One question I get all of the time is “What is it like to be a paramedic?” There are a few places that you can work as a paramedic in the peninsula of Florida. I have heard that things are different in other places, but this is how it is here. I described it 9 years ago, if you want to compare.

Most new paramedics want to work flight. The glamour of riding around in a helicopter is pretty alluring, but due to weight restrictions on helicopters, they generally won’t let you be a flight medic if you weigh more than 150 pounds. Flight medics typically have at least 5 years of experience with a 911 service to even be considered for the job.

The next best thing is running with a 911 service. Running with a 911 service is not as boring or routine as other jobs, so that is where nearly all paramedics want to work. The catch is that nearly all 911 EMS on the Florida peninsula is run by fire departments. The pay is pretty good with 911 service, so the competition is fierce. There will be 200 or more applicants for each position, so getting hired for one of these jobs is difficult. Starting pay for a dual (fire, paramedic) certification paramedic is currently about $50,000 per year.

Then there are hospitals and doctors’ offices. They are largely avoided by paramedics because nurses have managed to get employers to prohibit paramedics from giving medications. The reason is that nurses don’t want to be replaced by paramedics making less money. Hospital paramedics are also prohibited from inserting endotracheal tubes, because doctors make several hundred dollars for doing them. They aren’t going to let an hourly employee perform a procedure that a doctor can do for the price of a Lexus payment. So many medics (especially new ones who want the excitement) don’t take these as full time jobs. What winds up happening is the paramedic gets to do all of the things the nurse doesn’t want to do. You start IV lines, draw blood, bathe patients, change adult diapers, collect stool and urine samples, run ECGs, fetch drinks for patients, and other gopher work. A medic in a busy emergency room can expect to walk 20,000 steps (over 8 miles) per day. Starting pay for a hospital medic is around $36,000 a year with no experience.

There are also the theme parks. Most of the work there is simple first aid, with a few emergencies, and a bit of employee health. There are the big ones: Disney, Sea World, Universal, and Busch Gardens. There are smaller ones like Lego Land, Cypress Gardens, and even water parks like the now defunct Water Mania or Wet N’ Wild. Starting pay at these places can be odd, because some require experience, and quite a few only hire part time paramedics who already work elsewhere. Starting pay is between $18 and $23 an hour.

The paramedics who get the least pay and respect in this area are the ones working on non emergency transport ambulances. The pay is low and the working conditions are poor. Shifts are long, normally 12-14 hours each. You do not get a station to sit in on those times where you wait for your next call. You sit in the truck and wait. No reading, eating, sleeping, watching movies on your electronic devices, no texting, no phone use, and no drinking of anything except water. (Not even coffee) These jobs are easy to get, but turnover is high, and most people don’t stay for long, using this place to get experience and move on. These positions are where many medics who can’t get a job elsewhere wind up. Most medics work one of these jobs at some point in their career, but strive to get away from as soon as possible. If you work at one of these for more than 2-3 years or so, most employers will assume that there is a reason why you can’t get a better job and will avoid hiring you out of general principle.

One manager at a private ambulance company told me that his crews were not allowed to eat during shift, because he doesn’t pay them to eat, he pays them to haul patients so he can make money. Expect no meal breaks for the entire 12 hour shift. Another told me that patient care is secondary to keeping the customer (nursing home, hospital, etc) happy, and that the patient was just cargo, and no one cares what cargo thinks. One of my former EMT students was told by an employer when he complained about working conditions, that for every EMT that was working there, there were 7 more looking for a job, and if he didn’t like it, he could be replaced tomorrow. Starting pay for a transport medic averages $32,000 a year. In contrast, a kid right out of high school can get a job at a fast food place for $25,000. Delivery drivers for places like Sysco are making $50,000 a year.

A person aspiring to be a paramedic who isn’t a firefighter is better off going to nursing school. An RN has the same amount of schooling as a paramedic, but makes about double the pay.

That and burnout mean that only half of all paramedics are still working as paramedics five years later. The half of paramedics that leave generally eventually become nurses or respiratory therapists, the rest usually leave for other professions. I know one that became an ice cream man.

