If you want to have a stable career with good hours and decent pay, be a nurse. If you want to run the streets and have the adventure of a lifetime every shift, be a medic.
@@Thomzz95 Being a nurse is stressful because of the workload, but it’s all menial tasks. Being a medic is stressful because the buck stops at you. There is no one to call for help, you are the help.
@@tooshort3142 I’ve heard horror stories from nurses and how burned out you can get from the job that’s why there is a shortage of nurses right now. Dealing with rude doctors and patients who are hard to deal with can have a toll on you and with paramedics sometimes they are putting themselves in dangerous situations. They are both good careers don’t get me wrong but many should be aware of the stuff you will deal with in both these fields. I feel only the strongest can deal with the stresses that come with it.
Being a paramedic did. have some stress, but being a nurse is 100 percent NON STOP stress, even on your days off, because you spend them stressing about having to go back to the hospital to work!! I do not recommend anyone go to nursing school! @@Thomzz95
In Finland, becoming a paramedic means becoming a nurse as well. The school takes four years. Around half work in ambulances and the rest work inside the hospital, usually in ER or ICU. Its always interesting to hear you talk of the system in the US.
@@codyscott4301 Nursing yeah, but not really in EMS. There are not many jobs for EMT s or paramedics at the moment so employers can require perfect finnish from applicants.
I'm a US Paramedic. The reality is that being a Paramedic here in the states is a lower paid job with less security and less autonomy than most nursing positions. If I could do it again, I'd become a nurse first. Nursing is a more developed field here, and that will always lead you to better money, security and working conditions. I'm not saying there aren't good medic jobs out there, I'm saying it's harder to find them, and you'll make less money. You can always become a Paramedic after you get your RN if you want, but at least you'll have that better paying job to fall back on. American EMS is structurally and culturally a clusterf***, don't get caught up in it if you have bills and kids.
Definitely dont get into it if you have wife or kids, mainly because ems requires emt + paramedic and depending on your county and schools nearby some require 1000+ hrs as an emt before you could even enroll to paramedic schools. In my county its hella annoying because in order for you to become a firefighter you have to be an emt, and if you want a better shot to get into the academy you could go to paramedic school which everyone does. So there's just an oversaturated market and unless you impress in ur interview, youll end up in a terrible ift agency that being said if you're around 20 smthing yrs old ems is kinda cool and fun paramedicine is cool, and nursing is cool. Just depends on what you want and who u are
@@bettysmith4527 What kid of nursing are you in? Many of the ICU and ER nursing positions here have standing orders, just like medics. They also have mid levels and Docs hanging over their shoulders put in orders and collaborate. You may have "autonomy" as a medic, but it's a very short algorithmic leash - and even if that's not true, I'd rather have the working conditions, income and security that nursing offers. I've been a medic a long time, this is just the reality of the system .
@@ryanfromli Was an ER nurse, trust me the autonomy is not even close in comparison to that of a paramedic. In my ER it was ridiculously busy, even before COVID and we did have protocol orders, but they were limited, and again not even close to that of a paramedic. A lot of my paramedic co-woerkers are heading into nursing school, and I try and talk everyone of them out of it... it sounds like such a glorious profession, UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT.
I am both a nurse and a paramedic, and I disagree with your comment Ryan, you, like many others have a very glorified view of nursing, because you haven't done the job first hand. Working conditions for nurses are AWFUL, and that was even before COVID, between chronic short staffing and overly demanding patients and families. I have far more autonomy as a medic than I ever would or did as a nurse, as a nurse I felt more like a robot! Yes, as a nurse you need to assess patients and make sure the medication that has been ordered is appropriate, but ultimately it's the physician who is doing the assessment and deciding what treatment, if any the patient needs. We did have protocol orders in my ER, but they were extremely limited. I do work in a state that has a very autonomous set of protocols for EMS, we have to contact med control for Heparin for a STEMI, and pressors or amiodarone for non-ROSC or non arrest pediatric patients. We even hang IV nitro, have ventilators for 911 calls, BiPAP etc. Maybe in an ICU there is more autonomy, I have only worked as a nurse in the emergency department and vascular access. I work full time as a medic because, honestly, when you work 8 hours of OT every week (2) 24 Hour shifts, vs 36 hours as a nurse, the money very similar. I can also work extra as a medic very easily, because I am not pulling my hair out, or so stressed and exhausted that I cannot work any more hours then I have too. Nursing comes at a very high cost to your physical and mental health, trust me! The first week I went from full time nursing, back to EMS, I felt like a million bucks and noticed a difference immediately in my level of energy and happiness!!! It's not always about money.... Shit, I just got off a 24, and didn't even notice I already replied to this.... oh, well, I slept all night and got paid too, now that would never happen in nursing!
I’m 49 years old, and after being a machinist for 20+ years, decided to switch careers and went to EMT school. I graduate next week. 4 yrs of nursing school just isn’t a viable option for me. 2 yrs of paramedic school absolutely is. So it’s off to an ambo service while attending paramedic school. Super excited.
@@Its_Esoteric Most hospitals will no longer consider ADN prepared nurses, if they do, you are forced to get your BSN. I am both a nurse and a paramedic, and nursing is not worth the amount of stress and emotional drainage, I am working L and D now, I just started, and it has reminded me of why I wanted to stay working as a medic. I am giving this another few months, if I am still feeling drained and stressed, like crap on my days off, I am out!
@@k0pperBeen an EMT for a number of years. Looking at a company paid medic program starting in January or possibly nursing. Both stable careers. I'd say go for it!
My youngest daughter is a home hospice nurse and loves it. She feels as a hospice nurse she feels that no one should die alone, many a dinner she has missed to hold ones hand as they die with dignity.
Coming out of EMT school my first EMS job was as a tech in an ER. I quickly learned that working in a hospital is not for me and am so grateful to be full-time on an ambo now. Many ex-coworker techs there are heading to nursing themselves meanwhile I am going full speed to paramedicine right now. It really is just a personal preference kind of thing.
We cannot forget about paramedic who decide to do fire rescue who make just as much or more then nurses. And also paramedic school generally takes half the time as nursing school granted you don’t pay for accelerated programs. Once a medic you can work in healthcare as well as going back to school for nursing and doing the quick bridge program. Even if medics isn’t your thing, it’s a great stepping stone to getting into healthcare quicker and then going back to school for nursing.
as a paramedic for 17 years who is in nursing school, I say go to nursing school. Ems is a sucker bet. It is a grinder, they will use you up at half of a nurse's pay, and when either your mind or your body gives out, they will throw you out without even a second thought. Nurses make more money, work in controlled environments, etc. I wish that I had gone to nursing school (no bridge program in lousyanna) a long long time ago. With that being said, I will be taking a pay cut as a new nurse. You can make money as a paramedic, it's called being a remote paramedic and I made 6 figures working only 6 months out of the year to sit around and watch youtube videos. But overall, nursing is the way to go.
Tell you what man... I'm both an RN and a Paramedic. I bridged from Paramedic to RN in 2006 after being a Paramedic for 10 years.. Your review of the situation is SPOT on... Pick based on your idea of the right work environment for you. I love prehospital care. However, I needed to make more money and wasn't interested in the fire service. I've been in hospital administration for many years and come to the determination that clinical care is where it's at for me. A year ago I returned to ED nursing and now I'm moving towards flight nursing. So the options are endless between the two.
Just wanna say that I'm a peds/neonatal critical care flight nurse and I don't find anything about this video controversial. I will say, I work off standing orders and algorithms like you described as well and what I've found is that it leads to a sense of false autonomy compared to docs and mid-levels who have true, full practice-authority. There's a lot of creative problem solving to be done but regardless of how extensive my order sets go, it just boils down to having a lot of different cookie cutters. I think there are also differences in professional philosophy/theory to be considered when choosing between para-medicine and nursing. Nursing academia wouldn't consider what I do as a flight RN capital-N "Nursing" and nursing science does come with a lot of holistic foofoo.
Wow. I'm a RN from 1995. I trained at a Military Hospital. Throughout my frustrated career dealing with hiring freeze. Limited opportunity due to rural area. The EMT. Classes were always filled up with well deserving LOCAL people. Most communities will hire local first. I served US Army. & Reserve & Navy Reserve. Crammed in as many classes as possible. And still frustrated. The truly best people I worked with is an emergency room physician & several Physician Assistants who were ER. Specific. I've literally roamed the country trying to get a strong foothold into a Hospital job. And very frustrated. Back in 1995 my primary NURSING Instructor said..." That LPNS will be forced to become RNS and elevate the NURSING PROFESSION. HOWEVER THE opposite has occurred. They moved LPNS up in responsibility and forced RNS out of work. Now hospitals are cherry picking employees. And many times getting cheaper staff by lower trained employees. I've endured multiple hardships due to limited employment. Right now I would Not Recommend the NURSING Profession to anyone. If someone is lucky enough to have college funds etc. I would think going directly into a physician Assistant is best educational Path. The Nurses workforce responsiblity will dwindle into Documentation and button pushing on iPads. With very minimal patient care contact. It is a waste of skills and training if not able to actually perform hands on care. I'm extremely disappointed in the leadership. Workplace conflicts & changes in Nurses role. We essentially are being squeezed out of work. I would love to see these closed hospitals & clinics open back up in communities to give appropriate care. The most respect to the ER. Doctors who took time to care for patients. Once again if u want to perform hands on skills become a PA instead and go all the way with education ASAP. I believe they are manipulating the field. The paramedics are well trained but wages are cut. Nurses wages are also cut. Good luck. People need excellent HEALTHCARE. NOT A BUNCH OF button pushers. Many will be disappointed with this. 🤔
@@Favorite-catNip The problem is that PAs have to work under a physicians, NPs, in most states do not need physician oversight. The medical field is already saturated with NPs and PAs, thus the wages for those professions are actually decreasing in many areas!
@@Favorite-catNip sounds like youre deflecting your hardships on others lol. theres many many many opportunities for everyone in the west coast. More men enter nursing there because of the higher salaries and staffing ratios and benefits. i suggest your keep your comment to yourself. its not relative today, im sure you were a crummy nurse based on your subjective view.
I started as a Paramedic eventually became an ICU Nurse and working on my CRNA. I did enjoyed having the autonomy as a medic that’s the reason I’m pursuing CRNA to have that autonomy as a provider
I just finished EMT school, my goal has been paramedic since I was 14, in EMT school I did 2 12 hour ridealongs with AMR, it was interesting being in an ambulance. I think I'm one of a few people in my EMT course who want to go further into EMS.
Same, I just did my second 12 hour shift with American (small company). It was awesome being in the bambulam. Ive wanted to be a medic since i was 14/15 too haha. My other classmates are going to PA school and I want to further my career in EMS lol
@@kyleknight8267 usually the fire fighters on fire trucks are required to be at least EMT qualified and they make more. Who usually responds to 911s in your area?
In Germany you have to do an apprenticeship for three years to become a paramedic. In the apprenticeship you have to do internships in different sections in Hospital, e.g. In ICU, CPU, ER or in the OR and in psychiatric Station. The hours of internships are about 800 hours, the practical time on an ems station are about 1900 hours. After that and 8 exams you are a paramedic. As a paramedic you can work on a ems station or in the ER in hospital as well. I started my work time as a EMS in the army, After three years I started my apprenticeship to become a paramedic. Now I work on the ems Station in a german army hospital. Over 90% of our patients are civillians, so we are a normal ems station with normal ambulance trucks and an intensive care transportation truck like the German Red Cross or Fire stations for example. If you want to work on a helicopter you have to do the apprenticeship to become a paramedic, After a few practical years, you can if you pass the Assessment do the course to become a HEMS TC
That sounds extremely similar to my training as a Paramedic in the US, but it only took about 24 months and was incredibly crammed and taxing on my family life. I wish I could have done it in three, it might not have been as bad 😂
As someone whos graduating a nursing program in two weeks, and going back to school right away in January for EMT then paramedicine, I wish this video wouldve been available like a year and a half ago :'). This was extremely accurate. I debated for a couple years which route to go, and went with nursing because they make more, but ill gladly take the pay cut to provide pre hospital care, and have a larger skill set.
