Do you want to work in an exciting career in the medical field? If so, consider a career as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) field. This is a position allowing you to be one of the first respondents arriving on scene for an emergency, be paid for what you enjoy, and help your community. You will be the first line of defense to protect and save patients' lives.
There are two main positions in the EMT career field. You can become an Emergency Medical Technician-Basic (EMT-B) which is the beginning step before advancing to an Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic (EMT-P). An EMT-B is trained to provide basic care to injured and ill patients. They can take patients vitals such as their heart rate, blood pressure, and monitor their oxygen and breathing levels. EMT-B can provide CPR, operate a defibrillator, splint wounds, and ask patients medical questions to help decide on the best medical care.
An EMT-P has advanced training, allowing them to intubate patients, operate a defibrillator to patients in cardiac arrest, which delivers electricity to their non-beating heart, and administer medications.
Working in the EMS field does not limit you to ambulances either. You can work in a hospital in a critical care unit or emergency room. You may work along with the fire department, search and rescue, or work as a military medic. EMTs are employable in many lifesaving fields.
You can quickly become an EMT as you can enroll in a community college program or your local hospital, have a clean background, and successfully pass a CPR class. From there, you can work with on basic training courses, which usually take just one semester to complete.
To advance your basic EMT career to a paramedic level, you must go through training that is more rigorous. You must have a firm understanding of anatomy and physiology and you are required to have clinical experience under your belt, which requires you to have on-the-job training. You will ride in an ambulance and perform EMT duties. You will have classwork, hands-on in-class activities, and attend a series of lectures. Hours needed for your clinicals and in the classroom vary by state.
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