Re: Immediate employment opportunity

December 31, 2002

Got to love it go to school for 2 years and get a degree in paramedic and

start at 8 - 10 per hour.

Or go to school for the same 2 years and due the nursing program and make 25

- 35 per hour to start. And you got to start somewhere is all you can say?

December 31, 2002

Lucille-

I will circulate this through my recent crop of Paramedic Students.....

Happy New Year!

Terry Dinerman EMTP

December 31, 2002

For those of you that remember, did you think of pay when you were watching

ny Gage lose his helmet in every episode of " Emergency " ? Not me. I was

thinking about what a cool job he had and how I could be like him. It took

me twenty years to go from the only female Basic (let alone EMT) in a male

dominated Fire Dept. in a land called North Carolina in 1978 to the heights

of TDH Licensed Paramedic that I am today.

Realistically though, you have to pay the bills. In with the rent/mortgage,

HL & P, SWB, food etc; if you're a Paramedic, you have ACLS, BTLS, PALS, CE

classes,etc which can add up because they all come due at the same time.

Dream job with dream pay? $15/hr for 48hrs/wk, insurance, CE and the " merit

badges " paid and a weeks vacation every 6 months. Not gonna happen but I

didn't think I'd be a Paramedic in 1978 either.

Annie;)

December 31, 2002

Though I do not dispute your argument I wanted to ask you, since you are the one

that said, " With that kind of top dollar, don't expect me to spell right. "

Where do you think the money comes from to pay you? Don't you realize there is

a direct correlation between billing and pay? How many times have you heard

colleagues say, " That is billing's problem " or how about, " I don't do billing! "

The ugly reality is that without collections, there is no pay! Period!

Especially in the " private " sector. This is going to get worse with these

progressive changes in Medicare payments. Though I do not dispute a need to pay

more, I balance that in my head with a need to do all of our job, not just the

patient care side.

Obviously, patient care comes first. But how many of you, after dropping the

patient off at the hospital leave the run report as a " john doe " rather than

taking the extra time to get the patient's information? Or how many of you,

when taking that discharge home, do not bother to get patient signatures or

collect the Certificate of Medical Necessity? How about the paramedics out

there that " loose " ECG strips making billing for the monitor impossible?

Gene said it best, we are our own worst enemy! If we want to be treated as

professionals we need to step up and act like them. Report the crooks, do our

paperwork, really take CE seriously, be compassionate with all patients (not

just the really bad ones) and be intolerant of your peers that do not! Anything

less just proves the point that we are not professionals yet!

Steve Dralle, EMT-P EMSC

San , Texas

These are my opinions and may or may not be those of my employers.

December 31, 2002

shah_emt writes:

> I am not talking about $40,000 for starters, but a living wage like

> $12 -15 an hour or $ 24000 a year (without haveing to work 60 hours a

> week). Talking of 'raising the bar' should be balanced

> against 'raising the compensation'.

What's wrong with 40k for starters?

Our starting wages BEGIN in the low/mid 30's here. That

came from respect and hard work (and spelling right).

Depending on where you live, 24k isn't a lot. For me, after

taxes, it would pay my mortgage, car payment and child

support.

Quite honestly, there is no excellent 'starting wage', so

to speak, much will depend upon location etc. What we do

need is slowly coming, more and more services are offering

incentives for Licensure, and many services now offer

incentives for time in grade. This is a big step ahead of

where we were this time last year, but still leaves us

miles away from where we need to be.

In so much as a base yearly figure, 30k minimum, the

dilemma? Decreasing revenue, the solution? Not sure.

A tremendous shortage of EMS people is leading the way to a

critical lack of units in the near future. Texas is

suffering just as any other state is, I see a lot of ads

for Paramedics to fill new trucks that are not on the road

due to the shortage. Public education and awareness of what

we do, who we are, and what we accomplish for them is at

the heart of the issue. When we went for our last big

raise, we did it from a standpoint of wanting to offer the

best service from the best Paramedics that we could afford,

our public supports us, and appreciates us. We make

ourselves known, not in the aspect of bragging about all

the horid calls, and talking loud and being unprofessional

in public places. More from, stopping to take a few extra

minutes to help someone, working to educate people about

their own health issues, helping them find solutions to

everyday problems, basically, going the extra mile for our

citizens. We don't have Yahoo's working for us, what we do

have is a dedicated staff, doing their job with pride.

40k a year, is not an unreasonable figure for us,

especially after overtime is added in. It's a fair wage

that is earned by each and every member of the department.

Our department is different from every other department, as

is yours. It takes time to get the word out, and get people

behind you, there is a fair amount of politics to do, and

before anyone screams that is shouldn't be about politics;

do you honestly believe that the nurses got where they are

without playing the political game? It is not the sole

responsibility of the director to do the political work

either, it's EVERYONE's job, to smile, and shake hands and

be respectful. A pet peeve of mine is the assumption that

the city/county/entity 'owes' us something. They don't. We

work, they pay us, just the same as Mcs and the

sanitation department. Another is that we should be given

instant respect because of the uniform/job. We shouldn't.

Anymore than you give someone respect 'just because'.

Respect is earned, even from the public.

I'll shut up now, this came out longer than I thought it

would.

Mike

December 31, 2002

I have to agree with the 40K a year, that is perfectly reasonable.

Heck, if someone out there wants a Licensed Paramedic with 15 years field

experience in rural and urban systems (the last five only part-time).

....and will pay me 40K/year not including overtime (which is what I get as a

cop)....let's talk....you might persuade me to turn in the badge and get

back on the box full-time again.

I do agree with the recent posts regarding putting LP's directly out of

school and into the primary medic role as being a bad idea. Bad for the new

medic, the patient and the service doing it. It is not fair to any of them

to be in that position. At the police department, there is a MINIMUM of

four months of one-on-one working with the new rookies by the FTOs. This

time progresses from just observing to gradually the rookie takes on more

and more of the responsibility until he can do it on his own without any

supervision. We are tough on them, on purpose. Evaluations are done daily

and we don't pull any punches. In the end though, we get an officer that we

will all feel comfortable coming to back us up. If we don't have that

comfort level, the individual is gone. No if ands or buts. It should be

the same way in EMS, but sadly it is not. Due to the nature of the EMS

beast, some managers do the minimum to get warm bodies on the street to just

take the calls.

To clarify, not all EMS services do this, but a whole bunch of them do. Far

too many.

FTO Moseley, LP

Cleburne PD SWAT

December 31, 2002

You should consider applying with us here in Austin. $40k is about what we

start at. Just know that regardless of your previous experience, you will

be placed with an FTO for a period of time. I'm not the recruiter, but I

can put you in touch with her if you wish.

Ed Strout, RN, CEN, LP

Clinical Practice Coordinator

Austin- County EMS

517 S. Pleasant Valley Rd.

Austin, Tx. 78741

Phone:

Pager:

FAX:

e-mail: ed.strout@...

Re: Re: Immediate employment opportunity