Kacie just get some experience as an EMT before going to medic school, it's good to know the basics before you are responsible for everything on a call.
Honestly REALLY helpful video because I’m in this exact dilemma. I just became an EMT and was debating if I should pursue being a paramedic in the future, but I think I’ll get an ADN for now while doing EMT work and whichever appeals more later in the future is when I’ll decide if I’ll choose to go BSN RN or Paramedic. Thanks Sam you’re a lifesaver!
As a paramedic in rural Minnesota we have some of the most advanced protocols in the state if not the country. Because of where we are at. The only difference between our ground and flight is that paramedics on flight have ultrasound and blood. But ground medics have 10 more medications we can give. Our satellite hospital works well with us and a lot of the time we treat others as equals. EMS is a great line of work if your brain wants a puzzle
ER nurses titrate pressors, sedation, and other cardiovascular drugs based on standardized order sets as well. It really depends on the hospital and the setting, but more and more, with ICUs being full, ER nurses are holding all levels of patients from med/surg to ICU level in the ER for extended hours. "autonomy" is more than just titrating drugs and initiating care, ER nurses are tasked with prioritizing in what order to care for their patients, any of whom can be sick or not sick.
This is absolutely fair. However they have the direct assistance of a doctor, and an RT. They are not choosing which meds they are using and are not thinking of a plan behind it all. A Paramedic is. I must be the one to choose which induction agent and paralytic to give. I must intubate the pt. I must choose which pressor to use and why. I must choose which sedation drip to hang and must know the reason why. I must select my own ventilator settings and adjust accordingly, I don’t have an RT. I don’t have a doctor. I don’t have a nurse. I must do all three jobs and do them well, by myself, in an austere environment. NOT shiting on nurses, your point is VERY good. But I think that there is simply no comparing the job of a Nurse and the job of a Medic.
Love your channel and input man. So much real things to consider when entering this field. As for myself, I feel that being a paramedic brings the best amount of balance for my life as far as job satisfaction. Awesome video
Thank you for making this, I'm stuck between which career to chose so perfect video for me even though I'm in the U.K. I still lean towards paramedic. I think the biggest deciding factor though wether to go into medical at all should be empathy,how would you like to be treated if you were in that patients shoes
So glad (as a nursing student about to finish, and worked 8 yrs. in healthcare, last 2 yrs in surgical ward) that it's so much easier in Norway to swap around between these two. Just started working as a paramedic now as the education finishes. Mostly just need a short course and getting a drivers license for driving with the blue lights. And still if I want, I can swap to a pure nursing area, which those who only go for paramedic education can't. But it's super cool to hear the way it's done in the U.S.!
I look at it like this. If you want the same day to day routine and taking care of patients, then nursing is great. If you want pre-hospital care, where you never have 2 days the same and alot of it can be really exciting for people, paramedic is a great route. Don't forget people, you can always go be a Firefighter/Paramedic and get on at a department that runs fire and ems. And for the ones that say they don't make enough money, yes the entry level pay for EMS can be low, but if you put your time in it can be very rewarding. You also have to be willing to relocate to an area that actually pays first responders well.
@@noktturnal Uh being in EMS you actually save lives. The people arrive at the ER because the EMS personnel stopped the bleeding, gave them life saving medication, shocked their heart back into a viable rhythm, etc. and did it on the side of the road with the patient's mother screaming at them. Come on.
@@rhoonah5849 I’m going to have to disagree with you there I’ve been a 911 emt with AMR now on a ALS right with a medic for almost 2 years. 80% of the calls we run are not solved by us. Most of the time, these patients need a DOCTOR and long term care. What does a trauma pt ultimately need? CT scans, surgery, medication/ antibiotics that are further out of a medics scope of practice. Don’t get me wrong we do save lives on occasion. But most critical calls are going to be solved by a doctor. What do we do for a stroke? almost nothing. They need a CT and possibly TPA if they make the window. What does a Stemi ultimately need? Angioplasty and possibly stents. We don’t do that doctors do. I love ems, but I’m going towards nursing because of pay.
@@asianprodigyproductions5477 So you don't think that you are saving lives by performing CPR and getting someone's heart to start when you use the AED? Or when you stop an arterial bleed before the person from shock? Or when you give someone who's airway is closing epi to combat anaphylaxis? Of course they need a doctor and advanced care but EMS is the tip of the speed and are indeed saving lives.
My Bf is a RN funny how most men in nursing always flock to the ER and ICU i always found it weird, but i understand now with this video. he was an ICU RN for 2 years and got his BSN for free through his employer and went back to school for Adult gerontology Acute care Nurse Practitioner and worked in the ICU as a Nurse practitioner making 164k a year plus benefits here in the south. He recently got accepted into CRNA school, now i can definitely see how Nursing has way more opportunities for advancement. i work remotely as an RN making 117k as a utilization management nurse.
So, been qualified as a nurse in the UK for just over a year now. I have to admit a part of me still regret that I didn't follow my dad and done my paramedic degree. Instead I followed my mom and went into nursing, got my degree and have been in the ER (A&E) since. But a huge part of me still wished I did the Pre-hospital option. 2nd yr into the nursing school some university came out with a Joint Nursing and Paramedic degree which is awesome but was already halfway though my programme so no point quitting and re-doing it. But lately due to a lot of ambulance services being so understaffed they've opened up positions called Ambulance Nurse where they'll take a nurse (Ideally experienced within the ER/ICU) and give them a 12 week conversion programme and fuction the same level as a paramedic. Might have to apply to this position in the future as I'm kinda getting burned out from being in a hospital setting.
@Jhon Galapate, im 24 years ER nurse, but pre hospital provider for 30 via red cross, 2 search and rescue teams and at this time respond on the goodsam system as well as teach pre hospital care to civillians through my community group. Its amazing to see the development through time, we used to provide pre hospital medical teams in ED'S until paramedics up skilled with HART etc, if you want pre hospital exposure theres loads of ways round it- st john, basics, search or mountain rescue ambulance CFR to name a few, good luck.
I’ve done both and continue to do so. I enjoy being on the ambulance more, but nursing pay has opened up life for me outside of work. I tripled my salary and still get to moonlight on the truck. I don’t regret nursing because I’m able to do more with my family in this past year than ever before. Less autonomy but more pay. BTW there are nursing to medic programs.
I know this post was a while ago but I was wondering if u could provide some more info for me. I’m not in the exact same boat but would love some more info.
Instant click. Very relevant for me right now. Probably gonna do medic first, then RN. Edit: To clarify, RN because $$$ and it makes for a competitive resume to get on those flight teams.
My experience in the prehospital world isn't far off from yours. My longest stretch was with a hospital based (level 2) system. If we were on calls, we were working in the ER, going to the floors and units for codes, etc. Also worked as a solo paramedic in several rural areas in a fly car. This is where I really got my mojo. Since then, I went back to PA school and cover ERs in my area-solo, no doc on backup, no anesthesia, no OB. We see about 400 patients a month. Not super busy, but busy enough. We see whatever comes in the door. You have to have your shit together to work here. There is no way I'd do what I do without my paramedic experience. Not talking down to nurses. There is not a better profession in medicine to help you build confidence and skills than as a medic. If I didn't take a 125,000 pay cut to go back on the streets, I totally would.
As a paramedic. I can say this. Research jobs and for the “cooler” medic gigs it’s a need to know basis and it does require a few years experience. However even with nursing or any field. It’s how you apply yourself. Skills, education, etc. the first gig you’ll get is most likely an ambulance. Mil exp you may get a spot for overseas contracting so forth. Again. It’s all about skills, knowledge, and application. Companies do offer decent incentives again. Research where you live avg wage, cost of living, geographical location, you’re spending and splurging (keep that in mind) for any medical or other fields you decide. Life-work balance if that’s a concern. Paramedic is not the best for it. If you’re single and young go for it. Physical fitness is a must as a medic. You’re going for a fire ems based service, you lost the right to be out of shape, go train harder and heavy for the job. Not just the cpat and fire academy. Remember it’s competitive. Flight, again depending where you live it could pay wel l or shit. I knew medics who did ground and flight at my old company, flight made less in the grand scheme compared to a medic. At the end of the day; decide what you want and what works for you. Paramedicine is a rewarding job. IFT, contracting, or 9-1-1. It’s what you make of it. I knew people who left and went south of medicine and etc. good luck to any future medics or even nurses. Y’all got this.
I know you wrote this awhile back, I'm young 16 and I know I want to be a flight paramedic or nurse in that case what is the difference between schooling of the 2 needed and job competitiveness of the 2?
@@matthewklabunde2543 flight medic requires 2-3 years ems exp mostly 9-1-1. Flight RNs requires 3 years in the ER or ICU. Critical care credentials are gonna help along with the exp I listed. More Education the better. The more certifications the better. Understand the equipment like ballon pumps, ventilators, medication calculation, knowledges of medications. Precept or shadow both career paths. There is a weight requirement for flight gigs. Stay healthy in that sense and meet the requirements. Also the military like the army does flight medic that experience counts towards a flight medic job. There are paramedic to RN programs here in the Maryland area. Will help you if you decide the hospital path or vice versa RN to medic which is a rare program but it’s findable.
The problem in my coutry (Belgium) is simple but frustrating... It's either going for your EMT-degree and remain an EMT for the rest of your carreer with almost no scope of practice, or you need to get a RN-degree and get a second CCRN bachelor's degree afterwards + you'll need a year or two of ER or ICU experience. It either that or accepting you'll never come even close to an ambulance. It sucks having a phycisian centred care model in which other professions have no chance to flourish and have to constantly prove themselves they are worth even accepting in the healthcare world. Advanced Practice Nursing and Rad techs are rather new concepts overhere due to the mistrusting and sometimes patriarchical flaws of our system.
Dude, thanks for breaking it down. My student debts from my previous vocation are staggering, so knowing it pays enough to keep the creditors at bay and keep me eating is a big plus…
As a former Paramedic as well as working in another medical nurse like field for 28 years. I would vote for being a Doctor. EMS here is primarily volunteer, only money is on a Government service fire department usually. The firefighters get the better pay and respect it seems to me. Flight medic is a good choice. Though tough to get. Paramedic is a career for younger folk, so is Flight Medic / Nurse. ER Paramedic or ER Nurse is a good field again age dependent for the most part for most. I worked as a Road Paramedic / ER or Night Urgent Care Paramedic/ X-Ray Tech / Lab Tech / File Clerk/Floor mopper- maintenance one man show...did a lot of Interesting things and met a lot of Interesting people. Nightshift brings out the best and worst of patients most are very Happy that you are there to help ease their medical problems. Generally I really enjoyed the work. Hospital ER and Hospital Urgent Care paid better with better benefits than a 'Doc in a Box' Urgent Care. I think that the entire Medical Field has great opportunities if one is willing to continue one's education. Best
I don't think that's solid advice, doctors go through 8 years of school, then 4 years of making less than minimum wage in residency, that's not viable for a vast majority of people...
Those numbers ain’t wrong. Wife is a doc, just finished her residency and is on to her fellowship. 4 years undergrad (making nothing) 4 years in med school (again, making nothing) 4 years residency (making 60-75k a year which when divided by hours worked came out to $4/hour ish) and now two years of fellowship (making 80-100k/year which comes out to be about 7-10/hour
Wow.. in Australia average Paramedic starting salary is upwards of $90,000 and with shift penalties and mandatory overtime I do not know anyone who has made less than $130,000.. most will elect to do one or two overtime shifts a pay period and take home about $150,000 on average (Australian dolleridoos).. nurses earn less than paramedics here in Australia (on average)
True that. I can work two overtime shifts a month, which boosts the pay. And for those Americans/Europeans wondering, $130,000 is the equivalent of $US88k or €88k.
Thanks for the video, Sam! As we’re all familiar with, I’ve personally hit that fork in the road and this information/insight was super helpful. I can even say it closely resonated with what direction I was instinctually feeling was right for me. Thanks again!
