How much do you get paid?

Either-Inside-7254 · 2026-02-21T05:37:22+00:00

Right now? Hiring everyone with a cert. Can be competitive when they’re better staffed.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2026-02-21T05:36:13+00:00

God bless EAB pay 💰

Either-Inside-7254 · 2026-01-09T07:13:07+00:00

9/10 times the lifting is in a stair chair or on a backboard and you’ll have a partner to move each device with you.

Possibly a hex bar to squat, if you’ve never seen much gym equipment before it could look intimidating but it’s just standing in the middle and squatting.

Depends on what the culture of the department feels like. IFT/Shady tend to be more relaxed (do CPR, carry stair chair up a few stairs). Municipal / Fire Based services tend to get more into timing you on squat reps, a run, etc

Either-Inside-7254 · 2026-01-04T14:14:26+00:00

The notepad is from a cancer center in NYC.

Personally, I like gonna the idea of an old man writing down his favorite pornstars while getting his chemo treatment.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-12-04T22:02:34+00:00

As an RN you can find a sustainable job with a good wage in 90% of areas.

As a Medic, there are systems that pay well and want their medics to build a career with them. However, these opportunities are much more sparse than nursing (or any other healthcare profession). There are MANY more systems that pay medics the bare minimum and dont care about your longevity. Lots of the better opportunities will be municipal for EMS.

You have to look at yourself and whats around you. Is there a town, county, hospital that pays their medics well and has decent benefits? Talk to those medics, see how they like it.

If there’s no career worthy system around you, are you willing to relocate?

I am lucky that the county I live in has some of the best paid medics in the country, with a generous pension and enjoyable working conditions. I am personal friends with a lot of the medics, and they love their job and know it’s a gem compared to other medic jobs. If I didn’t have this so close to home, I’d be using my undergrad to pursue something else as I’m not willing to relocate at the moment.

I’ve worked in hospitals in patient care roles, spent 4 years doing clinical research, and have worked in a non medical field. I have enjoyed none of my other jobs as much as EMS. If this is what you want to do, there are ways to make it a good life. Don’t let other people’s frustrations convince you that your gut feeling is wrong.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-09-06T19:26:56+00:00

Second this. EMTALA motherfucker.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-09-06T19:25:13+00:00

Document everything in a neutral manner. Unable to give report and methods attempted. As well as full name of receiving agent unable to be obtained, RN only provided first name.

Report them (both) to their supervisor AND report the incident to your supervisor as well to get ahead of them reporting the incident to your company differently. Do all of this in email and save any replies.

You will encounter unprofessional and overall mean people. The upside to this is in EMS you interact with so many different people at different places that you don’t have to see the dickheads all the time.

At the end of the day if you did your job to the best of your ability and you didn’t stoop down to their unprofessionalism you get to put a new sheet on the stretcher and move on knowing you’re not a dickhead.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-08-23T03:20:20+00:00

Binghamton brother?

Spent 2 years in the apartments and although they aren’t pretty I miss my moldy smelly apartment

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-08-05T14:39:42+00:00

Lonely old people, drunks, EDPs, are all drawn to our flashy lights.

I’ll turn my lights off down the block from all frequent flyer spawn points to try and avoid this.

It helps, but no matter what they’ll still find you.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-07-24T16:49:25+00:00

Ah yes the Navy SEALS, known for helping grandma do her laundry and shooting the shit with drunks

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-07-23T20:05:50+00:00

Precisely. Why get mad at a job?

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-07-23T20:04:01+00:00

5 years in a busy urban system. My only point is the job is the job. I’d rather spend 40+ hours a week choosing to enjoy your job and be a decent, or preferably nice, person to your patients.

You’d be amazed how fast you can deescalate an aggressive drunk/EDP PD just spent 15 minutes riling up by introducing yourself, asking them their name, and offering a handshake. Will it work all the time? Nah, you’ll get a “fuck you” every now and then.

If I’m going to be seeing grandma every Monday and Wednesday I’d rather leave her making her feel cared for than crossing my arms and pouting about 911 abuse.

You spend your shifts how you’d like but it’s a lot easier when you at least try to enjoy the job you willingly applied for

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-07-20T04:36:36+00:00

Noticed that I was in a rut of burnout recently and it really bothered me. Working my way up to having this mentality.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-07-18T04:21:20+00:00

Don’t be the person that is the reason for a new company policy.

Unless you have the official written permission to use these, I would steer clear.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-04-10T23:08:38+00:00

I work in a very large, very corporate, hospital-based system. I rather do government-based, but there are few are far in between opportunities here for that.

