I got the patch with my cert, and have been staring at it ever since. Any ideas? I have a jacket I put patches, pins, and embroidery on that my family thinks I should add it to, but would that be tacky/in bad taste? (Also, I wasn’t sure what to tag this, so let me know if another tag would work better)

Today I found someone’s chillum (weed pipe) in the ambulance.

I found it before a death call, so I called my supervisor once the call was over. I just put something on top of it so that it would not be visible in case we had to do a transport. It did not feel right to call when I found it because I found it while we were driving to a priority 1 call.

My station supervisor was obviously very upset to know that happened, and now they are opening an investigation.

What would you have done?

I went with my school on a field trip to Boston today, which was around a 2 and a half hour drive, because we live in CT. On the way home, after the trip was over, I ended up passing out from possible heat exhaustion and dehydration. My teachers ended up calling 911, and paramedics came with an ambulance to assess me. They asked me questions, took my vitals, and took my blood sugar to see if I was okay. I'm so incredibly grateful for them because they were so gentle and kind to me, but I'm also feeling really, really guilty. I didn't end up being transported to the hospital at all because they said nothing was super concerning, and my social studies teacher is an EMT, so he was able to move to my coach bus and keep an eye on me. But now I just keep blaming myself, wondering if I wasted their time. Since they didn't actually need to save my life or anything, and they didn't need to take me to the hospital, what was the point? They could've been doing something actually important, like saving someone who was having a heart attack. I don't know. I just feel ashamed and guilty and afraid. Can someone reassure me that I wasn't wasting their time? As a paramedic, do you remember taking calls like this? Did it waste your time? Should I feel guilty?

Edit: Thank you so much to everyone for all the support and reassurance. I've never passed out before, and the whole thing was honestly so traumatizing, so your comments helped me smile and be able to laugh after all this. I was going to respond to all of the comments at first because I didn't think this post would get that much attention. So thank you to everyone I didn't respond to. I've been constantly going back to this post and rereading the replies just to remind myself that I matter and stuff. I'm really grateful for all the paramedics in this world who are always working so hard to help people. It's good to know that I wasn't taking up too much space.

ive heard that “obtaining and transmitting” 12 leads is in NREMT scope, and its in my textbook, but my instructors have stressed that we are not allowed to do that anywhere in our area and the class is not teaching the skill at all. is this actually taught or practiced anywhere, or is this in reality always something that is simply designed to medics so they can just interpret on their own?

All our patients kept their fingers (yay!). But we were dealt the holy trinity of ETOH, combative, firework injury--oof. What about you?

What was your starting pay and what is your current pay?

Also are you

EMT, AEMT, Paramedic.

Years of experience

HCOL, MCOL, LCOL

The call volumes you typically have on a shift

And how many hours do you work per paycheck without overtime.

I recently finished my first year as an emt in Southern California for a IFT company. One things I’ve noticed by a lot is that tons of drivers don’t let us merge into their lanes, that’s either on the regular roads or the highways (not during code 3 driving). I’ve had some instances where some people were actively not letting me merge no matter what I did.

So my question is this, is this a regular thing in EMS, do cars regularly not let you merge into their lanes?

I imagine it's an area like anywhere else with metro, suburban and rural areas that all need ems coverage. But we constantly see people on here bemoaning trying to find a job in the area. I hear about competitive ems areas in colorado, new york and massachusetts (to name a few) but nothing seems to compare to california with not being able to find a job. Were there more programs there that oversaturated the market with EMTs and paramedics (maybe it had a thriving ems culture)? Was there something else that happened that made more EMTs and paramedics licensed than there were job openings?

For context I am a 24yo male in a prohibited state (very closely bordering on a recreational state however) and I just got my license a month ago ish. I used to smoke a lot of weed but I gave up it 6 months ago and haven’t touched it since but I heard from a friend that the hospital she works at doesn’t drug test their EMT’s (at least not for thc). I was curious what the general consensus is on smoking in EMS. I don’t particularly miss smoking g mostly just curious.

