In reply to Simonfarfaraway:
I took a huge pay cut* to join as a trainee ambulance technician 8 years ago - I took the Scottish route because England had already gone the way of uni degree courses for paramedics (which Scotland has recently moved to).
(* But I was very well qualified and very well paid, it's not that the ambulance service pays poorly - once you're qualified at least. Plus you can do overtime, there are always shifts needing covered if you need more money).
I'm a paramedic now, though to be honest, for many patients we attend (most jobs?), it doesn't matter if you're a Tech or a Para. Is it a good job? Yes. Do people complain about the job? Yes.
But as a sweeping generalisation, so by no means true across the board, I find the people who complain the most are the people who haven't done other jobs or haven't been self employed, and so think they're hard done by (...yet not hard done-by enough to ever actually leave and do something else..!!). I was used to doing lots of unpaid overtime in previous jobs because stuff you didn't get done one day was still waiting for you the next - in the ambulance service, if you over-run your shift, you get paid. ...At the end of the shift, you hand your radio and motor over to the next shift and you are completely finished until the next shift... You also don't need to think about what to wear. ...Every shift is different and you're out and about, meeting all sorts of people in all sorts of situations - sometimes you meet people on the absolute worst day of their life and you get to help them.... You can finish a working day (or night) and get to feel like you genuinely helped some people who needed helped.... Some of the people you'll work with will be great ... There are various routes within the Service you can take if you want to move on from being an Ambulance Technician, or put in for a transfer to a different area if you fancy a geographical move .... If there's ever a situation where the entire country goes into lockdown and can't go out and do things or see a single person, you'll find your life doesn't actually change that much because you still get to go out and meet people (even if some of them are very ill with a contagious illness that isn't really well understood yet and you've got sod all to protect you from it!!) ... Whatever the hassles of long waits outside hospitals, or busy shifts with job after job, the fact is, you just have 1 patient at a time (unless you're first on scene at a multiple vehicle RTC or something, but USUALLY you just have 1 patient at a time) .... And for particular relevance if you're asking this on the UKC / UKH board -You work shifts so you're often off midweek when popular hiking/climbing hills and parking places are quiet so you don't need to get up at stupid'o'clock to get a spot!
There are downsides too ... most of these will be dependent on the Division you're in, the actual station you're in, or even the person you're partnered with (...it's a long 12 hours - or whatever shift length you do - if you're working with someone who really shouldn't be in the job because they're lazy, rude, disinterested, homophobic, racist and/or bullying ...). And there can be bad (REALLY bad) jobs which you over in your head when you're lying in bed - but not everyone will get these.
Personally, I think it's a great job though and I enjoy it (when I'm working with someone conscientious or even vaguely half decent)
Post edited at 23:27
