Is being a paramedic a rewarding career? And would you be disturbed by some of the sights you would see in the course of such a career?
by 
Shmoo
ANSWERS: 3
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I have some friends who worked as EMT's who have said the situation is prettymuch break even. there are good days and bad. Sure, it was cool when they saved someone or funny when they got to go in and "rescue" someone from some crazy predicament (like a girl who got a bit too intimate with her bed post and got stuck, or people who have "tripped and fallen" on empty champagne bottles and other various objects that amazingly end up inextricably lodged in their colons). But there are other times when the ghastly nature of the scenes just began to eat at them (like in the summer when they would go to call after call of elderly people who had died from overheating in their homes because they couldn't afford to turn on the AC or suicides that left orphans) If you're thinking of going into the field, just make sure you have a backup plan in case you get burnt out like two of my friends did.
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Personally, I did not feel like doing it in a big city ... but I took 11 years and I worked as an Industrial First Aid Attendant ... I worked on remote isolation work camps drilling for oil in the Canadian north west ... mostly along the Canadian part of the Alaska Highway. There were no children, no elderly, no pregnant women, no sick/diseased ... only a small work camp with 40 to 80 healthy adults and a possibility of serious injury or contact with industrial chemical poison/acid/caustic/solvent ... so I would just wait for accidents to happen, then respond with full treatment/transport ... In a city, there could be anything, anytime ... I was content to just try to keep oil rig workers alive, but in a city, there will be a vastly greater range of first aid duties ... with a higher risk to you, but also with a higher possibility of saving even more, of more types of needs, and seeing actual lives, not just workers ... so it could be more rewarding.
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I spent 20+ years as a medic, I did private and 911 services. Its not a job you get much gratitude, so any rewards would be on a personal level. I never had a problem with what I seen over the years. But I prolly had that little crazyness most of us attracted to the job had. Hours are long, shifts are tough. Often the conditions are aweful. But when I was doing it, I couldnt dream of doing anything else. My health has taken me out of the field work. Good luck!
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