In the State of Michigan prior to certifying as a Paramedic you must first complete the Basic Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) training and certification. Basic EMT training is conducted by many Private EMS Education programs and several community colleges in Michigan.
Your first step is to enroll in EMT training. EMT requirements are as follows:
1.You must have a high school diploma or GED and be 18 yrs of age.
2.It must be a state approved EMT program
3.You must be able to pass a physical examination and be signed off by a physician as having sufficient health to perform the responsibilities of an EMT.
4. No Felony, Drug, or DUI convictions.
5.Pass the schools prescribed EMT course with an average of 80%
6.Take both the State of Michigan’s EMT Basic, EMT Specialist, or EMT Paramedic’s exam as well as take and successfully pass the National Registry Exam
After meeting the above requirements, an applicant will need to enroll in a Paramedic training course given by many institutions and community colleges to prepare to become a State certified Paramedic. Michigan also mandates that a Paramedic Candidate must take and pass the National Registry Exam.
After you pass the State and National Registry Exams In the state of Michigan paramedics must recertify every 3 (three) years this is accomplished by attending continuing education classes that provide the 45 credits necessary to recertify as a Paramedic.
EMT’s and paramedics held about 172,000 jobs in 2000. Most career EMT’s and Paramedics work in metropolitan areas. There are many more volunteer EMT’s and Paramedics, especially in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas.
Working as a paramedic is different throughout the U.S., a lot of EMS agencies are privately owned services, other EMS services both Municipal and Volunteer operated. In the 1990’s several cities and suburbs began contractual bidding for EMS services with companies like Trans-Med, American Medical Response, MAST, and American Ambulance services. Many private service’s personnel work eight or twelve hour shifts working an average of 4.5 days per week. Local government and fire services who provide EMS coverage work a 24 hour shift consisting of one day on two off. Many rural EMS services depend heavily on bond revenues that are voted on during general elections. Also a major part of EMS providers consist of Volunteer companies, Volunteers are often forgotten about these men and women work full time in various jobs and volunteer their off time to responding to medical and trauma call for little to no compensation.
The average income varies significantly from agency to agency and state to state. E.M.T.’s base salaries nation wide average $18,000 to $22,000.00. Paramedic’s average income nation wide ranges in the area of $28,000.00 to $32,500. Municipal agencies average a much higher income level that can go as high as $42,000.00 based on a salary survey conducted by the Journal of Emergency Medical Services in 2003. Private and Municipal EMS Services do of medical and dental benefits however a lot of Medical packages are low end, with high premiums and co-pays.
A medic’s duties start at the beginning of their shift with the responsibility of checking their units that involves inventory, restocking and safety checks prior to leaving their base to insure that all the equipment is operating at 100 percent. Many private services especially in large communities utilize Computer Aided Dispatch Center’s, (CAD) with the exception of Municipal services Units are distributed through out there territory and sit (point) that is they are geographically positioned in parking lots, near highway on ramps which reduces response times by dispatch the closes Unit. When a Unit is dispatched to a call, other units are repositioned by dispatch to maintain rapid response. EMS Services also use a “Status Level Program and stagger the time of new oncoming medics. For example Mercy Ambulance would operate 16 Units at all times, when is unit is dispatched the status level drops to level 15 and on and on. When available unit coverage drops below 3 units are redeployed to “Central Locations,” through out the city, and then as units clear the coverage level rises and units are again re-deployed.
Fire based EMS Service’s do not generally employ the above concept instead they operate out of a variety of stations through out the city and while "on duty, " they have nice warm and dry crew quarters that includes beds, a complete kitchen, living room with cable TV, lockers and showers. Basically, it’s just like being at home in many ways.
Many EMS calls are dispatched as “emergencies,” also known as “priority one calls,” or “code one,” however after you arrive on scene 60 percent of the calls end up as non-emergency situations and sometimes you arrive to hear that the patient has Medicaid and want a ride to the hospital because they can’t afford a cab. (It really happens) The other 40 percent of the emergency response calls turn out to be major trauma calls or medical emergencies. This is where you skills are put to their fullest test as you fight to save the life of an infant, child, teenager, adult, or a senior citizen. When you have been in Emergency Medical Services long enough you will encounter those calls where you will arrive at the scene and be confronted by a yelling family member for tracking mud on their new living room rug, after you have fought to save a patient found to be in cardiac arrest. When you been in Emergency Medical Services long enough you will learn to eat you meals such as a sloppy hamburger in three large bites because OSHA no longer allows you to eat in the cab of your rig.
You must remember that when you join the Emergency Medical Services family you will encounter call’s that no matter what you do, with all the skills you were taught and all the equipment at your disposal and medications patients will die despite every thing you and your partner do. You must remember that you are not God, or a super medic the minute you start thinking you are is the day you must leave Emergency Medical Services. Keep in mind that as long as you have done everything that you are taught, you have done all that is humanly possible. Emergency rooms loose patient’s every day and they are in a controlled environment, you are not. You treat patients who bodies are twisted around metal that once was a car, treating patient is the back of an ambulance as your partner rushes to the hospital fighting traffic that won’t yield for the lights and sirens slowing your response to get your patient to either a trauma center or E.R.
