Employees with paramedic jobs work on the scene or in an ambulance to treat sick or injured patients. They may be responsible for everything from assessing injuries and providing medical care to moving patients and providing necessary medication. Check out this list of medical job description.

As paramedics are the highest level of emergency medical technicians, they also require the most training and education. Applicants must first undergo training to become an EMT-Basic, then further training to become an EMT-Intermediate, and finally training to become a paramedic.

All states also require EMTs and paramedics to become licensed before they can work with the public. In Texas, candidates must be at least 18-years old, have a valid driver’s license, undergo the proper training, and pass a physical and exam from the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 210,700 EMTs and paramedics throughout the country during 2008, and that number is expected to grow by 9 percent by 2018.

In South Texas, where San Antonio is located, employment is anticipated to increase from 200 workers during 2006 to 250 workers by 2016. This means there will be 50 additional jobs and the occupation will grow by 25 percent.

Employment across Texas should grow from 12,100 workers during 2006 to 15,450 workers by 2016, accounting for 3,350 additional jobs and an overall increase of 27.7 percent.

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the top industries that employ EMTs and paramedics include:

• Other ambulatory healthcare services – 43.03 percent
• Local government, except education – 24.18 percent
• General medical and surgical hospitals – 21.57 percent
• Employment services – 3.97 percent
• School and employee bus transportation – 2.45 percent

During 2008, the average wage for paramedics and EMTs in South Texas was $13.37 per hour, while the average wage during 2009 in Texas was $14.74 per hour and the average wage throughout the U.S. was $15.88 per hour.

The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District recently unveiled a free iPhone app that lets users know about emergency activity occurring throughout the community. The FireDepartment.org app is the first of its kind and is helping to redefine iPhone functionality.

The app provides a virtual window into the District’s 911 dispatch center and gives local emergency workers a new way to communicate with the general population during a disaster. Even those who don’t live in the area may learn from the live actions of the district’s dispatchers, firefighters and paramedics.

“Using the iPhone and iPad for field-based command and control operations holds great promise for emergency service providers,” Richard Price, Fire Chief for the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, told EMSResponder.com. “This consumer version of our development effort demonstrates the game-changing nature of these revolutionary handheld devices.”

Anyone who downloads the app will have access to:

• Ongoing incidents in the community
• The current response status of dispatched units
• A log of recent incidents
• A photo gallery of significant events
• Notifications of incidents in certain categories
• Live emergency radio traffic
• Information about disasters

The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District provides fire, rescue and emergency medical services to Alamo, Blackhawk, the Town of Danville, Diablo, the City of San Ramon, the southern area of Morgan Territory, and the Tassajara Valley in Northern California. The District currently serves a population of about 167,500 people.

In loads of occasions, a high school degree is mandatory in order to participate in an emergency healthcare technician or paramedical training program. According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, these programmes normally give expansion at progressing grades, including ems-fundamental, ambulance-medium and ems-paramedical.

During ambulance-primary training, course-work centers about emergency talents, similar as wielding with respiration, trauma and heart emergencies, as additionally as patient judgment. Educatees frequently dissever their time amongst typical paths, pressing situations rooms and emergency vehicles.

First tier training offers instruction on how to deal with bleeding, bone cracks, breathing impedimenta, cardiac halt and emergency child labor. Pupils find out how to expend and observe ordinary urgency items, such as back boards, sucking devices, stabilizers, ventilizing bringing machines and backboards.

Trainees that pass from approved emergency medical services-basic training syllabi are vital to transcend a written and practical exam dispensed by the state licensing office or the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians.

Training requirements for the subsequent level, emergency response-intermediate, alter by state. The 1985 and 1999 american determined concentrations generally postulate 30 to 350 hrs of study dependant on the area of practise. Trainees at such a level study forward-looking talents corresponding as the application of innovative air-way devices, intravenous fluids and a few medicament.

The final and highest advance training tier is the EMT-paramedical stage. Caregivers at this tier have development in figure and physicality as well as forward-looking healthcare skills. Development, which can end in an associate’s grade, is typically lead in community universities and technological schools within a one to 2 year time.

Scholars are required to pass all-inclusive relative preparation and take infirmary and occupation know how. Following advancement, they’re needful to undergo the NREMT examination in order to become a certified paramedical.

Altho certification necessities alter by state, all states need documentation for each of the paramedic concentrations, and scores of states call for credentials with the NREMT. Nevertheless, particular states direct their private documentation analysis or provide the selection of undergoing either the NREMT or the state examination.

In order to uphold documentation, paramedic and ambulance are needful to recertify each 2 years, and they ordinarily must be employed as an emergency medical services or ambulance worker and fulfil a chronic training requisite in order to do that. After needed expansion is concluded, emergency response and ambulance of all tier are able to under-go review course work and take part in repeating expansion.

Gov. Mark Sanford recently approved a law that will make certain emergency medical services data available to the public. Citizens will now have access to such things as incident reports and response times for the first time since 2004.

