• This topic has 8 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by Drac.
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  • What's Life Like in the Ambulance Service?
  • wanmankylung
    Free Member

    It’s something that I’ve applied for several times in the past without success and I’m considering it again.

    What are the pros and cons of it?

    Cheers.

    qwerty
    Free Member

    Houns
    Full Member

    Crap

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    TomB
    Full Member

    For me, great. Work 5 minutes from home, in the Lakes, 3 and a bit 12 hour shifts a week leaves plenty of play time. Paramedics are in short supply, so jobs available all over the country. Will try to post a more informative reply tonight.

    niksnr
    Free Member

    Depends which part of the country you’re in and which Ambulance Service you’re applying for. Current targets are based around response times where I am. It’s all wrong IMO. Sometimes you get a first responder, other times you get a paramedic. On a fair number of occasions a manager has had to respond to casualties involved in road traffic collisions due to lack of personnel, even though they haven’t practised frontline for 15+ years. They met their response target though so that’s alright!!!!!!!!

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    Don’t apply for a position with a trust that has a prison under it’s care, you’ll spend half your time treating cons who’ve keeled over after taking some NPS or another!
    I should say ‘trying’ to treat them seeing as no-one has any idea whats actually in them!

    penguinni
    Full Member

    Similar position here.

    I applied to NIAS for an Ambulance Care Attendant role and was informed last week I had been successful at interview. Hopefully wont have too long to wait before being offered a training couse date. At this stage I dont plan to pusue the paramedic role but will probably seek to upskill at some point.

    And if anyone has any info on the current recruitment process Id love to hear it…….information from NIAS ia a tad scarce!!

    notmyrealname
    Free Member

    It’s that same as any other job, you get good places to work and you get bad places to work.

    In London at the moment we’ve got quite a lot of staff leaving and we’re very short of staff. If you avoid all of the politics involved in the job it’s not a bad place to work and the lack of staff means plenty of overtime if you want it.
    Quite a few friends have left and moved to South East Coast and East of England Ambulance Services and they think it’s great working there, much better working environment than London and better career progression for them if that’s what they want.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Just stumbled across this.

    In all honestly it’s great. Good companionship, meet some lovely people at work, massively rewarding.

    However, long days at work 12 hours turn into 15 hours regularly, 8-9 hours without a break is not unusual, you’ll be bounced from one case to another, you’ll see life at it’s worst, you’ll have to tell people that their loved ones have gone, you’ll deal with some tragedies and some sights no one should see.

    The pay is good after a few years especially with the shift enhancement (Conservatives want this removed though, ****), NHS pension is Ok but not what it was still a pension though, annual leave builds up well after a few years, shift work gives you good time off, it’s changing all the time and we’re on the cusp of a big change.

    I’m in a transition stage of becoming a manager stepping down from frontline duties, over 20 years of shift work, physical and mental abuse have taken a toll and I’m ready to move on. I now provide managerial support on with others to get 24/7 managers out their for staff welfare.

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