In Emergency Medical Services you will be called to motor vehicle accidents, (MVA) in which you have several critical teenage patients on prom night who had been drinking prior to the accident, which they piled into a car, and didn’t use their seat belts. And when they cross the center line of a road and struck a vehicle head on or plowed into an oak tree that has launched some of you patients into the windshield or having the patient thrown out of the vehicle turning an accident from a potential minor traumatic injury to a major traumatic injury.
Emergency Medical Services is a wonderful profession; you will have good days with a birth of a child in the back of your unit to bad days where a child ran into the street and being struck by a car that dies from severe traumatic injuries. You will meet patients of every race, color, nationality, and religion. You will treat newborns to senior citizens suffering from medical, traumatic, and emotional problems. You will work with a partner who will become as close to you as your own spouse. Your office is on four wheels, you will treat patients in the rain, snow, ice, and extreme heat, and you will treat patients in their homes, offices, churches and synagogues. You will have patient who will be gladden to have you at their side and you will have patients who will hate you and not want your help.
In Emergency Medical Services, you will take an oath to treat patients without prejudice, you will wear a uniform and sometimes a badge, you are not armed, as a EMT or Paramedic your armory will consists of a rolling Emergency Room filled with oxygen, Intravenous Solutions, (I.V.) medications, defibrillators, bandages and ice packs just to name a few. You will endure the name and the label of an “ambulance driver,” even after you trained and were both state and nationally certified as an “EMT” or a Paramedic.”
In Emergency Medical Services, you will face danger in many different ways such as a vehicle or truck that fails to yield to you lights and sirens and hits your unit broadside at an intersection, a hostile act involving a knife or gun as you arrive to find the assailant still on the scene who may turn on either you or your partner or both of you. Treating a patient involved in an accident only to have an irritated or inattentive driver who fails to slow down and ends up striking you or your partner, your patient, and your rig. Being assaulted by an emotionally disturbed patient, or an over dose patient, even a distraught family member of your patient. In Emergency Medical Services, you will be injured and or assaulted at least three times over the course your career. Medics were targeted by the two teenagers at Columbine High School and shot at several times as they risked their lives to pull students out of harms way and render critical treatment.
As a member of the Emergency Medical Services field today the number of EMT’s and Paramedics injured and or killed has dramatically risen over the past ten years at an alarming rate, in a recent study conducted by Brian J. Maguire showed that EMT’s and Paramedic’s that more EMS providers die on the job than anyone had ever suspected, making our occupation as dangerous as police officer’s or firefighter’s, according to the first-ever national study of EMS fatalities. "Occupational Fatalities in Emergency Medical Services: A Hidden Crisis," which was published in the December issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians, (by Brian Maguire, MSA, EMT-P, the studies chief researcher and author) conducted Between 1992 and 1997, the study found out of 114 EMT’s and Paramedics who died in the line of duty death showed that more than half of the medic’s lost their lives in ambulance response accidents. The study shows that EMS has a 12.7% fatalities rate per 100,000 EMS personnel, making Emergency Medical Services equaling the fatality rate with Law Enforcement which has a death rate of 14.2%, firefighters with a death rate of 16.5%, the study further showed that the death rate for EMS Personnel was at more than twice the national average for all workers which was at 5.0%. “The EMS profession is much more dangerous than people realize.
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The study also revealed that EMS personnel, which includes both emergency medical technicians and paramedics, are exposed to a wide variety of occupational hazards every day, including ambulance accident’s, assaults, infectious disease, hearing loss, lower back injury, hazardous materials exposure, stress, extended work hours, and exposure to temperature extremes. In addition EMS uniforms can resemble those of police officers, in most cases both have badges, patches, even similar color schemes. This sometimes leads to EMS personnel being mistaken for police officers and encounter misdirected violence.
The in the line of duty deaths in the field of Emergency Medical Personnel continues to increase with medics being assaulted with guns, knives, and brutal attacks. (See Line of Duty Deaths, previous years and current In the Line of Duty Deaths.) Many EMS Personnel today purchase and wear bullet proof vest, some private and governmental agencies do provide bullet proof vests, however the percentage is low. Bullet proof vest cost approximately $500.00 – $600.00 a piece, but is rapidly becoming necessary “equipment,” and in my case (see my bio page) prevented a more severe spinal cord injury had I not been wearing a bullet proof vest which was provided by my employer the former Mercy Ambulance Service of Grand Rapids.
Medics have been forced to defend themselves, and then have been criticized and even in some cases have been prosecuted. Weak laws and punishments continue to contribute to the increased violence against Emergency Medical Personnel, Federal State and Local Governments have slowly started to write “tougher legislation,” to create stronger laws and penalties for individuals who attack causing injuries, disabilities, and death to Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics. Once stronger laws are passed and implemented prosecutors must not plea bargain down charges. Judges must hand down firm sentencing, and community service sentences should not be an option. It is time to send a message that attacks against EMS Personnel will not be tolerated!!
