Business & Finance

Nurses can certainly learn the tasks required for basic trauma life support, which would be needed for a rescue worker. I have taken BTLS and ATLS as a nurse, so it certainly is possible. However, it is not a normal task for an RN, and being an RN would not be helpful in obtaining a position as a firefighter.

Additionally, since the national average salary for a fire fighter is significantly less than the national average for an RN, it would seem to be a waste of the education to make an average of $20,000 less per year in a much more dangerous occupation.

The job description calls for paramedics (or EMTs) so that is what they can legally hire; they can not hire RNs. Further paramedics do have training that most RNs do not get in their nursing training (you do not learn to intubate in nursing school for example). The jobs are different & they are not interchangeable.

I'm from Southern California and trying to become a fire fighter. However, it's extremely competitive. And I know most departments require you to be at least an EMT if not a Paramedic. But after doing some research into becoming an EMT/Paramedic, I began to think about becoming an RN, which would be a step above Paramedic. Which I would hope to give me an advantage when it comes to being hired. So this is where my question comes into play. Would a fire department want to hire an RN due to the higher level of medical training, or would they rather hire EMT's/Paramedics because they have more "field training?"