As a paramedic, it can be easy to settle into your career and not try and take it any further. However, there are many career moves that you can make as a paramedic that will help to cement your career success and ensure that you can reach your overall career goals. Then, here are some of the top moves that you should consider making as a paramedic to boost your career.
Look at Nursing
Although many people are satisfied with being paramedics, you might become dissatisfied if you have been working as a paramedic for many years, and this dissatisfaction and boredom may lead to you wanting to do something else with your career. If that is the case, many paramedics consider opting to become nurses, as this can allow them to work in a variety of medical settings, from hospitals to schools, and will help them to avoid being on the move constantly. Not only this, but you might decide to be a nurse paramedic and administer health care to those who are being transported in ambulances. Then, you should look at the qualifications that you need to become a nurse, and which ones will help you to follow the specialism that you most want to work within. For instance, once you have taken your initial nursing qualifications and have started working as a nurse, or if you are already a nurse paramedic, click here to learn more about the post-master’s FNP certificates that you can take online. These qualifications are now even easier for working nurses and other medical professionals to take since they are based online, which means that you can access the resources that you need to and complete your assignments at any time and from any location. This then works well with the busy life of both nurses and paramedics.
Find Promotion Opportunities
It is also important that you look around for the many opportunities that there are for a promotion when you are a paramedic. Instead of simply staying in the role that you have been in for many years, looking for opportunities for a promotion can be advantageous as this can allow you to rise through the ranks, achieve your occupational goals, and even earn more money in your paramedic career. Promotions can also be great for those who are looking for more administrative or leadership roles, and for those who no longer want to drive around their area or county all day long. Some of the most common promotions that are available for paramedics include a promotion to director of operations or operational manager, where you will most often find yourself situated within the control room. Then, you should speak to your manager about your desire for a promotion and the steps that you will need to take to get a promotion. One of the best times to do this is during your annual review or appraisal; doing so could mean that you are considered when new roles turn up. You should also try to stay aware of any internal job openings that crop up as well, as these can allow you to climb the rungs of your career ladder with minimal effort on your part.
Look for a New Position
Although you might be happy with your workplace at the moment, this sense of satisfaction may not last forever, and, instead of getting stuck in a rut at the place where you work, you should consider whether you might not want to search around for another job where you can work in a different medical setting. Many people believe that paramedic workers only work for ambulance services in their career and that there is nothing that you can do when you are unhappy with where you work. However, this is not always the case, and now, paramedics work in a variety of environments, including doctor’s surgeries and emergency departments in hospitals. This can then ensure that you can find a working environment that suits you, and that you can branch out and find a better job position if you are unhappy with the one that you work in now. To do this, you should keep track of postings on job websites, and make sure that you get to know enough people in your industry.
Speak to a Career Coach
Since paramedics often struggle to progress their careers or know what to do for the best, you should consider speaking to a career coach if you feel as if your career is not moving forward. A career coach will be able to motivate you to push yourself further in your career, and they will be able to ensure that your resume is not letting you down when it comes to finding the right jobs for you. They will be able to let you know of available positions and help you to find them, as well as help you to decide on a career plan and trajectory that you believe will suit you and your aims. However, you should always make sure that you find a career coach that you can trust, whether this is online or face-to-face, and you can do this by finding career coaches through word-of-mouth and first-hand recommendations.
Network With Other Paramedics
You should see your career path as a chess board, meaning that you will have to line up the pieces correctly before you can find success. One of the best steps that you can take to do this is to network with other paramedics and people within the healthcare business. Not only will you soon be able to make lifelong connections and even find a mentor who can guide you throughout the process of getting your dream career as a paramedic, but you will also be able to find out more about how your industry is changing and what you can do to be a part of it in the future. Some of the places where you usually meet paramedics, such as networking events, provide their own benefits, and can quickly allow you to learn new skills and find out information that you did not previously know about your industry. To network with your fellow paramedics well, you should make sure that you are confident and polite, that you can start a conversation without being demanding about what you want, and that you can focus on making a genuine connection with the other person. You should follow up the connections that you make, have a business card to hand, or exchange contact details, and you should have conversation starters to hand if you know that speaking to others is something that makes you particularly nervous.
