I left the manufacturing industry because, despite me loving my job and making plenty of money, my blood pressure was 140/120 and I was working so much that it was affecting relationships. I make way less now than I would be, but my quality of life is higher. Good switch.

No shit.They must be working for a place that only treats billionaires.

OP let me do the math a little differently:

3 years as an RN will have me at 40/hr + differential (avg 44/hr) working 12-13x12s month.
3 years as a medic would get me tops 20/hr (and that is SWEET high pay, AMR is much less) working 17x10s in the city or 22/hr OT adjusted working 5x48s in a rural areas (and some places won't pay you for the 2x8hrs of noct unless you work during it)

I learned the 2 on 4 off in EMS really means 2 on, 1 recovery, 3 off.

OP, built in OT is nice, but as a RN, you can still find OT and/or PRN shifts at other hospitals (which pay higher than FT staff rates, usually higher than what OT pays).

Pick 1 OT shift as an RN, and I make as much as I would if I were a medic pulling  a 24 hour shift of OT, except I go home at night, sleep, and am refreshed the next day instead of up all night running calls.

Or best of both worlds, get your 1 year experience, get your CCRN, drop to PRN at your current job at a higher rate, pick up FT at trauma center, then drop to PRN at a higher rate after 6mo, and pick up PRN EMS shifts on the side for fun. You'll have a full schedule and a full bank account and a fulfilling professional life! When it stops being fulfilling enough, go to school or get on a helo.

What I could never  understand is the long shifts.
I am brain dead after 10 hours and my job is easier than the medical field.

24 hour shift  still gets you productivity of a shorter shift.

They have down times, usually.  It's not like 24 hours of constant work, although it certainly has the potential to be.

Im in Michigan as a nurse too. I make $33 a hour starting out with a max of $40. I currently work in the ED, but had an interview for a hospice home nurse. I'm thinking about taking it. Tired of the low life's coming in for drugs, and the short staffing we always seem to have.

How does a RN end up working as an EMT?  Where you a RN that practiced before becoming a EMT ?

Those are completely different worlds. Something doesn't feel right about this. Just my 2¢

Hospice is a lot of hand holding, talking, etc.  It can be a huge emotional ride with every case.  Got to make sure you have the right personality for it.

He said he was a paramedic, not an EMT.  

And I worked with several nurses that used to be paramedics.  One still worked as a paramedic a few times a month.  She said she missed it and didn't mind the pay cut to do it every now and again.

My current asst. manager did it before he was my boss. I talked we him about it. Just trying to figure out if it is me or not. Going from 3-12s to 5-8s plus traveling in the ghetto I'm not sure about. I did a lot of hand holding at my old ICU/PCU job.

If it's not for you, you NEED to get out.  

It wasn't for my wife either.  There's lots of ways to monetize your RN though.

 
Former EMS then RN.


That's not the whole story, even though EMS frequently claims it is in bars near blondes.  An MD writes the orders for EMS just the same as an RN but due to location of work paramedics/EMTs need to work off standing orders.  EMS is still an algorithm.



To the OP try a different kind of nursing.  I did ER for years and had fun now I work in hospice and love it.  I do admissions, I work alone, spend hours talking with patients and get to do a ton of critical thinking (the doc may not see the patient before they pass and you need to get it right)

Didn't realize there was a difference. Here if you are on an ambulance you are an EMT as far as I know. Never seen a RN do any type of ambulance work except when required for transport.  

You could make more money working PRN at another hospital.

After a quick google search. Apparently an EMT requires around 150 hours of training, were a paramedic has around 1500 hours of training. Both of which are considerably lower than the required training for a RN.  Hell I learned something today.

He is (or was) from NYC so probably there.

RNs can be in that same "standing orders, no MD present" situation.  Just depends on the job.  Wife did that for a while.  She also did wound care for a bit.  She was surprised that the doctor's orders in many cases were, "bring in a wound care nurse, do what he/she says."

Hey OP i have a off topic question, is the RN career field over saturated with applicants?

from what i hear it can be very difficult to get a job as a qualified RN because that and a teacher is the most common female profession.

People's problems are nasty.  Can't imagine how you do it.

Machines are better.

Also, $17/hour as a paramedic? We literally have janitors here making that. I know Seattle has a higher cost of living but damn...

Wait, wait, wait, wait....


You're telling me....


There's a job where I can work 8 days/month? in 24 hour shifts?

DUDE! WHY WOULD YOU EVER LEAVE THAT!?

I'm not sure, honestly. I know a lot of people at a lot of different hospitals from working ems for so long. So I landed a job right away. So I guess I'm pretty fortunate in that regard.

6 months in?

Give it a few more.

You really don't know as much as you think you do.

I've left as many jobs as I have been fired from.  I've lost jobs I loved.  Hated some jobs.  Now I work for a private company instead of the government making 1/3rd the money.  But the other job was killing me.  I wouldn't take 30K more a year just to die slowly of very high stress.

Work you love will lengthen your life.  Work that you don't like or is too stressful, will shorten it.

