What is an Emergency Medical Technician?
Otherwise known as an EMT, an emergency medical technician is usually one of the first ones to arrive at the scene of an accident or emergency. They're the ones in the ambulance, generally. Although, some might get flown in by helicopter. It depends on the emergency.
EMTs respond to 911 calls to provide medical assistance, when it's needed. This could be anything from performing CPR to taping up a wound. When they first arrive on scene, the first thing EMTs do is establish a course of treatment that would best suit the patient's condition.
It definitely can be a hard job. Some of the scenes you'll drive to are things you'll have nightmares about. Becoming an EMT isn't for the faint of heart. You need to be prepared to handle yourself well, so you can save as many lives as you can.
What Does an Emergency Medical Technician Do
Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics care for the sick or injured in emergency medical settings. People’s lives often depend on the quick reaction and competent care provided by these workers. EMTs and paramedics respond to emergency calls, performing medical services and transporting patients to medical facilities.
How To Become an Emergency Medical Technician
Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics must complete a postsecondary educational program. All states require EMTs and paramedics to be licensed; requirements vary by state.
Emergency Medical Technician Job Description
Emergency Medical Technician Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of registered nurse you might progress to a role such as staff nurse eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title registered nurse supervisor.
Average Salary for an Emergency Medical Technician
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Emergency Medical Technician
The role of an emergency medical technician includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general emergency medical technician responsibilities:
- Comply with all corporate policies and procedures. Maintaining emergency medical technician certification as required by the state of georgia department of human resources. Maintaining current status as a cpr provider or instructor. Maintaining current valid driver’s license. Maintaining assigned ambulance in a state of constant cleanliness
- Ensures all safety and environmental guidelines are followed without deviation. Responsible for ordering first aid
- Ensure daily customer happiness participates in the delivery of patient care to the level of their licensure assures that the medic unit or station is completely stocked, clean
There are several types of emergency medical technician, including:
Technician
Role:
To be a technician, you have to know your stuff. Some may refer to you as an expert in your field or maybe people will know you as skilled in an art or craft. Then again, you may just be needed to look after technical equipment.
Your workload as a technician will vary, depending on what you're trained in. You may be needed to set up a new computer system or maybe you'll need to fix an electricity problem. Either way, you'll probably only need to work 40 hours a week.
The degree of education required for this job depends on what you're specific skillset is. Some technicians only need a high school diploma, others may want to complete an associate's program or earn a certificate to help their employment opportunities. There's definitely something for everyone in the field of technicians.
- Average Salary: $38,045
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Patient Care Technician
Role:
So, you've decided to become a patient care technician. In addition to registered nurses, patients really look forward to having you by their side. You're an important piece of the puzzle. Speaking of RN's, as long as you get enough experience as a patient care technician, you may have the option to become an RN, eventually. It's definitely a nice little stepping stone.
Aside from knowing the opportunity you'll have in this career, becoming a patient care technician has a lot of great positives. Since you'll be working directly with patients, you'll be around a lot of people daily. Which makes this a very social job. If you're a social butterfly, you'll fit right in.
You have a lot of options of where you want to work when it comes to the patient care technician job. From hospitals and doctor's offices to nursing homes and long-term care facilities, you're needed in a lot of different places. It just depends on where you want to end up.
- Average Salary: $32,806
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Paramedic
Role:
Paramedics drive and staff ambulances and respond to emergency medical calls to transport patients to hospitals or other healthcare facilities. They are responsible for assessing the patients' condition, as well, and providing first-aid onsite, if necessary.
Paramedics are trained professionals with at least a CPR certification, but for some positions specialized medical training is necessary. Receiving first aid and emergency trauma training is a basic requirement for paramedics.
They work in 24-hour shifts, so you will have to give up some of your nights and weekends, working as a paramedic. You have to have excellent driving and navigation skills, resilience, and stamina for enduring stressful situations, and you need to be able to make decisions quickly. Empathy is another big one, but this might go without saying, you are probably not going to apply for a paramedic job just for the fast rides.
- Average Salary: $44,640
- Degree: Associate Degree
States With The Most Emergency Medical Technician Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active emergency medical technician jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where emergency medical technicians earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Emergency Medical Technician Jobs By State
Top Skills For an Emergency Medical Technician
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 19.3% of emergency medical technicians listed patients on their resume, but soft skills such as compassion and physical strength are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Emergency Medical Technician Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Emergency Medical Technician templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Emergency Medical Technician resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Emergency Medical Technician diversity
Emergency Medical Technician Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among emergency medical technicians, 39.1% of them are women, while 60.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among emergency medical technicians is White, which makes up 66.9% of all emergency medical technicians.
- The most common foreign language among emergency medical technicians is Spanish at 67.5%.
Online Courses For Emergency Medical Technician That You May Like
1. Medical Emergencies: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation
In this course, you will develop the knowledge and skills to assess and stabilize certain types of patients for transport. By the end of this course, you will be able to: 1) assess a basic medical patient 2) describe general pharmacologic principles and the skills associated with medication administration, 3) explain airway physiology, the assessment of the airway and available interventions for airway management, 4) identify, assess and formulate a plan to stabilize a patient with a...
