Pros And Cons Of Emergency Medical Technician

Everyone knows to heed to ambulances speeding through a red light, but how many people know how to actually save a life? What to do when someone is choking? When to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation or even how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation? Working as an Emergency Medical Technician is a very tolling job and often the negatives are not clearly apparent to people who look into the life of an EMT. This job brings a wealth of knowledge, ideas and know-how, yet it also brings a massive amount of downsides that often go untold and unheard. Although being an EMT has many perks, the underlying and untold realities are the reason being an EMT is not a career worth getting into. Overall, the often overly-romanticized job is not what it seems and

After getting EMT certified comes the actual job. Everything that was taught at EMT school is put to use along with the niche differences each person does or uses. When working with experienced people, they often hate change and adamantly refuse to do what the EMT school taught. A noteable example is the Kendrick’s Extrication Device or the KED, most people agree that it is nearly useless and the the method of backboarding with head blocks is the right way to extricate a victim. The KED is uncomfortable and a time wasting task, yet some people swear by it. Another example is something as trivial as the way the cot or stretcher is set up. There are people who roll the cot’s sheets into each other when done setting it up and others who fold them over. This menial task brings a lot of bickering and argument of the “right way” to do it. These small trivial quirks bring a surprising amount of bickering throughout entire squads. Often it is hard for a “newbie” to break into the social dynamics of an EMS squad because of the jaded older members. This causes a very immutable job. People often expect EMTs to be adrenaline

A body-taxing job with a high risk of death and lasting after effects really displays why this job is not a lucrative one. Ironically, a job that is meant to help injured people often causes injury. Picking up 300+ pound patients is very body tolling and has lasting effects, especially if done wrong. The proper lifting technique is emphasized but commonly done incorrectly. Lifting these large patients or even any patient is what causes 62% of injuries done for medical personal (White 1). Over half of medic injuries coming from one source is not a statistic to overlook. Back strain is a cause for lost productivity by 78% (White 1). These career ending injuries are not just brutal they also happen often and early. An astonishing “One in four suffer a career-ending injury in their first four years on the job” (White 1). These accidents are common throughout EMS, one in four is not a good chance to take. Not only do EMTs suffer from a large chance of career ending injury they are also at a high risk of death. Having “more than double the annual fatality rate of the general U.S Population”(Collopy et al. 1), EMTs often put themselves at risk to help others. Scene safety and knowing when not to enter a scene is always priority yet, often unseen circumstances present themselves resulting in horrible undeserved consequences. If one is lucky enough to get through the EMS career without having any injury or worse, one often finds themselves