CareerCast’s Best and Worst Jobs of 2011 have been released, and guess where Emergency Medical Technician ranks?That’s right, number 195!The career I have chosen is the 6th worst in the country.
CareerCast evaluates the jobs based on Work Environment, Stress, Physical Demands, Hiring Outlook, and Income.If you’re interested in seeing their full methodology, its right here.
I took a closer look at our score, and how we stood up against some higher ranked jobs.Our Work Environment score is comparable to that of a General Practice Physician, which is ranked #83.Job Stress is similar to that of a Lawyer, ranked #82.Our Physical Demands score is about the same as Heating and Refrigeration Mechanics, who are ranked #93, and our Hiring Outlook is better than the #20 ranked job of Economist.
Where do we fall short?Its really no mystery: Income.As I perused the articles that accompanied CareerCast’s report, I stumbled on a great quote from Andrew Strieber in his piece about The Ten Worst Jobs of 2011:
“. . . jobs like EMT have considerably better hiring prospects (than the others at the bottom of the list), but rank in the bottom 10 due to harsh working conditions, high stress, and inexcusably low pay given the extremely important nature of their work.“
Let those last couple of words resonate for just a few seconds: “inexcusably low pay given the extremely important nature of their work.”Mr. Strieber gets it.While his words are alarming, and spell out the struggle of our profession, its refreshing to me to see someone in the media voicing a concern with how our profession is treated, even if it is just an excerpt out of a Paragraph.So how do we fix it?How do we move forward in improving our profession, and moving up on the list?
Its time to focus on establishing a united front as a profession.Once we come together, and take control of our own fate, we can improve so much of what we do, not only for ourselves but for our patients as well.For now though, we are left to be the pawns of the Public Safety and Medical communities.
What’s the first step in getting out of this rut we’ve dug ourselves into?We need to take pride in ourselves and our profession.Help people realize how important and vital you are to the community not only with your words, but with your actions, how you look, and how you carry yourself.It’s really not that difficult.Its all about loving what you do.It’s about choosingEMSas a career, and not a job to help get by for a little bit.
Sign up for those extra educational classes, not because you need the Credits for your recertification, but because you want to be better at what you do.Take that extra detail at a job fair so you can tell other people how great your job is.
Don’t be afraid to take control of your own destiny, and show people how proud of your profession you are.
In time, others will notice what you are doing and they will follow.In the meantime, if you have Twitter, send Andrew Strieber a Tweet, and share with him your views of his observations of our profession.
Also, I touched on 2009’s list last year. Have a look at that entry here.
Of course, the biggest obstacle to higher pay in EMS is reimbursement to organizations who hire the EMTs. If insurance companies undervalue the service, so do patients. The biggest payer is Medicare, and a US Government report determined that Medicare payments, on average, do not even give the employer enough money to cover its costs – and that's on today's wages. There is simply no "up" to go until ambulance services are paid at the correct value for the "extremely important nature of their work." if we are paid more per hour, but the meds are expired and the sheets are stained and torn, we are not helping our patients or our profession.