Sam you put so much thought and detail into these kinds of videos. Lots of helpful information. I've already made up my mind that I love Pandora's box and want to go to med school. I love the autonomy of the job and the fact that you can make decisions mostly on your own apart from base contact. There's something about being on scene that you don't get in an ER.
I work in data analytics but I became an EMT volley a little over a year ago. My fire department offered to send to get my Als cert starting in January. I never directly asked for or expected this opportunity and I don’t really feel ready but I’m going to do my best. The reason I bring this up is you can volunteer too. That way can make whatever money you want to and then get your medicine fix as well. I am excited to go on every call and if I am ever not loving ems I can just leave because I don’t rely on that income. In any industry work hard and be pleasant to work with and be in a place that has a good amount of resources and you will have opportunities come your way.
Something not mentioned is the difference in international opportunities. Speaking as a paramedic who's in nursing school, part of the appeal is having a BSN recognized world-wide in a way my paramedic license is not. I'm aware of the international contract work for paramedics but it still doesn't come close to having your license recognized by many other countries and the major international aid groups.
Thank you so much for this video, as someone who is near high-school graduation and needs to make the decision between nursing school or paramedic school, this has really opened my eyes as to what I should do :)
In my opinion, neither are jobs for people who want the easy way out. Both careers are mentally exhausting at times and are thankless by nature. I am on track to graduate as a paramedic in Canada in a year and I can say that there are people in this world who become a paramedic because they are able to handle it. Myself included, there are people who can tolerate gut wrenching scenes while keeping a sane understanding that sometimes people will die - it's a reality of life. Use the talents God gave you to make the world a better place one patient at a time.
Hi, I'm a last year nursing student in France, and I pursued nursing to do prehospital care. I didnt enter paramedic school... because thats not a thing in France! In france, for prehospital care, you need to be a nurse, work in the ER, and after a few years in the ER, you will be able to move to the SMUR (an ambulance/light response vehicle with a driver, a nurse or CRNA and a MD, which are operated by the ER), and do prehospital care in that way. Other option, to be a volunteer firefighter nurse which will dispatch on a light response vehicle with a driver and yourself as crew. Volunteer firefighter nurses have protocols to refer to that give them autonomy, but still need medical advice over the phone to do certain other things. You also need to know that almost for everything in France, the first responders are firefighters, which in France are trained in firefighting but more importantly in advanced first aid (bleed control, immobilization and alot more, but nothing invasive: no IVs, no medications....). Usually, for any emergency in France, firefighters with an ambulance come up to the scene, and then will call backup (or do everything necessary whilst waiting for backup which will sometimes be automaticaly dispatched at the same time), which means either a volunteer firefighter nurse or the SMUR, or both. I personally will be working at the ER to do SMUR asap, and be a volunteer firefighter nurse in parallel. Our system works quite well but has big flaws in less populated areas where sometimes medical help arrives too late. Thanks for the video, I learned a bit more about how the system works in the US :D
I’m a tad tardy to the party to this video. I started watching you because I’m an ED Trauma nurse and trying to go back to become a paramedic to do flight nursing! Btw love your videos super helpful and dope! I will say this in my ED as a new grad a few years ago we had SOOOOO much autonomy (not as much as paramedics) but just as much as an ICU nurse. We were trained on ECMO and LVADS and we had protocols we followed while we waited for the docs to come. We would troubleshoot vents and with how things were going with COVID I would have three ICU patients two on vents and one DKA (and checking sugars every hour is rough in the ED) then have a trauma patient that me and my pod mate would share. I think COVID def changed nursing in the ED so I do believe we have just about if not more autonomy than ICU nurses but I’m bias because there will always be that “ED-ICU rival”
Wife was nurse aid Then a med aid Then an EMT Then a certified nurse aid Then a RN … surgery, ICU, charge nurse etc All before she messed her back up flipping a patient in OR because the anesthesiologist wasn’t doing their job during a colonoscopy and forced her to work a clinic From the stories she’s told Nope, I don’t want to be in that profession
As an ER nurse. I adore bieng a paramedic..... U guys use your brains... and do things while we wait for the doctors brains to work for us... How about getting a nursing degree and working as a paramedic.. Dont know how it works in US
Hi Sam, thank you for your service and for sharing such relative lifesaving content! I am an RN with a bachelors degree. I work currently as a part time surgical nurse and have gained a vested interest in pre-hospital care amongst a variety of agencies including law enforcement. Recently earned FF1 and NREMT. I am looking for a bridge program from RN to paramedic or advanced certs that would allow more autonomy like a paramedic in the field when arriving first on scene. If you have any helpful info please feel free to reply.
Love this video! I am struggle with this answer right now as my state allows me to start CNA school due to the age to start in Cali is 16. It’s been offered at my school’s health academy and I hear a lot of benefits to it, but at the same time I know either path I take, I want to work prehospital or something outside the major clinical environment. (E.G. school medic or nurse, 911/IFT paramedic (maybe CCT) or MICN, or something else.) I think I still want to prehospital 911 which leads me to EMS but still nursing is very tempting simply because of the pay and the ability to still work prehospital (albeit probably not as expansive in my area itself). Good video regardless
Here in the Netherlands we have ambulance nurses. They have finished nursing school , specializaton in ER,IC or anesthesia and then go to a 9 months ambulance academy. I am a dutch ambulance nurse myself, did icu before
I am a Paramedic, I now work In the ER, however due to short staff problems I am working on patient floors to. Our hospital policies say Medics only can work in the ER, If we get floated to the floors we must work as a CNA. While in the ER as a Medic, we are the same as a Nurse.
I was accepted to both programs but chose nursing. I wish I went with paramedic because it seems like a much "cooler" action-packed job. Nursing school was so heavily focused on writing papers about complete bullsh*t, with very little emphasis on clinical skills. I am in Canada, so it takes only 2 years to become a paramedic and 4 years to become an RN. The pay is just about the same.
Why do you blur out Uchealth? Aircraft operated by REACH. In the FAA database you can look up the model of the helicopter in an area to see who flies them. N65RX and N68RX are the two operated in Colorado. Any pilot or someone familiar with aviation can look up an aircraft in the database.
Ambulance work is a younger person's game. I would prefer it still if the money was there but for example, I can't expect my body to do three story carry downs any longer. Also, a medic on a truck will be doing the same work twenty years in as on day one. As exciting and varied it can be on the daily, mental burnout can be a real issue in the long term. If you are laying out a career path you might want to consider planning a fork in the road at some point. There is no reason to limit yourself to a single path end to end.
I went to nursing school and hated it. I went for nursing because of the money and job security, but none of that matters if you hate the job. I am now looking into becoming a paramedic which I have always wanted to do!
Agreed Natalie, I am both a nurse and a paramedic. I wanted to be and EMT / Paramedic since like kindergarten, and I did the nursing just as a back up plan for when I need to physically get off the truck. I have tried nursing several times and every time I try it full time I quit within a few months because I hate it so much, and pre-hospital seems to be more my calling I guess.
@natalie50111 sounds like you never actually made it to nursing school lmao. dont speak unless youve actually graduated and licensed working only then will you know.
@@bettysmith4527I realized I didn't want to be a nurse after working as a nursing assistant for almost two years(I hated being a nursing assistant)and after starting a two year ADN program in January of this year (2004). I had to drop out due to car trouble and have decided to pursue the EMT/Paramedic track starting in August of 2024. I am so excited. I feel like everything happens for a reason because I absolutely hated nursing school. I really don't want to go back for my RN degree. Just want to stay a EMT & paramedic. Nurses make more money, true. But you can build wealth as a paramedic if you stay out of debt, invest in mutual funds/index funds, real estate, and invest in 40lK and Roth IRAs. You could become a millionaire while working as a paramedic before you reach retirement age if you know how to budget, stay out of debt, have an emergency fund saved up, live on less than you make, and invest. I would rather be happy working as a paramedic than miserable working as a nurse, period. I don't care how much they get paid. That is speaking for me only.
Ideally, I would go from Paramedic to Doctor. I'm interested in the practical life skills of a paramedic and being the first responder. However, I would eventually love to transition to being a doctor (more autonomy and higher pay).
I'd like to point out that my paramedic school, and doubtless many others in the US, have ER rotations as a mandatory part of the curriculum. This trains us not only to be able to work in the ER, if that's our chosen path, but to recognize ER routines and be able to assist during patient transfer. Personally, I greatly prefer the ambulance. The autonomy is tremendous when compared to the ER.
Having worked as both a nurse in the hospital and as a paramedic, I do wish they would utilize medics more in hospitals. If you have every been to a code in a hospital, other than in the ER, it is usually an absolute cluster fuck. Hospitalists, while qualified physicians, are honestly terrible at running codes and recognizing and treating arrhythmias appropriately. Having EXPERIENCED 911 Paramedics on hospital code teams would make them run a ton smoother!!
@@bettysmith4527 No disrespect, but I have noticed hospitalists don't deal near as often, and therefore not near as well, with the utter chaos we in EMS see every day. On the other hand, I think I've forgotten a good 3/4 of the meds I learned in school, because I don't use most of them. Hospitalists, on the other hand, could probably rattle off a few dozen, complete with dosages, indications, method of action, and at least one alternate name for each. To each their own. Everyone has their strengths.
I was a paramedic for 10 years and am almost done with nursing school. I got tired of the lifestyle and lack of pay in EMS. EMS teaches paramedic just enough to get patients to the hospital but doesn’t compare in the knowledge I’ve gained in nursing school so far.
I'm the opposite, I spent two years in nursing and just finishing up medic. I'd say a medic teaches you in ways that nursing never could. Especially the stress and critical thinking. Nursing clinicals were cake compared to paramedic internship.
@@charleslaitipaya7149 I agree with the intensity of the students clinical. However from a knowledge basis, paramedic one focuses solely on the treatment and management of emergency conditions. However, nursing knowledge is taught to encompass a variety of care modalities, from acute, surgical, long term, palliative, etc. So to compare the two is apples and oranges.
@@MrBDub true, nursing is more multi layerer, but what you are taught in school is not fully applied in the field or career. You become a real nurse during your new grad orientation to the unit you are hired on. You get all this broad knowledge over all the disciplines, but never use them all, nor is it everything you need to work on a specific unit. Like how you have a rapid response team consisting of Ed and ICU nurses for critical calls in the hospital, because you can't trust a 20 year medsurge nurse to resuscitate. They learned it once, but never had to use it.
I worked as a paramedic for 10 years. Then went to a paramedic to rn nursing school. Have worked for the past 10 years as a nurse. My experience and training as a paramedic has EXTREMELY helped me in the nursing field. I worked as house RN supervisor for a year (worst job in the world), and ran the show to put the fires out.
I’m a little late. I’m 42 and back in school for Nursing and I hate school so far even though everybody is great. I get my bachelors and I know Nursing has a lot of more opportunity but more and more. I’m hearing how male nurses is unmasculine and paramedic is looked at warm masculineand even if I cannot get hired onto a fire department as a firefighter, I would like to work for a fire department. I also hear that the ER nurses go for the firefighters and paramedics in the ER but never hear them going for the male nurses. It is important because I do want to eventually meet somebody and start a family so when I started seeing that it kind of also led me to paramedic. I figure I can do paramedic and then do a bridge program to Nursing but I would want my bachelors. I’m in California, but I would love to move to New Zealand or Australia, and I saw comment on here that the paramedics there make more than some nurses advice would be great. Thank you.
I was torn between nursing and medic mostly because medic sounds a lot cooler than nurse and I have a hard time cleaning up poop, pee, vomit. 😅 I went with nursing school anyway I’m more comfortable around other women, I’m getting better at handling bodily fluids and smells.
Sam could you do a video on the 6 week training for a BSN Nurse that trains you for the Paramedic exam? My EMT instructor told me something about it and it sounds like a great option for those who may want to have the ability to do both fields?
This is my plan. May be the long way around but I found that in my situation (wife and kids) the extra coin would be beneficial and I hope to work PRN as a nurse, continue with the paramedic bridge program, and kind of do both. Like the video said, my long term goal is flight nursing so I'd like to get a taste of both worlds along the way. Currently Emt for 3 years, halfway through nursing school.
