‘It’s not an entry-level

PHI paramedics rack up critical experience

Joshua Wysocki always dreamed of being a flight paramedic.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always found helicopters fascinating,” he said. “We don’t have to deal with traffic. We can get our patient really far, really fast. We have a lot of tools and a lot of protocols that we can utilize, and it’s a great job to be able to help your patient.”

Wysocki, a critical-care paramedic with PHI Air Medical Inc., had the right mix of well-rounded experience to get hired.

“I worked on the ambulance as an EMT for a few years, and then I worked on the ambulance as a paramedic for about five years,” Wysocki said. “Then I transitioned into the emergency department.”

He took a job as a paramedic in a hospital emergency department for about a year during the coronavirus pandemic. Then he worked in the ICU for a few months before going back on an ambulance as a critical-care paramedic. He’s been with PHI for one year.

“It’s not an entry-level job,” said Bryan Dean, PHI Air Medical Base supervisor at Ellington Airport and Wysocki’s boss.

The base is one of three that PHI operates in the HoustonGalveston area. The Ellington base has one helicopter with four nurses, three paramedics and four pilots. A team of a nurse, a paramedic and a pilot work 24-hour shifts together. The base gets about three requests a day.

Dean, who has been with PHI for eight years, worked as a paramedic for 25 years on the ground. He was at a criticalcare paramedic class when an old friend who worked for PHI suggested a change.

“Why don’t you come and fly with us?” she asked him. He decided to do it.

Experience is critical

Before PHI interviews a paramedic candidate to work on a helicopter crew, the company first looks at the resume for years of critical-care experience.

“For paramedics, it’s hard to get a lot of different types of experience,” Wysocki said. “We are usually pretty limited to the ambulance or being a firefighter. But to get a job in the air medical field, I think having as much of a well-rounded idea of the medical field is super