Emergency Medical Personnel are frustrated with the increased assaults against themselves, their partners and spouses who also work in the Emergency Medical Services Field. Several EMS Agencies have created the feeling that EMT’s and Paramedics are easier to replace then to stand up and support them for defending themselves from assaults.
One visitor wrote in my guestbook (EMS Dangers) “Look at the hiring lists with some of these departments; there are hundreds of candidates able to take my job. It is easier to terminate an employee than to back them up and defend them to the media and public. We are supposed to be the good guys even if it costs us our health, jobs, or lives. I love my job, but I love my life more.” The visitor goes on to say “I know my department is likely to fire me for defending myself, but I would rather be out of a job than suffer a debilitating or fatal injury at the hands of out of control patient, I am also sorely aware that I am expendable.”
Another medic wrote: (EMS Dangers) “I want to say something about assaults on EMS personal I'm a field training officer for a company in the State of Michigan that provides EMS Service’s to multiple psychiatric facilities, we also service a small city with a pop of less than 60,000 residents. The city has a epidemic of heroin use, we average about 300 calls a month from this city almost half of these calls are overdose or drug induced psych emergencies we average approx; 3 assaults weekly (against EMS personnel) several have resulted in serious injury ranging from hospitalization to people having to leave their profession. I personally have been physically assaulted 4 times in the past month.”
“One time I required E.R. treatment, after I was suckered punched by a very large male who was in suffering from a drug induced psychotic state, I was knocked unconscious as the local police were trying to calm the patients family misdirected anger toward the medics. My partner only a step away came to my defense striking the patient knocking him unconscious, he was not arrested (the patient) because he was petitioned for psych evaluation. My partner was suspended for a week for injuring the patient, later the patient attempted to sue, the case was eventually dropped. Frankly I'm sick of it, the individuals who assault medics get little or no punishment for there actions.”
The medics goes on to state, “I carry a set of handcuffs, pepper spray and a 20inch ASP which is in direct violation of company policy, I don’t care I'm going to protect myself. (It is illegal to carry the above defensive equipment in the State of Michigan and for the fact many of the states. (Off duty police officers who work in EMS as well are not permitted to carry their off duty weapons) My company seems to be more concerned with preventing lawsuits than protecting our safety
On my site page (EMS Dangers) I have been running the following poll: So far the results have been very surprising.
Should EMS Personnel be armed?
Yes (223) 59%
No (99) 26%
Not Sure (11) 3%
Need more facts (10) 3%
Only in high risk situations (35) 9%
410total votes since04/10/08
Emergency Medical Services since September 11, 2001, have now taken on a major new role these men and women are the first line of defense, today EMT’s and Paramedic’s are part of the country’s new Homeland Security’s front line of defense, accompanied along with several Law Enforcement departments and agencies, Firefighters, the United States Coast Guard as well as the National Guard. On September 11, 2001, EMS played an enormous role in New York, Washington D.C, and Pennsylvania. On that awful day hundreds of medics responded to the various locations, and are family (EMS) suffered the following Line of Duty Deaths and Injuries:
Number of Emergency Medical Service Providers Injured:116
Total FDNY-EMS injured: 65
Total Volunteers EMS and Private EMS Providers injured:51
Total Number Injured:: 116
Number of Emergency Medical Service Providers who were killed:39
Total FDNY-EMS Killed:2
Total Volunteer & EMS Providers killed:7
Total Private Ambulance Providers killed: 1
Total Other 1
Total died after 9-11: 5
(Updated on 09-02-2007)
“Be there’s no greater gift than a man or woman who sacrifices their life so that others may live.” These are the words that our Emergency Medical Personnel, Police Officers, and Firefighters and live by everyday.
Today there are over 155,000 nationally registered Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) and Paramedics, 1 million firefighters in the United States, of which approximately 750,000 are volunteers, Local police departments have an estimated 556,000 full-time employees including about 436,000 sworn personnel along with Sheriffs' Departments have approximately 291,000 full-time employees, in addition to 186,000 who are sworn reservists. These men and women wear the uniforms of their chosen professions, today they are providing police protection; firefighters are providing haz-mat and containment training in the event of chemical and or biological attacks. EMT’s and Paramedics are training for both mass casualty incidents, (MCI) and chemical or biological exposure from potential terrorist attacks. The potential for EMT’s, Paramedics, Police Officers, and Firefighters, losing their lives has becomes a greater risk since September 11, 2001, as they will be the first responders to further potential attacks as they will be the ones, who will again respond to any location and will once again risk and sacrifice their lives so that others may live.
