What does a paramedic do?
A paramedic is a healthcare professional who provides advanced medical care and emergency treatment to patients in the field. Although they can work on ambulances or hospital emergency rooms, paramedics may work as part of a helicopter's flight crew to transport critically ill patients to a specialized hospital. Paramedics are required to create a patient care report and document the medical care of patients they are treating. Also, paramedics need to follow the guidelines they learned in training from their physician who supervises their work.
Paramedic responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real paramedic resumes:
- Manage critically ill/injure patients effectively with rapid assessments, aggressive resuscitation, packaging and transport to appropriate definitive care emergency departments.
- Attend safety training seminars yearly as well as Haz-Mat safety, SCBA training and OSHA regulation training.
- Perform Phlebotomy and specimen collection duties.
- Administer emergency medical treatment to patients including CPR, medications/drugs.
- Provide inter-facility transport to patients who require EKG monitoring, medication infusion and/or ventilator support during transport.
- Provide medical care for critically ill or injure patients during inter-facility transports to higher level of care facilities.
- Advance critical care monitoring to include automate ventilators, automate medication administration pumps, and automate CPR machines.
- Train in search and rescue, as well as SCBA use.
- Care for pts in high call volume service, with standard ALS care.
- Experience with administrative duties such as payroll and detail Fire/EMS reports.
- Facilitate, at the base level, preparations for CAMTS certification.
- Support patients with customize patient teaching tools, such as crutches.
- Ensure all station and equipment assets are maintained to OSHA and NFPA standards.
- Perform electrocardiogram procedures, minor wind care, splinting, and vital monitoring.
- Instruct patients in cast and traction care and the use of orthopedic appliances.
Paramedic skills and personality traits
We calculated that 16% of Paramedics are proficient in Patients, Acls, and CPR. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Listening skills, and Physical strength.
We break down the percentage of Paramedics that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 16%
Provided medical care for critically ill or injured patients during inter-facility transports to higher level of care facilities.
- Acls, 7%
Designed and implemented cardiology coursework and ACLS instruction regarding advanced telemetry and 12-lead cardiology analysis.
- CPR, 7%
Advanced critical care monitoring to include automated ventilators, automated medication administration pumps, and automated CPR machines.
- EMS, 6%
Charleston, SC Critical Care Paramedic Hospital based EMS system Responded to emergency situations, transporting critical and non-critical patients.
- BLS, 5%
Perform any and all duties associated with being a paramedic to include all BLS and ALS procedures as defined by ADPH.
- EMT, 5%
Provide emergency medical support in capacity of EMT and Paramedic, primarily for emergency assessment and treatment on an ambulance.
Common skills that a paramedic uses to do their job include "patients," "acls," and "cpr." You can find details on the most important paramedic responsibilities below.
Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for a paramedic to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "emts and paramedics usually work on teams and must be able to coordinate their activities closely with others in stressful situations." Additionally, a paramedic resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "maintain positive interpersonal relationships with colleagues, ems representatives, hospitals and the community, etc. "
Listening skills. Many paramedic duties rely on listening skills. "emts and paramedics need to listen to patients to determine the extent of their injuries or illnesses.," so a paramedic will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways paramedic responsibilities rely on listening skills: "communicated with hospital staff and medical direction to ensure patient was receiving appropriate interventions assistant bike team leader. "
Physical strength. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of paramedics is physical strength. This skill is critical to many everyday paramedic duties, as "emts and paramedics need to be physically fit." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "recognized medical emergencies and made reasonable and acceptable differential diagnosis while performed critical physical examinations. "
Problem-solving skills. A big part of what paramedics do relies on "problem-solving skills." You can see how essential it is to paramedic responsibilities because "emts and paramedics must evaluate patients’ symptoms and administer appropriate treatments." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical paramedic tasks: "resolved customer service complaints and public relations issues. "
Speaking skills. A commonly-found skill in paramedic job descriptions, "speaking skills" is essential to what paramedics do. Paramedic responsibilities rely on this skill because "emts and paramedics need to clearly explain procedures to patients, give orders, and relay information to others." You can also see how paramedic duties rely on speaking skills in this resume example: "represented the department at southern fox valley ems system provider's council. "
Compassion. While "compassion" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to paramedic responsibilities. Much of what a paramedic does relies on this skill, seeing as "emts and paramedics must be able to provide emotional support to patients in an emergency, especially patients who are in life-threatening situations or extreme mental distress." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of paramedics: "lead informal teams of ems personnel to provide rapid and compassionate care to residents in our response area. "
The three companies that hire the most paramedics are:
- AMR2,074 paramedics jobs
- American Medical Response369 paramedics jobs
- Regional West225 paramedics jobs
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Compare different paramedics
Paramedic vs. Certified registered nurse anesthetist
A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist administers anesthesia to patients. They work in various healthcare settings, such as operating rooms, dentists and podiatrists offices, birthing centers, and plastic surgery centers.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, paramedic responsibilities require skills like "cpr," "ems," "bls," and "emt." Meanwhile a typical certified registered nurse anesthetist has skills in areas such as "anesthesia care," "ob," "pals," and "pain management." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Certified registered nurse anesthetists tend to make the most money working in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $188,323. In contrast, paramedics make the biggest average salary, $44,219, in the government industry.On average, certified registered nurse anesthetists reach higher levels of education than paramedics. Certified registered nurse anesthetists are 35.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Paramedic vs. Emergency room volunteer
The job of a nurse extern is to assist the mentor nurse in their nursing duties. They help the mentor nurse in various medical procedures such as administering medications or starting intravenous therapies. They provide or help with personal patient care, including changing bed linens, oral hygiene, and bathing. Nurse externships typically have different requirements that include having finished nursing school, completing a clinical nursing course before the training, and being registered in a nursing program.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real paramedic resumes. While paramedic responsibilities can utilize skills like "acls," "ems," "bls," and "advanced life support," emergency room volunteers use skills like "surgery," "exam rooms," "front desk," and "patient transport."
Emergency room volunteers earn similar levels of education than paramedics in general. They're 1.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for paramedics in the next 3-5 years?
Ben Price
CAE | CEO, National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting
Paramedic vs. Nurse extern
The Emergency Department (ED) Volunteer provides non-medical support by assisting medical and administrative staff. They deliver excellent service by visiting and monitoring medical results and helping patients expedite and improve patient care. They maximize an emergency physician's efficiency through careful and diligent documentation on the Electronic Portfolio of Information Credentials (EPIC). They must be able to coordinate with nurses and physicians to assess, plan and implement patient care plans, and assist in providing meal trays, stock supplies, run errands, and evaluate patient comfort.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a paramedic is likely to be skilled in "acls," "ems," "bls," and "emt," while a typical nurse extern is skilled in "direct supervision," "medical-surgical," "infection control," and "registered nursing."
Nurse externs earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $39,085. Paramedics earn the highest pay from the government industry, with an average salary of $44,219.When it comes to education, nurse externs tend to earn similar degree levels compared to paramedics. In fact, they're 0.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Paramedic vs. Emergency department volunteer
Even though a few skill sets overlap between paramedics and emergency department volunteers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a paramedic might have more use for skills like "acls," "bls," "customer service," and "compassion." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of emergency department volunteers require skills like "home health," "medical terminology," "physician assistants," and "patient rooms. "
The average resume of emergency department volunteers showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to paramedics. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 3.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.7%.Types of paramedic
Updated January 8, 2025
