If you ever thought about becoming a paramedic, this article is for you! This article is a great way to have a good look on the job and to learn everything you wanted to know about it. It will help you understand what the job is, where do paramedics work, the salary, the challenges of the job, the schedules and when you can expect to retire. It can help you know if you are interested in doing this job.
Being a paramedic can be really stressful. It involves long shift and life-or-death situation for some patients, but mostly it is taking care of vulnerable patients. Also, it takes a lot of thinking, self-control and empathy to be a good paramedic.
When a medical emergency happens, the paramedic will probably be the first professional the patient will be in contact with. So, its role is to detect if there is a death-or-life problem. If so, the paramedic will try to stabilize the patient, reduce is pain and bring him quickly to the right hospital.
Depending on the region you work, a typical shift is around 12 hours. Usually, when you are a new paramedic, you schedule will not be steady. You will work the day, the evening and the night shift sometimes all in one week. When you start the day, you go to the point of service to pick up the supplies and the ambulance. After, you go to the location that they assign you, and you wait for a call. Typically, the most usual calls vary between psychiatric case or chest pain.
Paramedics can work everywhere. Everywhere there is a chance somebody could get hurt, paramedics can have a job. There are paramedics that work in almost every country on the planet, there are paramedics that work on boats, in the air on planes, in the nature, when a natural disaster happens and even when a war happens. Where there is help needed, they can be there.
To become a paramedic, you need to do 3 years in a school where they offer the program. It is a lot of work. When you do this training, you learn many things about the human body, about all sort of disease and about different traumas the body may have.
In the beginning, you start around $24 an hour. After one year in the same company, the salary will increase. It will increase around $36 an hour at the highest.
Life experience is a great skill to have when you are a paramedic. Moreover, having additional training on how to interact and treat elderly people can be a great advantage because most of the patient will be older.
When you are on duty and going for a call, you have to worry about the dangers of the scene. You need to make sure it is secured by the police or the firefighters if needed. After, maybe the environment we be chaotic. Some people can be really stressed when an accident occurs. Their reaction can go from calm, in choc to complete panicking. After, some person can be violent because of different reasons. For example, it can be because of alcohol or drug use or form confusion. In addition, it is a hard job because of everything you see. Paramedics struggle with high rates of burnout, PTSD or other mental illnesses.
A big part of the job is to comfort patients with human touch. Some patients really want to talk to someone, to understand what is going on and to be comforted in a stressful situation. I don’t think robots will be able to do that part of the job soon.
It is a hard job physically and mentally. Because of that, the average age for a paramedic is just 34 and around 80% of the paramedics leave the job after only seven years or less of career. Even tough the job is hard, it will bring good experience, joy, and you will meet amazing people. When you retire, you will have many good memories and stories to tell.
Finally, with all this information, you can understand the job better and know if you are meant to do this job. Personally, I am at me second years in school. I am loving it, and I can't wait to be on the road. After two years of work, my goal would be to the university to do a major. It will be an additional training in advanced care.
Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: personal testimony
Date: recently published
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
Sources: cites sources
Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: personal testimony
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
Sources: cites sources