EMS (Emergency Medical Service’s) is still a young profession; the concept for pre-hospital care began during the Korean War, with the military using surgeons and nurses in field hospitals called “mobile army surgical hospitals,” (MASH) these units actually increased the survival rates for wounded soldiers. In the mid sixties pre-hospital care moved from funeral homes that provided first aid trained attendants which highlighted the “Carrying of portable oxygen.” In the 1950’s and sixties these attendants were often called “Ambulance Driver,” because patients were generally loaded into the back of station wagons and Cadillac’s and rushed recklessly to hospitals.
During the mid sixties as the Vietnam war soldiers were trained as field medics and treated wounded soldiers right on the lines during combat with amazing success rates. This coupled with the need for better pre-hospital care became the focus of the national highway transportation administration. As Vietnam veterans “field medics” returned home many joined private Ambulance companies. States began EMT programs and standards that rapidly changed the role of the pre-hospital provider.
By the 1970’s “Paramedic programs became very intense medical training,” Medics were provided with advanced training that allowed medics to provide advanced life support to the sick and injured. EMS agencies went from “load and go,” to “treating and stabilizing patients on scene and in transport.” Ambulances began the transformation from band-aid wagons to highly specialized transport units equipped two way communications with emergency rooms and Doctors, portable defibrillators, cardiac medications and I.V. solutions to advanced airways utilizing such equipment as advanced airway management known as endotracheal intubations (advance airways) the results of “in the field patient treatment radically changed patient outcomes.
In 1972 Director Jack Webb produced the television show “Emergency,” which NBC aired and educated the publics for the first time as to the field of Advance Life Support. The characters “Johnny Gage and Roy Desoto,” showed that paramedics were extensively trained, certified, and equipped with very sophisticated medical equipment and were able to provide treatment to a patient who use to have to wait to receive advance medical assistance and procedures until they arrived at an E.R.. The television showed EMT’s and Paramedics as professionals no longer “Ambulance Drivers,” EMT’s and Paramedics joined Law enforcement and Firefighters as a separate division of Emergency Medical Services.
When you have completed your Emergency Medical Technician Training and you become a certified EMT, or Paramedic you become a member of a very proud profession and become an extended family member. Emergency Medical Services is a profession in which you will deal with life and death and you must be able to make quick decisions in order to save an infant, child, adult, or senior citizen suffering from either a traumatic injury or medical emergency. It is not always a happy profession nor one were you will earn a fortune, but you will make an impact whether it is delivering a newborn in the back of your unit, to treating a critically ill or injured patient along with providing comfort to a patient pinned in a car as rescue personnel work to free him or her.
These are very dedicated and very special men and women who work as Professional Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics.
This a true glimpse of EMS today, if you want to make a difference and you truly want to be an EMT or Paramedic, you need to join our family, we would love to have you join our special and caring family who give their all.
Emergency Medical Services Personnel are very special group of men and women that are committed to the sanctity and preservation of life. Our office is a custom built vehicle which is called an “Ambulance.” There is no telephone or office chair, instead the ambulance is equipped with several thousand dollars of high tech radio equipment capable of communicating with a dispatcher, and this is the person with whom you will first speak with when you need help, Dispatchers are the third partner to a Paramedic crew. The sophisticated radio equipment also allows EMS personnel to speak to an emergency room and the E.R. doctors.
Instead of a chair, are office has two bucket seats, which are equipped with the most critical lifesaving piece of equipment called which is called “seatbelt’s”; this device saves thousands of lives every year. The ambulance also has a rear compartment that is equipped with a cot which is also known as a stretcher, along the walls are specially built cabinets that hold’s many medical supplies. The rear compartment is referred to as the patient compartment; it is a mobile emergency room, and intensive care unit, that is equipped with everything that you would find in a hospital emergency room. At the head of the stretcher there is a bucket seat and to the right is a bench seat that allows the medics to administer to the sick and injured.
Outside of the ambulance are placards that identified our office, there is a star of life located on both sides of the ambulance and one on each rear door window. Also there are 911 stickers that are also located on both sides of the ambulance. On the hood of the ambulance spelled backwards is the word ambulance. (ecnalubma). This highly technical vehicle has on its roof, lights that are called flashers, and in the front grill are speakers which wind out several sounds which is called a siren, on the front quarter panels are strobe lights referred to as intersection lights, there is also four lights on both sides of the rig and generally two to three additional lights on the back of the unit.
Once someone has become ill, and or injured a crew which is generally made up of two people that I referred to as partners and highly trained, and very professional emergency medical technicians, emergency medical specialists, and paramedics, are dispatched and answer your call for help. In an emergency the partners, activate their flashers and siren and begin the journey to come your aid. The individual who is driving this high tech vehicle known as an ambulance is also a medic, just like the medic he or she is sitting next to. These highly trained medics are rushing to your assistance, is not an ambulance driver at the wheel, instead this is the person who is driving the vehicle while enroute to render assistance. He or she is not an “ambulance driver,” instead he or she are simply the professional who is fighting with time and traffic, hoping that drivers will obey the law and yield the right away for this emergency vehicle, hoping that other drivers hear their siren and see their flashing lights and will pull to the right and let them pass. The other medic is scanning the road watching intersections, for drivers who fail to yield for the emergency vehicle.