Sometimes it is... and then it is really really fucked up. A lot of rural places have gone to 48/96 on/off because you spend most of the time sitting around and not actually working (another reason EMS pay is low). The fucked up thing is a lot of urban places have gone 48/96. That is insanity... great perk, but why do most medics quit after less than 5 years? The system doesn't care because the schools can pump out a new batch faster than staff burnout.

Used to be 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, 96 off. It was actually shitty, because you were usually really exhausted for the day off after each shift... so being young and dumb I figured why not trade the third shift inbetween the first two, 72 hours shift followed by 6 days off (1 or 2 of those was usually fucked up though).

I used to pull 72s... occasionally 96 on. Perfectly legal, but it was NOT safe. Driving emergent when you haven't slept, then providing patient care... one time I worked 100 hours and only got 4 hours of sleep during that period. Perfectly legal. And I was making $8/hr as an EMT at the time. But I had sweet sweet OT pay at 12/hr!

LONG HAUL TRUCKERS HAVE HIGHER SAFETY STANDARDS THAN EMS! and better pay...

Yes, it's hard to get a hospital job in a desirable place like ICU.  Not impossible, just hard.  The way to do it is to wow your ICU preceptor while you're doing clinicals for school.  If you are eager, intelligent, and not allergic to getting your hands dirty, they'll notice.

Dual licensed RN/paramedics will be a hot commodity in the next few years with th Community Paramedic programs.

I would suggest that you get out of the acute side care, and learn primary care.

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I agree... they will be uniquely suited and it will boost the reimbursement rate for the agency if the provider has RN.

Don't know why the EMS services haven't figured it out yet... but they will.

The idea of training single role medics for that role always seemed a bit odd.

Is relocating to a different state an option?  You can make well over $30 an hour in many states w/o differential.  If you don't mind the liberal derp that comes with WA, OR, CA, you can clear over $40 w/o differentials and damn near $50/$60 an hr w/ differentials.  OT is pretty much all you want from May-Sept, steady from Oct-Dec, and then tappers off Jan- Apr.

Figured I was going to offend some folks

 


Here to get to medic requires the same basics as nursing before the program begins.  Then you have 5 semesters of classes (so 2.5 years if you do the standard 2 semesters per year like most folks.)  During that of course clinicals are required to the tune of around 560 hours worth.  I know nursing requires clinical hours as well however I will admit I don't know the numbers.  And most nurses around here have a 2 year (4 semesters) degree in nursing as opposed to a 4 year.




As far as nurses individual abilities as I said I am basing it off what I have seen and heard.  Most of my experience is with our smaller community style hospitals vs major trauma however due to work I go there too.  I've never heard a medic say go call the dr to ask what I should do but I often get to hear the nurses say go get the dr so he can do this.   I realize that the nurse has the dr right there and the medic doesn't so it makes it easier but many departments have their nurses hands tied to the point of much beyond bringing drinks and changing bed pans require a new request of the dr.




All are underpaid in most places.  I'm just not typically one that jumps on the bandwagon of nurses need 40+ an hour when my wife is making just a bit over 9 an hour and when they bring a trauma in the dr typically requests they stay and help but asks his nurses to leave the room.  Also doesn't help my opinion with as much time as my mom has spent in the hospital and the authority that the nurses have been allowed to make decisions with her on there own.


 

No I have no grudge against nurses and no personal vendetta.  None have ever done me wrong.  They just have a better p.r. department than medic/emt.  Emt/medic is not even close to being considered flashy or prestigious anywhere around here.  And I've seen that for much longer than my wife and I have been together.  Maybe in more metro areas they are but not here nor anywhere else I have worked.   Fire departments and their medics sure but few fire departments in this state run the ambulances.  They may have medics or emts on staff but they don't usually handle the transport.

Nothing tears your health apart then working in a job you're not happy in.  Left a job I hated after 18 years and never looked back.  Happy and healthy go together.

I once talked to a Navy SEAL at my local gun store.  Taught me about the numerous benefits of the Ruget Mini-14 over the jam-o-matic,POS AR-15.  After talking to him for an hour, I know everything there is about being a Teir 1 Navy SEAL.  Shit, I could lead SEAL Team 6 now.  

Sarcasm aside, dude you don't know shit about shit just because you banged a couple nurses.

Just out of curiousity could someone tell me what a PRN is?

It's a medical acronym for "as needed".

Cool, thanks!

Nationally, the majority of new RNs are coming from BSN programs. The majority of RNs in the US now have a bachelors or higher.

There are tons of Alabama schools that offer Paramedic in a year. Plenty of them don't require college level A&P, just an AEMT card. If you don't have that, you can still go from zero to paramedic with an extra 6 months to get EMT+AEMT.  



Apparently that is quite a limited view


EMS varies from place to place. I've read a lot of protocols from around the country.
King County Medic 1, the most elite and respected system (according to many) in the US has their medics call medical control for every call to present there treatment plan. That does NOT make them inferior.
Try looking at EMT-Intermediate I99 protocols in a lot of places virtually every non BLS intervention has "contact base for order." Then again that had to do with the depth of education, but a lot of states are not phasing out intermediates.
Some systems have very few "contact base" in their P protocols, but very close relationships between the medical director and the medics.


