By Eric Ferreri
Copyright 2006 The News and Observer
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
DURHAM, N.C. — Nicole Higginbotham loves being a paramedic. But she also loves making a decent living.
In the end, her head trumped her heart.
Certified as both a paramedic and a nurse, Higginbotham decided recently to leave her hectic, rewarding EMS life behind when she and her husband move to Texas. Instead, she will work full time as a pediatric nurse practitioner.
It wasn’t an easy choice, but money talks.
“I like my job on the ambulance much more,” said Higginbotham, 34, who has worked for Durham County EMS for 10 years. “I like the work, the environment, the patient care, but from a financial point of view, I cannot go backwards.”
Hers is a common refrain among paramedics in North Carolina, many of whom hopscotch jobs from one county to another or into new professions, lured by the promise of a fatter paycheck and better hours. Quite often, a paramedic can make twice as much working as a nurse or respiratory therapist, or in some other health-related field.
The resulting shortage in paramedics has driven up overtime costs and forced agencies to put fewer ambulances on the street.
Paramedics have skills that translate to other medical fields that pay much better. Higginbotham earns $13.95 an hour as a part-time Durham County paramedic and $32 an hour as a nurse practitioner in Duke Hospital’s emergency room. If that elementary math isn’t reason enough, the nursing shifts are shorter and don’t change every couple of weeks as they do with EMS.
A lack of upward mobility is also a consideration. Being a paramedic is stressful and physically demanding, and Higginbotham doesn’t want to be doing the same thing she does now in 20 years.
“There’s no real ladder, which exists in nursing and other emergency fields; there’s not far to go,” she said. “You should not be 52 and lifting stretchers.”
County retirement plans are often a disincentive as well. In Durham County, employees must work at least 25 years and be at least 60 to retire with full medical benefits — a steep mountain to climb in a profession where back, knee and joint pain is pervasive.
With many paramedics leaving the profession, EMS squads are relying more and more on those who are too addicted to the rush to do anything else.
Tony Fraccola, 41, has been a paramedic for 20 years — the last 16 at Wake County EMS — and likes the job too much to leave it. He acknowledges the stress and the threat of burnout but says those perils exist in most emergency medicine professions. He’s so positive about his job that he looks forward to next year, when his 17-year-old son becomes old enough to join him in emergency services.
“It’s getting out there and helping people at their worst,” he said. “No matter what it is, it’s an emergency to them. You come home feeling good. Tired, but good.”
Related story: http://www.ems1.com/news/110986