The partners know that time is critical, and for every vehicle that does not yield, take’s second’s even minutes away from someone who is in need of our help. Every time the medics are cautiously racing to someone's aid, they always remember that their own lives are in danger from driver’s who do not pay attention, which could lead to a serious even a fatal collision which in addition could and would deprive the patient that they were responding to help, treatment that could cost the patient their life.
Emergency Medical Technicians, Emergency Medical Specialists, and Paramedics, work in large urban cities, small towns, and rural communities. Most emergency medical services providers are volunteer services located in rural communities and private ambulance services run by private EMS agencies. Over the last several years fire services in major cities such as New York, Detroit, Chicago, and Washington DC operate Emergency Medical Services through its Fire Department’s. The National Transportation Safety Administration indicates that the majority of licensed Emergency Medical Personnel actually work for non-profit volunteer agencies as well as privately owned services such as life EMS, American Medical Response, and Mast.
Across the United States Fire Departments now serve as certified Medical First Responders, who are also dispatched with an ambulance, in an effort to provide quicker response times in to provide earlier patient intervention especially for a patient in cardiac arrest, armed with a new tool which is called an automatic defibrillator. (AED)
A survey conducted by the National Transportation Highway Administration, indicates that the average pay scale for these highly trained professionals amounts to approximately $12.00 to $14.00 an hour. The average work week consists of 48 to 52 hour weeks. $12.00 to $14.00 an hour, why in God’s name would someone work these kind of hours and for these atrocious wages? These men and women generally have families that consist of a spouse and children that they raise with an income that places Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics in the poverty range.
Yet we still do the job why? The answer is very simple, these men and women who are called Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics do the job because of their passion for the job, the joy of assisting in bringing a new life into the world, the satisfaction of bringing a life back from the brink of death. The tremendous pain that is encountered by these people, these heroes when they encounter a child who’s been viciously abused, a teenager whose life ended from a gunshot or a stabbing over colors that are worn, or the six teenagers who were returning home, from their high school prom, that lay dying and dead, because alcohol that was consumed impaired the drivers judgment causing the driver to miss a curve that resulted in their vehicle to end up wrapped around a tree.
$12.00 to $14.00 an hour; A spouse, who is also a medic says goodbye to his or her family and drives to work to start another shift of providing and utilizing their medical skills to help another, victim whose family needs and wants their loved one to live. Already this year 2004 we’ve seen one paramedic shot and murdered and three others shot and seriously wounded, as they attempted to provide care and instead were shot down. Nine more, Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics and Air Medical Flight Crews have died responding to a call for help.
$12.00 to $14.00 an hour; several hundred Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics will be injured and suffer disabilities over the course of this year. They will be assaulted, attack and injured by the very same people who called for their help. Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics will be injured and killed in traffic accidents because of inattentive drivers, drunk drivers, and impaired drivers. A supervisor today, next week, and next month, will be given the worst task of his or her career, as they must ring a doorbell of a fallen comrade’s home informing him or her that their hero and their children’s mother a father, has paid the ultimate price, their life.
The 6:00 p.m. news will report that an “ambulance driver,” was killed or murdered for three minutes the news channel will air a report of the incident, and we must continue to do our job despite the fact that we have lost a professional, a hero, and a friend. The news will move on to the weather forecasts for the next day and by then will you remember later that night that you’re town has lost an Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedic?
Paramedic’s and Emergency Medical Technicians, are truly professionals, and all too often these unsung heroes are forever lost, the news papers, the media, often fail to credit the men and women who make up Emergency Medical Services for their work and sacrifice.
Do you need proof? Almost three years after our country came under attack by several groups of terrorist using passenger jets that attacked the New York City Trade Center, and Pentagon. At the WTC, 343 FDNY firefighters lost their lives, New York City Police Officers and Port Authority Officers lost their lives. Today we still here of the Firefighters and Law Enforcement Officers who perished when those buildings collapsed, and we should be hearing about these heroes who paid the ultimate price with their lives.
Though how many times since September 11, 2001, have you read in the newspapers and reported by the news media of the many Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics who lost their lives as they were treating patients in one of the WTC Towers?
Several Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics were treating and extricating individuals from the towers, and then re-entered the WTC Towers, to continue to treat the injured when suddenly the towers collapsed on them, costing the American people several Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics.
EMS Personnel, Firefighters, and Police Officers gave their all, and should never be forgotten. Remember they worked as a team and have been credited with saving over 25,000 people lives, because these three professions, work as one and as a result many people are alive today because of their dedication, professionalism, heroism, and bravery.
The news media, newspapers, and many local and federal politicians, failed to report and give recognition for the many EMT’s and Paramedics who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives so others would live on, after September 11, 2001. The public, news media, and newspapers need to be educated that Emergency Services is composed of three (3) Services; Emergency Medical Services, Firefighters, and Law Enforcement Officers.