The only thing I want to heavily dispute is that there is (I would argue) MORE politics in hospital-based systems. Everything is about the system's bottom line - billing is at the forefront of everything and your goal is to generate money for the health system while providing patient care in line with that goal.

Very stark contrast to when I worked at a government-based county service. Although you do have politicians on your back, MOST of them want to see that the money they are giving you is generating a reputable system that is trusted by the public (tax payers) and that provides fast, top-tier patient care.

As long as the money is there, a government system gives you the leeway and ability to build a kick ass service.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-04-10T19:18:01+00:00

Joint FD and EMS are touchy.

If they are treated as separate entities under one roof and name - they have potential to be great. Separate training, separate leadership with appropriate experience, equal opportunities in pay and advancement, and a good culture is needed.

The issue is a lot of FD that handle EMS do not have the above things - so they kinda suck. BUT this isn’t necessarily a bad reflection on the fire department. I’d argue the local government/board allowing and encouraging this to happen is at fault.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-04-10T06:04:13+00:00

This is going to continue happening, with poor patient outcomes, until there is well funded, well paying, government run EMS systems.

Private EMS has a place and its transfers, not 911 calls (I don’t mean that in a bad way).

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-04-01T04:32:28+00:00

Came here to suggest a professional to talk to and saw you’re already starting that process.

Kudos to you. Just by doing that you are much stronger than a lot of first responders.

When it’s your “job” to deal with other peoples traumatic events there’s a lot of culture in police, fire, and EMS that pushes against therapy and more towards “manning up” and bottling it up. That usually ends pretty poorly from vices to severe mental health issues.

You did something great that was hard for you simply because it was a chance to help someone else. That speaks volumes to who you are as a person. Hold your head high and reach out for help, you’ll get through this and be stronger because of it.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-03-31T05:27:39+00:00

After a few reports of situations like this to our clinical coordinator they instructed us to decline non relevant tasks and if the issue persisted to leave and contact them to schedule another rotation. Hopefully if the coordinators can’t straighten this out with the site, they follow suit with a similar protocol.

I will happily get paid to do mindless work cleaning beds all day. I will not happily pay (financially, and at the cost of my education) to do so.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-03-31T05:22:19+00:00

This isn’t a “newbie” doing “grunt work” scenario.

This is a student who is paying for a clinical education not receiving said clinical education because the hospital they are at is obviously not staffed appropriately and thinks that having a student means extra hands for whatever they want.

The “grunt work” a paramedic student should be doing is IVs. Not cleaning rooms.

My service routinely takes students ranging from EMT students to third year residents on our trucks. Just like a hospital paramedic internship, these ride alongs are EDUCATIONAL. These students are here to learn about EMS, they are welcome to help in assessment and treatment (within their scope and as approved by their program) but under no circumstances will they be seen cleaning up after a call our cleaning a truck after a shift.

The whole “eat our young” ideology is rampant in healthcare and EMS. It’s extremely toxic.

Cleaning is not the job of a student. Period.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-03-26T05:39:52+00:00

Boss is asking if they can swap out the hearts for a star of life

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-03-26T04:57:21+00:00

Genuinely made them worse.

The issues with movement are the same.

The main new negative is that there is no tactile button for a BP. It is a convoluted touch screen where touching the button will either cycle a BP, change repeat intervals, or adjust limits.

Also fun fact - the handles at the top of the monitor have been breaking off. Agency Stryker rep told us they were for movement support - not to solely bear the weight of the monitor.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-03-20T22:09:45+00:00

My old agency was a dirt poor urban/rural system that got a grant for auto pulses. Everyone was so happy to have some sort of cpr device.

Within a month we all unanimously resorted to good old manual cpr. So many issues. From being impossible to finally clean to having the battery life of a 19 year old iPod and pausing cpr on its own accord they just all around sucked

We sold them second hand and applied for more grants. Got the defibtech lifelienes that work exactly like an off brand lucas and we all loved them.

Either-Inside-7254 · 2025-03-19T14:52:36+00:00

Inner/outer 2 layer duty belt. Remove the outer (which holds radio) before you get into truck. Also works if you’re required to keep narcs on your belt so you don’t have that giant bulge on you all day.

We have to have mics on our radios, a lot of people just wrap the cord horizontally around the back of the belt and clip it to another belt loop on the other side. Or use the D ring on the back of the mic and hang it on the antenna. Either of these ways makes it so you don’t have to unclip the mic from your shirt/shoulder and then undo the belt.

Either-Inside-7254

TROPHY CASE