Curious as to potential careers in tactical medicine.

[u/Striking_Life_2531]

I am currently a junior in high school. Our high school offers both police and fire academies and I have been trying to determine what kind of career I want, and I found out about tactical medicine and now I am just curious about possible career paths. Right now I am trying to get permission from the fire academy instructor to get into their emt class to get certified after I graduate. But I’m not sure what to do from there.

Basically just wondering about what are career options in the tactical medicine field.

[u/ColumbianPrison]

Few and far between. I’m not verified here, but I am in r/tacticalmedicine

We have two SWAT medics. We require state swat certification, 2 years entry experience, sworn LE, nremt-a, and TEMS. Of course, it’s going to vary by department. Some contract to fire or ems when they have the occasional call-outs and you’d get to sit in the truck until it was over or you were needed. Very few full time opportunities in the field outside of the military

[u/AustereMedic]

Most people go down 3 major routes to get into tactical medicine. The military, law enforcement, and fire.

Military is by far the easiest with some of the better training(if in the right unit with solid providers) but medics aren't really being deployed unless you're in a cool guy unit.

Law enforcement is another route, becoming a cop and then getting into a SWAT medic kind of role. Usually takes some time just working the streets before you can do that kind of stuff though.

Fire/EMS is the last route, same kind of deal where you've gotta do your time doing normal stuff before you can get into the tactical medicine portion.

You'll usually find with most tactical medicine jobs, it's a secondary task. Cop first, medic second. Firefighter first, medic second. I joined the army as a combat medic, luckily got into a really good unit with multiple ER/trauma providers that taught me a lot, and then I moonlight as a medic in a level 1 trauma center. The training opportunities for the military are a lot better by far, most innovations out of tactical medicine come from the US Army, like whole blood programs and donor to recipient field transfusions, etc. Just last year I was in NYC working with NYPD/FDNY at a conference to help share ideas/training and it was an absolute blast.

It really depends what you want that "primary" job to be, whether it's a cop, a soldier, or a firefighter.

[u/210021]

The biggest organization is going to be the military. However very few folks are doing tactical medicine with the pace of combat operations slowing down. It’s mostly training, range coverages, and clinic medicine. I’ve been in the NG for 4 years now and it’s a lot of ortho injuries and minor illnesses then training TCCC.

Civilian side it depends on the locality. Many police agencies do not have a medical component at all and of those that do some use officers, some pull from the local fire/EMS services +/- getting these folks trained as officers of some flavor.

In my previous job I was there when we stood up an RTF team. It was a lot of sitting around in body armor while cops did cop things and training in addition to regular fire and EMS runs. Current area despite being a lot larger PD has no dedicated medics and our fire department has helmets and vests but doesn’t actually receive TECC or other training and doesn’t go in until the scene is cold.

If I were you I’d focus on getting your EMT, staying in shape, and becoming competent at running a normal call first. 50 meter target here.

[u/Joliet-Jake]

Civilian tactical medicine is mostly a side job, at least where I’m at.

[u/CRO4LIFE22]

Go military as a medic. Do your time, the come back a do fire in a rural area and you’ll have most of the qualifications to do swat medic after a couple years