Volunteer as an EMT or medical first responder

In many communities, especially rural ones, the first medical help to arrive comes from neighbors who volunteer. In rural areas an ambulance can take much longer than a few minutes to arrive, and a volunteer with medical training who lives nearby can make a real difference until it gets there. The work also builds experience that counts toward a career in medicine or the fire service.

Why medical volunteers matter

Help is farther away in rural areas. In a national study of 911 calls, the median wait for an ambulance was 13 minutes in rural areas and 6 minutes in suburban and urban areas. Nearly 1 in 10 rural calls waited almost half an hour.¹
Some places have no ambulance nearby. About 4.5 million Americans live more than 25 minutes from an ambulance station, 2.3 million of them in rural counties. Rural Oregon and Washington are among the places where these "ambulance deserts" are most common.²
Rural EMS depends on volunteers. About 53% of rural EMS agencies are staffed by volunteers, compared with 14% in urban areas, and more than 70% of those rural agencies say they have trouble finding volunteers.³

Many fire departments, especially rural ones, have no ambulance of their own and no medical help close by. A volunteer who lives in the community and is trained in CPR, bleeding control, oxygen and using a defibrillator can begin care while the ambulance is still on the way, when every minute counts.

Where you can volunteer

Your local fire department. Most fire departments answer medical calls, and in many of them medical calls outnumber fires. Some train their volunteers as firefighter/EMTs; others take volunteers who respond only to medical calls. Some run their own ambulances.
Ambulance services and EMS agencies. Some communities have a volunteer or nonprofit ambulance service, or a hospital or county EMS agency, that looks for volunteers too.
Other medical response teams. Search and rescue teams and disaster medical teams also need volunteers with medical training.

Only interested in medical calls? Volunteer positions for medical calls only are less common than firefighter positions, and many departments don't advertise them. If you want to help in EMS but not fight fires, contact your local fire department and offer to volunteer on medical calls. Many departments, especially rural ones, need more medical help, so there may well be a place for you.

Do you need medical training first?

Often, yes. Volunteer positions that answer only medical calls usually ask for an Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) or EMT license before you start.

Some departments do train new volunteers, usually as part of joining as a volunteer firefighter, often to the EMR or EMT level. Some run the course themselves; others send you to a community college class. Whether the department pays for the course varies, so ask before you apply.

If you have no medical training yet, a CPR and first aid class or an EMR course is a good place to start.

Levels of training

In Oregon, the Oregon Health Authority licenses EMS providers:⁴

Level	What it involves
CPR and first aid	A few hours. A good first step, and current CPR certification is required for every license level.
Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)	A course of about 60 hours. Oregon's first license level: basic care until EMTs arrive.⁵
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)	A course of about 160 hours, often over two college terms, then the National Registry exam. The level most fire departments and ambulances look for.⁵
Advanced EMT and paramedic	More training and more advanced care. In Oregon, a paramedic license needs an associate degree or higher, or two of the last five years working as a paramedic.

Every new license applicant in Oregon also needs an FBI fingerprint background check. License fees start at $45 for an EMR and $110 for an EMT.⁴ Ask whether the department or agency pays for the course and the license. Other states use the same national levels; check with your state's EMS office.

In Washington, the Department of Health certifies EMS providers at the same national levels. Its minimum course lengths are 48 clock hours for an EMR, 150 for an EMT and 200 for an Advanced EMT; paramedic courses follow national accreditation standards.⁷ Courses, applications and certification forms are on the department's EMS training page.⁸

The same steps as volunteering as a firefighter

Volunteering in EMS works much like volunteering as a firefighter:

Find a fire department or EMS agency near you that takes medical volunteers. Some are listed below, and you can look up your local departments in the directory.
Ask what it needs: the level of training, how close you need to live, how many hours a month it asks for, and whether it pays for your training.
Visit on a training night and meet the people you would work with.
Apply. Expect a background check, and often a medical exam or drug screen.
Train and get licensed. Take the course, pass the exam and apply for your license.
Start alongside experienced members, usually on probation while you learn.

See requirements and training and time commitment for more on what departments ask of volunteers.

Experience that builds a career

Fire service: most paid firefighter jobs ask for an EMT license, and many openings, and higher pay, go to paramedics. See firefighting jobs.
Health care: nursing, physician assistant and medical school programs look for hands-on patient care experience, and volunteer EMS gives you real calls, real patients and references from the people you work with.
A tax credit in rural Oregon: licensed EMS providers who volunteer with a station or agency at least 25 miles from a city of 30,000 or more can qualify for a state income tax credit of $1,000 a year, starting with the 2026 tax year. The Oregon Office of Rural Health decides who qualifies.⁶