OK, let’s say you’ve been bustin’ your hump on an ambulance for awhile as an EMT-Basic, and you’re getting tired of driving most of the time and doing all the scut work. Well my friend, it’s time to consider advancing your career by getting more training.
As I stated in Medic 101, the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians has four levels of training; First Responder, EMT-Basic, -Intermediate and -Paramedic. In my opinion it’s better to skip the intermediate level and go straight to paramedic.
I say this because paramedics make more money and generally get to do more patient care interventions than intermediates do. Plus, more and more organizations prefer hiring paramedics over intermediates due to the higher level of training and wider scope of practice.
Since I went from the basic level to paramedic myself, this is what I’ll talk about. To find a paramedic course; check with your friendly, local community college first or go back to your EMT-B school and see if they offer advanced training. I went the community college (CC) route.
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A lot of people have asked me over the years; “Hey doc, how do I, an average Joe, become a high speed medic much like yourself?” After I stop blushing, I tell them, “It’s really pretty easy, there are basically two ways. The first is the civilian route and the second is the military route.”
Let’s talk about the civilian route first. This is how I initially got involved with pre-hospital Para-medicine way back in 1986. First off, a little background, there’s an organization called the (NREMT) National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (www.nremt.org) that has, in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, set national standards for emergency medical responders.
The four levels of certification are; First Responder (FR), EMT-Basic (EMT-B, “basic”), EMT-Intermediate (EMT-I, “intermediate”) and EMT-Paramedic (AKA EMT-P, EMT-Advanced, paramedic, (“paramagic”, “medic”, etc). These certifications are recognized by a majority of the United States (right now there are five states that do not recognize NREMT certification. As of 31 Dec 2009 they are NY, MA, NC, IL, and WY. When in doubt, check with your state health department to find out which certification is required.
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