Priapism - not too 'hard up' are you?
I am also an Intensive Care Paramedic, 20+ years in.
The base pay is nothing special. No-one ever gets into it for the coin. Overtime & penalties bump it up, but at the cost of family time or life-balance. I used to make a lot of $$ in rural / remote bases, but the constant on-call and subsequent fatigue was a killer. Would work a full day, then be On-Call overnight; routinely called-out and still have to front the next day - there wasn't anyone else to do it! The bucks were handy paying for my pilot training though!
Variety was great. One day doing helicopter duty, tasked out to the GBR for a stinger envenomation, next day working alone at a single officer station 100k from anywhere and managing an evolving MI...... sweeeet!
Hard yakka to get there - a 3 year degree, another 3-4 years of experience then an 18-month post-grad certificate. More again for aeromedical.
A lot of responsibility and accountability. A good operator needs great deal of technical knowledge, physical competence and instant recall of critical issues, an ability to prioritise and remain calm in a sometimes stressful environment, and a good understanding of people. In many ways comparable to aviation.
All-in-all, prefer flying. I am currently in a SPIFR ME Turbine gig. The challenge is every bit as great; the satisfaction just as intense. Don't get bled on as much either