I used to bring patients to a rural "hospital" that was really a nursing home that had a 4 bed 1 room "ER" with an Xray, CT, and lab attached. When we rolled in with more than one patient, they wanted us to stay and help, and we'd happily do it if there wasn't a call pending. But the doc never told the nurses to leave. Really it is all about the facility and what their experience and expertise is. I've seen a rent-a-doc at a rural ED ask the medic to drop the tube on a kid because "I haven't done that to a kid since residency." If I had a very sheltered outlook, should I assume that MDs suck and paramedics are better? Of course not!!!

You have a very limited view of RNs and nursing as whole. I come across it in EMS, and it sounds very silly to people who have worked both nursing and EMS.

A friend of mine does that. I believe there is a constant demand for nurses, and it is quite a portable career.

My buddy was a regional medic making decent money, maybe $20-$25 an hour. My girlfriend in an RN and makes about $30-$35 between regular hours and night differential. Now the same friend got a new medic job at a local big hospital. Been there a year and he's already a supervisor. He makes $30-$35 now.

 

it depends on the location. NY is oversaturated with RN grads.  Best bet for jobs is in rural areas. oh and new grads RNs make 80-100K starting in NY. thats like 40-50/hour

1500 hours is less than it takes to get your LPN (LVN) here. When I got my LPN 20 years ago, it was 1660 hours.
I will say, as an RN, paramedics have skills and training that I can't touch.
I know my limits and have told a stable patient in a parking lot "you're breathing, so we're waiting for a medic."
Two different jobs. Both are important.

ETA: There's some retarded posters in this thread. I would ask what they do for a living, but this is just the internet....

Which state mandates RNs have a four year degree? I don't know of any outside of...Kansas. Lots of hospitals and localities want RNs to have a 4yr degree, and there is talk to move to a mandatory 4 yr degree program in some states....but it aint happened yet.



I suspect in 10-15 years the national standard for EMT-P is not going to allow it to fit in a one year program. I checked online and did not see any nine month programs in your state. Can you send me a link? I know para rescue in .mil crank out "medics" thru the medical portion of that program pretty damn fast, but when you are in the military they own your ass from sunrise to sunrise.
 

No state mandates a 4 year degree that I know of... but the statistics are nationally the majority of RNs are in BSN programs and the majority of RNs have a bachelors or higher.

Denver Health (CC of Denver) has a 6 month accelerate EMTP program.
Swedish and Saint Anthonys (Red Rocks CC) have accelerated programs that be done 6-12 months depending on how fast the student wants to do clinical.

Ok.



Just checked Denver Health's EMT-P program. Six months, but it is a six month full time job eight hours per day, Mon-Fri; AND you must already be enrolled in that community college



and (from their website) you must have EMT-B, A&P 1 & 2, and have 6 months work experience as an EMT-B. Depending on the state, A&P 1 & 2 are at least 1/2 semester's work (3 cr or 4 cr each, depending on the state/school). Depending on the state, EMT-B is 4 or 6 credits (or nothing! )

Prerequisites

• Be at least 18 years old


• Be a high school graduate or have GED certificate


• Have successfully completed an EMT-Basic training program and have worked at least 6 months as an EMT


• Possess a current CPR certification (CPR Healthcare Provider or Professional Rescuer)


• Passed Anatomy and Physiology I and II (or its equivalent), as
  defined by the Colorado Community Colleges and Occupational Educational
  Services (CCCOES). This requirement can be met through a challenge
  assessment process that leads to equivalent credit. Information
  regarding the challenge assessment can be found online.

 

Why, pray tell, is that?
A very similar skill set except RN cannot intubate.
Medics work in a very uncontrolled environment without direct MD oversight/direction.
There are only two examples.

Item for item, medics should make at least what RNs make.

Sorry for hijack.

yep - highest paying job I ever had because my boss was a clueless POS...

the working conditions were also horrible...

66k per year, but I am over it. I am ready for a shit pay job with no thought or pressure. (or anti maIe bs)


(

I don't care what the other guy makes, but I will say that the skill sets aren't that similar.
Nurse's deal with mountains of bullshit and the In Patient side of things covers a lot of stuff that there's no reason for a medic to know about.
A paramedic I knew had a tremendous problem with RN clinicals, as his state allowed medics to fast track an RN license.
I've been ACLS/PALS for years, but would hate to be on the spot, in the field by myself.

Wife just switched from the ER to med surg. and ICU. The boredom is killing her, but the money is good. She only thought she was ready for a slower paced environment.

Get some more experience and look at a MICU/Flight job....best of both worlds.

The Unit is not for everybody. The beautiful thing about being an RN is that you can have a job ANYWHERE in the country and there are so many different things you can do i.e. dialysis, clinic, floor, ICU, nursing home, OR, outpatient, rehab, etc.

But if you're not happy, you're not happy. The average turn around time in my cardiac/transplant ICU is about 6 months - 18 months because either people can't hack it, can't handle the stress, or go back to school once they get some unit experience.

Do whatever makes you happy and whatever works for you.