Someone told me: in EMS, you either get really fat or really skinny... The stress starts to show after a while. During night shifts, sleep is non existent bc you'll probably be the only car running in the area, it's draining during 24s. They are stingy with their bonuses... It's almost like they reward the bare minimum ( but which job doesn't). I remember one time I picked up a shift bc my supervisor asked me to, only to realize that an hour later that shift was being put up for a $300 bonus. I called to see if I could get it but I was told that bc I didn't call the coordinator before I took the shift I was not eligible for the money. I felt sick the rest of the day (that was a lot of money). That was the FIRST and LAST time I picked up a shift without a bonus announced. Scheduling hates you, it doesn't matter when you said that you were available to work, they'll schedule you whenever. Work-life balance... I mean it's emergency medicine. If you work full time, it's like your days off aren't rest but you are just gearing up to go back to work. I would get off at 6 or 7, get home an hour later, shower, eat, sleep, and wake up at 4:30/5:30 to get to work on time. It feels like you are a cog in a machine and easily replaceable sometimes. Tbh, take all of the cons with a grain of salt... bc of this job, I found out that I hate Emergency Medicine so I'm going back to school to study something less stressful like radiology or fam medicine, and I leaned to truly appreciate WLB.
