"EMT QUESTION  There's a topic that's being debated by my EMS Squad, and I figured I'd ask your opinion: If someone is acting as an EMT, but they have certifications beyond it, in what capacity should they act when we're called to a patient? It's come up with two different specific questions: there is someone on our squad who's certified as a paramedic. Should they be giving aid to the patient as a paramedic, or as an EMT, when they're on our EMT Rescue squad? The original question was when I told my day lieutenant I was pre-med and my long term goal was to become an ER Physician. She said ""great, we'll have a doctor on call!"" To which the night lieutenant said ""no, she'll still be an EMT."" Who is right? If you've been trained well beyond an EMT's certification, like (long in the future) when I have my MD, but you're responding as an EMT, do you fall to your training level or your ""responding level""?   Oh geez. This is a tough question. I think the ""proper"" answer would probably vary, depending on many factors (local and state laws, institutional policies, the complexity of the patient's medical needs, the hard-assed-ness of the EMT's bosses). But I have to admit: I've never heard of an ER doc still working out in the field as an EMT. I just don't see the point. Sure, ER docs would have the free time to do so, since a typical ER doc works in shift-schedules which leave a lot of time to pursue other interests — but he/she would be so over-qualified and under-paid (relative to what you make in a real ER job) that it wouldn't be worth his/her time to show up for the job (to put it bluntly). But perhaps I'm wrong — I'm Family-Medicine trained and only work in an Urgent Care, after all, so I don't know much about how the ER docs like to roll. :) PS: Holy Toledo, it took me 2 months to reply to your question. I am so sorry! ***Pending Cranquis-Mails: 1; Inbox: Closed — and now that TumblrMSG no longer exists, I'm really not sure what I'm going to use for the next Open Inbox session.***"
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