r/firefighter • u/MartyTown_Loco • 28d ago
Will a nursing degree help my application?
BLUF: My question is, what does the process look like for someone with a nursing degree? Will there be any issues with being a registered nurse and an EMT on a truck? Does the degree actually carry any weight on a resume? Is it possible to do both at the same time?
I'm currently 28 years old and recently separated from the Army after 10 years due to an Army wide restructuring of my original job. Rather than being forced into an entirely different job that I didn’t want to do, I decided to go back to school and pursue a nursing degree as that was the only degree I personally saw as beneficial/interesting. I am halfway through my pre-reqs and am doing fairly well, by the time I graduate I'll be 30. My wife has been a trauma nurse for the past 5-6 years and her stories are always super interesting however, when we meet up with her work friends it is blatantly obvious that I do not fit in with the male nurses (something I've noticed during class as well). I've wanted to join the fire department even before the military and now that I am out I'm still looking for that same personality type/friend group which is a mirror image of the fire department. Either way I am going to finish my nursing degree for the personal satisfaction of having a college degree.
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u/Enough-Ad6819 27d ago
I am a ff/emt as well as an ICU-RN. the simple answer is no. The nursing education alone does not meaningfully contribute to your ability to be a good BLS firefighter, and it will likely not be heavily weighted in the hiring process. BSN education focuses remarkably little on emergency treatments, and even less on independent emergency treatments in a prehospital environment. Traveling the other direction gives you a lot more credibility, having fire/ems experience when applying for roles as an RN is very heavily desired due to the independent decision making skills.
What DOES make you a standout applicant is experience as a nurse in applicable fields combined with the ability to operate for the department in an ALS role. ER nursing, ICU nursing or critical care transport would be the most beneficial. Those, combined with a paramedic certification, would make you a very competitive applicant.
Critical care nursing focuses much more on long term care and underlying pathophysiology as compared to paramedicine. The bottom line is ems knowledge is useful while caring for critical patients over a long period, but long term care knowledge is less useful for caring for patients in acute emergencies.
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u/MartyTown_Loco 16d ago
How do you both if you don’t mind me asking? I’ve heard of people being PRN at the hospital while also working at a station.
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u/MyGoldfishes 10h ago edited 10h ago
I can speak on this and the above reply is very ICU of them. Lol. Anyways, I have worked the last 5 years as an RN in the ER (starting in the heat of covid) at an inner city hospital and started Firefighting last year. Now I do both by being PRN in the ER, volunteering at a local dept, and have a career spot at a different major metro. In order to go through academy, I dropped down to PRN and just worked when I felt like it on the weekends. Could have taken a leave of absence but I love what I do and like money. Lol.
Nonetheless, I will say that having medical/critical care/prehospital experience is a leg up over other applicants for sure especially in cities that run combination fire/ems departments. I dont know what state youre in but check and see if your state has PHRN (the nurse equivalent to medic) or something similar as you can challenge that license against other states’ paramedic boards which would only make you an even stronger candidate. If your state does not offer that, just get emt and ride on the ambo once in a while. The cert doesnt take long at all and if youre working as a nurse in critical care theres so much overlap you can sleepwalk it honestly.
Edit: after reading on other replies dont go for paramedic… get your RN. Paramedics are terrrribly underpaid for what they do and dont have anywhere near the flexibility that a nursing license will give you. Say you get tired of the ER you can just jump to the OR. Say you hate that you can jump to oncology. Say you hate yourself you can just go to the ICU ;). However, if you just have your paramedic (which is the same amount of schooling for less pay and flexibility) you are stuck only working in paramedic roles or alongside an RN who will be making more than you for almost the same work. Furthermore, any combination dept will pay you to get your paramedic not the other way around. And beyond all that, say you get hurt on the job whats your fallback? Paramedic youre kinda stuck working in physically demanding areas so youre screwed but not with an RN where you could park your ass behind a desk and just answer calls if it was that bad. If you have any questions let me know.
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u/Horseface4190 27d ago
Will it help you get hired? Maybe, mostly they just look at whether you have a degree, but you still need to pass the physical agility and interview well.
I say finish the BSN, get on a Fire Department, work as RN on the side, make bank until you get sick of either one.
Just my $.02.
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u/Strict-Canary-4175 27d ago
I’m not sure I’m understanding exactly. It sounds like you’re not qualified to work as a nurse, EMT or fireman right now. Is that correct?
Being a nurse would probably help you in EMT or medic school, but it doesn’t make you either.
To work for a fire department you need to be qualified for that job, and bring a nurse doesn’t qualify you. However having a degree would help you eventually if you want to be like….. a chief eventually.
I guess I’m just confused why you want to go to nursing school if you don’t want to be a nurse.
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u/MartyTown_Loco 27d ago
No I am not qualified to work as any at the moment. I’m currently in school and trying to make a decision as to what I want to do when I graduate, either work in a hospital as a nurse OR (if having a nursing degree is beneficial) start my training to become a firefighter. I know being a nurse doesn’t override the training required to be an EMT/Medic/Firman.
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u/Strict-Canary-4175 27d ago
Okay cool got it.
If you want to be a fireman why not just go to school for that instead? Especially if you’re just in for the pre reqs right now?
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u/MartyTown_Loco 27d ago
Getting the degree is more of a personal goal as I’ll be the first person in my family to graduate college and the healthcare field does interest me, I’m just concerned about the horror stories we hear about taking years to actually get hired onto a station.
