Talk:Paramedics in the United States

message: A major rewrite of this article is currently in progress, and is intended to move the article from 'C' to 'B' or beyond.  Information that is removed from the article will be placed here temporarily, so that it is not lost.  Eventually, it may be relocated to another spot in the article, rewritten, or just discarded. Emrgmgmtca (talk) 12:46, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Removed for Relocation

message: Multiple paragraphs removed August 2007 can be found in Talk History dated before April 26, 2008.
:Source added to IAFC fighting against degrees with minor rewrite to reflect their current stance.
JPINFV (talk) 04:59, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Deletions

message: I feel that the caption to the patch is misleading. Numerous states (California and Texas, for example. Albeit Texas also has a "Licensed Paramedic" level for college educated medics (2 year EMS degree or any 4 year degree)), as well as the National Registry, officially recognize the level as EMT-Paramedic. As well, numerous state patches reflect this designation. State and/or agency patches differ between them as to design, including the designation of the levels (EMT-Paramedic vs Paramedic or EMT vs EMT-Basic). As this is supposed to be more of a national article, I feel that the current wording and caption are out of place in the article. JPINFV (talk) 05:16, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Please suggest an alternative wording for the caption. The issue is confusing to the public primarily because, contrary to the legal designations, paramedics are not called EMTs in the field. Example, if a BLS crew is calling for ALS, they might say "send me a paramedic" but not "send me an EMT" (though technically, paramedics are EMTs of the highest order). The point is to emphasize in this article that there is an ostensible difference between EMTs and Paramedics in the field.  In NYC, the paramedic is officially an AEMTP, but they are simply called paramedics. Nurses can be either ASN, BSN, MSN, CCRN, CEN, etc., but they are still nurses in the public eye.  There needs to be some simple standard for differentiating between ALS and BLS, especially now (as you pointed out) that there are even 4-year paramedic degrees in some areas. Forget the public, there are doctors who couldn't tell you the difference between "paramedic" and "EMT" (basic) to save their lives, and this is more than a mere pretention in the highly structured ranking system of medical care. The patch was put forth to simply show that paramedics have their own unique patches to designate their level of care, it was not meant to say that all patches say "EMS Paramedic, City of New York" -- although I see your point. Alexfox29 (talk) 01:23, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: My problem with the patch is that the caption is boarder-line factually wrong from a national prospective because there are plenty of patches that retain the EMT-Paramedic designation. Given that it's a national article, I'm not opposed to a blurb about different nomenclature in standard practice, but the caption seems to be worded as 'paramedic patches exclude EMT to avoid confusion.' I'm not going to argue that paramedics are generally called "paramedics" while Basics are generally called "EMTs." Of course this doesn't even address the fact that each state has their own intermediate/alternative designations (EMT-CC, EMT-IV, EMT-I [roman numeral 1, not intermediate], EMT-II [2. roman numeral examples are the legislative name for Basic and Intermediates in California]), EMT-I85, EMT-I99, etc). As such, I think that the NHTSA/NREMT (yes, two separate entities, but more providers are familiar with NREMT than NHTSA and the NREMT's guidelines stems from the NHTSA) levels are more appropriate for articles with a national scope. I've got an exam tomorrow morning and I'll see what I can put together as an alternative sometime soon (I'm looking at expanding the "skills" section and am tempted to seek renaming it to "procedures"). I do think, given proper support (i.e. not stubs), that there is more than enough difference and material for a state by state page on EMS. Looking at the edit, I can't speak to what intermediates are called (are they called "EMTs" or by their designation?) since the area I worked in didn't/couldn't [California EMT-Intermediates=limited ALS" which required an express reason and approval from state EMSA for a county to certify them] utilize them.JPINFV (talk) 04:16, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Your reasoning is understood. This is a gray area that is even more gray between regions, and it's difficult to nail down. Paramedics are EMTs, yet they're not called EMTs in practive. A common phrase heard in the field is, "Are you an EMT or a Paramedic?" Many people, and many physicians and nurses, don't know the difference.  Intermediates were called "IV-techs" in one of the regions I worked in; there are "Critical Care Techs" in another region.  New York City EMS and FDNY only use the EMT and Paramedic designations. I've put my two cents in from my region, so I will leave it to you to shape it the way you see fit as someone who represents a new set of eyes and a distant region, and maybe we can thow a little NHTSA/NREMT in there to create a more nationwide perspective. Alexfox29 (talk) 07:50, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed the reference to EMTs in the patch caption and tried to soften the EMT versus Paramedic statements to leave room for the ambiguity between official level of care designations and typical field jargon.  Feel free to adjust further.  Your points on this were well made. Alexfox29 (talk) 15:07, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

