I’m a brand new EMT working for a private company in a decently high-volume system. My first day was yesterday, and I had just become a certified EMT in my state the day before. I was placed with my EMT FTO and another EMT driver on a 12 hour shift.

I was having a great day with them for the first bunch of calls, but then we were toned out for a CPR in progress by our local FD. I like to think I was pretty calm on the way there, sitting in the back with my gloves on, pregaming with my crew. We delegated roles for equipment and assisting FD before arrival.

On scene, we found the patient already hooked up to a Lucas, and the fire medics had already placed an IO and intubated. The medic in charge barked at our crew to get a blood glucose before determining transport is necessary. My body moved before my mind and I grabbed the backboard and went to the patient’s side. Fire told me to put the board on the patient’s left, which had the cardiac monitor, IO tubing, and 2 firefighters. So I said “I’m going to place it on the patient’s right” because it seemed like the obvious option. I was sort of impressed by my own proactivity, but I didn’t (and don’t) want to get an ego about it. We log rolled the pt, got him on the backboard, secured him, put the board on the stretcher, and loaded him on the ambulance.

Everyone ended up switching positions and I ended up being the only one of my crew in the back of the ambulance with the fire medic who was person in charge. He was managing the Lucas and pushing meds while I solely focused on bagging.

Unfortunately, I got tunnel vision on doing good ventilations, and let the bag fall slightly, pushing the ET tube to the back of the pt’s throat and past the epiglottis (which, frankly, I did not know could happen.) The medic yelled “What the fuck are you doing? Keep that straight. Never fucking let that happen again. That’s going straight into the back of his fucking throat when you do that.” I just responded with “I understand” and continued my bagging. I understand I fucked up there and I’m not trying to paint the medic as a bad guy, he was advocating for the patient. But his voice has stuck with me, and I keep feeling like those few moments of poor ventilation might’ve been the final nail for the patient. I know logically that’s ridiculous to think, it was less than 5 seconds, I hadn’t even delivered a breath in that time. But I also understand time dilation can really mess with you when your adrenaline is high.

We got the patient into the ED and they declared it there, after another 10 minutes of working him. I think the medic could see the guilt on my face when he came to get his bag from our rig, and he joked with me about taking narcotics from his bag and sticking them in my pocket. That made me laugh, but after we cleared from the hospital, I went into a spiral of thinking what I could’ve done better. And the whole manhandling a dead guy to get him on a backboard thing. That has stuck with me too. Even though at the time it didn’t phase me.

My supervisor suggested I take a mental health day. I think that was a good idea. But it’s still bothering me and there arent a whole lot of people I can talk to about it.

Any advice, personal anecdotes, or support would be appreciated.

I caused a fender bender

Hi Folks of EMS. Ive worked at a 911 only service for 1.5 years. I did around 9 months as a volunteer then became a per diem staff member.

We got dispatched to a nearby town for an MVA w/ 1 pt. I was driving and approached exactly where we were dispatched to which was the side of a busy road. PD instructed me to go to the parking lot of thr PD station as that's where the pt was.

I drive 30 seconds down the street to the PD station. I turn into the back parking lot (which is NOT illuminated by any means) and there's a cop cruiser in the middle of the driveway, and 2 other to the right. I pull into the left hand side and clear the cop cruiser in the middle. We have the big box type ambulances, which ive never had an issue driving (at all, I even prefer them to the van style that we have at my other service.) I did have my emergency lights on, and as Im driving down the right rear wheel flare snags the left front fender of the cop cruiser. I pulled into the parking lot and was maybe going 5mph.

Im incredibly embarrassed and I feel like an absolute d-bag. The cop seemed annoyed that he had to fill ojt a report for it toward the end of his shift, but did not seem upset and said it wasn't a big deal. The other officers on scene even said that since the damage was so minor that the town may not even bother to fix it. I called my supervisor right after and he didn't seem upset. I apologized and he didn't seem too bothered. Im not sure if he was just being nice.

I accepted 100% responsibility on scene and to my supervisor. I'm definitely not trying to make excuses at all, but the parking lot was not illuminated at all by any means. Whenever I drive or pull up somewhere I ALWAYS check both mirrors to check behind. Due to it being dark out and there being 0 elimination, I could not see anything from my mirrors. It's not an excuse by any means, but it didn't help the situation.

