Emergency Medical Technician

As an Emergency Medical Technician, also known as an EMT, you’re one of the first medical professionals to respond to an emergency after a call is placed to 911. Once on the scene, Emergency Medical Technicians provide first aid and transport patients to the hospital in an ambulance.

As an Emergency Medical Technician, you encounter a variety of situations on the job, so you should be ready for anything every day. Luckily, you don’t have to go it alone. EMTs always partner up. One is in charge of treating wounded individuals, while the other is responsible for driving the ambulance and making the area safe, especially at the scene of a car accident. Sometimes EMTs arrive before Police Officers and must set up flares, direct traffic, and move injured parties out of harm’s way.

You must have a demeanor that is even cooler than a cucumber if you choose to work in this field. In addition to working in a number of circumstances, you also need to be able to treat a broad range of physical ailments, and assess medical conditions on the fly. The job needs you to think fast, stay calm, and soothe people in discomfort. In any given shift, you might be asked to control bleeding, assist in child birth, or use defibrillators to restart a heart.

As you progress as an EMT, you will be classified at a level based on your knowledge, abilities, and experience. You start at Level 1, which is responsible for treating the most basic injuries, and progress up to Level 4, which involves performing the most complex procedures, such as inserting tubes to help respiration.