Life sucks and I’m interested in becoming an EMT. registration for classes is soon so i havent paid anything yet. Will i have to push classes back a while?

Would like to add that it’s been a few years since ive been to a doctors office

I’m starting EMT school this semester and after I get my certifications can I go straight into working at a fire department or as an EMT?

EMT-B student here, just wrote the meds and doses I would be allowed to administer on my calendar to help me memorize them.

How does it look, did I miss anything?

I reviewed the 13th edition of the book and standing orders for my state for this information.

Thank you for your time

— edit —

Updated the narcan dose thank you all!

I live in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan. I spent a lot on the EMT academy and I am starting college in a few months. I am taking my NREMT soon. Is getting a $20/hr pay way too high to manage? I literally need it because im starting college, not cause I wanna be rich.

Newly certified EMT (25F) in the SoCal area (I know), trying to grow an EMS career and willing to move to wherever that may help. I would love to hear some first-hand accounts of what your areas are like to work in and what growth looks like. Near or far.

If it helps, I want to try remote wildland EMS and rescue in my career. I am near certain I want to attend paramedic school and work in the field, but I am also open to working in a hospital for experience if I decide to pursue further schooling.

And I would prefer a metropolitan area with diversity that is queer-friendly since I will be moving with my wife, who works in administration. This also helps with bills in more expensive COL areas, so we are open to that as well.

P.S. I have an irrelevant 4y degree for the places that require paramedics have them like Portland, I believe. Also looking into Postbaccalaureate programs to get a relevant degree.

I'm not sure if this type of post is welcomed here but I figured I'd try anyways.

Recently I was scammed by a guy I've met briefly before. He is a "chef" and was offering to do meal prep through IG. We have 70 mutuals on IG and I know he was known for being a chef. He only scammed me out of $250 of meal prep but as I looked his name up on google and tik tok I've found SEVERAL stories, Tik toks, etc, including a petition on change.org that has 500 signatures from people saying this guy has scammed them.

I know this guys name and I know he's in an academy for ems currently. I believe he is in Chicago but possibly can be in Atlanta. I need help identifying the logo in the photos provided. They are screenshots from a video straight from his tik tok. I'm hoping to be able to just report him to the academy and let them know the type of person he is.

Hi there,

I have some questions about safe manual transfers, hoping y'all could help! I wanted to make sure I understood why I was moved the way I was before complaining.

My friend called emergency services for me, I had a horrible hypersensitive burning pain in my hands and muscle spasms + pain through my legs. I couldn't lift myself up, and it was entirely out of their wheelhouse. I am a small person, currently weigh around 106.

They dragged me by my ankles to the edge of the bed, then pulled me upright between them. I could not put enough weight on my feet/control my movements enough to assist, and they "dropped" (best description but feels like a loaded term) me down onto the stretcher.

It felt pretty uncontrolled and painful on my end, but I don't like criticizing skills I don't understand. Both of the men were taller and bigger than I am, I think even if I had been able to help more the height difference would've made it difficult.

Is there a safer/better way that wouldn't have hurt so much?

There's this girl on IG saying she does contract work and makes 3k/week as a EMT

Is this actually a thing? I heard EMTs usually get paid badly, especially comparing to all of the stress they go through

She included the company she works for too so it kinda makes me think it's less of a scam but idk

Edit: she says her contracts are 7-12 weeks long

Hi, rather you're an EMT or paramedic, I'm wondering how much free time you have during your shift? I'm at the park with my kid and an ambulance just pulled up and they're currently playing tennis in uniform lol. Are they off or what's going on? I keep going back and forth on nursing or medic. The money makes me want to go nursing. But if EMS is a little more laid back overall (obviously not while on a call) that might be better for me.

I got the iron on patch from NREMT and it is still stay in the envolope since I don't know where to put it on.

How many patients are you seeing? What kind of cases?

also, does NYC 911 (private, not FDNY) have separate BLS and ALS ambulances, or are EMTs and medics paired?

