Circle of life(savers)
Circle of life(savers)
ER Doctor
Those who want to become emergency room doctors have to prepare for a long haul, with a high bar for education and considerable workplace demands.
Dr. Chad Sheldon, 30, has worked in Moses Cone Hospital’s emergency department for three months. He took up a gauntlet typical for those in the medical profession.
Requirements: Doctors go to college for four years, followed by four years of medical school. Sheldon did both his undergraduate and medical school work at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. He then went through a one-year internship, then another year of residency — the stage at which a new doctor works under the supervision of an experienced physician.
The internship can be particularly grueling, with interns putting in as much as 80 hours a week. Upon graduation from residency, most doctors take an exam certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. It’s not mandatory to be board certified, but it’s the professional standard.
Pay range: A decade of preparation pays off financially for doctors. Salaries for emergency physicians run from $200,000 to $250,000 a year.
The bottom line: Educational requirements and a challenging residency may seem like trials by fire, but then again, so is the job.
“There’s plenty of stress and you have to be able to think on your feet and be able to deal with a wide variety of patients and staff,” Sheldon says.
The hours typically settle down over time. Sheldon now averages 36 to 40 hours a week, but has to be flexible according to the demands of patients. His schedule includes nights, weekends and holidays.
For those who think they may be interested, he suggests volunteering in a hospital first. After becoming a volunteer, request assignment to the ER. Then think long and hard about the commitment involved.
“You really can’t choose a career like this without experiencing it firsthand,” he says. “It’s a long road to go through without knowing for sure that’s what you want to do.”
911
When you have an emergency, the first person you may talk to is Kimberly Hooker.
Hooker is an emergency communications specialist with Guilford County Metro 911. She has worked in the field for 18 years, all of them in the county.
If you’re easily rattled, you might not want her job.
“Patience is probably one on the main things we need,” says Hooker, 41. “Each call is different. Some of our elderly callers, it takes them a minute to tell you what you need to help.”
Those who take 911 calls must be prepared for a daily deluge. A light day may mean 150 calls per employee. More than 200 calls could come in during a heavy-volume shift.
Requirements: Applicants for these jobs must be 21, U.S. citizens with no felony record, and have high school diplomas or GEDs. Metro 911 prefers candidates with experience with Microsoft software.
Job candidates also must go through a test of multitasking skills, along with a personal history questionnaire with basic background questions. A second test probes a person’s psychological makeup, whether they’re suited for the long hours in a confined space.
The final step is an oral board job interview, where three interviewers ask the same 10 questions of each applicant. Their questions probe some of the familiar territory of job seekers, such as previous job history, but also zero in on how candidates handle stress.
Shifts run 12 hours. Workweeks go two days on, two off; three on, two off; and then repeat. Every other weekend is a three-day weekend.
Pay range: $29,025 to $38,700
The bottom line: If you feel greatly deprived if you can’t celebrate all of your holidays with family, this job isn’t for you. Emergencies don’t take holidays, so neither can 911 workers. Also, “it’s not for someone who becomes easily hostile or irate, and it’s not flexible,” Hooker says.
For those who can handle it, 911 work offers personal rewards. “I like being able to help people,” she says. “This is not a job where you’re going to get immediate gratification, but you feel like you’ve helped someone during the day.”Text200 calls could come in during a heavy-volume shift.
Nurse
Jeanine Cross of Moses Cone Hospital has worked in nursing for 30 years, 19 of them in the emergency room. When she studied at the University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg, she planned to be a doctor.
In the 1970s, the opportunities for women doctors were just beginning to blossom. But she discovered that women in the profession still struggled with balance in their personal lives.
“Two female doctors discouraged me, saying you couldn’t have a career as a mother and a doctor,” says Cross, 52. She went on to get a Bachelor of Science in nursing and became a registered nurse (RN).
“I settled for nursing and I’m glad I did it,” she says.
Those considering a nursing career can volunteer at a hospital to see what they’re getting into. Some programs offer students and others the opportunity to “shadow” a working nurse.
Requirements: Education in nursing spans several levels. A person may become a registered nurse by going through a two-year program at a community college, then passing a licensure exam. Further education may enhance one’s résumé. Nurses can enrich their careers and command higher salaries with a bachelor of science degree, like Cross has, a master’s or even a Ph.D., which can also qualify you for jobs teaching at the university level.
Training doesn’t end, however, when a nurse is hired. Nurses take continuing education in such areas as stroke, cardiac and trauma certification. Cone pays its employees for taking such classes. And nurses need considerable seasoning before they go into an ER role.
“I love ER nursing, but I don’t think that’s the place to start,” Cross said. She suggests those considering ER might work on a medical surgical floor, and then maybe move to critical care.
