Ambulance drivers transport convalesced, injured or ill persons. Circumstances determine the assignment. In some cases, drivers will transport non-emergency patients from one facility to another. In other cases, drivers will transport patients and emergency medical personnel to the hospital.
Licensing and certification requirements vary by state, so specify your state’s requirements in your ambulance driver job description. In most cases, an ambulance driver is only required to have a high school diploma or equivalent, a CPR certification and a valid driver’s license.
Job candidates must be fit enough to lift patients on gurneys in and out of ambulances. They must also be compassionate and possess solid communication, interpersonal and problem-solving skills. Please review the ambulance driver job description below for more ideas of what to include in your posting.
Ambulance Driver Job Summary
We have a job opening for a compassionate and caring person ready to help transport elderly, disabled and emergency patients. This position is perfect if you would like to further your career and become an Emergency Medical Technician or paramedic. You will be a chauffeur to those who need you rather than a chauffeur to the stars, and isn’t that more rewarding anyway? Imagine helping an elderly man or woman get from his or her convalescent home to the hospital for a procedure to improve their quality of life. Imagine rushing victims of an automobile accident to the emergency room for life-saving care. This can be you if you apply today.
Job Responsibilities
- Complete a mechanical checklist prior to each shift to ensure ambulance is in working order and ready to transport patients to and from required locations, and report any mechanical issues to appropriate service personnel
- Ensure ambulance is clean and stocked properly with first aid and medical supplies prior to each shift and between patient transports throughout the day
- Accept patient transport assignments daily and drive ambulance with any necessary medical personnel to patient location
- Help patients onto ambulance gurney and load them into the ambulance, assisted by partner or other medical personnel
- Transport patient to assigned medical facility, unload patient and take patient inside facility and to where directed by medical personnel
- Accompany EMTs and paramedics on emergency calls to transport patients to hospitals when assigned to do so
- Report accident or other emergency facts to medical personnel and/or law enforcement when necessary
- Complete appropriate trip sheets as required by employer to record officially each transport
Job Skills and Qualifications
Reqiured:
- High school diploma or equivalent
- CPR certification
- Valid driver’s license
- Willingness to participate in on-the-job training
- Knowledge of radio/standard radio transmission codes
- Pass physical agility test
Preferred:
- Previous experience with gurneys, hydraulic and wheelchair lifts
- Map reading ability
Ambulance Driver Job Responsibilities
You want to spend a good amount of time writing and rewriting your ambulance driver job description. You only want to receive applications from qualified candidates, and part of achieving that involves listing out all pertinent responsibilities clearly in a substantial responsibilities section. This means you do not want to waste space talking about duties the person would only perform once every other month. Focus on daily or weekly tasks that give the position meaning and actually contribute something to the company.
Limit your ambulance driver job responsibilities section to no more than eight points. Any more than that and you risk alienating qualified jobseekers who might believe the job entails too much. You also want to use bullet points to list out each individual task so jobseekers can effortlessly scan through your ambulance driver job description. Most jobseekers decide whether they will apply for a job after 60 seconds of reading a job listing, so you want to make an impact right off the bat.
Below are some useful responsibilities you can include that ambulance drivers perform often.
- Drive ambulances to assist injured or sick individuals
- Move patients onto stretchers to bring onto vehicle
- Replace supplies in the ambulance weekly
- Administer first aid, including CPR and bandaging, once at the destination
Ambulance Driver Job Specifications
One tip as you list out the ambulance driver job specifications is to keep it as succinct as possible. There is no need to have huge paragraphs anywhere within the listing. In fact, it is typically recommended for hiring managers to keep descriptions to fewer than 700 words in length. Therefore, as you write the qualifications expected out of candidates, keep them short and sweet.
If you want to break this particular section down even further in your ambulance driver job description, then you can have two different subheadings. One can include required specifications, which are skills candidates already need to possess to be successful in this position. The other can include preferred specifications, which are skills candidates can learn on the job. By doing this, you help prevent overqualified applicants from submitting. Overqualified individuals simply waste your time because after going through the interview process or after working for you for a couple months, they could end up quitting or becoming dissatisfied. Get someone who will be part of your team for a while.
Here are some skills you typically find in an ambulance driver job description.
Graduated from high school Certified in BLS Valid driver’s license Superior customer service skills Excels at empathetic understanding Ability to perform basic first aid