My wife is a medic and the emts and paramedics have either EMT or EMT-P on their shirts, the EMTs say the "P" stands for passenger!
You are absolutely right about the full-on, "technical" designation of a paramedic. It's just that, out in the field, the common practice is to refer to "entry-level" EMTs simply as EMTs and paramedics as paramedics or medics. The general public, I have found, just refers to all of us as paramedics.
