Is there a good city to work for as a Paramedic? You tell me!

[MEDIC4Lyfe]

Hey-
I was wondering if you could tell me what you think is the best city to work for as a Paramedic and why? I am looking for a city that offers GREAT benefits, great pay, good number of calls, and good equipment. If you could tell me what you think I would greatly appreciate it. I also would like to work in a good sized city, NOT New York, but not like some tiny town, that has a population of 300! I live here in Charlotte, NC and this is a great city. Any ideas where else is good? I kinda have my eyes on either Austin, TX or Nashville TN.
Thanks ALOT
MEDIC4Lyfe

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"Our day begins, when yours is about to end!"

"Paramedics, we are always a beat ahead of the rest."

[Boothby]

Nashville has a good system. It is fire department, but the medics are not cross trained to firefighters. Nashville is also a Very nice city. I've talked to a couple of Nashville medics and they seem to like it. I don't know anything about pay or benefits. I have heard that the physical agility test is tough, so you might want to look into that.

I was looking at Austin myself when I got the call from Memphis. All I know about it is what I read in JEM's a few years back. They have a full time medical director who actually works in the field. From what I saw in the application packet they are serious about their EMS. The pay was ok, but that was two years ago so you would have to look into all that yourself.

Memphis is a good place to work and quite frankly we are hurting for medics, but if you don't like to fight fire it's not the place for you. We are all cross trained as firefighters and are assigned to fire fighting apparatus. We are then detailed to the units (ambulace) on a rotating basis. The benefits are good. We get medical and dental, though its a little expensive, and the city will pay for your college 100% up front if you want to go. We are also payed holiday pay and have incentive pay for apparatus qualifications and advanced education. The opportunities for advancement are outsanding. You can test for driver, lieutenant, BC...etc. As for pay we are the best paid department in the mid south. If you are interested you can get in touch with the city personel office and they will tell you when they are accepting aplications. Like I said we need medics. They are going to start a class of 48 medics here in about two months. I'm sure there will be more to follow.

If you decide to try here you must first get in GOOD shape. The physical agility test is NOT easy. Plus you will have to get through fire school which is NOT easy. You must also be prepared to run alot of calls. Unit 3 at my station ran 376 calls last month, and will peak at about 400 calls a month in the summer and thats just the unit. If you are at a busy station like mine, when you ride the fire apparatus you come to work expecting to make a fire that shift.

Hope this helps. Good luck in your search.

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Larry Boothby
Firefighter/Paramedic
Truck 3 A-shift
Local 1784
Memphis.