text:  Under the new National EMS Scope of Practice guidelines going into effect soon, the "EMT-Paramedic" vs "Paramedic" is going to be clarified, i.e., the official title will be "Paramedic" nationwide. In fact, all titles from Certified First Responder up through EMT-Paramedic will be changing. www.nemses.org  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pohlea (talk • contribs) 13:41, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  EMT-Paramedic vs "Paramedic" and the patch caption 

message: :Image:NYCEMS paramedic.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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BetacommandBot (talk) 14:58, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: This was resolved. Alexfox29 (talk) 07:32, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:NYCEMS paramedic.jpg

message: I added some information on Critical Care Team certification and Flight paramedic certifications to the Professional Discrepancies section. Feel free to move it or give it it's own section if you'd like. I'm ashamed of you EMS people out there. There are actually SEVERAL different professional branches for Medics, like Tactical Operations, Wilderness Ops, Flight Medicine, and many other! 198.254.16.200 (talk) Chance Gearheart, EMT-IV, LeBonheur Childrens Medical Center Pedi-Flite Critical Care Team.  —Preceding comment was added at 14:45, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Added section on Critical Care/flight Paramedics 

message: This article is insufficiently referenced to meet B class standards.  Additionally, here's a short list of some current problems that should be easy to fix: 
* Too many capital letters.  They're paramedics, not Paramedics.  It's the fire department, not the Fire Department.  And so forth.
* Two external links are in the text.  We don't want the reader to click on the link to NREMT's website; we want them to finish reading this article.  Links can be more to ==External links==, or turned into refs, or just removed.  The best-case scenario is that we have an article for the organization:  then we wikilink it.
* Too many wikilinks of the same words.  For example, paramedic is linked three times in the history section.  Once is enough for any large section.  Also, you don't need to wikilink things that are just incidental to the main point. 
* A handful of minor typos.  For example, a sentence ends with two periods (..).  Another is missing a space between a word and its abbreviation.  Read through each section carefully in "Preview" mode to make sure you've caught all the small typos.
* Check all the wikilinks to make sure they go to the best page.  See RSI for the one I happened to notice.
* Too many abbreviations.  Unless the abbreviation is widely known (e.g., I'd expect a young teenager to recognize 'EMT'), then don't include it unless you actually use it in the sentences that follow.
Hope this helps, WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:23, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that this finally has it ready.  It's much improved (you'd think I'd learn not to trust someone else's work, but I think I finally caught everything.  By the way, all of those abbreviations are pretty much an industry standard, particularly in the U.S.!  At any rate, it's ready for another look.  Sorry I bothered you before it was actually done. Emrgmgmtca (talk) 16:31, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  November 2008 assessment 

message: In the United States I've only heard the term Paramedic to refer to a service provided by the fire department's ambulance service. The term "ambulance" generically to refer to any type of ambulance.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by RobertGary1 (talk • contribs) 23:03, 14 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm afraid that usage is inaccurate from both a technical standpoint as well as among common usage. The term "Paramedic" denotes a healthcare provider or agency that is trained and credentialed at the Paramedic level. Fire department ambulances may be certified at the Paramedic level. Or they can be credentialed at a lower level. Same applies to commercial, non-profit, and volunteer ambulances. Ambulance refers specifically to the emergency vehicle. Fire departments may be Paramedic first response agencies without necessarily providing ambulance service. 19:04, 21 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Firefighters? 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: For this industry, one of the most common issues seen on salary reporting websites is the fact that they lump EMTs and paramedics into the same category, distorting the average salaries. While paramedics don't make great money, they still generally make a lot more than what is mentioned here without citation, especially post-COVID. I'd appreciate an accurate citation or removing this section.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.174.143.99 (talk) 19:37, 30 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citation for salary? 

message: The Scottish photo of paramedics in training seems odd, is this here for a good reason? TheMouseMen (talk) 17:46, 30 March 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scottish Photo