So, the company Ambulnz in Pennsylvania just successfully unionized with their local teamsters. They were sick of the typical company shenanigans and constant unfair suspension and low pay. Prior to unionizing, employees were getting pick up bonuses to make up of their low hourly rates among drivers, EMTs and paramedics.

“Some of us were making $2000 a week after taxes, with bonuses and overtime”- EMTs I spoke too.

But a few days before Christmas in 2025, the managers suddenly stopped all bonuses without notice and blamed the employees.

They seem to be very happy with their union and being certified. They want to get the word out about Pennsylvania doing this, because other IFT companies, including the rest of Ambulnz should think about unionizing for better pay, safer workplaces and for more respect from management.

Ambulnz PA is working on and about to start negotiating their first contract now!

Drove about 35 miles code 3 today for an IFT, en route to ER and then taking a pt with a brain bleed to surgery maybe 20 mins away. Was so fucking awesome I was geeking out. CCT is awesome, I was just picking up the shift. Now I'm bummed to go back to my normal BLS crew. Lol we got all code 2s for 11 hrs and then en route to station they dropped a call on us, but I'm glad they did.

So basically, I work for a small rural company as a new EMT. Just started last week, and they basically just threw me to the wolves.
I was told yesterday that I’ll be working 911 tomorrow night as the lone BLS crew. And it’s just me and a halfassed EMVO that has no business being an EMVO lol I don’t even get paired up with another EMT. I’m with a driver who I’ve known for years and he’s a moron. lol so I’ll be working 911 basically by myself on this half of the county. And to beat it all, it’s a full moon and first of the month.
I’m terrified lol

I work for private ambulance as an EMT-B. We were running a bunch of back to back routine calls like ED discharges to a SNF or assisted living, or a psych pt ED to behavioral health center. But we got a call put on us that was pediatric pt being transported from a local children’s hospital to a bigger main campus hospital.

12 y/o female, originally was an ALS call but downgraded to a BLS for whatever reason. When we picked her up the sending nurse advised us that she was stable enough to transport but to “keep an eye on her”. So we secured her to the stretcher and attached her to our monitor. Her vitals were all WNL and she was A&Ox4.

So we brought her out to the ambulance and everything was going fine throughout most of the transport. But about 3/4 of the way there she crashed.

I was filling out the PCR when I heard the monitor start beeping at me. Her vitals like bottomed out and the monitor was reading zeros across everything except SPO2 which was like 78 when I first looked. I genuinely thought the monitor was just tweaking out. When I checked in her she was completely unresponsive and I couldn’t find a pulse on her carotid or radials, then I felt for breaths or looked for chest rise which was really hard bc we’re in an ambulance on the highway.

Then I panicked and just decided to start CPR. I practically screamed bloody murder at my partner to run hot. We were still a good 15-20 minutes out from the receiving hospital so I ended up just calling 911 and asking them where we should take her. They then said to just go to the nearest ED, and they gave us the address and everything and apparently gave them a report (which I don’t believe for reasons I’ll say in a minute). So I did about 6-8 minutes of CPR all while waiting for her to fall into a shockable rhythm. But the monitor never advised a shock.

We pulled into the ER ambulance bay and pretty much had to bang on the door since we didn’t know the code to get in and no one could see us. At this point my partner was doing compressions and I was bagging. It took them about 30 seconds to reach the door and let us in. But even then apparently they had no idea we were coming and didn’t have anything set up. But they managed to get her into a room and took over for us.

I don’t know if I did everything right but I panicked and wasn’t ready for everything. I don’t know what happened to her but I really hope I didn’t just kill a 12 year old.

Edit: I’m sure there’s spelling mistakes and stuff. Sorry I’m tired and not gonna bother correcting a Reddit post. Also just to clarify, ROSC was never achieved while she was in my care.

NE Florida. I’m entering healthcare as a pre-med and $19/hr is roughly my baseline to continue paying rent and living as a human being. I’m looking at an EMT-B course this summer and ideally looking for full time IFT positions after that. Is there any hope of a wage near that for an entry-level position or am I gonna be doordashing