EMT
Emergency Medical Technicians (known as EMTs) are trained to provide emergency care, including ambulance services. Peoples' lives often depend on the quick reaction and competent care of EMTs. Incidents as varied as automobile accidents, heart attacks, drownings, childbirth, and gunshot wounds all require immediate medical attention. EMTs provide the vital attention as they care for and transport the sick and injured to a medical facility. In an emergency, EMTs are typically dispatched to the scene by a 911 operator and often work with police and fire department personnel. Once they arrive, they determine the nature and extent of a patient's condition while trying to ascertain whether the patient has preexisting medical problems. Following strict rules and guidelines, they give appropriate emergency care and, when necessary, transport the patients. At the medical facility, EMTs help transfer patients to the emergency department, report their observations and actions to emergency room staff, and provide additional medical treatment. EMT Basic (also known as EMT I) represents the first component of the Emergency Medical Technician system. An EMT I is trained to care for patients at the scene of an accident while transporting patients by ambulance to the hospital under medical direction. An EMT I has the emergency skills to assess a patient's condition and manage respiratory, cardiac and trauma emergencies. The EMT Intermediate (EMT II and III) have more advanced training that allows the administration of intravenous fluids, the use of manual defibrillators to give life-saving shocks to stopped hearts, and the applications of advanced airway techniques and equipment to assist patients experiencing respiratory emergency.
Firefighter
Before you can become an active-duty firefighter, you need to spend about 600 hours in training, over the course of 12 to 14 weeks. That's somewhere between 40 to 48 hours per week, which makes firefighter training a full-time job. Training typically occurs at a fire academy, which is often run by the fire department, a division of the state government or a university.
- Be at least 18 years old (sometimes 21)
- Have a high school diploma or equivalent, though many career fire departments now require a college education
- Be physically fit
- Have a clean criminal record
- Have corrected 20/20 vision