EmtFire42

Not sure on the pay rate for their medics, but they have it pretty well right now, and are continuing to grow and receive contracts. They cover a large area of upstate New York, including having the main 911 contract for the City of Albany I believe. They handle both 911 calls and transports, and do many Long Distance Transports for hospitals such as Albany Medical Center. Overall the company is doing very well from what I understand.

While I don't know the length of a CC class, I can tell you that you must be 18 years old at least. All EMT exams require you be 18.

The class currently running is testing out in mid to late August I believe. After that the next test is December or January. There are no classes I know of that would start running this close to the test date, as you would need to finish the whole course along with all practical hours and clinical hours before the exams. Your best bet would be to sign up for an EMT class coming up at a local college or hospital and be ready to file in time for the next FDNY EMS date.

Since you mentioned Schenectady FD and Mohawk I can assume you're not too far from where I go to school and work in collegiate EMS. If you would like, at some point we could possibly meet up and go over the various situations and problems you are having. As a member of one of the largest collegiate EMS agencies on the east coast, if not the country, I can safely say we have faced our fair share of troubles with the university before, and hopefully our past can help you out for the future of your organization.

I have very few complaints of the collegiate EMS organization I work for. I am a driver/EMT, and the school has been VERY good to us. We run 2 rigs alternating, and do not charge for our services. We are a BLS agency 24/7 when dorms are open. Currently, we have close to 100 members in the organization if I remember correctly. We receive ALS from two different sources based on the call location, and we have just purchased a fly car for our Lieutenants on Duty because of an increase in calls of a more serious nature, often requiring them to respond to scene or the hospital. Like many other agency's mentioned, we are completely student run, and we have a normal staffing of a 4 person crew (Driver, Crew Chief, and 2 attendants who may or may not be EMT's), but we will sometimes run a smaller crew (Drive and Crew Chief only, mainly on second response calls). Even if someone is an EMT, they have to go through a semester long training with the organization before they are even voted in and are allowed to ride. If you are looking to increase the visibility of your organization on campus, or looking to just give yourselves a good name, a good idea would be to maybe nominate someone as a Community Training Officer. This person would ideally be a certified CPR/First Aid instructor, and you could subsequently set up training dates that the students can RSVP to attend. If you have any questions, you can PM me and I'll be happy to discuss them with you.

From what I understand, NYS usually sent out the letters saying you did NOT pass around 4 weeks or so after the exam, and you usually get your letter/number around 6 weeks after. It does happen that the state falls behind, especially now. I took the EMT exam last summer, and people who didn't pass received their letters at the same time as people who did (~6 weeks). The test before that was the same. I have a lot of friends who took this past exam and haven't heard anything yet, so you don't need to worry that yours got lost or anything, chances are you will hear within the next couple days/week.

As an EMT on a college campus, I can attest to how much these drinks mess people up. They have been banning them recently near campus due to the fact that not only are we getting calls for EToH (possible intoxication) on campus, but the paid services are getting slammed with calls off campus, and when you only have so many rigs out a night.... It seems almost every time we go to a room for a call a can of Four Loko is sitting in the garbage or on the desk. Not only that, but it the consensus seems to be that it only takes 1 or 2 cans to make you black out. The problem with that is now we either have someone who is unconscious, or someone who has no idea what is going on, and usually ends up becoming combative. Combine it with someone who has fallen and slammed into the ground, and it just makes everything even more interesting for us.