Remember all the disasters, civil unrest, violence, and terrorism that Emergency Medical Service Personnel who played such a major role in response to the above situations. In the 1993, at the World Trade Center was first attack, many people in the building suffered smoke inhalation, stress induced trauma, and other medical problems, in fact several schoolchildren and there teacher where trapped in an elevator, in which a paramedic was subsequently lowered down at great personal risk and assisted with the extrication of all the students and their teacher.
When the Federal building in Oklahoma was bombed, Emergency Medical Services Personnel remained at several pts side, even after receiving news that there was possibly additional explosive devices on site. Again Emergency Services, consisting of Emergency Medical Services, Firefighters, and Law Enforcement Officers work as a team in the rubble despite the risks of falling debris. As patients were brought to staging areas, a R. N. lost her life after being struck in the head by falling debris.
Again, Emergency Services were activated during the columbine incident involving several victims injured and dying from being shot on school property. Paramedics from American Medical Response also came under fire immediately after arriving on scene, as they were working on patients that had been shot outside of the school. Again, Emergency Medical Services Personnel worked aggressively and at great risk along with the Firefighters and Law Enforcement Tactical Teams.
Emergency Services is comprised of Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics, Firefighters, and the Law Enforcement Agencies continue to work collectively in all sorts of situations, the aftermath of hurricanes, devastating tornadoes, and factory and chemical fires and explosions just to name a few.
Private EMS providers and Volunteer Agencies are currently suffering from financial difficulties because of the major reduction in payments from both State Medicaid and Federal Medicare programs, along with cuts made by HMOS. The cost of EMS vehicles continue to escalate, in addition EMS vehicles must meet Federal KKK specifications that are set by the NTSB which were just recently upgraded, these increased specifications adds to increased costs for new EMS vehicles.
Since September 11, 2001, Emergency Services consisting of Law Enforcement, Firefighters and Emergency Medical Services have become the United States new front line of defense. In addition the President of the United States along with the United States Congress has formed the new Federal Department of Homeland Security; the Department of Homeland Security has developed and has implemented a five stage National Alert System.
Since the conception and deployment of the National Alert System, the threat level has been raised five times; along with the formation of the Department of Homeland Security has put together federal block grants which have been made available to hundreds of Fire Departments and Law Enforcement Departments for new equipment and training.
Unfortunately Emergency Medical Services is not receiving equal grants for equipment and training, mainly because private and volunteer Emergency Medical Service Provider’s, are not affiliated with city, state, or Federal Agencies. Fire Departments that operate Emergency Medical Services such as the New York City Fire Department, Detroit Fire Department, and the Chicago Fire Department just to name a few have received funding under the Fire Department grants for equipment in additional training.
Since Emergency Medical Service Providers respond to major incident scenes, it is very critical that the private sector and volunteer sectors of Emergency Medical Services are provided with the same significant grants and funding for equipment and additional training for Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics. Many EMS providers already train with Law Enforcement Tactical Teams. However all three (3) Divisions of Emergency Services must still do a better job of working and training together. In addition it is time that the negativity between these three agencies ceases and mutual respect and cooperation increases.
This is also the time for the public to become better educated about Emergency Medical Services, and the men and women who are so deeply dedicated and committed to the job that they do, and the professionalism they show in the way they perform their duties, and sacrifices that they make. Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics deal with life and death every day equaled to a Hospital Emergency Department. However there is a major difference in the type of environments that they work in.
EMS personnel work in many hostile environments, all types of whether such as the rain, snow, cold, and extreme heat. We crawl into twisted steel that once was a vehicle and treat the injured. We work on patients in million dollar homes and old refrigerator boxes patients live in underneath highway overpasses.
If I had a penny for every time someone has asked me, why I do what I do, I would be rich and would never have to work again. We do what we do not for the glory, definitely not the money, we do our job because we are committed to helping the sick and injured.
I am the PARAMEDIC, First to arrive at the scene, I respond to the cry for help of the sick and injured. Trained and Skilled in the Healing Arts. I fight to buy time for suffering humanity. My duty takes me to varied places, and challenges me in various ways. I function anywhere at any time, even in small dark places, cannot deter me from rendering aid to those in need of my skill. I try to ease pain of the injured, and with gentle hands I've known the thrill of bringing a new life into the world. On Return to base, I relinquish to others those whom I have salvaged from death, praying that the skills taught to another will be enough to complete the Rescue I began. I am the PARAMEDIC! The gift of love for my fellow man is what I give back to my Community. With Brain and Heart and with skillful hands entrusted to me by God, I serve to help others to Live!
I AM THE PARAMEDIC(C)
Written by: Dave D.
05-15-1991 (c) (Copyrighted)
A picture of Mike McNaughton of Denham Springs, LA. He stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan Christmas 2002. President Bush came to visit the wounded in the hospital. He told Mike that when he could run a mile that they would go on a run together. True to his word, he called Mike every month or so to see how he was doing. Well, last week they went on the run, 1 mile with the president. Not something you'll see in the news, but seeing the president taking the time to say thank you to the wounded and to give hope to one of my best friends was one of the greatest/best things I have seen in my life.
