Career Projections with EMT Recertification Courses
Two years can pass by in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, it’s time to renew your EMT certification. To meet your EMT recertification requirement, you will need 40 continuing education hours or to pass an in-depth cognitive exam.
The future of EMT careers is bright, and if you’re looking to switch careers or get a promotion, having a current EMT certification can often be helpful in your newly chosen career path. Here are just a few reasons why you should sign up for your EMT recertification course.
Current Job Forecast for EMTs
You can rest assured that the EMT profession and the skills associated with EMT training aren’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of EMTs and paramedics is projected to grow 6% between 2019 and 2029. Despite a number of EMTs experiencing layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic, future projections have remained unchanged. In affected areas, unions are working closely with those in EMS fields to consider temporary reassignments to COVID-19 testing sites and other pandemic-related positions.
The demand for EMTs and other healthcare professionals is high and growing higher still in an effort to accommodate aging and growing populations. If you’re looking for job security, maintaining your EMT recertification will help ensure that you have the versatile skills and certification necessary to be part of the healthcare industry.
A Gateway to Other Careers
Another positive about working as an EMT is that it can provide many opportunities to advance your career. Perhaps you need a bigger paycheck to more adequately cover your expenses, more dependable and better hours, or maybe you are just starting to experience a little EMT burnout. Fortunately, there are many different career paths that an EMT can easily transition to.
If you are considering switching career paths and not working as an EMT any longer, you should still sign up for an EMT recertification course. Having an EMT certification can actually be really useful to you in your new career and may even set you apart from other applicants. The basic life-saving skills you learned in your EMT certification course transfer easily to other life-saving careers like firefighting, police, dispatch management, emergency room technician, and even the military. There’s a long list of alternative jobs for EMTs and paramedics where maintaining your EMT certification would come in handy.
Don’t let all of your hard work to become certified go to waste.
How to Get Your EMT Recertification
Nationally registered EMTs can recertify in one of two ways. First, you can take and pass a cognitive exam. Though taking one test to renew your certification may sound easy, be sure that you are well prepared. You can only take the test within a certain window of time and you will only have one chance to pass it and prove that you have retained sufficient knowledge to continue working as an EMT.
The second way you can get your EMT recertification is to complete 40 hours of continuing education. These hours are divided up into 3 components: national, local and individual. The national component consists of 20 hours of specific courses that all EMTs nationwide are required to take. The remaining time is split evenly between local courses determined by the state in which you work and individual courses that you get to select yourself.
One of the easiest ways to get qualifying continuing education hours is to sign up for an EMT recertification course. At CareerCert, we want to make sure that you have everything you need to be successful. That’s why we offer an online EMT refresher course that meets all of the national components required by the NCCP.
Sources
- Emergency Medical Technician Recertification Information. NREMT.org. Accessed Dec 10, 2020. https://www.nremt.org/rwd/public/document/emt-recert#:~:text=Nationally%20Registered%20EMTs%20(NREMT)%20are,or%20by%20completing%20continuing%20education.
- EMTs and Paramendics. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accessed Dec. 10, 2020. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/emts-and-paramedics.htm#:~:text=in%20May%202019.-,Job%20Outlook,skills%20of%20EMTs%20and%20paramedics.
- 15 Alternative Jobs for EMTs and Paramedics in 2020. UnitekEMT.com. Accessed Dec 10, 2020. https://www.unitekemt.com/blog/alternative-jobs-for-emts-paramedics/
