is still doing EMS, and she only got hired because she worked both part time AMR and full time Ambulanz.

 

[b_sav]

@Cookie_ I'm still figuring out how this EMS business works, but it sounds like working directly for the city/county or their designated outsourced company (AMR, Firsthealth of Carolinas) is the way to go on 911 calls? And the alternative would be private companies that pay more but only do transport?

 

[Devildoc]

@Cookie_ I'm still figuring out how this EMS business works, but it sounds like working directly for the city/county or their designated outsourced company (AMR, Firsthealth of Carolinas) is the way to go on 911 calls? And the alternative would be private companies that pay more but only do transport?

Not @Cookie_ , but yes: if you want real-world experience, you need to be part of a 911 service and/or volunteer service. The transport/convalescent companies, all you do is take patient 'A' from home or nursing home to the clinic, doc, hospital, whatever. No patient care, literally an ambulance taxi. Most 911 services won't even count that as "experience."

 

[Cookie_]

@Devildoc beat me to it, but he's spot on.

I live right outside of Ft. Carson, so our FD has a steady stream of pretty well qualified candidates to pick through every year.

If you try to use transpo as your main experience, they will not accept that.
By hiring authority preference(as I've been told by current FD employees) it goes, Military (preferably deployed), AMR/other emergency service, ER tech, Clinical tech (I.E. an urgent care). To get in with a tech role you'd have to really demonstrate that you dealt with a number of situations relevant to the level of care facility you worked at.

I'd like to make it clear that this is specific to my city and the department. Guys in smaller towns have been hired with less experience, and I know somebody who got hired in Denver simply because he was an 18B and the hiring authority "knew that means you'd work your ass off".

My best advice to you is to figure out finances and whether you can support yourself you get stuck with a minimum wage employer like AMR.
If not, find a volunteer service that does emergency or work part time. At worst, use your GI bill to help supplement your salary (obviously for a program you like).

The reason I'm not in EMS today is because I couldn't make the money/time work given the cost of living in Colorado and my other commitments.

 

[Devildoc]

@Devildoc beat me to it, but he's spot on.

I live right outside of Ft. Carson, so our FD has a steady stream of pretty well qualified candidates to pick through every year.

If you try to use transpo as your main experience, they will not accept that.
By hiring authority preference(as I've been told by current FD employees) it goes, Military (preferably deployed), AMR/other emergency service, ER tech, Clinical tech (I.E. an urgent care). To get in with a tech role you'd have to really demonstrate that you dealt with a number of situations relevant to the level of care facility you worked at.

I'd like to make it clear that this is specific to my city and the department. Guys in smaller towns have been hired with less experience, and I know somebody who got hired in Denver simply because he was an 18B and the hiring authority "knew that means you'd work your ass off".

My best advice to you is to figure out finances and whether you can support yourself you get stuck with a minimum wage employer like AMR.
If not, find a volunteer service that does emergency or work part time. At worst, use your GI bill to help supplement your salary (obviously for a program you like).

The reason I'm not in EMS today is because I couldn't make the money/time work given the cost of living in Colorado and my other commitments.

The pay thing is real. EMS pay is overall MUCH better than it used to be, but "basic EMT" is still significantly less than paramedic. I backed into EMS (pre-military) and loved it, but ate a lot of raman and beans-and-weenies. BTW, Cumberland Co basic EMT pay is around $51K, I think. That's more than double what it was when I started in 1990. Local to me (Durham, 90 miles from Fayetteville), medics are making pretty good money, almost what new nurses make.

For reasons I have discussed, do not discount working for a volunteer agency while you pursue a paid option.

 

[policemedic]

So, I may be biased and may sound arrogant but the only transport services that are worth a damn and that are respected are good critical care services. And you won’t get into that as anything but strictly a driver with a new EMT card.

Most transport services in my experience are simply Medicare fraud on wheels.

Find a 911 provider, find a good medic to learn from, and keep your ears open and mouth shut.

 

[Devildoc]

So, I may be biased and may sound arrogant but the only transport services that are worth a damn and that are respected are good critical care services. And you won’t get into that as anything but strictly a driver with a new EMT card.

Most transport services in my experience are simply Medicare fraud on wheels.

Find a 911 provider, find a good medic to learn from, and keep your ears open and mouth shut.

A former boss got fired and our agency was fined because he was doctoring the books, claiming transports were critical care when they were not, they were plain ol' BLS nursing home transports.

But hey, he's got a doctorate and is on faculty at New Orleans University.

I've got nothing good to say about 99% of transport services.

 

[TLDR20]

Why are you tied to that area specifically?

Come up to the triangle region and get a better experience.

 

[policemedic]

A former boss got fired and our agency was fined because he was doctoring the books, claiming transports were critical care when they were not, they were plain ol' BLS nursing home transports.

But hey, he's got a doctorate and is on faculty at New Orleans University.

I've got nothing good to say about 99% of transport services.

I agree. If the pt isn’t on a vent with vasoactive drips and an A-line is it really critical care?

 

[AWP]

Not that this is a bad thread, far from it, but maybe this should be elsewhere/ not SF related @Ooh-Rah?

 

[Devildoc]

Not that this is a bad thread, far from it, but maybe this should be elsewhere/ not SF related @Ooh-Rah?

You can probably close it, he and I have taken it to text and messaging.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

You can probably close it, he and I have taken it to text and messaging.

Okay. Locked for now. If anybody wants it reopened, let me know and I will find a home for it.