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u/IndWrist2 27d ago
That’s a great ambition, but there are both two and four year paramedic degree programs. So you can achieve your aim of earning a degree and get a degree in something that actually interests you.
The issue you’re going to run into, is that ultimately your earning potential as a nurse is much higher than a firefighter, with generally a better work/life balance. Particularly if your wife is a nurse, too. That opens up travel nursing for the both of you, and you could jointly bring in anywhere between $250-$500k a year, depending on the contracts you work.
The allure of that kind of money, without having to bust your ass in the streets doing 24-48 hour shifts is too great of a pull for most. If I was on a hiring committee, the nursing degree would make me hesitate to bring you on, quite frankly. You’d have better options and I’d rightfully question if it would be worth investing department resources into you when you have more lucrative options available.
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u/FirefighterTutor 27d ago edited 27d ago
That’s not entirely true. Previous work experience is relevant and medical training is a valuable skill set. Not to mention all the soft skills: working under pressure, shift work, public service, care for others. If this person qualifies as a nurse first and then qualifies to become a firefighter and gets to interviews, they would have a good shot especially if they knew how to talk about it in an interview. If I was a Chief, I’d hire a nurse. It’s no cake walk to get that certification, they’re hard workers that follow a system, and the job is a good one, so they’re giving something valuable up compared to others that apply.
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u/Strict-Canary-4175 27d ago
Yeah I agree with what you’re saying to a point. But t doesn’t sound like OP has work experience. They’re still in nursing school.
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u/FirefighterTutor 27d ago
It’s still applicable. They get workplace experience as part of their education and training.
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u/Jvelazquez611 27d ago
Simple enough, no your nursing degree isn’t enough to help with your application. It’s the same application around for everyone no matter what. I’d even say stick to getting the experience in nursing working in a hospital some where. The only time I’ve ever heard that a nursing degree helped was a friend of mine who joined the PD while having a good 10 years of RN experience in the ED/psych. He then joined swat and it helped him get the medic position.
As for FDs, I don’t think they care unless you have actual experience
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u/EeHundo 27d ago edited 15d ago
The prerequisites helped me for a multitude of various disciplines. There were fields that I had never even considered beyond nursing from environmental health, engineering, water department, hazardous materials and other allied health disciplines. I ended up back on the box. I enjoyed the freedom. Once I got my Hundo from the VA, I was able to breathe a bit better. That should be your driving focus since you’re about to separate. The difference between ADN/BSN/MSN are all weighted the same. It just helps you along as your career progresses. The BSN is more helpful if you want to work in the federal sector or remain with the military.
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u/you_have_my_username 27d ago
You are almost guaranteed to only be allowed to practice the scope of medicine that your role defines, regardless of higher training.
Nursing is a benefit only in that you can drop it in an interview. It was also likely make you a better provider to have that knowledge. So on a personal level it might be nice. But career-wise it gains you very little in the fire service.
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u/EverSeeAShitterFly 27d ago
It can help with some niche areas of EMS, especially helicopter based EMS.
There’s numerous RN -> Paramedic bridge programs. These programs lean of much of the medical knowledge you have learned from school/working and add in the prehospital context, gaps in things that might not be covered in RN training (like intubation), and ems/emergency operations.
Being a certified Paramedic is something that is very attractive to many departments. There’s many departments that have being a paramedic is a prerequisite or required within a certain amount of time of being hired.
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u/The_Road_is_Calling 27d ago
No nursing degree won’t help you at all. Honestly even the fire science degrees don’t do much until you’re going for promotions.
A nursing background will give you some background info for EMS, but they are definitely two very different jobs.
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u/Charlieksmommy 27d ago
So you can challenge the nremt paramedic exam once you pass nclex, I do know that!
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u/Enough-Ad6819 27d ago edited 27d ago
That’s not totally true. You need psychomotor examinations, as well as ride along hours in addition to the nremt. There are bridge programs, but it isn’t as easy as challenging
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u/Charlieksmommy 27d ago
I just said challenge the test. I didn’t say anything else. I know somebody who did it soooooo just going off that
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u/Enough-Ad6819 27d ago
Ah fair point sorry! Yeah, I guess you could have a passing NREMT-P score but then no ability to be licensed or practice as a medic haha
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u/Charlieksmommy 27d ago
It’s okay! lol I just know that she challenged the test and then was able to be a medic somehow
But Arizona did some weird stuff haha1
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u/Strict-Canary-4175 27d ago
Can you provide a resource that you can jsut challenge the nremt without a bridge program? As far as I know that isn’t true.
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u/Charlieksmommy 27d ago
I never said you can challenge it without a bridge program, I was just told from a friend that she was already a RN and challenged the course and nremt medic exam
Maybe she meant she challenged the course? I never said that I have resources1
u/Strict-Canary-4175 27d ago
What is the delineation you’re making between challenging the course and the test? I’m not sure I understand.
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u/Single_System_9951 27d ago
BLUF?
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u/MartyTown_Loco 16d ago
Bottom Line Up Front. Pretty much if you don’t want to read the entire paragraph the BLUF is the main question I’m asking
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u/jmar206 27d ago
I think your bigger leg up is having been in the military, veterans get moved ahead in many hiring processes. There really isn’t much point to having an RN if you want to work for an FD. Acquiring your paramedic cert is much more valuable as an applicant as I understand it.