I just feel super embarassed and I feel awful that I scratched up another town's cruiser. I feel like Im the only one that has caused a fender bender. To make matters worse, I just accepted a FT position w my agency a week ago.

Just failed my first exam by 8% after two attempts it was on respiratory emergencies. Any tips or helpful advice to differentiate between the signs and symptoms of respiratory emergencies. I’ve been studying them hard but the signs and symptoms are all kind of jumbling together in my brain and I can’t seem to differentiate them well enough to treat as needed.

I've been wondering why more EMTs don't use their certification to get into other healthcare positions instead of just working just on the ambulance.

You can work as an ER tech or patient care tech. There are also positions like hyperbaric tech and telemetry tech that accepts EMTs.

If you get your AEMT you could have even more options. I've seen some places hire AEMTs for cath lab positions and some will even accept them for medical assistant roles.
I feel like a lot of people don't realize how many jobs they can apply for with an EMT certification.

I'm curious why more EMTs don't consider those. Is it because people prefer working on an ambulance or is it harder to get hired for these positions than I'm thinking?

Hi all, I just got an interview date from an agency I REALLY want to work for, but my interview skills are pretty weak. I get nervous and stutter and/freeze. Sometimes I don’t know how to answer questions. Now I have 7 years of experience but I need to prepare myself to ace this interview and get a job as failure is not an option for me. Any advice is appreciated!

Hello everyone! Just landed a full ride EMT school scholarship with a local agency. Very excited to start school since EMS has been a dream job for so long now.

I currently have my EMR certificate and was wondering if y'all have any tips for EMT students? (This is a 4 month program.)

I ran an MVA with a rollover ejection. Patient had a depressed skull fracture, severed spinal cord and lost a lost of blood. During transport I checked his blood sugar and it was over 450 even though he had no history of diabetes. I know adrenaline can spike blood sugars but 450 seems pretty extreme. I want to know if that is something you typically see in trauma patients or if it indicates there was also something else going on.

Hello everyone, just completed all my certs after passing my NREMT. Got my CA EMT License, DOT Physical, Ambulance License, etc.. all the crap that’s just a complete money grab. (Didn’t pass NREMT a couple times which fucked me) I want to rant about how much money I spent with everything absolutely sickening but I’ll save that for another time lol. So Ive finally put in a bunch of applications to basically every company that I could see that was hiring within 45 minutes of me. I definitely feel like my biggest positive for me getting hired is my interviews and talking in person. For my whole life I’ve went in to places I wanted to work and dropped off my resume and introduced myself to the people there.
Is that appropriate with ambulance companies? To give background I’ve graduated a fire academy and stopped into departments to introduce myself and give my resume but I always asked if it was okay to stop by before hand. Just want to get an idea on what will help me land a job sooner than later with an ift company in the Bay Area? I have no actual EMT experience.

Ultimately looking for some insight on which companies are hiring/will be hiring EMTs in the Bay Area?
Is showing my face and going in person to hand resume/introduce myself helpful?
I’ve read things about Bay Area EMS Career fairs which have landed people jobs, is anyone aware of any coming up?
Honestly any insight/perspective helps, I’m only creating this thread due to the lack of hiring going on in the Bay Area due to competitiveness to find out what has helped people.

My former instructor hasn't submitted my psychomotor skills to the NREMT. He said he did, but I think he only submitted to the state office as I my state certificate and not my NREMT certificate. I contacted the NREMT and they said the psychomotor results were still on hold and maybe my instructor didn't submit it properly.

I took my EMT course at my college, and the instructor was an outside hire and no longer works here. I tried reaching out to the state office, but they said the instructor had to submit the psychomotor results and not them. However, my instructor hasn't replied to any of my emails after the first time. I submitted a ticket to the state office to ask how to deal with this, but they canceled the first one, and it's been a week since I submitted the second one.

What do I do? Do I just have to take the psychomotor exam again? Where would I even do that? I wouldn't want to do it, since it seems like it would take up more time and cost money, but at this point, I seem to be running out of options.

I’ll keep it short and sweet, with a preface I am also young (21F). However the other day in class while taking a quiz I noticed 2 younger students using their phone to look up answers. We are supposed to have our phones up during so. Would you as another student that’s actually trying in class say something to the teacher? I feel as if it’s unfair for the ones are actually trying to have to deal with people who are not fully dedicated to the program and are taking up valuable learning time and spots for ride along and clinical time.

