[quote name='minime86' timestamp='1310533665' post='448037']
Yes, that definately helped. Thank you so much. The peak load unit idea is still some what of a newer concept where I am, however its not in some of the bordering counties. However, here... MOST of EMS is FD based. 1 county has peak load units called "medic 100-600" and they are staffed with a Paramedic, and a Firefighter/EMT. To me this seems slightly redundant... if you have a Medic only, why not have an EMT only as well? not like that FF/EMT can do anything in the capacity of a FF on a scene when he's working OT on that unit. Also, why pay a FF/EMT overtime when they could very easily hire EMT only for a lot less. The county I am has 1 peak load unit and in all reality needed more. Its designated Rescue 14 and staffed with overtime FF/EMT and FF/PM. It is run M-F during they day, but any given time, listen to the scanner and you will here Rescues are continuously on move up even into the late night/early morning hours sometimes. I wish the County FD would just hire some EMT's and Paramedics w/o a FF cert, and add more peak load/move up trucks. I think 3 would be a good number at the least. Again, as well it would be cheaper to Pay an EMT or a Medic than an overtime FF/EMT and FF/PM. Here in Florida like every where else EMS and FF jobs are hard to come by, especially in the areas where EMS agencies are FEW and far between.
[/quote]
It sounds like that agency's preference would be to have all fire trained personnel but they are having difficulty finding a sufficient number of paramedics, just my take on it. As far as hiring an EMT with no fire training for much less than they pay the FF/EMT you have to understand the likely issues that result from hiring a person with 144hrs of training and then paying them minimum wage to deal with life and death situations. I dont want to get in a big debate but I would suspect that most people on this board would agree to work as a tailboard firefighter for a lot lower pay than we would as an EMT. Employee retention and customer service are important and it is difficult to manage either of them unless you compensate the people adequately. Otherwise the EMT will just go to fire school online and then quit and move over to a fire department if he is capable. Just my opinion.
Yes, that definately helped. Thank you so much. The peak load unit idea is still some what of a newer concept where I am, however its not in some of the bordering counties. However, here... MOST of EMS is FD based. 1 county has peak load units called "medic 100-600" and they are staffed with a Paramedic, and a Firefighter/EMT. To me this seems slightly redundant... if you have a Medic only, why not have an EMT only as well? not like that FF/EMT can do anything in the capacity of a FF on a scene when he's working OT on that unit. Also, why pay a FF/EMT overtime when they could very easily hire EMT only for a lot less. The county I am has 1 peak load unit and in all reality needed more. Its designated Rescue 14 and staffed with overtime FF/EMT and FF/PM. It is run M-F during they day, but any given time, listen to the scanner and you will here Rescues are continuously on move up even into the late night/early morning hours sometimes. I wish the County FD would just hire some EMT's and Paramedics w/o a FF cert, and add more peak load/move up trucks. I think 3 would be a good number at the least. Again, as well it would be cheaper to Pay an EMT or a Medic than an overtime FF/EMT and FF/PM. Here in Florida like every where else EMS and FF jobs are hard to come by, especially in the areas where EMS agencies are FEW and far between.
[/quote]
It sounds like that agency's preference would be to have all fire trained personnel but they are having difficulty finding a sufficient number of paramedics, just my take on it. As far as hiring an EMT with no fire training for much less than they pay the FF/EMT you have to understand the likely issues that result from hiring a person with 144hrs of training and then paying them minimum wage to deal with life and death situations. I dont want to get in a big debate but I would suspect that most people on this board would agree to work as a tailboard firefighter for a lot lower pay than we would as an EMT. Employee retention and customer service are important and it is difficult to manage either of them unless you compensate the people adequately. Otherwise the EMT will just go to fire school online and then quit and move over to a fire department if he is capable. Just my opinion.
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