This is a terrible idea, nursing and paramedicine are two very different things, and neither should be bridged without any significant formal education!!
I'm going in to becoming a paramedic/EMT to help people but most importantly for me will be the friends that I will make and the storys that I will have. It means a lot to me to be a preimidc/ EMT, I have at least 2 roommates who have problems medically and if I was an EMT then I would know what to do to help them.
And y'all are paid less why? Also, Sam, if you read this: I used to sell you redbulls back in the day. Blew my mind when I figured it out. Anyway, I moved to NYC. I just finished my BLS CPR training this morning and I'll start my EMT program in January. Thank you for being an inspiration. It's amazing to see how far you've come!
Oh a myriad of reasons, all of which are stupid and some of which are insulting. Probably the biggest cultural one is people don't really think of Paramedics as healthcare providers. There's probably also a perception lag with regards to what our educational investment is like; My educational program manager showed the class his paramedic textbook and it was smaller than our EMT-Basic textbook. Then he pulled out an AEMT textbook and it dwarfed it. Total education is 1700-2000 hours (200hrs EMT, 1500hrs Medic, and maybe 250-300hrs AEMT), and total clinical time is anywhere from 600-1200 hours. That's almost as much as med school. But people think it's still more like 800-1000 hours for whatever reason
@@mursemumu93 Hey, give me credit, I did say _two_ ! One more. In the days before EMTs, "Ambulance Driver" was a minimum wage job. They kept doing that because they could get away with it. There's STILL a number of companies paying a dollar above minimum wage for EMTs
Also, let’s address a huge aspect of this “vs”; if you’re a medic and you plan on going to nursing school, understand that you’re going to face some….friction. Goes doubly hard for males. You’re entering a world of women and when you show up with years of experience, you’re going to have some prejudice against you. I kept my head down, did well, and kept my experience to myself. As clinicals rolled around and I reacted to a situation as a provider would in an ambulance and not like a nursing student, it became obvious that I wasn’t a normal nursing student. Outside of the visible anti-medic friction, finding a job as a new grad nurse in higher speed treatment arenas is really tough once they find out about your experience. I wish you all luck in making this decision, flying is likely the way to go if you’re watching this channel.
I was under the impression the biggest difference between EMT/Paramedics and Nurses is: EMT/Paras focus on first response and stabilization; whereas Nurses accept patients, take vitals/patient history, inform doctor of ailments, & assist Doctor/Surgeon during procedures.
I’m both. Paramedics do their own patient assessments, take histories, take vital signs, and give report to receiving staff at hospitals. The paramedic and the nurse differ in how they are trained. Both essentially function under a delegated order set. A physician writes/determines the orders to be applied to that patient and it is up to the paramedic or nurse to determine which of those orders need to be utilized at which time. The physician / nurse relationship can be much more collaborative as they’re often working alongside each other, but the nurse and paramedic both utilize physician-created orders. That out of the way, paramedics are trained from the outset to be a specialist in prehospital care. The brand-new paramedic is going to be much better trained to handle an emergency than the brand-new nurse. The nurse is trained as a generalist and then they specialize. They get further training from the department and that lasts from 6-12 weeks, sometimes longer if they’re in a “residency program” and the end result is a nurse that is a safe beginner in that field. Here’s the thing: nurses get no prehospital training. Their educational programs do not teach the ambulance operations, scene safety, hazmat recognition, injury stabilization, and the like, all of which are part and parcel of a paramedic’s education by the conclusion of their program. I’m a CCT-RN and an ED RN. I still have my medic license and have worked in the field for years. I see no reason why a good flight program isn’t able to bring a paramedic up to an equivalent scope as a flight nurse and nurse up to the equivalent scope of a flight paramedic. Equivalent scope doesn’t mean identical thought processes behind what is done. If someone has a better idea, run with it!
medical field in US seemed diverse. meanwhile in Indonesia paramedics are nurse but not all nurse do pre-hospital meds. we have to graduate either 3-year nursing diploma or 4-year BSN degree with 1 year professional nurse certification
TCCC is the way to go if you want the pre hospital knowledge of first aid / casualty care but want to remain an armed guard. If youre interested in becoming an actual paramedic, check with local ems and see what course of action they recommend as every locality is going to be different.
@@TheShaggyRifleman what does TCCC mean? Also I appreciate the advice I've done Trauma/ First Aid, CPR/AED have kept that updated but definitely want to continue with more training especially with mass Casualty training in the like.
Interesting, in the Czech Republic you need 3 years at the university to become either paramedic or nurse. But the degree is not the same. As a nurse, you can just work at the hospital, as a paramedic, you can work both in the hospital and ambulance. So if you're interested in emergency medicine, you better go study a paramedic here. Salary is a little bit smaller in the ambulance, but still pretty good.
I'm Czech as well and I've been considering becoming a paramedic (I'm 14 so still deciding on my career path), and i honestly thought you just had to go through a course or something to become a paramedic here. May I ask what kind of university (idk what terms to use) you'd have to study?
@@AdelaTomankova second year paramedic student here:) both are Bc degree, paramedics can be ICU nurses, or ER, or ride ambulances. Nursing school I thing you need a previous nursing education. Nursing school is way cheaper due to government subsidies, paramedics get a better pay off the bat, but that depends really. You have time to make your mind, but ask away if you want to know more
Australia also has entry into EMS/ambulance by graduating university. Interestingly though, you can earn more as a registered paramedic than as a registered nurse. Not always, it's mainly location dependent. In small country towns you might work 8 days in a row and be on call every night as a paramedic.
Does the nurse making 10 more an hour have an ADN, BSN, MSN ? And would they make more depending which degree they have? And do you get paid more or less for work experience or is it flat pay no matter what the years of experience?
Making more than a paramedic? A nurse with an ADN would be the one making 10 more an hour than a paramedic, I think the average starting base salary for a RN with an ADN is like $60,000-$70,000 at least on the east coast where I am, while a nurse with a BSN starts on that higher end up to $80,000. Years of experience change that greatly, with a MSN or NP being about to make $100,000 or more based of experience and location.
So, honestly it depends. I am a medic with 18 years of experience and a nurse with 15 years of experience, if you factor in that as a medic I work two 24 hours shifts, with 8 hours of OT built in every week, vs 36 hours as a nurse, depending on the state I actually make more or the same as I would working as a nurse, with a quarter of the stress!!
Will this training teach you how to do CPR,Trachea Breach,and or Pneumothorax Chest Decompression:in other words,Combat Triage and or Combat Medical Aid? Thats all I want to know. Oh...and Blood Vessel Cauterization Training...add this training, as well.
What gives the nurse the extended scope of practice that comes with flight nursing? He mentions in the video they gain a higher scope of practice. Is it the CFRN program and accreditation?
Making 75k annually as an advanced EMT in west Texas. 13 years now. Never wanted to pursue my paramedic. Never made sense to me pay wise. If I could do it all over again I would go the nursing route……
With autonomy. I’m nights icu and er. I have a lot of autonomy. Ofc I have to ultimately get an order but a lot that is after I assess and do what needs to be done. I also have a ten times bigger bag of drugs and stuff like that. Sure I can’t intubate but I can when I fly.
From the time I've been in the hospital, you see the doctor for 5 minutes. Nurses do life saving blood transfusions and dispense he life saving medications you need and generally are familiar with thee if you haven't lost consciousness Most of been in the ICU, but they keep you alive with meds until you need. a life saving procedure done by a specialist
why not just do both i would say become a paremedic first from the experience side its easier to start with the pre-hospital stuff first and you can do a bridge program into nursing or if your insane get your medic and nursing at the same time. the only issue with going from ems to nursing is that most ems providers have some type of ego from doing standalone care many i know would stop a doctor from trying to help on the scene of an incident cause unless they're trained for emergency care in that setting we feel they have no idea what they're doing and realistically they don't. so going into the hospital what you might do yourself in an emergency setting and just getting the job done... you will have to track the doc or pa or whoever is the provider down to do some of the simplest things which is annoying ( so for some of you that have the time and patience) maybe going ems - nursing - md might not be a bad route
New follower here ! I love your videos already. I graduated last month with my EMT-B license and was thinking of going straight into Paramedics (this Fall). I was hoping to get into FDNY. I know that requires passing the civil service exam PLUS hoping you get picked for the academy. So my question is: Would it just be smarter to apply to a paramedic course via a college ? Or take my chances ? I’m really confused of the route I should take
Just depends on how fast you want to get to paramedic. I’ve heard fdny hires medics faster then emts but it’s always gonna take at least 2-3 years to finally get in. Just enjoy your time as a emt and soak in that bls experience because even when your a paramedic your gonna be falling back on your bls experience 90 percent of the time . When you feel confident as a bls provider In my personal opinion, that’s best time to jump to paramedic.
I'm in LPN school and trying to survive Pharmacology and med surg during a shortened summer semester. I hate it. Every second of it. So I'm thinking of dropping out to get my emt cert instead
PA school from the mouth of 30 years FD/EMS and RN since 1984. Simple decision, if money isn't a consideration, would you do it for free? The other thing, my license stops at the front door of my facility, I can't function as a nurse outside of the facility, but it's impossible for me not to help. Me 30 years ago, EMT, medic in an FD with a bus. Fully certified firefighter that's a PA. Why, because FD admin speaks EMT/medic, once fully certified/vetted, bring in the PA license. Most PAs in FD's are either teaching in the academy or doing primary care in the community taking some of the load odd the EMS folks. They aren't typically on busses, but that doesn't mean they can't be. Totally different education then NPs
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If you want to have a stable career with good hours and decent pay, be a nurse.
If you want to run the streets and have the adventure of a lifetime every shift, be a medic.
Both jobs are heavily stressful though.
@@Thomzz95 Being a nurse is stressful because of the workload, but it’s all menial tasks. Being a medic is stressful because the buck stops at you. There is no one to call for help, you are the help.
@@tooshort3142 I’ve heard horror stories from nurses and how burned out you can get from the job that’s why there is a shortage of nurses right now. Dealing with rude doctors and patients who are hard to deal with can have a toll on you and with paramedics sometimes they are putting themselves in dangerous situations. They are both good careers don’t get me wrong but many should be aware of the stuff you will deal with in both these fields. I feel only the strongest can deal with the stresses that come with it.
Both jobs are stable though
Being a paramedic did. have some stress, but being a nurse is 100 percent NON STOP stress, even on your days off, because you spend them stressing about having to go back to the hospital to work!! I do not recommend anyone go to nursing school! @@Thomzz95
In Finland, becoming a paramedic means becoming a nurse as well. The school takes four years. Around half work in ambulances and the rest work inside the hospital, usually in ER or ICU. Its always interesting to hear you talk of the system in the US.
Have you ever heard of any foreigners making it into EMS in Finland?
Dar in belgium… first 4 years of nursing school and then specialise in Er and ICU
@@codyscott4301 Nursing yeah, but not really in EMS. There are not many jobs for EMT
s or paramedics at the moment so employers can require perfect finnish from applicants.
There are no paramedics in Spain 😓, I wish
@@suihkubad kiitos
I'm a US Paramedic. The reality is that being a Paramedic here in the states is a lower paid job with less security and less autonomy than most nursing positions. If I could do it again, I'd become a nurse first. Nursing is a more developed field here, and that will always lead you to better money, security and working conditions. I'm not saying there aren't good medic jobs out there, I'm saying it's harder to find them, and you'll make less money. You can always become a Paramedic after you get your RN if you want, but at least you'll have that better paying job to fall back on. American EMS is structurally and culturally a clusterf***, don't get caught up in it if you have bills and kids.
Definitely dont get into it if you have wife or kids, mainly because ems requires emt + paramedic and depending on your county and schools nearby some require 1000+ hrs as an emt before you could even enroll to paramedic schools. In my county its hella annoying because in order for you to become a firefighter you have to be an emt, and if you want a better shot to get into the academy you could go to paramedic school which everyone does. So there's just an oversaturated market and unless you impress in ur interview, youll end up in a terrible ift agency
that being said if you're around 20 smthing yrs old ems is kinda cool and fun paramedicine is cool, and nursing is cool. Just depends on what you want and who u are
Really Ryan? I do both nursing and medic and nurses have like almost zero autonomy compared to a paramedic.
