Medical Professionals - Emergency Medical Technicians

The map shows the number of emergency medical technicians (EMTs, also known as paramedics) per 100,000 population in 1998. The national ratio that year was 53.8.

An EMT is the lifesaver dispatched to your home or accident scene when 911 is called. The EMT, working under the direction of a physician (usually through radio communication), determines the nature and extent of your condition, gives you appropriate care, and if necessary transports you to a hospital. The EMT works 45 to 60 hours a week and earns $17,930 to $37,760 per year. The average length of training is 1,000 hours (American Medical Association). The National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) sets the standards for the training and examination of EMTs. Between 1992 and 1997, the number of recipients of EMT degrees per 100,000 population increased by 62% (Bureau of Health Professions).

"Job stress is common due to irregular hours and treating patients in life-or-death situations" (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The job stress may be exacerbated by having one's ambulance turned away from overcrowded emergency rooms. Peter G. Gosselin described the deterioration of the nation's emergency care system in the Los Angeles Times: "At the great hospitals of the nation's major cities and ballooning suburbs, ambulances are being turned away and patients are stacked in hallways like so much cordwood. America's dwindling capacity for emergency care is being outstripped by Americans' demand for it." Gosselin blames the situation on "under-investment during the 1990s in the kinds of goods and services that traditionally have served as society's foundation… One result is that the country is coming off its longest economic expansion in more than a century with fewer emergency rooms than it had to begin with."

Hopson et al. interviewed 500 EMTs/paramedics for their book, Burnout to Balance: EMS Stress. They found emergency responders typically experience job burnout within three to five years of beginning work. Their subjects were prone to multiple marriages and suicidal thoughts.

If the personnel shortages previously described don't have you worried enough, ponder the emergency room situation the next time you feel an episode of what you think is heartburn coming on.

Sources: Chart: National Center for Health Workforce Information and Analysis, State Health Workforce Profiles; Primary Source: Bureau of the Census; http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/profiles/default.htm. "Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics," Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos101.htm. NREMT, http://www.nremt.org/. AMA, http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/4242.html. Gosselin, Peter G., "Private Prosperities, Public Breakdowns: Amid Nationwide Prosperity…," Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2001. Edwards, Johnny, "Medics battle burnout with stress counseling," http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/040501/met_021-6082.000.shtml. Information retrieved September 30, 2002.