Quote:
Originally Posted by Surgicalcric
.... And while they, like you Sdiver may believe they shouldnt start at the bottom they are far from experienced when it comes to the vast majority of illness/injuries that make up the vast majority of EMS runs in the civilian rhelm. They will have to lean heavily on their work ethic and desire to help others but it will pay off in the long run if they can see it through to the end.
Thats the .02 from my perspective.
Crip
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J,
I get what you're saying and I realized I should have made myself a little more clearer on the subject.
While these medics/corpsmen coming out of theater and ETSing then looking at getting into the civilian EMS realm, have to start from "scratch" by having to go through EMT/B class and then take the National Registry, just to be able to get on with a company or dept.
Sure they've seen and done things in their medical career while on AD that those in the civilian side have never, nor will ever see, while those on the civvie side see things and repeatedly do (The 3am stubbed toe, because I stepped on a Goddamnfuckingmotherfucking Lego call), that these folks haven't seen or done.
What I meant to say was, it's a shame that they have to go through Basic class just to get on with a company or dept. and start out at the bottom of the pay scale, just because they're a "New Basic. Fresh out of school". I know that when I was with AMR here in town, we had a couple of guys come in, at separate times, who were combat medics, with a couple tours each (Iraq and A-stan) under their belts, but started out at the beginning end of the pay scale, just because they were newly certified Basics. I would think that they would at least start out a little bit higher up on the pay scale due to experience alone. But nope, company policy states, you're new to the company, or a new Basic, you start out at minimum wage.
It's too bad that there isn't a program in place, where these guys/gals coming out of the military can "challenge" the National Registry test(s), either Basic, Advanced, or Medic, and have their time in experience count for them when it comes time for hire. So I hope that something comes from that Bill being proposed in the article that Dragbag posted above.
I'm glad to see/hear that you kept/are keeping you Registry cert up to date. Like you said, it really isn't good for anything for you right now, but it is nice having it "just in case", and also if you did let it lapse for an extended period you don't have to go through possibly having to take the class(es) over again.