Interview with EMT Michael Wright

The ambulance industry began a mere 40 years ago when it was found that in 1965 more than 52 million accidents left Americans either dead, crippled, or otherwise seriously injured. Plans for the design of the first ambulances began immediately, and today it is hard to imagine how anyone ever survived without them. If you like helping people and have the ability to stay calm and think quick in stressful situations, this just might be the career you are looking for.

Michael Wright is an Emergency Medical Technician for Linn County in North-Central Missouri. He has been doing this for over 10 years and loves being an EMT. Teen Trend tracked him down between calls to ask him a few questions about this exciting and heroic profession.

TTM: How old where you when you decided you wanted to be an EMT?

Mike: I was 20 years old and had just joined the Marceline Fire Dept as a Firefighter. After working as a firefighter for about a year one of my fellow coworkers who was already an EMT was responding to medical calls to help out until the ambulance arrived (our closest Ambulance is 12 miles away.) I started helping him out on calls and he got me interested in the medical side of the job and at that point I knew this was the profession for me; That fall I enrolled in an EMT class to begin my training.

TTM: What kind of training do you have?

Mike: It is a 6 month class that teaches you all the procedures you need to know about Basic Life Support, Airway Management, and Trauma. Don't let the short class time fool you, they cram A LOT of info into that 6 months. But I feel the best learning experience is actually working on the ambulance. About 70% of all significant knowledge of this job comes from your peers that you work with everyday. Kind of like "on the job training." After you get done with your classes you have to take the State Emergency Medical Technician Exam which consists of hands on practical testing stations and then a written test.

TTM: What is the best part of your job?