K4h2

I was EMS34H2 from 06-94 to 06-98 and definetly feel PUSHED OUT in the early FDNY purges designed to reinforce their overinflated budget by cutting as many long term Provisional employees as they could while keeping the fifth man on the truck. I remember how they started the Bi-Weekly Wall of Shame news letter where they posted the names of all their victims and the trumped up BOGUS excuses they used to terminate personnel unfortunate enough to be stuck in the Provisional status the City saw fit to place us in for just such an occassion!I remember listening to the Old Time Fire Fighters bragging about how they could do CFR for overtime repeatedly because they couldnt be punished for failing or just refusing to cooperate and take the class one time! I saw and still see nothing good about the Takeover (they called it a merger!!! haha). I remember the earliest memos sent out advising that "due to the lack of attrition in the Paramedic Grade, ALL FURTHER Paramedic Upgrade Classes were cancelled! I believe the ratio of ALS to BLS was 3.9 or 4:1 at that time. I also remember the early attempts to improve EMS outlooks, the way they Promised to paint our trucks with our unit nickname as a UNIT COHESION maneuver. I personally would have preferred the shiney trinkets!!! I agree they did not and from all reports from MOS still on the job still do not have a clue about running EMS! I am absolutely in a better place making more money with no where near the stress and oh yeah....no has shot at my ambulance and I have not had to ask some dirty little twelve year old with a 9mm permission to enter a building in 10 years!!!

I actually had an Ambulance Driver as a partner, and even then he was Officially Entitled M.V.O.. Those days are long gone and the blame for the continued misinterpretations flows both ways! The general public only knows what they are told, if they are not reminded regularly of what we SEE and DO we get taken for granted! (consider the age old picture of the F.F. carrying a small baby...always apparently alive and well!!)I agree with the feeling expressed by a number of members, the feeling that in unity there is strength, I feel that entities such as NREMT and NAEMT etc.. are a good start point, what we need is an increase in Public knowledge and awareness. We need to Standardize training such as The National Scope of Practice Model Project, I should probably research it again before I speak but...anybody know where that sits? The fact remains we shoot our own toes off, I read post in here where comments like "Spoken like a true volly" and the like are thrown about with random indiscretion. I have been in EMS for just Eighteen years now and have seen many a "Professional" I would shoot before allow them near my Dog! I'm not picking I am pointing here, yes we definitely need to address skill levels everywhere and make the Tittle synonymous with professional quality care. The longer we dawdle with petty B.S. issues such as he called us this or that, the longer we remain open to ridicule and continued Misinterpretations. P.S. to all It really does Agitate me to be called an Ambulance Driver, let them do compressions on the run and see what they call us then!