North Carolina Counties Struggle to Find Paramedics
Rampant population growth across the region means the area needs more paramedics. Now, though, many are leaving.
Oct. 5--Rampant population growth across the region means the area needs more paramedics. Now, though, many are leaving for other health-care professions and fewer qualified people are applying to replace them.
"Right after 9-11 there were tons of applicants for public safety jobs," said Alan Thompson, Cabarrus County's emergency services director. "Now a lot of those people are leaning toward jobs with better pay."
That's putting the squeeze on departments in Cabarrus, Stanly and Rowan counties, where officials are ramping up and rethinking their recruiting efforts to fill vacancies and the new positions that are needed to support growth.
In Cabarrus, it's not a big problem yet. The county Emergency Services Department has 62 full-time and 38 part-time positions and currently there are only three full-time job vacancies. But officials would like to see an increase in qualified applicants and more retention of longtime paramedics as the area grows and more positions are added, Thompson said.
"Filling the part- and full-time slots gets harder and harder," said Dave Montague, Stanly County's emergency services director. "If we could put a finger on how to retain people, we would do it."
Over the past decade, about 20 Cabarrus County paramedics have left to work at area hospitals as nurses, critical-care transport team members or emergency room attendants. Not long ago, Durham County lost 33 paramedics in three or four years, Montague said. They left for jobs that typically offer better pay, better hours and weekends off, Thompson said.
With the loss of about four people a year, he's temporarily filling vacancies with part-timers. Many are emergency medical technicians with less experience than paramedics.
And many who start as EMTs use their positions as stepping stones to other things. Some more rural departments, such as Rowan and Stanly, are losing paramedics to busier counties, where the call volumes are higher and they can get more experience, Montague said.
Officials regionwide are looking for ways to keep paramedics. For example, they are improving work schedules to make the positions more appealing, Montague said. In many counties, paramedics now work 24 hours and then get two days off. Increasing salaries, which start at about $28,000, also could help, he said.
"One of the things was, as you get older, it's harder to recover from 24-hour shifts," Montague said.
Cabarrus County runs 10 ambulances out of seven stations to serve about 150,000 people across the county. But growth in certain areas is increasing calls and prompting the need for more stations. The county recently added a station in northwest Cabarrus that eventually will be housed in a new fire station being built by Kannapolis, Thompson said.
To keep up with growth in the southwest near Harrisburg, the county will consider adding another station sometime next year. The new station would require hiring six more paramedics, he said.
Victoria Cherrie: 704-786-2185
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