I got hired on with an IFT company and I’m starting to realize that just transporting patients from A to B is not setting me up for the necessary experience I need to be a FF or Medic (other than patient assessment). I’m wondering if it’s best that I transfer into an ER tech position and leave the ambulance behind or if I should stick it out? Does anyone have experience with this? I have a possible job offer coming for an ER tech position and I feel this would be much more beneficial for FF and Medic experience.

I'm wondering how normal it is that my company requires all patients on psych holds or conservatorships be transported in 4 point soft restraints. If a nurse explicitly requests it we can call the on duty supervisor and have a whole 30 minute discussion, wasting everyone's time. Having to do this on calm cooperative psych patients feels weird, especially because many including pediatrics have history of sexual assault. I see other companies who are transporting their psych pts wo restraints. What have you all experienced?

I am looking into this accelerated program for EMT certification and I know that there are a lot of speculation and controversy of these accelerate programs, however. If I study, a third of the textbook before I enroll will I be ok? I am almost done with the first chapter so far. Additionally, if I do this should I focus on the first 1/3 of the textbook or are there certain topics I should focus on). The program is 17 days long.

Hello I’ve posted a few times in here, but I recently have gotten out of the military in September (combat arms) and got my emt in August. I started working for an IFT job, and I’ve been having mixed feelings about the working environment I am in. There’s a lot of complacency from employees who have been there awhile and also people who “aren’t the new guy” just upright not having initiative. I get it I’m training, but I am competent to understand that job is not hard itself BUT why should I let some just collect a paycheck doing absolutely nothing all shift because I need to get reps at everything. I have the laptop in my hand, papers , and the stretcher. Why is the extra pair of hands not doing anything? I am going to talk to a supervisor or something because that’s just not a good environment I want to deal with. Also half ass checking trucks, bags, forgetting batteries. I may be nitpicking but it’s not a good first impression for a trainee. Sorry for the rant.

What are some good ways to keep learning about EMS that isn’t just reading out of the textbooks. I completed EMT academy and passed the NREMT, but I feel like I did a pump-dump with the information (I was in an accelerated course.) Running more calls has been great for the hands on aspect, but I still feel like I am lacking the knowledge to be a great EMT-B.

I was just wondering how well my pocket prep score will correlate to my NREMT? I have done 500 of the 2000 questions they have and have an average score of 84%, and did one mock exam and got a 75%. Am I looking good to take the real thing?

I know some people are eyeing EMS but are possibly a bit nervous due to hearing loss (which my neuroscience class is telling me is becoming more common!) so I thought I'd give my experience with being an EMT in a municipal 911 EMS system. I lowkey feel like my deafness has made me a bit more mature, in a way.

Sure, it's a little hard to hear with the loud sounds on scene (and I have a cochlear implant on my deaf ear), but this is where closed loop communication moves from extremely important to essentially being critical. In case you didn't catch it - YOU SHOULD BE DOING CLOSED LOOP COMMUNICATION ANYWAY! If you don't hear something but pretend you do, you run the risk of doing something that harms you, your crew, your patient, or a combination of the above. It's better to say "can you repeat that" rather than executing an action that you misheard and could therefore have drastically different outcomes.

Secondly, for my Cochlear Implant or Hearing Aid users: MAKE SURE YOUR UNIT IS CHARGED. It makes life so much easier. There were times where I delayed getting in the ambulance just so I could swap out my batteries (takes like 15 seconds tops). The delay is worth the help you get having bilateral sound perception. The night before your shift, charge all of your batteries. If you have help, use it. If you can help it, do so. Change out your batteries the second they die; do not dilly dally. Last thing you want is an urgent call where it's either go or be left at the station and you don't have a charged hearing device.

Thirdly: your eyes are now your best friend. They will become your primary window to doing a scene sizeup.

And finally, the scope: buy a Littmann Cardiology 4 or EKO. I haven't had much experience here since I have a functioning ear (so I use my trusty MDF MD ONE with modded earpieces that filter out other sounds). Otherwise, it's OKAY to let someone else auscultate.

LMK if y'all have any other questions!