@@bettysmith4527 What kid of nursing are you in? Many of the ICU and ER nursing positions here have standing orders, just like medics. They also have mid levels and Docs hanging over their shoulders put in orders and collaborate. You may have "autonomy" as a medic, but it's a very short algorithmic leash - and even if that's not true, I'd rather have the working conditions, income and security that nursing offers. I've been a medic a long time, this is just the reality of the system .
@@ryanfromli Was an ER nurse, trust me the autonomy is not even close in comparison to that of a paramedic. In my ER it was ridiculously busy, even before COVID and we did have protocol orders, but they were limited, and again not even close to that of a paramedic. A lot of my paramedic co-woerkers are heading into nursing school, and I try and talk everyone of them out of it... it sounds like such a glorious profession, UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO IT.
I am both a nurse and a paramedic, and I disagree with your comment Ryan, you, like many others have a very glorified view of nursing, because you haven't done the job first hand. Working conditions for nurses are AWFUL, and that was even before COVID, between chronic short staffing and overly demanding patients and families. I have far more autonomy as a medic than I ever would or did as a nurse, as a nurse I felt more like a robot! Yes, as a nurse you need to assess patients and make sure the medication that has been ordered is appropriate, but ultimately it's the physician who is doing the assessment and deciding what treatment, if any the patient needs. We did have protocol orders in my ER, but they were extremely limited. I do work in a state that has a very autonomous set of protocols for EMS, we have to contact med control for Heparin for a STEMI, and pressors or amiodarone for non-ROSC or non arrest pediatric patients. We even hang IV nitro, have ventilators for 911 calls, BiPAP etc. Maybe in an ICU there is more autonomy, I have only worked as a nurse in the emergency department and vascular access. I work full time as a medic because, honestly, when you work 8 hours of OT every week (2) 24 Hour shifts, vs 36 hours as a nurse, the money very similar. I can also work extra as a medic very easily, because I am not pulling my hair out, or so stressed and exhausted that I cannot work any more hours then I have too. Nursing comes at a very high cost to your physical and mental health, trust me! The first week I went from full time nursing, back to EMS, I felt like a million bucks and noticed a difference immediately in my level of energy and happiness!!! It's not always about money.... Shit, I just got off a 24, and didn't even notice I already replied to this.... oh, well, I slept all night and got paid too, now that would never happen in nursing!
I’m 49 years old, and after being a machinist for 20+ years, decided to switch careers and went to EMT school. I graduate next week. 4 yrs of nursing school just isn’t a viable option for me. 2 yrs of paramedic school absolutely is. So it’s off to an ambo service while attending paramedic school. Super excited.
You can be an RN in two years with a ADN degree
@@Its_Esoteric Most hospitals will no longer consider ADN prepared nurses, if they do, you are forced to get your BSN. I am both a nurse and a paramedic, and nursing is not worth the amount of stress and emotional drainage, I am working L and D now, I just started, and it has reminded me of why I wanted to stay working as a medic. I am giving this another few months, if I am still feeling drained and stressed, like crap on my days off, I am out!
How’s it going 2 years later? I’m in a similar situation. Switching careers at 39, start EMT school in January
@@k0pperBeen an EMT for a number of years. Looking at a company paid medic program starting in January or possibly nursing. Both stable careers. I'd say go for it!
My youngest daughter is a home hospice nurse and loves it. She feels as a hospice nurse she feels that no one should die alone, many a dinner she has missed to hold ones hand as they die with dignity.
sounds precious
Coming out of EMT school my first EMS job was as a tech in an ER. I quickly learned that working in a hospital is not for me and am so grateful to be full-time on an ambo now. Many ex-coworker techs there are heading to nursing themselves meanwhile I am going full speed to paramedicine right now. It really is just a personal preference kind of thing.
We cannot forget about paramedic who decide to do fire rescue who make just as much or more then nurses. And also paramedic school generally takes half the time as nursing school granted you don’t pay for accelerated programs. Once a medic you can work in healthcare as well as going back to school for nursing and doing the quick bridge program. Even if medics isn’t your thing, it’s a great stepping stone to getting into healthcare quicker and then going back to school for nursing.
as a paramedic for 17 years who is in nursing school, I say go to nursing school. Ems is a sucker bet. It is a grinder, they will use you up at half of a nurse's pay, and when either your mind or your body gives out, they will throw you out without even a second thought. Nurses make more money, work in controlled environments, etc. I wish that I had gone to nursing school (no bridge program in lousyanna) a long long time ago. With that being said, I will be taking a pay cut as a new nurse. You can make money as a paramedic, it's called being a remote paramedic and I made 6 figures working only 6 months out of the year to sit around and watch youtube videos. But overall, nursing is the way to go.
Tell you what man... I'm both an RN and a Paramedic. I bridged from Paramedic to RN in 2006 after being a Paramedic for 10 years.. Your review of the situation is SPOT on... Pick based on your idea of the right work environment for you. I love prehospital care. However, I needed to make more money and wasn't interested in the fire service. I've been in hospital administration for many years and come to the determination that clinical care is where it's at for me. A year ago I returned to ED nursing and now I'm moving towards flight nursing. So the options are endless between the two.
Just wanna say that I'm a peds/neonatal critical care flight nurse and I don't find anything about this video controversial. I will say, I work off standing orders and algorithms like you described as well and what I've found is that it leads to a sense of false autonomy compared to docs and mid-levels who have true, full practice-authority. There's a lot of creative problem solving to be done but regardless of how extensive my order sets go, it just boils down to having a lot of different cookie cutters. I think there are also differences in professional philosophy/theory to be considered when choosing between para-medicine and nursing. Nursing academia wouldn't consider what I do as a flight RN capital-N "Nursing" and nursing science does come with a lot of holistic foofoo.
Wow. I'm a RN from 1995. I trained at a Military Hospital. Throughout my frustrated career dealing with hiring freeze. Limited opportunity due to rural area. The EMT. Classes were always filled up with well deserving LOCAL people. Most communities will hire local first. I served US Army. & Reserve & Navy Reserve. Crammed in as many classes as possible. And still frustrated. The truly best people I worked with is an emergency room physician & several Physician Assistants who were ER. Specific. I've literally roamed the country trying to get a strong foothold into a Hospital job. And very frustrated. Back in 1995 my primary NURSING Instructor said..." That LPNS will be forced to become RNS and elevate the NURSING PROFESSION. HOWEVER THE opposite has occurred. They moved LPNS up in responsibility and forced RNS out of work. Now hospitals are cherry picking employees. And many times getting cheaper staff by lower trained employees. I've endured multiple hardships due to limited employment. Right now I would Not Recommend the NURSING Profession to anyone. If someone is lucky enough to have college funds etc. I would think going directly into a physician Assistant is best educational Path. The Nurses workforce responsiblity will dwindle into Documentation and button pushing on iPads. With very minimal patient care contact. It is a waste of skills and training if not able to actually perform hands on care. I'm extremely disappointed in the leadership. Workplace conflicts & changes in Nurses role. We essentially are being squeezed out of work. I would love to see these closed hospitals & clinics open back up in communities to give appropriate care. The most respect to the ER. Doctors who took time to care for patients. Once again if u want to perform hands on skills become a PA instead and go all the way with education ASAP. I believe they are manipulating the field. The paramedics are well trained but wages are cut. Nurses wages are also cut. Good luck. People need excellent HEALTHCARE. NOT A BUNCH OF button pushers. Many will be disappointed with this. 🤔
@@Favorite-catNip The problem is that PAs have to work under a physicians, NPs, in most states do not need physician oversight. The medical field is already saturated with NPs and PAs, thus the wages for those professions are actually decreasing in many areas!
@@Favorite-catNip sounds like youre deflecting your hardships on others lol. theres many many many opportunities for everyone in the west coast. More men enter nursing there because of the higher salaries and staffing ratios and benefits. i suggest your keep your comment to yourself. its not relative today, im sure you were a crummy nurse based on your subjective view.
I started as a Paramedic eventually became an ICU Nurse and working on my CRNA. I did enjoyed having the autonomy as a medic that’s the reason I’m pursuing CRNA to have that autonomy as a provider
Hey Eduardo, may I asked how much is CRNA school costing you, just curious... thinking about it for the long term future.
I just finished EMT school, my goal has been paramedic since I was 14, in EMT school I did 2 12 hour ridealongs with AMR, it was interesting being in an ambulance. I think I'm one of a few people in my EMT course who want to go further into EMS.
Same, I just did my second 12 hour shift with American (small company). It was awesome being in the bambulam. Ive wanted to be a medic since i was 14/15 too haha. My other classmates are going to PA school and I want to further my career in EMS lol
Make sure u guys go fire medic, they make the most money and get much more benefits than private ambulance companies
@@nbaclashofclanspro9198 Where I live there are no fire department ambulances
@@kyleknight8267 usually the fire fighters on fire trucks are required to be at least EMT qualified and they make more. Who usually responds to 911s in your area?
@@nbaclashofclanspro9198 Fire Department and AMR, depending on who's closer, and the nature of the call
In Germany you have to do an apprenticeship for three years to become a paramedic.
In the apprenticeship you have to do internships in different sections in Hospital, e.g. In ICU, CPU, ER or in the OR and in psychiatric Station. The hours of internships are about 800 hours, the practical time on an ems station are about 1900 hours. After that and 8 exams you are a paramedic. As a paramedic you can work on a ems station or in the ER in hospital as well.
I started my work time as a EMS in the army, After three years I started my apprenticeship to become a paramedic. Now I work on the ems Station in a german army hospital. Over 90% of our patients are civillians, so we are a normal ems station with normal ambulance trucks and an intensive care transportation truck like the German Red Cross or Fire stations for example.
If you want to work on a helicopter you have to do the apprenticeship to become a paramedic, After a few practical years, you can if you pass the Assessment do the course to become a HEMS TC
Germany loves is bureaucracy
That sounds extremely similar to my training as a Paramedic in the US, but it only took about 24 months and was incredibly crammed and taxing on my family life. I wish I could have done it in three, it might not have been as bad 😂
As someone whos graduating a nursing program in two weeks, and going back to school right away in January for EMT then paramedicine, I wish this video wouldve been available like a year and a half ago :'). This was extremely accurate. I debated for a couple years which route to go, and went with nursing because they make more, but ill gladly take the pay cut to provide pre hospital care, and have a larger skill set.
Kacie just get some experience as an EMT before going to medic school, it's good to know the basics before you are responsible for everything on a call.
Honestly REALLY helpful video because I’m in this exact dilemma. I just became an EMT and was debating if I should pursue being a paramedic in the future, but I think I’ll get an ADN for now while doing EMT work and whichever appeals more later in the future is when I’ll decide if I’ll choose to go BSN RN or Paramedic. Thanks Sam you’re a lifesaver!
Go RN…. Trust me!
As a paramedic in rural Minnesota we have some of the most advanced protocols in the state if not the country. Because of where we are at. The only difference between our ground and flight is that paramedics on flight have ultrasound and blood. But ground medics have 10 more medications we can give. Our satellite hospital works well with us and a lot of the time we treat others as equals. EMS is a great line of work if your brain wants a puzzle
ER nurses titrate pressors, sedation, and other cardiovascular drugs based on standardized order sets as well. It really depends on the hospital and the setting, but more and more, with ICUs being full, ER nurses are holding all levels of patients from med/surg to ICU level in the ER for extended hours. "autonomy" is more than just titrating drugs and initiating care, ER nurses are tasked with prioritizing in what order to care for their patients, any of whom can be sick or not sick.
This is absolutely fair. However they have the direct assistance of a doctor, and an RT. They are not choosing which meds they are using and are not thinking of a plan behind it all.
A Paramedic is. I must be the one to choose which induction agent and paralytic to give. I must intubate the pt. I must choose which pressor to use and why. I must choose which sedation drip to hang and must know the reason why. I must select my own ventilator settings and adjust accordingly, I don’t have an RT. I don’t have a doctor. I don’t have a nurse. I must do all three jobs and do them well, by myself, in an austere environment.