Browse Job Websites
Even if you are not ready for a job change or if you do not want to change jobs at the moment, you should still consider browsing job websites every so often. As well as helping you to understand the state of your industry and the types of jobs that are on offer, you will be able to check the skills and experience that are in demand and the responsibilities that employers are starting to need. As a paramedic, browsing job websites can also be useful as you will be able to check the current average salary for the job that you are performing and see whether your job matches this, or whether you are being underpaid for the work that you do. Then, browsing job websites can help you to understand the job market and where you fit into it, and you just might find a job position that you are interested in or think that you may be passionate about.
Consider Moving
If you still love being a paramedic and yet are fidgety when you are at work, you should consider the option of being a paramedic elsewhere. As well as moving to somewhere else within your country where paramedics are in demand and where you can have a better lifestyle that suits you more, you should consider whether you might want to move further afield. Many paramedics decide that they want to move to a foreign country and become a paramedic there, with many people volunteering and working overseas in healthcare. This can then help you to give your skills and expertise to a country that might be struggling to get the standard of healthcare that your home country has, and where healthcare professionals might be in high demand. Then, you should look at schemes that can help you to get abroad with the right visa and without any problems, and you might even be able to work on hospital ships that provide assistance to other countries that need it.
Think About Whether Being a Paramedic Is Still for You
Although you might always have been a paramedic since a young age, this does not mean that being a paramedic is all that you can be or want to be. Then, if you find that you are often reluctant to head to work, you should consider whether being a paramedic is still for you or not, or whether you want to look at other career options now. There is no shame in deciding that being a paramedic is no longer for you, and many people change careers into their 40s and 50s. Then, instead of staying in a role that you hate, you should think about the reasons why you are passionate about your job and why you do it. If you decide that these are not worth the stress and long hours of being a paramedic, you might then decide to look for alternative careers, whether in other roles in healthcare or whether these are in another sector that has always remained within the background of your life.
Specialize in a Certain Area
You might have once believed that being a paramedic is one role. However, this is not the case, and many different types of paramedics specialize in different roles and parts of medicine. Then, instead of sticking with the general knowledge that you have, if you want to take your career one step further, you should consider whether you might want to specialize in a certain area of medicine in the future. Specializing can help you to get specific roles that others are not qualified or knowledgeable enough for and can ensure that you can get the level of knowledge that you have always wanted about a part of medicine that you are extremely interested in. For instance, you might decide to specialize in mental health or critical care, or you might decide that you want to become a paramedic who deals with hazardous areas. This can then ensure that you will be able to get a job that is different from what you have always done, as well as the roles of the other paramedics around you.
Get New Skills
However, as a paramedic, there is a large number of skills that you can hone to improve your expertise and to ensure that you are always the right person for the job, and the skills that are required will change over time. As well as being able to drive and to communicate with your patients clearly, you also need to have a deep knowledge of the area that you are working in and the patience and empathy that are required to handle those who are distressed and who are ill. Then, by focusing on your soft skills as well as your hard skills, you will soon be able to become the best paramedic that you can be, and this will help you to be in the right position for a promotion when your manager is next looking for someone to fill higher or leadership roles.
Then, as a paramedic, you should try not to settle in your job role for too long without looking to progress or make any career moves, or else you may find that you quickly become dissatisfied. Instead, you should consider moving to another specialism or career, gaining new skills and qualifications, or simply looking for a promotion within your current workplace.
Hi, I’m the Founder and Developer of Paramedics World, a blog truly devoted to Paramedics. I am a Medical Lab Tech, a Web Developer and Bibliophiliac. My greatest hobby is to teach and motivate other peoples to do whatever they wanna do in life.