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Boston Career Explorer

Healthcare Practitioners and Technical

Paramedics

Administer basic or advanced emergency medical care and assess injuries and illnesses. May administer medication intravenously, use equipment such as EKGs, or administer advanced life support to sick or injured individuals.

Also called: Critical Care Paramedic, Firefighter Paramedic, First Responder, Flight Paramedic

Compare with my current job (Psychiatric Technicians)
Median pay in Greater Boston
$66,460
$31.95/hr
Jobs in Greater Boston
1,240
Massachusetts 2024–2034
+2.0%
80 openings a year
Typical U.S. entry requirement
Postsecondary nondegree award
Less than 5 years of related work experience

Greater Boston: Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro area, May 2025. Growth and openings: Massachusetts statewide projection.

Pay range in Greater Boston

Yearly pay in Greater Boston by percentile
10th25thMedian75th90th
$61,720$65,060$66,460$78,750$84,560

10% of workers earn less than the first figure and 10% earn more than the last.

What you’d do

  • Perform emergency cardiac care, such as cardioversion and manual defibrillation.
  • Perform emergency invasive intervention before delivering patient to an acute care facility.
  • Coordinate work with other emergency medical team members or police or fire department personnel.
  • Assess nature and extent of illness or injury to establish and prioritize medical procedures.
  • Comfort and reassure patients.
  • Administer first aid treatment or life support care to sick or injured persons in prehospital settings.

AI and this job

AI exposure: how much of this job’s work AI tools can do or help with, based on national research. It is not a forecast of job loss.

Lower exposure30 of 100

The index averages three national research measures, each shown as a percentile of all jobs:

  • AIOE 27
  • Language-model AIOE 27
  • GPTs-are-GPTs 37

Observed AI use today: Little or none (Anthropic Economic Index)

Paramedics have lower AI exposure, and observed AI use in this work is little or none. Core tasks like emergency cardiac care, invasive procedures, and comforting patients are hands-on and happen in unpredictable settings. AI tools are more likely to help with information, such as assessing a patient's condition or coordinating with other responders.

Likely to change

  • Organizing patient information for hospitals
  • Support for assessing and prioritizing care

Still relies on people

  • Emergency cardiac care and invasive procedures
  • Comforting patients and working with fire or police

Written with AI from the data on this page. Check with a career coach before making a decision.

Next steps from here

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Training near Boston

College and school programs in the Boston metro area that lead to this job, with 2023-24 completions (IPEDS).

4 programs near Boston

Related occupations

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