CPT Justin
Medical Corps, U.S. Army
Another Side of Our President
A Picture You Won't See on TV
The brave fearless 'Fighters' that step out into the night, working under extreme conditions, for which we have no insight.
Their continued schooling is never ending, for to them, your life is only just beginning. Crawling through pieces of what used to be a car, to find a person lying there in need of CPR. They are called Paramedics, a link between life and death, all give a priceless gift, the gift of breath.
The equipment they must carry, you may not understand, but one kneels beside you, as another takes your hand.
They feel the Angel standing there, but refuse to let you go, searching their deepest thoughts of knowledge that they know.
Until such time their job complete, and you return to them, only then will they place you in a physician's hand.
They no sooner leave the hospital, another call comes through, lights flashing, sirens screaming, fighting traffic to get to you.
A child this time in need of help, unsure of what went wrong, they begin their protocol of survey, soon realize this one is gone.
On bended knee, heads hung low, a tear slips down their cheek, always asking questions, looking for answers that they seek.
The shift will be a long one, twenty four hours to be exact, a proud profession that they chose, without even looking back.
And the next life that they save, to bring a loved one home, perhaps it will be your life, or it could be their own family.
The next time you hear a siren in the distance; don't just say a prayer for the victims and their families. Say a prayer for the people that face these tragedies every day and do the best they can to save someone that is loved. We never see the tears of these brave men and women, but God does.
DESCRIPTION OF A PARAMEDIC
When God Made Paramedics....
When the Lord made Paramedics, he was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one." And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order?
A paramedic has to be able to carry an injured person up a wet, grassy hill in the dark, dodge stray bullets to reach a dying child unarmed, enter homes the health inspector wouldn't touch, and not wrinkle his uniform." "He has to be able to lift 3 times his own weight, crawl into wrecked cars with barely enough room to move, and console a grieving mother as he is doing CPR on a baby he knows will never breath again." "He has to be in top mental condition at all times, running on no sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals. And he has to have six pairs of hands." The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way." "It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord, "It's the three pairs of eyes a medic has to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees open sores as he's drawing blood and asks the patient they may be HIV positive, " (When he already knows and wishes he'd taken that accounting job.) "Another pair here in the side of his head for his partners' safety. And another pair of eyes here in front that can look reassuringly at a bleeding victim and say, "You'll be all right ma'am when he knows it isn't so." "Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow." "I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk a 250 pound drunk out from behind a steering wheel without incident and feed a family of five on a private service paycheck."
The angel circled the model of the paramedic very slowly, "Can it think?" she asked. "You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses; recite drug calculations in its sleep; intubate, defibrillate, medicate, and continue CPR nonstop over terrain that any doctor would fear...and still it keeps its sense of humor. This medic also has phenomenal personal control. He can deal with a multi-victim trauma, coax a frightened elderly person to unlock their door, comfort a murder victim's family, and then read in the daily paper how paramedics were unable to locate a house quickly enough, allowing the person to die. A house which had no street sign, no house numbers, no phone to call back."
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the paramedic. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model." "That's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear." "What's the tear for?" asked the angel. "It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they've tried in vain to save, for commitment to that hope that they will make a difference in a person's chance to survive, for life."
"You're a genius," said the angel. The Lord looked somber. "I didn't put it there," He said.
The Next Time You Hear A Siren
I would like to thank you very much for this website. I am in the U.S. Air Force stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Your website really touched me. I wish that all civilians could realize the sacrifices we make everyday so they can go on with there everyday life. I would like to direct this to the civilians. Please have faith in your country and in your military. You can not support you troops without supporting there mission also. Also, the next time you and your family sit down for dinner, stop, and say a little thanks for all of you blessings. A lot of people have died so you can eat in peace with your family. Last, don't take you blessings for granted. Family is the greatest blessing of all, never become complacent with the presence of your family. I'm in the Air Force and haven't seen my wife and three children in a year. When is the last time you've seen your family?
THE EDITORIAL WAS WRITTEN BY "MARCUS," AND SUBMITTED TO MY GUESTBOOK, HIS COMMENTS NEED TO BE SHARED WITH EVERY ONE IN THE UNITED STATES
Detroit MI EMS
Emergency Medical Services is a Division of the Detroit Fire Department and hires prospective EMT’s and paramedics as medical personnel, they are not required to be firefighters.
Average Salary: $25,000 to $40,810 per year
Pre-employment consists of Mandatory Tests:
Written test
Evaluation of personal qualification
Physical Agility Test
Background Investigation
Qualifications:
All applicants must be within six months of their 18th birthday, legally eligible to live and work in the United States, and willing to live in the City of Detroit during their employment.
Non-resident candidates must establish a bona fide residence in the City of Detroit before they can be hired. Upon receipt of a completed application, the applicant will be scheduled to take the written test.
