Emergency Medical Technician: Benefits and Drawbacks to Life as an EMT

Introduction
This job is intense. Driving around at speeds one should not drive on populated city streets, while someone is dying in the back. Going up into dingy little apartments and finding a woman stabbed, a man having a heart-attack, or a child with a skull cracked wide open. Getting the trapped passengers out of a flipped over, burning car (without moving them!) before the fire department has arrived to quell the flames.
When you call 911 with a medical emergency, it is the EMT’s who arrive. We have to give you the initial care, but very often we have to give that care in a situation of such rush, such urgency, that it is really a miracle that we help anyone at all. But we do, we help people all the time, either right there at the site of injury, in the back of that ambulance or by getting them to the emergency room quickly.

Job Function
There’s ups and downs and in this career they are even more extreme. Last year we responded to a shooting and there was this kid who got shot in the neck. He was 16 or 17, good enough looking kid, too. We tried real hard to keep him alive, but it just couldn’t be done. It was a heart rendering experience. But also, just a month or two ago, we had a similar situation, only this time the kid who was shot was even younger, barely even a teenager: we were able to save him. I even got hugged by his mother later that night. These two experiences are extreme highs and lows that I have only experienced because I am an EMT. Advertisement
Lifestyle
Because of the nature of the job, the schedules are a mess. People get hurt at all hours of the night, so 24 hours a day there has to be EMT’s out doing their jobs. Because of it you never wind up with a standard, set work schedule, but work a night shift here, a day shift there, and it’s different every week: it gets tiring. Everything about the job is exhausting, really, and it takes its toll on you. As for compensation, an EMT makes enough to live on, but if you are looking for vast wealth and riches, seek out something else. The rewards are incomprehensible, though. The work is exciting: adrenaline courses throughout your body on a daily basis. And then there is the obvious feeling of contentment that comes from successfully saving a life: do it once and money will be of the least concern to you.

Additional Information
If you are looking for a fulfilled life where you can have an impact on peoples lives...even saving them, this is your job. If you want fame and fortune, keep looking.