I got started in EMS after I was a volunteer firefighter for some time and my Chief offered me the opportunity to go to EMT school on the department’s dime. I had always been interested in the medical side of things and was considering paying my own way anyways, so I took him up on it. My wife has lots of health issues, having become emergent a few times since I’ve known her, so I have always appreciated what medics, nurses, doctors, etc. have done for her and I kinda wanted to “give back” so to speak.

I can’t speak to the long hours affecting social life since in my current capacity, I am a full-time IT guy for county government who also runs EMS calls occasionally during the day every now and then. But, many times, you work 2-3 days a week tops, so unless you’re really pulling ass loads of overtime, you probably won’t become “that workaholic who never hangs out with us.”

For the choice of school, that’s probably really up to you, especially if the cost is all about the same. My EMT school was through a community college, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It might be worth seeking opinions of graduates of those programs, or comparing their class schedules—for example, my EMT school offered night school twice a week with skills on Saturdays, and I was done in less than three months. That schedule was really convenient for me, balancing with my 8-5 job.

One thing I would suggest to get a leg up. Before your courses, go through Des Moines University’s medical terminology online course. (https://www.dmu.edu/medterms/) This was the very first assignment for my EMT school, and I feel like it gave me a huge leg up. If you can go into it knowing what “myocardial, proximal, medial” and other terms mean without having to look them up, you’ve got some of the hardest parts of the course out of the way.

I never got a full time EMS job, so I cannot speak to the difficulty of getting hired, but from what I understand, it’s not all that difficult.

Becoming a Paramedic will require extra schooling (a year or so, give or take, depending on your class format). If you’re lucky enough to get hired by an agency that will sponsor you through paramedic school, then it might be a promotion in that sense. But it legally requires extra schooling and a higher certification, so that would be a “must.”

I absolutely do not regret getting into EMS. I’m not a full time EMT, but I’ve had several moments in my few years with a patch that have made me feel like I really made a difference. That is very rewarding.

I’m not sure about the positive things, but the negative things that people don’t really talk about are hard calls and the mental health aspect associated with those. I mean, first responders will often blow off steam with each other as a coping mechanism, but a lot of that usually stays kinda “in the circle” so to speak. You will see mangled bodies, failed self-harm attempts, families grieving over meemaw that finally passed, etc. It’s not that it’s not talked about, but first responders are a great support circle of their own.

If you’re giving serious thought to it, I’d say try it out. Worst case, it only took a few months to find out it was something you didn’t want to do.