This doesn't really add anything to the discussion, but my path to where I am now began in a very similar way to what you guys are talking about. When I was in the military, we had to learn CPR. In the reserves we had some civilians from the Red Cross come and teach us an abreviated CPR class. They told us that this wasn't a full CPR class, but only covered what we were required to know. I am amazed now, but even at that young age it occured to me that if I ever needed to know this, it was worth one day of my time to learn it, so, the next week I called the Red Cross and asked about taking the full CPR class. I lived in a small town and they told me that they would put my name on a list and when they got enough people together for a class, they would call me. Months went by and I didn't hear anything. I called them a few times and they didn't have enough people yet. One day I was driving around and saw a sign on a volunteer fire station for an EMT class. I called and asked if they taught CPR as part of the course. They said yes, so I took it. Part of the course was riding along with an ambulance. I really enjoyed it. Someone mentioned that they were going to go to paramedic school. I asked what a paramedic was, I thought paramedic was just another word for someone that worked on an ambulance. Being single and having a job that required me to travel throughout much of the state meant that I wasn't tied down to any one area, so I asked where the best paramedic school was. I studied up on my EMT stuff and went and took the enterence exam, and passed. I took the paramedic course at night and worked during the day. It took me over a year for the paramedic course and also took every spare moment I had between studying, class, and my clinicals. The course was well over 2000 hours, the minimum at the time was 1500 hours. I had no real ambition, I just enjoyed it for some reason and did well in the class. I started getting trade publications and noticed ads for paramedic jobs. I wondered what paramedics made, so I called a couple of them. One of them, Mercy Ambulance of Las Vegas said that they would be in my area doing a test for potential employees. I decided to see how well I would do on the test, so I went and took it. They offered me a job. I told them that I wasn't interested but thanks anyway. About a month later, it was supposed to be spring, but I went outside and there was a foot of snow on the ground. I was so sick of snow/cold/overcast skys that I called up Mercy and asked them for a job. I went to Las Vegas having never been there in my life. I thought I was hot stuff but quickly found out that this was the super bowl of EMS. We had cutting edge equipment and extremly high call volume. At that time, the people I was working with were some of the best paramedics in the world. They had the experience, they had cutting edge equipment, and they had a very progressive attitude. In Las Vegas we have a duel response system; a private ambulance and a fire department rescue respond on all 911 calls and the private ambulance transported all the patients. I quickly saw that the money, benefits, and job satisfaction lay with the fire department, but I continued working for the private service for seven years before I got on the fire department. Now, I make more than all my friends with college degrees. Today, application for the fire department requires at least a basic EMT certification prior to being hired and every rookie school class has to be made up of at least 50% certified paramedics.
And the whole thing started with me wanting to take a CPR class. My whole education cost me $535.
And the whole thing started with me wanting to take a CPR class. My whole education cost me $535.