Florida county offers $8,000 bonus to new paramedics, free training for EMTs

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[discobikerAndRosie]

I was an EMT in west Michigan. I did it because I loved it but I only made $8/hr & that was after 2 raises. God bless all EMT/Paramedics!

[BrotherKnowledge.]

For $15.00/hr? 🤣🤣

Five months later at the time of writing. And I am willing to bet that they are *still* having problems with recruitment. 🤦🏾‍♂️

I left Florida due to their low wages. When I left, Paramedics were starting at $13.00/hr. Here where I am now, Paramedics start at $24.00/hr. And we don't do fire, either. Just straight EMS.

(We're still underpaid here, yeah. But it's a lot better than being *disrespectfully underpaid.* 🤷🏾‍♂️)

[charleslaitipaya]

Been in EMS 8 years and nursing school. Paramedic training is just as rigorous as nursing. Many paramedic programs require minimum of an EMT with 1000-2000 hours of experience to be eligible for training. Many of my partners move into other areas because it doesn't pay a livable wage. Less than 10% of EMTs make it to paramedic.

[bbear]

Quit firing the ones that arent supposedly vaccinated . Stupid rules

[jackall-trades]

In Florida? Okay, that's 4 months for EMT school, 4 months for fire academy, and 12 for Paramedic, and however long it takes to siege the fortress that is actually getting hired.

[brian]

I’m a plumber in Tampa area these guys work hard everyday

[melodigrand]

Here the pay of a union firefighter-paramedic is not significantly higher than that of a firefighter-EMT-driver. Paramedics are always in short supply, this means they see more mandatory overtime, are less likely to get the vacation schedule they want. Not many current firefighter-EMTs are interested in becoming firefighter paramedics.

[ericstone]

Oh wow. Amazing. You can’t hire people so out of the blue they can all of the sudden afford raises. Shows how much places care.

Probably would have never considered bonuses if they were fully staffed. But yeah. I am sure there is a healthy amount of appreciation. Perhaps if places became aggressive in appreciation of staff and retention these problems wouldn’t happen as often.

[apolloniaaskew]

Create a program to train EMTs from college and pay for the tuition from high school seniors; hire non fire paramedics/EMTs find states that have an excess of paramedics like Ohio.

[izikdlr]

Polk County FD how about you start with a competitive wage, eventually attracting potential employees which would fill the vacancies and not cause mandatory overtime. In turn a better quality of life for your employees….. oh wait it’s difficult to stare the solution in the face and fix the problem. It’s truly sad .

[briand]

Drop the firefighter part off firefighter/paramedic, and I'm willing to bet you will have experienced private ambulance paramedics fill those vacancies quick. There's no reason to have firefighters on ambulances when 80% of the calls are medical.

[vivianasong]

Haha, scarce as hen's teeth! That is great!

[Rocky]

That’s horrible, how can you treat your front line and emergency workers so poorly. Ultimately, if the county doesn’t change, your 911 services will.

[paulnbrenda]

I’m not so sure I believe this
My son drops out of college with only one year left because he really wanted to be a police officer
Great he will get a job right away cause of the so called shortage we saw on the news
He graduated from the police academy with high honors 7 months ago
Put out apps all over the place not a single call yet
Go figure!

[mikeybreakz]

if ur a medic, nurse, or surgeon they really need u a lot more in ukraine than they ever could need u in polk county. answer the call.

[RastaJadeMoon]

You better hope they can drive correctly. I seen some videos from Florida. You guys are not good at driving. But don't worry Baltimore, Maryland takes the cake for worst drivers in the world.