The Principal Benefit of a Degree in Fire & Emergency Medical Services (or, frankly, most any other industry)

Focus on wage inflation as a driver of…anything, really…is a “Red Herring.” It ultimately will matter very little.

I’m going to wade into the controversial topic of whether or not the Fire and EMS professions would benefit from degree requirements, because I have not yet seen mentioned what I would argue is the most important outcome of obtaining a diploma. I cannot speak to the relative value of most kinds of medicine; but the present debate is not a medical one. It’s about economics and organizational behavior — two topics that I do know something about.

A January 2019 “Medic Mindset” podcast featured several of our industry’s regaled thinkers, including Ed Racht, David Tan, Mike McEvoy, Scott Bourn, Brandon Bleess, Phil Moy and Jason Pickett. But it puzzled me. I empathize with the question of whether EMS and Fire professionals are paid enough to recoup any academic investment. They aren’t paid even close to what they’re worth.

But the direction of the relationship between the quality of work-product and a college degree is questionable. After all, one can be both an excellent worker and a brilliant person without a degree. A link between a degree and earning power exists but it is subject to myriad exceptions and conditions including the fact that many PhDs, who have reached the pinnacle of formal…