Emergency Medical Services

EMS programmes train the people who reach a patient before anyone else does — assessing and stabilising at the roadside or in a living room, deciding what has to happen in the next four minutes, and delivering care on the way to hospital. Florida teaches it as a stacked pair: a short EMT certificate that gets you onto an ambulance, and a paramedic programme on top of it that adds drugs, advanced airways and cardiac care.

The degrees this program covers

This is the largest health training footprint in the state — 39 Florida public institutions and 3,661 credentials in the 2023 federal award year — and almost all of it is CERTIFICATES rather than degrees: 2,415 short certificates of 12 weeks to a year (the EMT level), 961 certificates of one to two years (the paramedic level) and 285 associate degrees. ⚠⚠ The EMT certificate is a genuine prerequisite rung, not a parallel option: paramedic programmes admit certified EMTs, so almost everyone does the short one first. ⚠⚠⚠ But check HOW your EMT course is delivered, because Florida runs it two ways. As a college-credit course (EMS1119, 19 institutions) it counts toward the associate degree; as a 300-hour clock-hour PSAV course (EMS0110, also 19 institutions) it does not. The training is the same and only one of them builds toward a degree. ⚠ Paramedic programmes must be CAAHEP-accredited or hold a CoAEMSP letter of review — a student in a programme that is neither cannot be certified in Florida at all.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Athletic Trainer

⚠⚠⚠ A master's-entry, state-licensed clinical profession paying $62,520 — less than a licensed practical nurse earns on a certificate ($64,400), and less than every associate-degree clinical route on this site except paramedic. ⚠⚠ The profession moved to master's entry in 2022: CAATE states that after the fall 2022 term, baccalaureate degree programmes will no longer enrol students. ⚠ Florida's statute has not caught up and still reads as though a bachelor's is enough.

Firefighter

Firefighters suppress fires, extricate people from vehicles and structures, handle hazardous materials — and spend most of their calls delivering emergency medical care. ⚠ A Florida median of $58,550, reached through an academy rather than a degree. ⚠⚠⚠ And the thing that actually determines what you earn: in Florida this is a DUAL credential. Departments hire Firefighter/EMTs and Firefighter/Paramedics, several pay for the paramedic programme, and one pays a $10,000 bonus for arriving with both. Plan the EMS half from the start.

Paramedic

Paramedics are the highest level of prehospital care — assessing and stabilising at the scene, administering drugs, managing advanced airways, reading ECGs and running a cardiac arrest before the patient reaches a hospital. ⚠ Median $60,600, reached through a certificate rather than a degree, and stacked on top of a short EMT course most people complete first. ⚠⚠ In Florida this is substantially a FIRE SERVICE credential: departments pay for it and pay extra for holding it. ⚠⚠⚠ And the accreditation rule here is the strictest on this site — the wrong programme leaves you unable to certify at all.

Physician Assistant

Diagnosing, managing and prescribing across essentially every specialty — $135,880 median, 162,700 employed, 12,000 openings a year, growing much faster than average. ⚠⚠⚠ The barrier is not the transcript. PAEA puts the median matriculant at about 3,200 hours of direct patient contact — one to three years of clinical work BEFORE the programme starts — and Florida's six public programmes award 225 master's degrees a year between them. ⚠⚠ So the real question this page answers is: which job do you take first?

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Health Care Administrator

⚠ Not a route, but the same crossing happens here: EMS and fire agencies promote from the field into operations and administration. Named because the pattern generalises across every clinical service on this site — paramedics, respiratory therapists, radiographers and laboratory staff all arrive at this degree the same way.

Surgical Technologist

⚠ Not a route here. Named as the closest structural comparison: another certificate-first acute-care credential taught heavily at technical colleges, at similar pay. ⚠⚠ The difference is environment rather than difficulty — EMS is unscheduled and outdoors, this is a scheduled list in one controlled room.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Nursing 78 Florida schools

⚠ The move a large number of paramedics eventually make, and worth knowing about at the start. Prehospital work is physically hard and hard on sleep, and nursing pays more with far more settings to move between — 78 Florida institutions against 39 here. ⚠⚠ But the paramedic credential gives NO advanced standing in nursing: some colleges run a paramedic-to-RN bridge, and where they do not, you start the nursing programme from the beginning.

Respiratory Therapy 18 Florida schools

⚠ A less obvious neighbour that suits some of the same people: airway management and ventilation are central to both, and respiratory therapy is the hospital-side version of the acute work. It pays more at entry ($82,280 against $60,600 for a paramedic) on a two-year degree, and the hours are inside a building.

Fire Science and Emergency Services 36 Florida schools

⚠⚠ Not an adjacent field here — effectively a requirement. Most Florida fire departments hire dual-certified Firefighter/EMTs or Firefighter/Paramedics, Brevard County requires its Firefighter/EMTs to become paramedics and pays the tuition, and Dunedin pays a $10,000 certification bonus to a candidate arriving with Firefighter II plus Paramedic. ⚠ Plan the EMS credential alongside the fire academy, not after it.

Physician Assistant Studies 6 Florida schools

⚠⚠ One of the standard routes to the patient care hours PA admission actually turns on, and among the fastest: EMT training is about a semester and paramedic an associate degree, and Florida teaches it at 39 public institutions — the widest clinical footprint in the state. ⚠ Confirm with each PA programme that it counts EMS hours; most do, and it is hands-on by definition.

Surgical Technology 25 Florida schools

⚠ The closest structural comparison on this site: both are certificate-first acute-care credentials taught heavily at technical colleges, both stack short exit points, and both pay in the low-to-mid sixties. ⚠⚠ The difference is the environment — EMS is unscheduled, outdoors and unpredictable, surgical technology is a scheduled list in one controlled room. People who want the acute work without the chaos usually mean this one.

Athletic Training 8 Florida schools

⚠ Named because the acute side of athletic training — on-field emergency management, spine boarding, environmental illness — is EMS work, and many athletic trainers hold both. ⚠⚠ It is also the fastest way to find out whether emergency decision-making suits you, at 39 Florida institutions and about a semester for EMT.

Public Health 14 Florida schools

⚠ Not a route into it, but public health preparedness and emergency management is where the two meet, and PHC6251 Public Health Preparedness for Disasters is carried at five Florida universities. Named because EMS and fire officers moving into county-level preparedness roles end up in this programme.

Health Care Administration 24 Florida schools

⚠ Named for one specific reason: EMS and fire agencies promote from the field into operations and administration, and the degree that formalises it is this one. ⚠⚠ The same pattern holds across the clinical services — a paramedic, a respiratory therapist or a radiographer who wants out of shift work usually arrives here.

Florida public institutions offering this program

39 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Certificate (1-2 years), Certificate (12 weeks-1 year). A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Aparicio-Levy Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Broward College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Charlotte Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Chipola College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

College of Central Florida

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Daytona State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Eastern Florida State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

First Coast Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Flagler Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Florida Gateway College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Florida Panhandle Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Florida SouthWestern State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Fort Myers Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

George Stone Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Gulf Coast State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Hillsborough Community College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Indian River State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Lake Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Manatee Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Marion Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Miami Dade College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

North Florida College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Northwest Florida State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Palm Beach State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Pasco-Hernando State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Pensacola State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Pinellas Technical College-St. Petersburg

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Polk State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Saint Johns River State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Santa Fe College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Seminole State College of Florida

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

South Florida State College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

St Petersburg College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Suncoast Technical College

Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Tallahassee Community College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

The College of the Florida Keys

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Valencia College

Associate · Certificate (1-2 years) · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

William T McFatter Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.