Even becoming a firefighter paramedic is a tough road. About half of the people who spend two years becoming paramedics and another six months becoming firefighters never get hired by a fire department. They wind up either moving on to other careers or taking jobs like non emergency ambulance jobs as they wait for the big break that never comes.

I got lucky. I spent two decades running 911 calls with fire departments. I have worked in all of the settings above (except flight- I am too heavy): three hospitals, four different fire departments, two doctor’s offices, three different theme parks, and two different ambulance companies. Each had its plusses and minuses. The biggest minus for most is pay, closely followed by poor working conditions.

In Florida, a nurse can challenge the paramedic exam and become a paramedic, but a paramedic can’t challenge the nursing exam. I can say with all honesty that nursing school doesn’t teach you anything that you didn’t already know as a paramedic. Even so, nurses who began their careers as paramedics make better nurses, especially if you are working in the ED.

Categories: economicsGlory DaysMe

8 Comments

EN2 SS · April 4, 2022 at 10:01 am

Posting as an 18 year auto/truck technician (65K year), then as an 8 year long haul truck driver (70K year), I was told at both types they could do without me but I needed them. I told both assholes I could quit today and have three jobs in each field within two days, so stop spewing crap, I don’t need your shit. They left me alone after that. And no, neither moron fired me, because I was really good at both jobs and they f-ing knew it. Some cretins simply love being cretins. FYI I’m retired, but not retreaded. ;-))

why · April 4, 2022 at 10:28 am

Also consider off-shore. The work is seven 12-hr shifts (scheduled), but always available for emergencies. So an 84-hour week (varies but mine was Thursday-Thursday), so 44-hours overtime per check. The VAST majority of my time was spent as dispatch for helos/boats, coordinating equipment runs.

But my time was late 80s, no clue about today. PAs and NPs are working isolated platforms (AK)

    Divemedic · April 4, 2022 at 10:44 am

    I know paramedics who do that. Most of that kind of work is overseas. Especially Africa. They work six weeks on, six weeks off and rack up some serious frequent flier miles. It takes one medic I know three days each way to commute to work. She flies from Orlando to New York, then to London. From London to Africa. Then a combination of helicopters and trucks to the worksite (usually a drilling platform or mining town).
    Still, I was focusing on work in the state of Florida.

      Yep · April 4, 2022 at 6:27 pm

      My time was in Texas. Unsure how many platforms are in FL but plenty off LA

Skyler the Weird · April 4, 2022 at 1:55 pm

I think 911 Lonestar had an episode showing the difference between public firehouse EMTs and private companies. The firehouse was closed by budget cuts and the EMTs went to work for a Private Ambulance Service. They did as they were doing at the firehouse to save lives but the Company wanted them to prescribe meds and get the people transported as soon as possible.

Fortunately the brave firecaptain got the firehouse reopened and they went back.

    Divemedic · April 4, 2022 at 2:36 pm

    LOL. Those paramedic shows are beyond ridiculous. Paramedics don’t write prescriptions.
    I can’t watch those shows. The only thing close to accurate in them is the fact that so many sexual affairs are happening. Affairs are common in the firehouse to the point where there was only one woman I knew in my time at the fire department who hadn’t had sex with at least one of the guys she worked with.
    The private ambulance services are worse. A man and a woman assigned to a truck for 12 hours. Alone. There is so much booty being collected, it isn’t even funny.

      Yep · April 4, 2022 at 6:32 pm

      In the 90s, NREMT (national registry for the unknowing) had done a study that looked at divorce rates amongst those that either became a paramedic within 2 years of getting married or married within 2 years of becoming paramedic. The rate was 95% for men and 97% for women.

      When I relayed that to a LA FD chaplain, he said he was aware of study and had done his own – 100% divorce rate for men and women under above conditions.

Jonathan · April 4, 2022 at 4:37 pm

This isn’t as big in FL as other parts of the country – most mines are required to have paramedics on scene, unless they have a doctor.

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