Firefighter
At first, Mike Gnitecki was a volunteer firefighter. He loved the variety and the excitement of the job. A former public school teacher, he decided to go through firefighter training after learning he didn’t need a degree to work full time in emergency services.
To become a firefighter with Emergency Medical Technician training he undergo approximately 12 weeks of training and education. Other departments (often the higher paying ones) also require paramedic training which can range from nine to 18 months.Gnitechki remembers arriving to work early as a paramedic for East Texas Medical. He and his team responded to a patient who had no pulse. The patience was stuck in ventricular fibrillation, a rhythm that doesn’t allow movement of blood to the organs or brain. They shocked the patient, performed CPR and administered life-saving medications before transporting the patient to the hospital where the man’s pulse returned.
A week later, the patient’s family surprised the emergency team with gifts. Gnitechki said, ‘The best gift was hearing that the patient had fully recovered. All of the past training was completely worth it.’ Towns can be incredibly pround and fond of their firefighters, especially the town that firefighters all over the country have call the ‘most hospitable’ one.Employed by both East Texas Medical Center and Gladewater Fire Department, Gnitechki is allowed to pick up shifts in accordance with his schedule. As both a firefighter and paramedic, he enjoys the opportunity to make medical observations. He said, ‘You can make a big impact in this job if you work hard.’Salary: Full-time firefighters earned an average $47,720 per year, as of May 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Suggested skills: integrity, sensitivity, composure, reassuring manner, resilience, ability to work as a team, good communicator