NOT shiting on nurses, your point is VERY good. But I think that there is simply no comparing the job of a Nurse and the job of a Medic.
Love your channel and input man. So much real things to consider when entering this field. As for myself, I feel that being a paramedic brings the best amount of balance for my life as far as job satisfaction. Awesome video
Thank you for making this, I'm stuck between which career to chose so perfect video for me even though I'm in the U.K. I still lean towards paramedic.
I think the biggest deciding factor though wether to go into medical at all should be empathy,how would you like to be treated if you were in that patients shoes
I didn't think there were videos for the exact situation I was in, and here we are! Thank you, and I hope you keep making these insight videos 💪💯
So glad (as a nursing student about to finish, and worked 8 yrs. in healthcare, last 2 yrs in surgical ward) that it's so much easier in Norway to swap around between these two. Just started working as a paramedic now as the education finishes. Mostly just need a short course and getting a drivers license for driving with the blue lights. And still if I want, I can swap to a pure nursing area, which those who only go for paramedic education can't. But it's super cool to hear the way it's done in the U.S.!
Paramedic is also the ticket into the fire service. Make $200,000/yr as a paramedic on a fire engine (in California at least)
I look at it like this. If you want the same day to day routine and taking care of patients, then nursing is great. If you want pre-hospital care, where you never have 2 days the same and alot of it can be really exciting for people, paramedic is a great route. Don't forget people, you can always go be a Firefighter/Paramedic and get on at a department that runs fire and ems. And for the ones that say they don't make enough money, yes the entry level pay for EMS can be low, but if you put your time in it can be very rewarding. You also have to be willing to relocate to an area that actually pays first responders well.
Work in an er can be more rewarding than ems, and you actually save lives.
In fairness working in the ER as a nurse is similar to the life of an EMS worker. You never have the same day twice.
@@noktturnal Uh being in EMS you actually save lives. The people arrive at the ER because the EMS personnel stopped the bleeding, gave them life saving medication, shocked their heart back into a viable rhythm, etc. and did it on the side of the road with the patient's mother screaming at them. Come on.
@@rhoonah5849 I’m going to have to disagree with you there I’ve been a 911 emt with AMR now on a ALS right with a medic for almost 2 years. 80% of the calls we run are not solved by us. Most of the time, these patients need a DOCTOR and long term care. What does a trauma pt ultimately need? CT scans, surgery, medication/ antibiotics that are further out of a medics scope of practice. Don’t get me wrong we do save lives on occasion. But most critical calls are going to be solved by a doctor. What do we do for a stroke? almost nothing. They need a CT and possibly TPA if they make the window. What does a Stemi ultimately need? Angioplasty and possibly stents. We don’t do that doctors do. I love ems, but I’m going towards nursing because of pay.
@@asianprodigyproductions5477 So you don't think that you are saving lives by performing CPR and getting someone's heart to start when you use the AED? Or when you stop an arterial bleed before the person from shock? Or when you give someone who's airway is closing epi to combat anaphylaxis? Of course they need a doctor and advanced care but EMS is the tip of the speed and are indeed saving lives.
My Bf is a RN funny how most men in nursing always flock to the ER and ICU i always found it weird, but i understand now with this video. he was an ICU RN for 2 years and got his BSN for free through his employer and went back to school for Adult gerontology Acute care Nurse Practitioner and worked in the ICU as a Nurse practitioner making 164k a year plus benefits here in the south. He recently got accepted into CRNA school, now i can definitely see how Nursing has way more opportunities for advancement. i work remotely as an RN making 117k as a utilization management nurse.
So, been qualified as a nurse in the UK for just over a year now. I have to admit a part of me still regret that I didn't follow my dad and done my paramedic degree. Instead I followed my mom and went into nursing, got my degree and have been in the ER (A&E) since. But a huge part of me still wished I did the Pre-hospital option. 2nd yr into the nursing school some university came out with a Joint Nursing and Paramedic degree which is awesome but was already halfway though my programme so no point quitting and re-doing it. But lately due to a lot of ambulance services being so understaffed they've opened up positions called Ambulance Nurse where they'll take a nurse (Ideally experienced within the ER/ICU) and give them a 12 week conversion programme and fuction the same level as a paramedic. Might have to apply to this position in the future as I'm kinda getting burned out from being in a hospital setting.
@Jhon Galapate, im 24 years ER nurse, but pre hospital provider for 30 via red cross, 2 search and rescue teams and at this time respond on the goodsam system as well as teach pre hospital care to civillians through my community group. Its amazing to see the development through time, we used to provide pre hospital medical teams in ED'S until paramedics up skilled with HART etc, if you want pre hospital exposure theres loads of ways round it- st john, basics, search or mountain rescue ambulance CFR to name a few, good luck.
I’ve done both and continue to do so. I enjoy being on the ambulance more, but nursing pay has opened up life for me outside of work. I tripled my salary and still get to moonlight on the truck. I don’t regret nursing because I’m able to do more with my family in this past year than ever before. Less autonomy but more pay. BTW there are nursing to medic programs.
I’m happy to answer questions from my viewpoint if anyone is curious about specifics
I know this post was a while ago but I was wondering if u could provide some more info for me. I’m not in the exact same boat but would love some more info.
Instant click. Very relevant for me right now. Probably gonna do medic first, then RN.
Edit: To clarify, RN because $$$ and it makes for a competitive resume to get on those flight teams.
I love these videos so much, thank you for confirming my decision to become a medic! So tired of working on the floor as a tech
My experience in the prehospital world isn't far off from yours. My longest stretch was with a hospital based (level 2) system. If we were on calls, we were working in the ER, going to the floors and units for codes, etc. Also worked as a solo paramedic in several rural areas in a fly car. This is where I really got my mojo. Since then, I went back to PA school and cover ERs in my area-solo, no doc on backup, no anesthesia, no OB. We see about 400 patients a month. Not super busy, but busy enough. We see whatever comes in the door. You have to have your shit together to work here. There is no way I'd do what I do without my paramedic experience. Not talking down to nurses. There is not a better profession in medicine to help you build confidence and skills than as a medic. If I didn't take a 125,000 pay cut to go back on the streets, I totally would.
I'm from India Studying Bachelor in Trauma and emergency care technology and How Iwork in abroad as a paramedic
There are field PA positions in Austin… just saying
love to see all the emts here w big dreams
One more thing to look into US Military, I did 20yrs as a Coast Guard HM, HS, Than went to the US Army .
As a paramedic. I can say this. Research jobs and for the “cooler” medic gigs it’s a need to know basis and it does require a few years experience. However even with nursing or any field. It’s how you apply yourself. Skills, education, etc. the first gig you’ll get is most likely an ambulance. Mil exp you may get a spot for overseas contracting so forth. Again. It’s all about skills, knowledge, and application. Companies do offer decent incentives again. Research where you live avg wage, cost of living, geographical location, you’re spending and splurging (keep that in mind) for any medical or other fields you decide. Life-work balance if that’s a concern. Paramedic is not the best for it. If you’re single and young go for it. Physical fitness is a must as a medic. You’re going for a fire ems based service, you lost the right to be out of shape, go train harder and heavy for the job. Not just the cpat and fire academy. Remember it’s competitive. Flight, again depending where you live it could pay wel l or shit. I knew medics who did ground and flight at my old company, flight made less in the grand scheme compared to a medic. At the end of the day; decide what you want and what works for you. Paramedicine is a rewarding job. IFT, contracting, or 9-1-1. It’s what you make of it. I knew people who left and went south of medicine and etc. good luck to any future medics or even nurses. Y’all got this.
I know you wrote this awhile back, I'm young 16 and I know I want to be a flight paramedic or nurse in that case what is the difference between schooling of the 2 needed and job competitiveness of the 2?
@@matthewklabunde2543 flight medic requires 2-3 years ems exp mostly 9-1-1. Flight RNs requires 3 years in the ER or ICU. Critical care credentials are gonna help along with the exp I listed. More Education the better. The more certifications the better. Understand the equipment like ballon pumps, ventilators, medication calculation, knowledges of medications. Precept or shadow both career paths. There is a weight requirement for flight gigs. Stay healthy in that sense and meet the requirements. Also the military like the army does flight medic that experience counts towards a flight medic job. There are paramedic to RN programs here in the Maryland area. Will help you if you decide the hospital path or vice versa RN to medic which is a rare program but it’s findable.
Thank you it has been pretty hard to find info on the difference and stuff
Ps. Love the profile pic
The problem in my coutry (Belgium) is simple but frustrating... It's either going for your EMT-degree and remain an EMT for the rest of your carreer with almost no scope of practice, or you need to get a RN-degree and get a second CCRN bachelor's degree afterwards + you'll need a year or two of ER or ICU experience. It either that or accepting you'll never come even close to an ambulance. It sucks having a phycisian centred care model in which other professions have no chance to flourish and have to constantly prove themselves they are worth even accepting in the healthcare world. Advanced Practice Nursing and Rad techs are rather new concepts overhere due to the mistrusting and sometimes patriarchical flaws of our system.
Dude, thanks for breaking it down. My student debts from my previous vocation are staggering, so knowing it pays enough to keep the creditors at bay and keep me eating is a big plus…
As a former Paramedic as well as working in another medical nurse like field for 28 years. I would vote for being a Doctor. EMS here is primarily volunteer, only money is on a Government service fire department usually. The firefighters get the better pay and respect it seems to me. Flight medic is a good choice. Though tough to get. Paramedic is a career for younger folk, so is Flight Medic / Nurse. ER Paramedic or ER Nurse is a good field again age dependent for the most part for most. I worked as a Road Paramedic / ER or Night Urgent Care Paramedic/ X-Ray Tech / Lab Tech / File Clerk/Floor mopper- maintenance one man show...did a lot of Interesting things and met a lot of Interesting people. Nightshift brings out the best and worst of patients most are very Happy that you are there to help ease their medical problems. Generally I really enjoyed the work. Hospital ER and Hospital Urgent Care paid better with better benefits than a 'Doc in a Box' Urgent Care. I think that the entire Medical Field has great opportunities if one is willing to continue one's education. Best
I don't think that's solid advice, doctors go through 8 years of school, then 4 years of making less than minimum wage in residency, that's not viable for a vast majority of people...
@@cds6334Your numbers are wrong. I also think you have no experience in the medical field. Just an opinion. Best
Those numbers ain’t wrong. Wife is a doc, just finished her residency and is on to her fellowship. 4 years undergrad (making nothing) 4 years in med school (again, making nothing) 4 years residency (making 60-75k a year which when divided by hours worked came out to $4/hour ish) and now two years of fellowship (making 80-100k/year which comes out to be about 7-10/hour
Wow.. in Australia average Paramedic starting salary is upwards of $90,000 and with shift penalties and mandatory overtime I do not know anyone who has made less than $130,000.. most will elect to do one or two overtime shifts a pay period and take home about $150,000 on average (Australian dolleridoos).. nurses earn less than paramedics here in Australia (on average)
True that. I can work two overtime shifts a month, which boosts the pay. And for those Americans/Europeans wondering, $130,000 is the equivalent of $US88k or €88k.
Thanks for the video, Sam!
As we’re all familiar with, I’ve personally hit that fork in the road and this information/insight was super helpful. I can even say it closely resonated with what direction I was instinctually feeling was right for me.
Thanks again!
Sam you put so much thought and detail into these kinds of videos. Lots of helpful information. I've already made up my mind that I love Pandora's box and want to go to med school. I love the autonomy of the job and the fact that you can make decisions mostly on your own apart from base contact. There's something about being on scene that you don't get in an ER.
I work in data analytics but I became an EMT volley a little over a year ago. My fire department offered to send to get my Als cert starting in January. I never directly asked for or expected this opportunity and I don’t really feel ready but I’m going to do my best. The reason I bring this up is you can volunteer too. That way can make whatever money you want to and then get your medicine fix as well. I am excited to go on every call and if I am ever not loving ems I can just leave because I don’t rely on that income. In any industry work hard and be pleasant to work with and be in a place that has a good amount of resources and you will have opportunities come your way.
