A career that has always been highly sought-after has been being a paramedic driver. It’s a popular occupation for very good reason. After all, you can ask any driver why they decided to become one. Not only is it highly rewarding, but it comes with a lot of variety. It’s not a job that will have you experiencing the same day over and over again. You will continue to learn new things as you earn and while you may experience some lows, you will balance them out with some incredible highs. You will have a lot of teammates that will give you a sort of togetherness that you will have with your coworkers that you wouldn’t normally be able to get and enjoy with other professions. Best of all, when you decide to leave the job, you won’t lose the relationships you built. When you think about it like this, you aren’t just signing up for a job. It much more of a calling that you are answering. With COVID-19 only shinning even more light on how important health care professionals are, there has never been a better time to get into the field.
How Long Does It Take?
You may be wondering how long it takes to become one. Unfortunately, it’s not something that happens quickly. For one thing, every driver of an ambulance will need to go through paramedic training. Therefore, you can expect to spend a lot of time doing the necessary medical training to become one. Typically, this is broken down into different segments. You will be working on the job and going through the schooling required. This will help you learn how to deal with the various situations that you will come across. You can expect it to take around 5 years to complete the totality of the training. By the end of your training and schooling, you can expect to have a degree in paramedic science.
What Kind Of Training Do I Require?
Along with all of the medical training that you will need, you will need to get an HGV driver training license. You will need this because every ambulance maintains an HGV classification. Therefore, you will need to showcase that you are aware of how to operate these vehicles safely. More specifically, you will need to acquire your C1 license. This is a license that will enable you to get behind the wheel of a vehicle that is up to 7.5 tonnes. An ambulance fits within this limit as it weighs around 5 tonnes. You will not be able to become a paramedic if you don’t have this license. You will need to be legally able to drive the vehicle itself to become one. While you won’t have a specific shift that you have to drive the vehicle, you will need to take turns with the other people you will be working with. Therefore, you will need to have your legal C1 license to become one. What is the best way to achieve this you might be wondering? By signing up with a training centre, you should be able to go through the requisite training that can be scheduled around your current training to become a paramedic. You can even choose to go through a much more intensive course that will enable you to get qualified to drive one in as little as 5 days total.
Can I Just Drive An Ambulance?
To become an ambulance driver, you will typically need to be at least qualified as am ambulance care assistant of some sort. This includes either being an emergency care assistant, a patient transport driver, an ambulance technician or something else. Therefore, you won’t be able to just qualify as a driver and that’s it. You will need to work in other areas and you will typically be required to give some sort of patient treatment. At a minimum, you should anticipate having to help patients load into and out of the ambulance and you will need to have first-hand first aid training and knowledge.