Difference between paramedics and EMTs

New Roles For Paramedics

A team of paramedic and emergency medical technicians are known to be the street heroes as they race patients to the nearest hospital. However, as of this writing, paramedics have new roles to deal with in order to have a safe and healthy environment. They are taking a new role of promoting good health to people to keep them out from being admitted to hospitals.

Paramedics are now entering the new field in health care called community paramedicine. Their role is to train people on how to respond to chronic illness attack and promote home safety. The emergency team is being sent to different areas to provide health teaching and to inspect health hazards. This is a good step made by experts that will connect health and people living in remote areas.

Basically, what paramedics usually do in the area is to take and assess vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, glucose count, and other significant physical assessment. They also provide health procedures such as giving intravenous medications, and even performing laboratory tests. Moreover, the main goal of paramedics is to provide helpful health teachings to the community. In order to have a good outcome, paramedics also work with other health professionals such as doctors, nurses, psychologist, and dietitians.

In this new health role, paramedics and other members of the emergency team, are expected to do more community outreach like visiting not just the community, but other facilities such as mental and senior care homes. This new role of paramedics not just promotes health, it also helps decrease the number of accidents, illness and occurrence of new hazards. Moreover, this new program helps hospitals that face penalties from health insurance companies from being submitted to debts caused by a patient’s longer hospital stay.

Community paramedics deployed in different areas are well-experienced and skilled medics. They know that their main goal is to promote health and focus on primary care that will keep people healthy at all times thus preventing diseases and other illnesses from getting worse.

Considering a Paramedic Career

When selecting a job, it will be helpful to get the necessary information and details about it from individuals who have been in the profession. If you are considering a career in paramedics, there are specific things you need to know in detail so you can make an educated decision whether to take the course or not.

You will find some apparent places where you will probably find a paramedic: ambulances and fire engines are the very first things that come to mind. However, paramedics tend to be more versatile than you may think. There have been 226,500 jobs readily available for EMTs and paramedics this year, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics. EMT and paramedic job demand is anticipated to increase 33% until 2020. This shows the potential of the career. It offers good compensation especially for those who upgraded their expertise.

Don’t look at the compensation first, let’s take a look at the challenges paramedics faces on a day to day basis. Like any other career profession, paramedics have difficult moments as well. They are often assigned in dangerous places or situations as well as required to work long hours. It is not easy to rescue someone, you have to be quick, accurate and mentally prepared on what to do or else you will not be able to save someone who is in a dangerous condition.

If you are really considering a career in paramedics, you need to assess yourself about your willingness to work as hard as paramedics. Are you mentally tough? And will you stay long with the profession? If your answer is yes, then maybe you are destined to become a paramedic. Choose an excellent program for you which can provide you with the proper training and skill you need to become a well equipped paramedic.

EMTs and Paramedics

You constantly see the EMTs and the paramedics whether on the news or in the movie. You see them in their uniform responding to any accidents or disaster giving aid to victims. Sometimes you’ll see them in ambulances, fire trucks, hospitals or helicopters. They are assigned in areas where help is needed. Both the EMT and the paramedics work in a variety of roles and are usually the first in area of accidents, medical emergencies, and natural disasters.

In the field of emergency medical services (EMS), there are different levels of accreditations for providers of care. Emergency Medical Technicians are the most typical kind of providers in all of EMS. They are the entry-level patient care provider accompanied by EMT-Intermediates and then paramedics.

Both EMTs and paramedics have the skills and knowledge to move or transport patients and provide them with emergency care. The most important distinction between them is the quantity of education they receive as well as what they are permitted to do for patients.

EMTs usually complete a program that may reach 120-150 hours in length. Paramedic classes may be between 1,200 to 1,800 hours. EMT and paramedic courses consist of lectures, hands-on skills training and clinical internships. EMTs are educated in several skills including CPR, assisting patient with oxygen, providing glucose for diabetics, and assisting others with treatments for asthma attacks or allergy symptoms.

Paramedics are superior providers of emergency medical treatment and are highly educated in matters like anatomy and physiology, medications, cardiology, first aid and medical procedures. They expand their EMT education and learn more skills such as providing medications, starting intravenous lines, delivering advanced airway management for patients, and understanding how to resuscitate and assist patients with significant issues like heart attacks and severe injuries.

Being a paramedic or EMT (emergency medical technician) is something to look forward to. They risk their life just to rescue those who need immediate emergency care. They work 24/7 and at times risk their own health since they are exposed to different kinds of virus and diseases such as HIV/AIDS. EMT and paramedics risk their own life-saving all types of situations such as dealing with psychotic, manic or suicidal patients.

A lot of medical related students wish to work as one, either an EMT or a paramedic. The question is, do they really know the difference between the job description of an EMT and a paramedic? We will talk more about that in this article.

Before you can achieve the title of becoming a paramedic, you need to start from the basics. Emergency medical technician is the primary stage wherein you undergo a series of basic life support trainings for six months such as basic CPR trainings, how to bandage cuts and wounds properly, stabilizing bone fractures and treating degrees of burn. These two careers are both great choices. It allows you to do something good in the society. This kind of career is now in demand everywhere since doctors and nurses cannot reach emergency cases outside the hospital.

If you wish to work as an EMT or a paramedic, you should bear in mind that emergency medical technicians are the so called paramedic’s assistant, they only do basic life support and it is the job of paramedics to do critical life support.

Paramedics go through a series of advanced life support training for two years, such as executing endotracheal intubation, Intravenous trainings. They need to take up biology and math classes for them to be absorbed in the paramedic list. In terms of the salary, paramedics are paid higher than EMTs. Paramedics earn more up to $80,000 a year, while EMTs only get half of it. There is really a big difference between the two, but both of these careers have only one goal, and that is to help those who are in need and save more lives.