Something not mentioned is the difference in international opportunities. Speaking as a paramedic who's in nursing school, part of the appeal is having a BSN recognized world-wide in a way my paramedic license is not. I'm aware of the international contract work for paramedics but it still doesn't come close to having your license recognized by many other countries and the major international aid groups.
That's very true. Major part of why I got my Nursing degree.
Can you talk more about the international opportunities? MSF?
Thank you so much for this video, as someone who is near high-school graduation and needs to make the decision between nursing school or paramedic school, this has really opened my eyes as to what I should do :)
In my opinion, neither are jobs for people who want the easy way out. Both careers are mentally exhausting at times and are thankless by nature. I am on track to graduate as a paramedic in Canada in a year and I can say that there are people in this world who become a paramedic because they are able to handle it. Myself included, there are people who can tolerate gut wrenching scenes while keeping a sane understanding that sometimes people will die - it's a reality of life. Use the talents God gave you to make the world a better place one patient at a time.
Hi, I'm a last year nursing student in France, and I pursued nursing to do prehospital care. I didnt enter paramedic school... because thats not a thing in France! In france, for prehospital care, you need to be a nurse, work in the ER, and after a few years in the ER, you will be able to move to the SMUR (an ambulance/light response vehicle with a driver, a nurse or CRNA and a MD, which are operated by the ER), and do prehospital care in that way. Other option, to be a volunteer firefighter nurse which will dispatch on a light response vehicle with a driver and yourself as crew. Volunteer firefighter nurses have protocols to refer to that give them autonomy, but still need medical advice over the phone to do certain other things. You also need to know that almost for everything in France, the first responders are firefighters, which in France are trained in firefighting but more importantly in advanced first aid (bleed control, immobilization and alot more, but nothing invasive: no IVs, no medications....). Usually, for any emergency in France, firefighters with an ambulance come up to the scene, and then will call backup (or do everything necessary whilst waiting for backup which will sometimes be automaticaly dispatched at the same time), which means either a volunteer firefighter nurse or the SMUR, or both. I personally will be working at the ER to do SMUR asap, and be a volunteer firefighter nurse in parallel. Our system works quite well but has big flaws in less populated areas where sometimes medical help arrives too late. Thanks for the video, I learned a bit more about how the system works in the US :D
I’m a tad tardy to the party to this video. I started watching you because I’m an ED Trauma nurse and trying to go back to become a paramedic to do flight nursing! Btw love your videos super helpful and dope! I will say this in my ED as a new grad a few years ago we had SOOOOO much autonomy (not as much as paramedics) but just as much as an ICU nurse. We were trained on ECMO and LVADS and we had protocols we followed while we waited for the docs to come. We would troubleshoot vents and with how things were going with COVID I would have three ICU patients two on vents and one DKA (and checking sugars every hour is rough in the ED) then have a trauma patient that me and my pod mate would share. I think COVID def changed nursing in the ED so I do believe we have just about if not more autonomy than ICU nurses but I’m bias because there will always be that “ED-ICU rival”
In Germany paramedics make a lot more money than nurses. They are also pretty much free to do whatever they want.
Thank you so much for such an informative video, this video taught me a lot and now I know what I want to do as a career
Wife was nurse aid
Then a med aid
Then an EMT
Then a certified nurse aid
Then a RN … surgery, ICU, charge nurse etc
All before she messed her back up flipping a patient in OR because the anesthesiologist wasn’t doing their job during a colonoscopy and forced her to work a clinic
From the stories she’s told
Nope, I don’t want to be in that profession
Yup, only nurses get it... People think nursing is such a glorious profession, until they actually do the job!
As an ER nurse. I adore bieng a paramedic..... U guys use your brains... and do things while we wait for the doctors brains to work for us... How about getting a nursing degree and working as a paramedic.. Dont know how it works in US
Hi Sam, thank you for your service and for sharing such relative lifesaving content! I am an RN with a bachelors degree. I work currently as a part time surgical nurse and have gained a vested interest in pre-hospital care amongst a variety of agencies including law enforcement. Recently earned FF1 and NREMT.
I am looking for a bridge program from RN to paramedic or advanced certs that would allow more autonomy like a paramedic in the field when arriving first on scene. If you have any helpful info please feel free to reply.
Love this video! I am struggle with this answer right now as my state allows me to start CNA school due to the age to start in Cali is 16. It’s been offered at my school’s health academy and I hear a lot of benefits to it, but at the same time I know either path I take, I want to work prehospital or something outside the major clinical environment. (E.G. school medic or nurse, 911/IFT paramedic (maybe CCT) or MICN, or something else.) I think I still want to prehospital 911 which leads me to EMS but still nursing is very tempting simply because of the pay and the ability to still work prehospital (albeit probably not as expansive in my area itself). Good video regardless
Here in the Netherlands we have ambulance nurses. They have finished nursing school , specializaton in ER,IC or anesthesia and then go to a 9 months ambulance academy. I am a dutch ambulance nurse myself, did icu before
I am a Paramedic, I now work In the ER, however due to short staff problems I am working on patient floors to. Our hospital policies say Medics only can work in the ER, If we get floated to the floors we must work as a CNA. While in the ER as a Medic, we are the same as a Nurse.
I'm hoping to become a nurse in an hospital. But I hope to volunteer in the St Johns ambulance (England) as a event first aider. :)
Be a contract medic or nurse practitioner. It may be in the middle of nowhere, but you'll get great pay.
Petition for prep medic to make a podcast
I was accepted to both programs but chose nursing. I wish I went with paramedic because it seems like a much "cooler" action-packed job. Nursing school was so heavily focused on writing papers about complete bullsh*t, with very little emphasis on clinical skills. I am in Canada, so it takes only 2 years to become a paramedic and 4 years to become an RN. The pay is just about the same.
Agreed with everything 100%
Very well said.
You're a bad ass by the way! Be safe out there 🦸♂️
Doing both now. Love medic way more. But nursing is way more knowledge and better career path due to pay and respect and opportunity.
Why do you blur out Uchealth? Aircraft operated by REACH. In the FAA database you can look up the model of the helicopter in an area to see who flies them. N65RX and N68RX are the two operated in Colorado. Any pilot or someone familiar with aviation can look up an aircraft in the database.
Ambulance work is a younger person's game. I would prefer it still if the money was there but for example, I can't expect my body to do three story carry downs any longer. Also, a medic on a truck will be doing the same work twenty years in as on day one. As exciting and varied it can be on the daily, mental burnout can be a real issue in the long term.
If you are laying out a career path you might want to consider planning a fork in the road at some point. There is no reason to limit yourself to a single path end to end.
Absolutely. Growth opportunities are my number one factor when looking for jobs.
I went to nursing school and hated it. I went for nursing because of the money and job security, but none of that matters if you hate the job. I am now looking into becoming a paramedic which I have always wanted to do!
Agreed Natalie, I am both a nurse and a paramedic. I wanted to be and EMT / Paramedic since like kindergarten, and I did the nursing just as a back up plan for when I need to physically get off the truck. I have tried nursing several times and every time I try it full time I quit within a few months because I hate it so much, and pre-hospital seems to be more my calling I guess.
@natalie50111 sounds like you never actually made it to nursing school lmao. dont speak unless youve actually graduated and licensed working only then will you know.
"I went for nursing because of the money and job security". 🤣
I went to nursing school and hated it, too. Now I'm enrolled in an EMT/Paramedic two year associates degree program starting this August 2024.
@@bettysmith4527I realized I didn't want to be a nurse after working as a nursing assistant for almost two years(I hated being a nursing assistant)and after starting a two year ADN program in January of this year (2004). I had to drop out due to car trouble and have decided to pursue the EMT/Paramedic track starting in August of 2024. I am so excited. I feel like everything happens for a reason because I absolutely hated nursing school. I really don't want to go back for my RN degree. Just want to stay a EMT & paramedic. Nurses make more money, true. But you can build wealth as a paramedic if you stay out of debt, invest in mutual funds/index funds, real estate, and invest in 40lK and Roth IRAs. You could become a millionaire while working as a paramedic before you reach retirement age if you know how to budget, stay out of debt, have an emergency fund saved up, live on less than you make, and invest. I would rather be happy working as a paramedic than miserable working as a nurse, period. I don't care how much they get paid. That is speaking for me only.
Ty for the detailed explainer!
is becoming an emt or paramedic physicly demanding if your going to reply with yes or no give an example of what you whould need to be able to do
Ideally, I would go from Paramedic to Doctor. I'm interested in the practical life skills of a paramedic and being the first responder. However, I would eventually love to transition to being a doctor (more autonomy and higher pay).
How do you do that bro? You still need all the prerequisites, correct?
I'd like to point out that my paramedic school, and doubtless many others in the US, have ER rotations as a mandatory part of the curriculum. This trains us not only to be able to work in the ER, if that's our chosen path, but to recognize ER routines and be able to assist during patient transfer.
Personally, I greatly prefer the ambulance. The autonomy is tremendous when compared to the ER.
Having worked as both a nurse in the hospital and as a paramedic, I do wish they would utilize medics more in hospitals. If you have every been to a code in a hospital, other than in the ER, it is usually an absolute cluster fuck. Hospitalists, while qualified physicians, are honestly terrible at running codes and recognizing and treating arrhythmias appropriately. Having EXPERIENCED 911 Paramedics on hospital code teams would make them run a ton smoother!!
@@bettysmith4527 No disrespect, but I have noticed hospitalists don't deal near as often, and therefore not near as well, with the utter chaos we in EMS see every day.
On the other hand, I think I've forgotten a good 3/4 of the meds I learned in school, because I don't use most of them. Hospitalists, on the other hand, could probably rattle off a few dozen, complete with dosages, indications, method of action, and at least one alternate name for each.
To each their own. Everyone has their strengths.
I was a paramedic for 10 years and am almost done with nursing school. I got tired of the lifestyle and lack of pay in EMS. EMS teaches paramedic just enough to get patients to the hospital but doesn’t compare in the knowledge I’ve gained in nursing school so far.
I'm the opposite, I spent two years in nursing and just finishing up medic. I'd say a medic teaches you in ways that nursing never could. Especially the stress and critical thinking. Nursing clinicals were cake compared to paramedic internship.
@@charleslaitipaya7149 I agree with the intensity of the students clinical. However from a knowledge basis, paramedic one focuses solely on the treatment and management of emergency conditions. However, nursing knowledge is taught to encompass a variety of care modalities, from acute, surgical, long term, palliative, etc. So to compare the two is apples and oranges.
@@MrBDub true, nursing is more multi layerer, but what you are taught in school is not fully applied in the field or career. You become a real nurse during your new grad orientation to the unit you are hired on. You get all this broad knowledge over all the disciplines, but never use them all, nor is it everything you need to work on a specific unit. Like how you have a rapid response team consisting of Ed and ICU nurses for critical calls in the hospital, because you can't trust a 20 year medsurge nurse to resuscitate. They learned it once, but never had to use it.
I worked as a paramedic for 10 years. Then went to a paramedic to rn nursing school. Have worked for the past 10 years as a nurse. My experience and training as a paramedic has EXTREMELY helped me in the nursing field. I worked as house RN supervisor for a year (worst job in the world), and ran the show to put the fires out.
I’m a little late. I’m 42 and back in school for Nursing and I hate school so far even though everybody is great. I get my bachelors and I know Nursing has a lot of more opportunity but more and more. I’m hearing how male nurses is unmasculine and paramedic is looked at warm masculineand even if I cannot get hired onto a fire department as a firefighter, I would like to work for a fire department. I also hear that the ER nurses go for the firefighters and paramedics in the ER but never hear them going for the male nurses. It is important because I do want to eventually meet somebody and start a family so when I started seeing that it kind of also led me to paramedic. I figure I can do paramedic and then do a bridge program to Nursing but I would want my bachelors. I’m in California, but I would love to move to New Zealand or Australia, and I saw comment on here that the paramedics there make more than some nurses advice would be great. Thank you.