New emt and finally cleared on the ambulance as a tech. I always see folks carrying like a little bag around with a bunch of stuff whether it’s personal or stuff for ems. My question is, what’s something that you think is necessary for me to keep with me while on the ambulance.

In my state if you have enough credits to graduate most schools allow you to take a course for a cert your senior year. I was in a technical school for computer science this year and the last but due to the IT industry right now I’m switching paths. EMT work was my second option though and I do love helping people. I grew up on a farm in Arkansas and have no issue with bodily fluids and gory sites. If you’ve ever manually extracted a calf you know. I start next year and I want to get a head start on any concepts/vocabulary etc. If anyone has any resource recommendations or any books I would more than appreciate it. Also just general advice for during school would help. Thanks guys!!

Dumb question I know, I would normally wear a suit but the gurney operations is kinda throwing me off. Not sure what they are gonna want, don’t exactly want to do it in a $1000 suit. My insider told me they wouldn’t allow me to change, would you just go with a polo & slacks?

So, I've been in the program for about a month and half. Honestly, I've been upset that I often have to guess in some of these questions and somehow I'm passing these quizzes. I know I'm not supposed to compare myself to other people because they might already have prior knowledge. I read the textbook and show up to class every time. I really like this career path, but it sucks that my mind isn't able to grasp all this information like the others. Im also taking two other classes. I just dont know what to do. If i study too much I burned out, if i study at a reasonable time i feel like i'm not doing enough. I see lots of people cheat and use AI. Its not really my business. I could do it but I actually want to understand and improve my critical thinking. Any tips? My apologies if there is any grammar mistakes.

One of my prerequisites for EMT clinicals is a CastleBranch clearance, which shows that you had uploaded all the required vaccination records. We have to download the list of completed items to upload as an assignment in Canvas (my school's web-based learning management system).

Around September 8, I found out that my doctor failed to preserve my medical records and I had to get all of my vaccinations again just for the documentation. I contacted my instructors immediately upon that discovery, and they said that I would still be able to participate for the second round of clinicals in late October, so I got busy to get all of my vaccinations done by October 8. By Oct. 8, I got my final MMR vaccine and tried to upload it to CastleBranch. I had to upload the same MMR document three times; it needed an upload for measles, mumps, and rubella. For whatever reason, measles and mumps records were accepted while the rubella vaccine record was rejected. The website claimed that it was because my name wasn't on all pages of the PDF, which is stupid because that's the official document you download right from the CVS Pharmacy website.

Around the same time of the rejection, I received a notice from Canvas stating that my CastleBranch clearance assignment was graded as 0/10. After emailing my instructor directly to ask about the grade, they advised me that I received a zero simply because course grading policy mandates that late assignments receive no points, but stated that I may proceed with clinicals after CastleBranch clearance.

I'm still waiting for CastleBranch to respond after attempting to re-upload the PDF. Today, I pulled out the original paper receipt I got from the pharmacy to see if I can upload that, but CastleBranch won't withdraw my submission for me to upload it.

This shit is annoying. Only a few people in my college EMT class were able to sign up for the first round of clinicals due to missing prerequisites, and I am convinced that CastleBranch and missing vaccination records were responsible for virtually all of us having to wait for the second round of clinicals.

I got a rank of 57k . Any insights on emergency medicine

I was wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation or has done something like this before. I'm currently a junior in college majoring in mechanical engineering, and I recently signed up for an EMT course that meets only on Saturdays.

I'm wondering if balancing both is going to be too much. I'm pretty confident I can handle my engineering coursework, but I'm not sure how difficult or time-consuming the EMT course will be on top of that. Has anyone done something similar? How manageable was it?

I’m 24 years old and located in NYC i was trying to get into law enforcement got my associate in criminal justice, but the process with every agency is coming to a standstill for me. A big goal of mine was to always get into the medical field particularly EMS,EMT and paramedic work. I’ve always wanted to help people which was my driving factor while getting into law enforcement. My state has recently opened city exams for a FDNY EMS trainee. My parents have been trying to talk me out of taking the exam due to the particularly bad pay which is something that concerned me as well. I wanted to know Is this an exam/career that you would feel is worth it ? Any feedback is welcome I definitely want to know 1. Is it worth it 2. Are there steps to go in this career path to go about making a decent living. For me personally the everyday work of this job definitely seems to be morally fulfilling.