2. Trauma Emergencies and Care
Welcome to Trauma Emergencies and Care. In this course, you will learn about some of the mechanics and physics of trauma on the human body, and how this can cause injury. You will continue to expand your new vocabulary with medical terminology, and learn how to describe the different injuries you may see. You will also learn about the trauma system itself- and when it is important to transport patients to a trauma center. Then we will dive into specific injuries based on what part of the body...
3. Introduction to Medical Imaging
Your guide to the history, science, math, and economics of medical imaging systems (e.g, X-ray, CT, MRI, Ultrasound)...
Best States For an Emergency Medical Technician
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an emergency medical technician. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. Emergency medical technicians make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $54,185. Whereas in Connecticut and Massachusetts, they would average $53,789 and $51,591, respectively. While emergency medical technicians would only make an average of $51,505 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New Jersey
$54,185
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$50,596
Avg. Salary
3. West Virginia
$46,142
Avg. Salary
How Do Emergency Medical Technicians Rate Their Jobs?
Top Emergency Medical Technician Employers
Most Common Employers For Emergency Medical Technician
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USAF Police Alumni Association | $42,251 | $20.31 | 130 |
| 2 | US Air Conditioning Distributors | $41,465 | $19.94 | 377 |
| 3 | Acadian Ambulance | $41,414 | $19.91 | 594 |
| 4 | Keystone Quality Transport | $40,186 | $19.32 | 151 |
| 5 | EMT | $39,698 | $19.09 | 795 |
| 6 | Fallon Ambulance Service | $39,573 | $19.03 | 141 |
| 7 | EMT International | $39,034 | $18.77 | 752 |
| 8 | Prompt Ambulance | $38,856 | $18.68 | 134 |
| 9 | Cataldo Ambulance Service | $38,261 | $18.39 | 123 |
| 10 | Medstar Mendocino | $38,167 | $18.35 | 130 |
Emergency Medical Technician Videos
Becoming an Emergency Medical Technician FAQs
How Long Does It Take To Become An Emergency Medical Technician?
It takes 3 years of professional experience to become an emergency medical technician. That is the time it takes to learn specific emergency medical technician skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education.
Emt Vs Paramedic Salary
An EMT has an average annual salary of $37,950, while a paramedic has an average annual salary of $45,959.
The range of an EMT's annual salary in the United States is between $34,010 and $42,840, resulting in an average of $37,950.
What Are Careers In Emergency Management?
Disaster recovery, hazardous materials management, and homeland security officers are careers in emergency management.
Disaster Recovery Manager
A disaster recovery manager prepares and implements procedures in the event of a security breach.
They create disaster recovery plans for a business to ensure the integrity of data, assets, databases, information systems, and technology. They analyze vulnerabilities within current information systems, perform an audit, and provide protection with backup systems.
A disaster recovery manager will have to manage contracts with third-party vendors and develop and assist in the training and documentation of disaster procedures for the company. They work with the IT department to evaluate risk analysis and follow through on recovery plans.
As disaster recovery managers, they will also create goals in data recovery and monitor the department to ensure the completion of those goals.
Hazardous Material Manager
A certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) handles, manages, or provides advice to others on hazardous materials or situations that can involve or include these materials. A CHMM is able to perform such roles in a variety of organizations such as corporations, businesses, or the government.
They can also work in related fields that are associated with hazardous materials, such as environmental protection or security, the transportation of materials, or safety. Whenever a scenario involves hazardous materials, a certified CHMM professional can provide advice on the proper handling and management to ensure safety.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is a large team of people who work together to keep the nation safe from threats, including terrorism and natural disasters. There is a range of job opportunities available in this field, including becoming a program analyst for homeland security, an air marshal, or a coast guard.
Homeland security officers aim to reduce the risk of security threats and respond to any attacks on security which happen. They also coordinate and respond to natural disasters, keeping the general public's safety at the forefront of their role. They work together to achieve their key responsibilities, which include:
Protecting the nation's borders
Ensuring the general public is safe from terrorist threats
Facilitate legal immigration
Developing a sense of readiness for natural disasters
Public Health Officer
Additional career options in emergency management include public health and hospital emergency medicine. A public health officer is responsible for preventing and controlling the spread of disease. Public health officers constantly monitor conditions and potential health threats.
These specialists carefully follow disease trends and identify public health issues in order to maintain public health. Many public health officers work as part of the military, with duties to provide health inspections across the entire system to establish efficient health and medical provisions; others work in civilian hospitals or health care systems.
As public health officers, they perform field observations, conduct interviews with stakeholders in health systems, and collect samples. They are also required to write reports and study disease vectors to find ways to counteract the spread of contagions.
The size of emergency medicine departments will vary by location; however, larger cities can have emergency medicine departments that are state-of-the-art facilities. Doctors in emergency carry out the immediate assessment and treatment of patients with serious and life-threatening illnesses and injuries.
They mainly work in the accident and emergency departments of hospitals. Their focus is to take action necessary to prevent death or any further disability of their patients.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Being An Emergency Medical Technician?
The pros and cons of being an emergency medical technician relate to helping people in critical situations, varied and adventurous work days, and stressful and intense scenarios. Here are the top pros and cons of being an emergency medical technician:
Where Do Emts Work?
EMTs typically work for private ambulance services, fire departments or other rescue services, or hospitals. Depending on the area, opportunities may exist in other areas, including:
Wilderness emergency medical services
Special operations
Special services
Hazardous materials
Industrial safety
Quality management