“By then, you’ve learned how to prioritize your care so it won’t become as much as of a reality problem (in the ER),” she says.
Pay range: Hours and shifts vary greatly in the profession. The midpoint hourly pay is $27.30, with a maximum of $33.60, plus a shift differential of $3.75 for evenings, and $4 for nights. The rate of pay is based on years of experience. Cone offers a Worked Hours Reward Program, with the opportunity to earn an additional $4,125 per year based on the number of hours worked each pay period.
The bottom line: ER care often requires decisions about who needs the most care the quickest. It’s a stressful environment, but it has its advantages. The ER is a crossroads, where most patients either move “upstairs” for extended stays or go home. As such, a nurse may find that his or her empathy adds to the stress in units where mortality rates are higher than in the ER. When Cross worked in an intensive care unit, she took her work home and even had nightmares about it.
She sleeps better after her shifts in Cone’s emergency department. “It’s not easy but it’s very rewarding at the end of the day,” she says.
Paramedics
You’ll find paramedics on the scene of a medical emergency. Among other duties, they help treat and stabilize patients, in some cases providing on-the-spot treatment, as well as assisting in ambulances on the way to the emergency room.
John Goldean, 44, is a paramedic and captain with Guilford County Emergency Medical Services. He’s worked in the field for 18 years, starting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a couple of years before moving to Guilford County.
Requirements: It’s possible to become a paramedic after nine months of education, with state certification, but most paramedics go on to get a two-year associate degree.
Goldean got his at the Medical Arts Training Center in Margate, Fla.
Shifts run 12 hours, with workweeks a combination of three- and two-day shifts, with three days off on alternating weeks.
Pay range: For full-time paramedics, salaries range from about $34,000 to $58,000.
The bottom line: It’s an excellent career for people with type-A personalities, Goldean says.
“You’ve got to be able to take charge,” he says. “You’ve got to be physically fit and capable to do lifting. You’ve got to be able to be quick on your feet, and think and solve problems.”
Knowing what to do by the book is one thing. Applying those lessons when a car has slid down the snow on an embankment at 3 a.m. is another.
Goldean advises young people considering this career to take a lot of math, science and biology in high school. Guilford County EMS offers a ride-along program, which allows laypeople to get a firsthand look at the job and decide if it’s something they want to pursue as a career. Goldean says he’s more than satisfied with his choice to become a paramedic.
“It’s a great job,” he says. “You go out and help somebody every single day.”
EMT
Brandon Dent worked at a bank until a couple of years ago when he decided to pursue certification as a first responder. A hiking enthusiast, Dent wanted to be the go-to person if anything happened to his buddies on the trail.
“I love backpacking and hiking and wanted to be able to take a group of my friends backpacking and to ensure everyone’s safety,” says Dent, 26. His first-responder training taught him skills such as stopping bleeding, treating poisoning, and addressing heat- and cold-related emergencies.
After that, Dent, who has a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications from Elon University, found that he liked emergency medicine far more than banking and decided he wanted to become a doctor. So he enrolled in the pre-med program at UNCG.
In the meantime, he wanted to get a foot in the door by becoming an emergency medical technician (EMT).
Requirements: Most EMT candidates spend a semester in a program at a community college. But Dent opted for a full-time program (eight hours for five days a week) that finished in five weeks at Landmark Learning in Cullowhee, a partner of the nonprofit National Outdoor Leadership School.
He obtained an EMT-Basic certification, one of three levels of EMTs, then got his first job at Moses Cone Hospital.
EMTs must have the basic certification and one year of experience before taking courses to become certified as EMT-Intermediate, which typically requires one to two semesters of further education. Becoming an EMT-Paramedic, the highest level (see next capsule), requires an additional year and a half to two years of coursework.
Pay range: EMTs at all levels make from $24,000 to $58,000
The bottom line: Dent has been working at Cone for a little more than a year, helping doctors and nurses carry out tasks like performing electrocardiograms, taking vital signs, obtaining urine and stool specimens, and inserting catheters. He transfers patients from one floor to another, and cleans rooms to prepare for new patients.
He is now working only one day a week, as his employer has made allowances to help him pursue his medical career. Before starting school he would work 12-hour shifts, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (or vice versa), with optional weekend shifts.
Dent says his work requires “someone who is compassionate and has the ability to remain calm in the middle of an emergency, and works well with others,” including those of different socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures.
Dent’s EMT job keeps him focused as he pursues his goal of becoming a doctor. “My experience working with people,” he says, “helps me remember I’m working toward a greater goal than just organic chemistry or physics.”
A Guilford County Mobile Intensive Care Unit.
A Guilford County Mobile Intensive Care Unit.
Nancy Sidelinger Special Sections Photographer