However, the public will not have access to the identities of emergency medical technicians, as the SC EMS Association argued that EMTs are just like any other healthcare worker who must be protected from unfair scrutiny.

The only people who will have access to the names of EMS personnel include patients who receive EMS care, relatives of deceased patients and representatives of their estates. Sen. Harvey Peeler, who pushed for the law, said concealing the identities of EMS personnel was a “fair compromise.”

“Whether a paramedic should be treated like a doctor or a nurse or like a policeman or firefighter is a debate for another day,” he told The Beaufort Gazette.

More debate on the current law is expected during the near future, as state leaders and local officials differ over the secret identity issue, with many saying EMS workers should be held to the same accountability standards as firefighters and police officers.

“All emergency responders, whether they are firefighters, EMTs, law enforcement officers or lifeguards, should be held to the highest of public standards and subject to local public scrutiny,” Tom Peeples, mayor of Hilton Head Island, previously wrote to lawmakers. “There is no legitimate reason to fear the release of EMTs’ names.”

Primary results of a recent study from National Institute of Standards and Technology found that a crew consisting of at least two paramedics, one of whom was on an engine, was able to apply 12-lead EKGs sooner and make intubations faster.

The project involved documenting the tasks of two, three and four-person crews. Having more paramedics in a crew seems to be the best option, as the four-person crew performed their tasks much faster than the others.

Lori Moore-Merrell, assistant to Harold A. Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told EMSResponder.com that the study used the basic concepts that NIST engineers followed while conducting the examination of crew size on the fire ground.

“The overall goal is to reduce injury and death by making better decisions about resource deployment in a risk-filled environment,” Moore-Merrell said.

The study came about after many jurisdictions have been considering placing an ALS provider on an engine that responds along with an ambulance, and analysts hope the study will help determine whether or not that would make a difference.

The study was released during the annual Congressional Fire Services Institute event and is being funded by an Assistance to Firefighters Grant.

The final results of the study are expected to be released soon after the data is analyzed by officials at the University of North Carolina, which helped complete the study along with EMS crews in Montgomery County, Md., and Fairfax County, Va. The final report will contain graphs, pictures and methodology.

The Texas Comptroller’s Office recently announced that it will award a $313,000 grant to Weatherford College’s Emergency Medical Technician and Paramedic program. The funding will be used to purchase equipment.

The funding will come from the Jobs and Education for Texas grant program, which was designed to support high-demand career and technical education programs in Texas public community colleges.

“This grant brings us cutting-edge equipment that will increase the skill level of our EMT, paramedic and firefighting students,” Kay Young, dean of workforce and economic development for Weatherford College, said. “It will also allow us to expand emergency services training into the rural areas within Parker, Palo Pinto, Wise and Jack counties.”

The college plans to use the funding to purchase myriad advancement equipment, including a “SimMan” computerized manikin-like patient simulator, a rescue trailer with the latest in emergency equipment, an EKG monitor, virtual I.V. system, and other items for training purposes.

Weatherford officials expect at least 1,600 trainees to use the new equipment throughout the region during the next three years. As a result, more than 384 associate degree students will potentially graduate during that same time.

The college’s EMT and paramedic program trains students to respond to everything from minor injuries to large-scale cataclysmic events. The program was recently upgraded, with five previously-existing degree programs being combined into one degree plan.

This new Emergency Medical Service Professional degree has already been approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. This degree title will play an important part in many students’ futures, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the EMT field will grow by 19 percent throughout the nation during the next six years.

“The development process for a grant like this is always a team effort,” Dr. Shirley Chenault, director of resource development for Weatherford College, said. “This was a wonderful collaboration between several areas of the College, including Workforce Education, EMT, Public Safety, Resource Development and others.”

The Weatherford Fire Department and EMS officials from Parker County/LifeCare, Wise County, Hood County and MedStar also helped with the college’s development of the grant proposal.

The Delaware Academy of Public Safety and Security is the first of its kind in the country. The school, which will serve students in ninth through 12th grade, will offer a vocational focus on the first responder and public safety fields.

“More than ever, it”s imperative that students receive an education that prepares them for the real world, meaningful and livable wage employment and a connection to their communities,” DAPSS Board Member Sherese Brewington-Carr wrote in The News Journal.

The first responder and public safety fields are among the fastest-growing employment fields in Delaware and throughout the country. Occupations in these fields provide a good salary, help stabilize communities and directly provide safety, security and critical response.

As urban communities traditionally receive these services but don’t offer them as vocations, DAPSS hopes that direct exposure to both professions will help make a shift and change the cultural perception of first responder and public safety occupations.

Any student who receives a DAPSS diploma will have received the education and personal development needed to become a firefighter, nurse, correctional officer, police officer, paramedic or employee in a related occupation.

“As a former warden in Connecticut and Delaware, and former director of youth rehabilitation services in Delaware, I wish this type of school had been an option for girls when I was a student,” Brewington-Carr added.

EMS Magazine recently released an extension of its 2008 “Sowing the SEEDS” study conducted by the Loyola University Medical Center. The original study surveyed a large number of EMT-Basic students to investigate their backgrounds and career expectations.

