I found your channel several years ago because of your GTi content and have since sold my TDI that I turned into a GTD. Left the job after almost 10 years as well for almost exactly the same reasons. Worked fire based EMS as a firefighter paramedic in MD, went to EMS only in eastern PA, and then went to flight in the same region. The flight world looks awesome but once I pulled the curtain back and found exactly what you did as well. Plus the pay factor. Left the job to do corporate safety training, make good money, sleep every night all night, and my mental health is great improving. The job can be toxic at times with the type of people that come to it. I do miss a lot of aspects of the job (all the free time between shifts), and don’t regret my time doing it, but like you don’t plan on going back (in fact I’m letting my PA, MD, and NREMT licenses lapse over the next few months). The EMS delivery model has to change to keep good people. Better wages, better schedules, better equipment, the list goes on. Unfortunately there will always be someone new to fill the position but the citizens suffer because of the brain drain of quality tenured providers fleeing the profession.
Russell!!! Thanks for posting this. I watched your Mk7 GTI content many years ago, and always wondered how you were a medic SO effing young. My older brother was a paramedic for most of a decade and he had similar complaints: More than half their calls were for obese and lazy people who weren’t taking their meds, sticking to their diet, and having complications related to not managing their diabetes. Others were drunks and drug addicts who were overdosing/just being stupid. Getting paid (then) $17-22/hr to save lives; work 24-hr shifts with insomnia side effects during and after; and hoisting 300-400lb patients onto stretchers, up and down flights of stairs was too much hazard for the pay. Props to you for learning from it and moving on! Hope other medics watching/reading this have better experiences to report than what I’ve just described. ✌️ 🏥 ❤️
Thanks for watching and commenting brother! Life as a medic is definitely hard and I appreciate everyone who does it! I started as a medic at $13 an hour and wasn’t making much more than that on the helicopter. I will never regret my time spent doing it, how quickly it made me grow up, the perspective of life it gave me, and the lifelong friends I made, but it was my time to move on!
Thanks for your service Russel. I would have thought that sending for a helicopter should be taken extremely seriously for the added risks and expense. I’m sure anything exciting could become business as usual if you do it everyday. Huge respect for anyone who dedicates themselves in the preservation of life saving, especially in aircraft. So much could go awry, god forbid! I never take it for granted when medics have to come especially for my ass.
I found your channel several years ago because of your GTi content and have since sold my TDI that I turned into a GTD.
Left the job after almost 10 years as well for almost exactly the same reasons. Worked fire based EMS as a firefighter paramedic in MD, went to EMS only in eastern PA, and then went to flight in the same region. The flight world looks awesome but once I pulled the curtain back and found exactly what you did as well. Plus the pay factor. Left the job to do corporate safety training, make good money, sleep every night all night, and my mental health is great improving. The job can be toxic at times with the type of people that come to it. I do miss a lot of aspects of the job (all the free time between shifts), and don’t regret my time doing it, but like you don’t plan on going back (in fact I’m letting my PA, MD, and NREMT licenses lapse over the next few months).
The EMS delivery model has to change to keep good people. Better wages, better schedules, better equipment, the list goes on. Unfortunately there will always be someone new to fill the position but the citizens suffer because of the brain drain of quality tenured providers fleeing the profession.
Russell!!! Thanks for posting this. I watched your Mk7 GTI content many years ago, and always wondered how you were a medic SO effing young.
My older brother was a paramedic for most of a decade and he had similar complaints:
More than half their calls were for obese and lazy people who weren’t taking their meds, sticking to their diet, and having complications related to not managing their diabetes. Others were drunks and drug addicts who were overdosing/just being stupid.
Getting paid (then) $17-22/hr to save lives; work 24-hr shifts with insomnia side effects during and after; and hoisting 300-400lb patients onto stretchers, up and down flights of stairs was too much hazard for the pay.
Props to you for learning from it and moving on!
Hope other medics watching/reading this have better experiences to report than what I’ve just described. ✌️ 🏥 ❤️
Thanks for watching and commenting brother! Life as a medic is definitely hard and I appreciate everyone who does it! I started as a medic at $13 an hour and wasn’t making much more than that on the helicopter. I will never regret my time spent doing it, how quickly it made me grow up, the perspective of life it gave me, and the lifelong friends I made, but it was my time to move on!
Thanks for your service Russel.
I would have thought that sending for a helicopter should be taken extremely seriously for the added risks and expense.
I’m sure anything exciting could become business as usual if you do it everyday.
Huge respect for anyone who dedicates themselves in the preservation of life saving, especially in aircraft.
So much could go awry, god forbid!
I never take it for granted when medics have to come especially for my ass.
For real! I am figuring out my next career, not in EMS.
FELT