Thank you for this video!
Both for me. I can’t give up EMS, but nursing makes me the money.
I was torn between nursing and medic mostly because medic sounds a lot cooler than nurse and I have a hard time cleaning up poop, pee, vomit. 😅 I went with nursing school anyway I’m more comfortable around other women, I’m getting better at handling bodily fluids and smells.
Sam could you do a video on the 6 week training for a BSN Nurse that trains you for the Paramedic exam? My EMT instructor told me something about it and it sounds like a great option for those who may want to have the ability to do both fields?
This is my plan. May be the long way around but I found that in my situation (wife and kids) the extra coin would be beneficial and I hope to work PRN as a nurse, continue with the paramedic bridge program, and kind of do both. Like the video said, my long term goal is flight nursing so I'd like to get a taste of both worlds along the way. Currently Emt for 3 years, halfway through nursing school.
This is a terrible idea, nursing and paramedicine are two very different things, and neither should be bridged without any significant formal education!!
I'm going in to becoming a paramedic/EMT to help people but most importantly for me will be the friends that I will make and the storys that I will have. It means a lot to me to be a preimidc/ EMT, I have at least 2 roommates who have problems medically and if I was an EMT then I would know what to do to help them.
And y'all are paid less why?
Also, Sam, if you read this: I used to sell you redbulls back in the day. Blew my mind when I figured it out.
Anyway, I moved to NYC. I just finished my BLS CPR training this morning and I'll start my EMT program in January.
Thank you for being an inspiration. It's amazing to see how far you've come!
Oh a myriad of reasons, all of which are stupid and some of which are insulting. Probably the biggest cultural one is people don't really think of Paramedics as healthcare providers. There's probably also a perception lag with regards to what our educational investment is like; My educational program manager showed the class his paramedic textbook and it was smaller than our EMT-Basic textbook. Then he pulled out an AEMT textbook and it dwarfed it. Total education is 1700-2000 hours (200hrs EMT, 1500hrs Medic, and maybe 250-300hrs AEMT), and total clinical time is anywhere from 600-1200 hours. That's almost as much as med school. But people think it's still more like 800-1000 hours for whatever reason
@@hvymtal8566 Using the like button feels weird so I'm just going to say thank you for your response.
@@hvymtal8566 you started by saying there are a myriad amount of reasons then only stated one lol
@@mursemumu93 Hey, give me credit, I did say _two_ !
One more. In the days before EMTs, "Ambulance Driver" was a minimum wage job. They kept doing that because they could get away with it. There's STILL a number of companies paying a dollar above minimum wage for EMTs
Nurse: get paid more. little to no autonomy. Wipe asses.
Medic: lots of autonomy (based on region). Crap - mediocre money. No ass wiping.
Also, let’s address a huge aspect of this “vs”; if you’re a medic and you plan on going to nursing school, understand that you’re going to face some….friction.
Goes doubly hard for males. You’re entering a world of women and when you show up with years of experience, you’re going to have some prejudice against you.
I kept my head down, did well, and kept my experience to myself. As clinicals rolled around and I reacted to a situation as a provider would in an ambulance and not like a nursing student, it became obvious that I wasn’t a normal nursing student.
Outside of the visible anti-medic friction, finding a job as a new grad nurse in higher speed treatment arenas is really tough once they find out about your experience.
I wish you all luck in making this decision, flying is likely the way to go if you’re watching this channel.
I was under the impression the biggest difference between EMT/Paramedics and Nurses is: EMT/Paras focus on first response and stabilization; whereas Nurses accept patients, take vitals/patient history, inform doctor of ailments, & assist Doctor/Surgeon during procedures.
Paramedics take vitals and do patient assessments/giv handoff reports to receiving staff.
I’m both. Paramedics do their own patient assessments, take histories, take vital signs, and give report to receiving staff at hospitals. The paramedic and the nurse differ in how they are trained. Both essentially function under a delegated order set. A physician writes/determines the orders to be applied to that patient and it is up to the paramedic or nurse to determine which of those orders need to be utilized at which time. The physician / nurse relationship can be much more collaborative as they’re often working alongside each other, but the nurse and paramedic both utilize physician-created orders. That out of the way, paramedics are trained from the outset to be a specialist in prehospital care. The brand-new paramedic is going to be much better trained to handle an emergency than the brand-new nurse. The nurse is trained as a generalist and then they specialize. They get further training from the department and that lasts from 6-12 weeks, sometimes longer if they’re in a “residency program” and the end result is a nurse that is a safe beginner in that field. Here’s the thing: nurses get no prehospital training. Their educational programs do not teach the ambulance operations, scene safety, hazmat recognition, injury stabilization, and the like, all of which are part and parcel of a paramedic’s education by the conclusion of their program. I’m a CCT-RN and an ED RN. I still have my medic license and have worked in the field for years. I see no reason why a good flight program isn’t able to bring a paramedic up to an equivalent scope as a flight nurse and nurse up to the equivalent scope of a flight paramedic. Equivalent scope doesn’t mean identical thought processes behind what is done. If someone has a better idea, run with it!
medical field in US seemed diverse. meanwhile in Indonesia paramedics are nurse but not all nurse do pre-hospital meds. we have to graduate either 3-year nursing diploma or 4-year BSN degree with 1 year professional nurse certification
I can hear you've made good job getting rid of those pops with this mic. Have you changed the foam / windscreen?
What boom is this? Looking good.
They're both high burnout jobs.
Im a CNA rn in a nursing home trynna pick what i really wanna be in life and its hard lmao imma just close my eyes and pick at random
I wish nurses could work in ambulances or out in the field, other than a life flight nurse.
Nurses do work on ambulances and in the field. Only a few states authorize them to do it but they’re known as “PHRN” or Prehospital RN.
I do armed security and don't have much down time but would like to get training in EMT- B /A and possibly Paramedic. Do you have any advice?
TCCC is the way to go if you want the pre hospital knowledge of first aid / casualty care but want to remain an armed guard. If youre interested in becoming an actual paramedic, check with local ems and see what course of action they recommend as every locality is going to be different.
@@TheShaggyRifleman what does TCCC mean? Also I appreciate the advice I've done Trauma/ First Aid, CPR/AED have kept that updated but definitely want to continue with more training especially with mass Casualty training in the like.
Interesting, in the Czech Republic you need 3 years at the university to become either paramedic or nurse. But the degree is not the same. As a nurse, you can just work at the hospital, as a paramedic, you can work both in the hospital and ambulance. So if you're interested in emergency medicine, you better go study a paramedic here. Salary is a little bit smaller in the ambulance, but still pretty good.
I'm Czech as well and I've been considering becoming a paramedic (I'm 14 so still deciding on my career path), and i honestly thought you just had to go through a course or something to become a paramedic here. May I ask what kind of university (idk what terms to use) you'd have to study?
@@AdelaTomankova second year paramedic student here:)
both are Bc degree, paramedics can be ICU nurses, or ER, or ride ambulances. Nursing school I thing you need a previous nursing education.
Nursing school is way cheaper due to government subsidies, paramedics get a better pay off the bat, but that depends really. You have time to make your mind, but ask away if you want to know more
@@AdelaTomankova jsem na messengeru, Martin Kubeček, kdyžtak mi napiš tam a já ti poradim co a jak
Australia also has entry into EMS/ambulance by graduating university. Interestingly though, you can earn more as a registered paramedic than as a registered nurse. Not always, it's mainly location dependent. In small country towns you might work 8 days in a row and be on call every night as a paramedic.
Does the nurse making 10 more an hour have an ADN, BSN, MSN ? And would they make more depending which degree they have? And do you get paid more or less for work experience or is it flat pay no matter what the years of experience?
Making more than a paramedic? A nurse with an ADN would be the one making 10 more an hour than a paramedic, I think the average starting base salary for a RN with an ADN is like $60,000-$70,000 at least on the east coast where I am, while a nurse with a BSN starts on that higher end up to $80,000. Years of experience change that greatly, with a MSN or NP being about to make $100,000 or more based of experience and location.
So, honestly it depends. I am a medic with 18 years of experience and a nurse with 15 years of experience, if you factor in that as a medic I work two 24 hours shifts, with 8 hours of OT built in every week, vs 36 hours as a nurse, depending on the state I actually make more or the same as I would working as a nurse, with a quarter of the stress!!
Will this training teach you how to do CPR,Trachea Breach,and or Pneumothorax Chest Decompression:in other words,Combat Triage and or Combat Medical Aid? Thats all I want to know. Oh...and Blood Vessel Cauterization Training...add this training, as well.
What gives the nurse the extended scope of practice that comes with flight nursing? He mentions in the video they gain a higher scope of practice. Is it the CFRN program and accreditation?
Very well done.
Making 75k annually as an advanced EMT in west Texas. 13 years now. Never wanted to pursue my paramedic. Never made sense to me pay wise. If I could do it all over again I would go the nursing route……
With autonomy. I’m nights icu and er. I have a lot of autonomy. Ofc I have to ultimately get an order but a lot that is after I assess and do what needs to be done. I also have a ten times bigger bag of drugs and stuff like that. Sure I can’t intubate but I can when I fly.
Paramedics can play with weapons too.... like what you've done in L.E.
From the time I've been in the hospital, you see the doctor for 5 minutes. Nurses do life saving blood transfusions and dispense he life saving medications you need and generally are familiar with thee if you haven't lost consciousness Most of been in the ICU, but they keep you alive with meds until you need. a life saving procedure done by a specialist
why not just do both i would say become a paremedic first from the experience side its easier to start with the pre-hospital stuff first and you can do a bridge program into nursing or if your insane get your medic and nursing at the same time.
the only issue with going from ems to nursing is that most ems providers have some type of ego from doing standalone care many i know would stop a doctor from trying to help on the scene of an incident cause unless they're trained for emergency care in that setting we feel they have no idea what they're doing and realistically they don't. so going into the hospital what you might do yourself in an emergency setting and just getting the job done... you will have to track the doc or pa or whoever is the provider down to do some of the simplest things which is annoying ( so for some of you that have the time and patience) maybe going ems - nursing - md might not be a bad route
In the netherlands becoming a nurse is the base, only then u can progress to be a paramedic etc
New follower here ! I love your videos already. I graduated last month with my EMT-B license and was thinking of going straight into Paramedics (this Fall). I was hoping to get into FDNY. I know that requires passing the civil service exam PLUS hoping you get picked for the academy. So my question is: Would it just be smarter to apply to a paramedic course via a college ? Or take my chances ? I’m really confused of the route I should take
Just depends on how fast you want to get to paramedic. I’ve heard fdny hires medics faster then emts but it’s always gonna take at least 2-3 years to finally get in. Just enjoy your time as a emt and soak in that bls experience because even when your a paramedic your gonna be falling back on your bls experience 90 percent of the time . When you feel confident as a bls provider In my personal opinion, that’s best time to jump to paramedic.
I'm in LPN school and trying to survive Pharmacology and med surg during a shortened summer semester. I hate it. Every second of it. So I'm thinking of dropping out to get my emt cert instead
LOL rip bro, thats a LOT to do in a summer semsester, I have been there I get you
I like to write down medications for my friends. What category that falls under? Does it fall under medic/pharmacy/doctor/etc?
i would like to be a paramedic but ill have to be a nurse or something else because im 6'4 and probably wouldnt be TOO comfortable in an ambulance
It's so weird. Paramedics here in Ontario get paid as much as an RN (non-specialty) and, in quite a few instances, more.
I'm both.
PA school from the mouth of 30 years FD/EMS and RN since 1984. Simple decision, if money isn't a consideration, would you do it for free? The other thing, my license stops at the front door of my facility, I can't function as a nurse outside of the facility, but it's impossible for me not to help. Me 30 years ago, EMT, medic in an FD with a bus. Fully certified firefighter that's a PA. Why, because FD admin speaks EMT/medic, once fully certified/vetted, bring in the PA license. Most PAs in FD's are either teaching in the academy or doing primary care in the community taking some of the load odd the EMS folks. They aren't typically on busses, but that doesn't mean they can't be. Totally different education then NPs