Paramedics: Why We Can’t Recruit the Next Generation
By Scott J. Ash, NRP
The Paramedic Hive – Beyond the Sirens
I remember when people wanted to be paramedics. Being able to work medicine away from a hospital setting, make life and death decisions and save a life here and there was enough to draw an entire generation of young men and women to our profession.
Many of us grew up watching Emergency! and thought it was cool. The lights and medicine. Saving lives and doing something that mattered. It recruited us all.
So what went wrong?
EMS companies are struggling to fill jobs. Many schools are having trouble enrolling students. Current paramedics are leaving the profession to retire or find other jobs. They know they have a finite pool of applicants to choose from.
What do we hear?
Nobody wants to work anymore. These kids can’t deal with pressure. They don’t want to be committed to anything.
Perhaps. Or perhaps the next generation doesn’t want to work for something that does not allow them to excel at what they do.
Could we blame them?
We Have Other Jobs to Choose From. Paramedics Don’t Have as Many.
Students today have many options when it comes to their careers. Nursing. Respiratory. Diagnostics. There are classes offered to further their education. There are jobs with better wages. There are jobs that will advance them higher up the career ladder.
They look at being a paramedic.
EMT. Paramedic. FTO. Supervisor. Manager.
Not always. We have flight and critical care transports and community paramedics. As well as educators. But these jobs are not always available or will progress your career further.
When did we decide that to be the best paramedic you could be. You should stop practicing medicine.
There isn’t much we can say to a young person wanting to plan their future. That they will have to stop doing what they love to get ahead.
We Expect Too Much From Our Paramedics. And Give Too Little.
Think about what we ask our paramedics to do.
Advanced assessment. Medications. Cardiac. Airway. Resuscitation. Trauma. Pediatric. OB. Psych.
Now take those away from a hospital setting.
Place them in a small bathroom. Or on the side of a highway. Or in someone’s home in the middle of the night.
No labs. No x-ray. No doctors standing over your head telling you what to do. Sometimes no history.
All you have is your knowledge and what you can gain from your patient. Along with your medical director and protocols.
Paramedics are still considered a technical job by many.
An ambulance is what most people think of when they think of EMS.
Not the practice of medicine on wheels.
That is hard to convey to others. And it is what keeps our profession from advancing further.
When someone is looking at their career they are going to notice these differences.
Nobody Wants to Be Poor.
Yes. It’s about the money.
Some companies pay their paramedics well. Fire departments. Cities. Hospital based companies and some private companies. There are plenty that don’t.
When a student is looking at what they want to do with their life. They are going to look at the schooling they will need. The amount of danger they will be exposed to. Stress and how much they will make in the future.
Paramedics vs nursing or another medical field.
Its not hard to make a decision.
We have taught students that EMS is a calling. Not just a job. I believe that to be true. We all chose to be in EMS because we wanted to do something we loved.
But at some point we started using that as an excuse.
We should be helping people because we want to not because we want to suffer for it.
Educate But Provide No Way to Move Up.
As paramedics we are told to get our bachelors. Masters. Etc. We should further our education and become better paramedics.
I agree with that. But what happens when we do?
You will most likely go back to the same ambulance you were in before you got your degree. You will do the same thing and be paid the same amount.
With no advancements in your job.
Other jobs have provided us with opportunities to grow our careers. EMS has yet to do this for most paramedics.
If we want to have paramedics with degrees. We need to provide jobs for them.
We Tell Our Kids About Burn Out.
Go sit in a box for an hour and listen to paramedics talk.
You will hear stories that are awesome and ones you shouldn’t hear. But you will also hear how tired they are. How much OT they are working. How many holidays they have missed. Their spouses are mad at them.
“I have 4 years 7 months until I can retire.”
“Just trying to get through my pension.”
“I wish I would have been a nurse.”
We all laugh because we have heard it all before.
Imagine you are a student who wants to be a paramedic. And you hear everyone around you count down the days until they can leave.
Great recruiting.
We have also taught our younger generation to suffer.
Work that shift. Sleep on your feet. Drink 5 coffees. If someone complains about something. An old timer will tell them it was worse when they started.
We all know that isn’t true. Everyone I know has worked 96-hour days. Carried a patient up hill and down.
It’s funny because it’s true.
But we should allow our younger generation to take care of themselves. Maybe they are questioning why we must do what we do.
Losing Our Veterans.
Recruiting and retaining our current staff are hand in hand.
If you recruit and don’t retain your staff. You have done nothing.
Yes we can advertise for more staff. Offer better wages to hire them. Fill our academies with new students.
But if our current staff continue to leave. We will continue to have problems.
Losing our veteran staff will cost us more than just filling that spot.
When a veteran paramedic leaves we lose their knowledge and experience as well.
We can train someone to be a paramedic. But experience is something no school can teach.
Knowing when a patient is about to crash before your monitor tells you. That can only come from years of practice.
Not only do we lose our veterans. But we also lose our mentors.
We Need to Teach Kids About a Career Not Just a Job.
We need to advertise to our younger generation that there is a career in EMS.
Yes the lights and sirens are fun. Saving lives and helping others. That is great. But we need to show them there is more to it.
That they can support themselves and their families. That they can advance their education and better themselves as a paramedic.
That they can have a career for the next 30 years and make a living off of it.
Advertising will only get you so far. Offering better wages to recruit students as well.
We need to change our profession to fit our new generation.
Allow them to advance their education and be rewarded for it. Help them become better paramedics without having to stop practicing medicine.
Most of all we need to show them that they can do this for the rest of their life.
Maybe Our New Generation Is Right.
Every generation thinks the next one is worse.
We think our younger generation doesn’t want to work as hard as we did. That they don’t want to sacrifice.
Our younger generation thinks we are crazy for doing what we do for this long.
I think we both have some truth.
Yes we need experience and someone who cares about what they are doing. But they also want to be able to live their life.
Maybe they just don’t want to give up their life to be a paramedic.
I think we should learn from that.
Who Will Answer the Call?
I have been a paramedic for over 30 years. Our profession has come a long way since I started.
We have gained so much knowledge. We treat more patients. Have more skills and are expected to do more.
Yet our pay has not always kept up. Nor have we allowed our profession to advance.
Why aren’t our young people wanting to be paramedics?
Maybe we should look at what we are offering them.
A job that you love. Yes.
One that will excite you. Of course.
Will you be able to make a living off it? Advance your education and move up in your career?
Depends on where you work.
And that is our problem.
Every time we lose a veteran paramedic we are losing something from our profession. Every student that doesn’t sign up for an academy is one less person in our profession. Every ambulance we take off the road because we have no staff is hurting our community.
Our generation didn’t forget how to help others. We just need to find a way to recruit our new generation.
And keep them.
About the Author
Scott J. Ash, EMHA, BS, AAS, NRP has been working as a Paramedic for over 30 years. As a Nationally Registered Paramedic, EMS Educator and Author Scott has seen many changes within the profession. From how we became Paramedics to what is going on with those who chose this career path and the changes that need to be made.
Scott is the Author of Mocking Time: How Paramedics Save Minutes, Lives, and The Crisis Behind Who Will Answer the Next Emergency Call. This book takes an in-depth look at our history, those behind the lights and sirens and who will be there tomorrow to answer that call. Whether its from a professional view or real-world experience.
The Paramedic Hive gives you an inside investigations into what’s going on in the emergency medical services. With some straight up opinion and a little humor. Scott hopes to open discussions about many topics in our field. And shed some light on the way we think as EMS clinicians.