Applicants will be required to provide photocopies of their Michigan Driver's license and letters of reference from recent employers or other documentation of such employment. If a veteran, they must also provide documentation of their separation from military service (DD-214).
Training:
The Emergency Medical Services Training Section has the responsibility of orientating new hires through a rigorous twelve-week training program the EMS academy. The EMS academy takes already-licensed personnel and brings them up to the Detroit EMS standard of knowledge and performance. Because EMS maintains a high standard of training, the EMS Training Section receives, examines and remediates all candidates in all phases of advance life support.
The City of Detroit has one of the busiest EMS systems in the country responding to approximately 9000 calls per month. As of December 20, 1999 this service is accomplished by a completely advanced system. Communication is maintained with the prehospital technicians by way of a telemetry base station. Detroit Receiving Hospital in addition to serving as one of the city's four base stations, also serves as medical control for telemetry communications and monitors all advanced transmissions. Dr.'s Bock, Atas and Griffin as well as the Emergency Medicine faculty and residents are extremely active in the training, certification and education of greater than 500 medical technicians.
Detroit EMS utilizes "Echo Unit" in conjunction with ALS & BLS Units an SUV that stocks drugs and is staffed with trained paramedics, they are not use as transport units.
EMS 101
Number of Ambulance Services in the U.S. 12,254
Number of Ground Ambulance Vehicles in the U.S. 23,575
Number of EMS Personnel in the U.S. 840,669
Medics are First to Respond to the Health and Safety Needs of America’s Communities
Medics are employed by various types of services including private (for-profit and non-profit), hospital-based, volunteer, government-owned and fire department-based organizations. Over two-thirds of the nation's largest 200 cities are served by non-fire-based emergency ambulance services.
The emergency medical services (EMS) system assures a timely and medically appropriate response to each request for out-of-hospital care and medical transportation including emergency responses resulting from 9-1-1 calls and inter-facility transports.
Emergency medical technicians are trained to deliver basic life support (BLS) services and provide first aid, oxygen administration, application of splints and bandages and CPR. Paramedics are trained to deliver advanced life support (ALS) services and provide intravenous therapy, airway management, cardiac monitoring and defibrillation, medications and other advanced emergency care.
The EMS and ambulance service’s role during a natural disaster or public health emergency includes patient triage, decontamination, treatment, transport and disaster shelter staffing.
Key Trends
Many communities are served by high-performance emergency ambulance service providers with proven track records in simultaneously delivering clinical excellence, response-time reliability, economic efficiency and customer satisfaction.
As their key role was demonstrated during the 9/11 attacks, ambulance providers are operating at a heightened state of readiness and are working to build the necessary capacity to respond to new homeland security threats such as bio-terrorism attacks.
Ambulance providers face unique financial challenges due to inadequate Medicare payments and barriers to receiving federal homeland security funds.
“A group of Democratic senators pressed Congress for a $5 billion upgrade of communications equipment that would make it easier for police, firefighters and other law enforcement authorities to talk to each other during emergencies. A similar measure was rejected in July as part of a homeland security bill. "They must be able to communicate with each other. This is a life and death issue," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan.”
On the heals of Hurricane Katrina and four years after terrorist attacked our country on September 11, 2001, our Government still does not get it. To date hundred is of rounds of “Federal Dollars,” given to Fire Departments and Police Agencies to improve equipment for disaster response. EMT’s and Paramedics work in the field of Emergency Medical Services that has not received the necessary funding to coordinate response for the injured and sick. EMS Services affiliated with twenty (20) percent of Fire Departments and departments such as FDNY have not allocated money they received to better prepare EMS. The remaining EMS Services have yet to receive Federal Funds to improve their readiness.
Wake up and Think, after Katrina struck firefighters roles should have shifted to assist Emergency Medical Services, as they could not battle fires, and Police Officers did not prepare to deploy to restore order. Prior to, during, and after the hurricane, Emergency Medical Personnel conceiting of trained EMT’s and Paramedic’s and are well versed in handling Mass Causality Incidents were not properly equipped and for the matter located in safe area's so that they could move in rapidly to treat the sick, injured and traumatized patients. EMT’s and Paramedic’s administer to both the sick and injured. On September 11, 2001, the initial response was not about fighting fires or crowd control instead it centered on and around rescuing, evacuating and “Treating,” patients who suffered burns trauma, shock, heart attacks, and respiratory emergencies.
So why has Emergency Medical Services, not received the money needed to improve inter agency communications, biohazard equipment to protect the EMT’s and Paramedics who continue to be ignored? One answer is that politicians just do not get it and I mean both Democrats and Republicans. EMS Agencies do not have unions or yet an organized lobbying group that the Firefighters and Police Officers have. Fire and Police Unions court Politicians with special interest groups, which wine and dine Politicians. This in turn guarantees monies go to Fire and Police Services first. Grant awards have created investigations and sanctions to a few Fire Agencies due to inappropria
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