How to become an Emergency Medical Technician?
Becoming an emergency medical technician requires training given by the college or institute that offers the EMT course. Whatever the level of training may be, in United States all the emergency medical technicians should meet the requirements set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Standards.
These are the health care providers that provide emergency health services. There are a large number of colleges or training institutes that offer these emergency medical technician training courses in United States. There are four levels of emergency medical technicians recognized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA). They are: EMT - Basic, EMT - I/85 , EMT - I/99, EMT - P,
EMT - Basic
This first category is considered as the entry level. The individual who chooses the career as an EMT has to first succeed this first phase called as the Basic level. Here all the First aid basic skills and procedures like controlling the bleeding, supplying oxygen at the critical stage, and many more needed to save a life are taught.
EMT I /85 and EMT I /99
This second and third category comes under the intermediate level which will be a bit advanced from the basic level of EMTs. Among the two, EMT- I /99 is more advanced than the EMT I /85.
In EMT I /85 the skills are provided a bit forward than the basic level that includes Intravenous therapy(I.V), Airway management with many other enhanced skills where as the procedures, skills of EMT I /99 are still more advanced from that of EMT I/85. Here the training includes in the advanced areas like monitoring the cardiac, how to use of pharmaceutical administration, giving medications and many more.
In the intermediate level of EMT training the number of training hours are more than the basic level.
EMT P
This level is the highest level among the four. It is much advanced from the above three levels. These are called as EMT- Paramedics. Here the training is provided in the advanced areas like introducing the I.V therapy substances directly into a vein, continuous monitoring of the cardiac, to restore consciousness at emergency and much more advanced skills and procedures.
Once the individual has successfully completed one or more levels of the EMT training the individual will be given the license to work in the EMT profession in which the license will be renewed for every two or three years depending on the date of EMT certification.
Before choosing the course the individual should always keep in mind that the he\ she should first have the interest to save or serve others in critical conditions as the role of an EMT always involves saving the life of the victims.
In order to serve as an EMT should have some criteria like, firstly the individual should be of strong health as they should lift heavy human bodies, should be emotionally strong , should interact and communicate immediately and many more
The salary is based depending on the level of training the individual acquires. The more the advanced level, higher is the salary for an Emergency Medical Technician