That study found 63 percent of EMT-Basic students planned to receive EMT-Paramedic licenses, but planned to use those licenses in order to work in the fire service, as opposed to an emergency medical services profession. Because of this unexpected result, as well as continuing recruitment and retention issues, EMS Magazine expanded its research to examine EMT-Paramedic students.

The new survey consisted of 25 questions and was submitted to EMT-Paramedic classes throughout the Midwest and other selected states, attendees at a national EMS conference and volunteers. A total of 23 programs participated, with 78 percent returning completed surveys.

Of the students surveyed, 54 percent were 24-years old or younger, 78 percent were 30 or younger, 79 percent were male, and 70 percent were single. About 52 percent of respondents had received their EMT-Basic certification within the last year, but 35 percent had no experience working as and EMT-Basic.

When asked how familiar they were with EMS, 5 percent of respondents said they were “somewhat or very unfamiliar,” while 95 percent had “average” or “greater than average” familiarity. This is an increase from the 22 percent of EMT-Basic students in the previous survey who said they were “somewhat unfamiliar or very unfamiliar” with EMS.

The survey found that nine out of every 10 EMT-Paramedic students had some higher education, which is in line with the original results. In addition, 42 percent of respondents said they had family members in the EMS field.

When asked why they had signed up for paramedic classes, 92 percent of students said they had voluntarily enrolled, while 8 percent said they were required by their employers. About 88 percent of students said they plan to work while in paramedic school.

Of the students surveyed, 68 percent plan to obtain a critical care paramedic license after receiving their EMT-Paramedic license, although the critical care license is not recognized by many states or the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians.

As for employment, 38 percent of students plan to work with fire departments where they are currently employed, 44 percent plan to wait until their programs are done to look for work, and 11 percent are currently looking for work.

Although 82 percent of students expressed the desire to work in fire service, research shows that 40 percent of EMT-Basics and EMT-Paramedics are employed in the private ambulance industry, while 30 percent are employed by local governments and 20 percent work with hospitals.

Almost all of the students plan to pursue full-time employment and receive benefits, while almost no students wanted to volunteer without pay. Although a 2008 survey found the average wage for a full-time paramedic to be $37,699.78 per year, and most students would accept an offer under $45,000 per year, their expectations are much higher.

About 2 percent of students expect to earn between $15,001 and $25,000; 9 percent want between $25,001 and $35,000; 25 percent expect between $35,001 and $45,000; 35 percent want between $45,001 and $55,000; 16 percent expect between $55,001 and $65,000; and 12 percent hope to make more than $65,000.

A new program in Ottawa, Canada, is training a group of paramedics how to use their skills to treat injured police dogs. Not only are police dogs extremely useful, they also are estimated to account for an investment of more than $100,000, so officials in the city are doing their part to protect that investment.

“There’s a lot of similarities, except they’re down on all fours and we’re standing up,” Tyler Dearden, a veterinarian at the Alta Vista Animal Hospital who volunteered to teach the program, told CBC News.

The Ottawa Police Service currently has about 15 dogs in its canine unit. Those dogs go through at least four months of training to learn how to sniff out missing people, bombs and narcotics.

In an effort to be able to save those dogs in case of injury, members of Ottawa’s Paramedic Tactical Unit are currently taking the two-week veterinary training program. The program, which teaches paramedics how to treat police dogs injured on the job, is useful to paramedics, who are often the first people on the scene.

“We’re already there to do medical attention, and when I’ve been through some training, I realized how much dogs are really similar to humans,” Valerie Jacques, an Ottawa paramedic taking the course, said in the article. “If unfortunately something has to happen, we’ll be ready.”

Police officers who work with canine units consider police dogs particularly useful when it comes to tracking down missing people because their strong sense of smell allows them to cover large areas quickly. The City of Ottawa hopes to eventually train all members of the Paramedic Tactical Unit in the course.

Helping Heroes – a joint effort among Pennsylvania-based CentreLearn Solutions and Wisconsin-based EMSResponder.com and Emergency Preparedness Systems – will offer free continuing education to certified first responders, emergency medical technicians and paramedics.

“Across the nation, many EMS personnel are feeling the effects of the recession firsthand, in some cases even losing their jobs,” CentreLearn CEO James Eastham said.

The companies have set up a Web site where EMS workers can learn about and enroll in the Helping Heroes program. EMS workers who qualify will receive a free subscription to the Web site, which offers unlimited access to more than 200 continuing education lessons accredited by the Continuing Education Coordinating Board for Emergency Medical Services.

“Maintaining EMS certification has real costs,” EPS President Greg Friese said. “I am honored to have this opportunity to help lighten the financial burden of EMS professionals who are out of work.”

Participants will receive continuing education certificates after they view a lesson and successfully complete a post-test. Workers looking to enroll in the program must provide documentation of their circumstances and proof of their EMS certification or license.

“It’s very important that everyone in the EMS industry find ways to help those who give so much to our communities,” Scott Cravens, publisher of EMS Magazine and EMSResponder.com, said.