scratrat

The politics of the profession.

That's what did it for me.

That and a two tiered system. I got tired of stupid BLS who would have us come in for completely useless calls. Or the all to famous "Well, we were going to recall you, but since your here you can evaluate." AHHHHH. Or I'd get the CHF'r bubbling over on a nasal @ 2 lpm while the FF/EMT (loosely) sat in the captains chair writing their report.

I still work once in a while to TRY to keep my skills in check. Now I work handing out medications to whiny inmates. But, since the pay is damn good, I can handle the boredom. Plus, most of time, I get to work alone, so there's no bickering. I got to the point where I thought every call was BS, and I'd hate responding. When I got there, I'd work if need be. But if it was BS, I just got angrier and angrier. That's when I knew I had to change paths.

Other people I've seen : clues were, inablility to start an IV, inability to start an IV without making it look like a bloodletting ceremony, inability to intubate, basically skills diminishing, so on.

*

Just add some Scotchlite and it's ANSI compliant.

*[sup:02d080382e]Bimbo's not included.[/sup:02d080382e]

That's priceless.

That's why I went Federal. And the pay is better!!

Leon county, FL swears they're not laying off, we'll see...

This is going off topic:

While the USAF USED to be a part of the US Army, they are a separate agency now. I think the USAF version of a/an Army MP (Military Police) is a/an AP ("Air Police"). The US Navy has SP (Shore Patrol) for, obviously, patrolling on shore, and unless I was misinformed, they are armed only with batons/nightsticks. On ships, they have "Masters at Arms", or Marines to do Police duties.

If I am wrong on any of this, please correct me.

We now return to the topic at hand...

YOU ARE WRONG!!!!

The Marines are only on Navy ships becuase the sheep are too obvious! :twisted:

Dwayne;

Most of the Car vs Ped MVCs are complete and utter BS. :twisted:

You obviously haven't met Mr. Banks.

Although I think he's dead now??

I think he's somehow survived at least two Jitney crashes....

You heard the part about them being OFF DUTY, right?

That would tend to imply that there were people ON DUTY.

They can go for the ambulance all they want, but it's not going to be there.

I work in a town with ON DUTY crews. If I'm OFF-DUTY, and a call goes out, why am I going to go to the ambulance? That's what the ON DUTY people are for. If it's a bad-sounding pediatric call, and I'm closer to the scene than the ambulance anyway, guess what? I'm going to the scene (sans any sort of warning device or sticker). In a choice between the scorn of EMTCity and possibly doing some good in a critical situation, the patient wins.

Granted, wouldn't happen since I don't live anywhere near the town, but you get the theory involved. I hope.

Yes, I heard that part, and it means nothing to me. Newspapers always say that to make it sound better. If TWO off duty people showed up, that means they ere listening and being whackers. Why were the volunteers there if there was a paid crew? Oh, because they jumped the call like they do to be glory hounds? Would they have jumped it if it was the little old lady who fell and broke her hip and layed on the floor for the past 6 hours? Nope. Would they jump the nausea/vomiting call? Nope.

This again goes back to professionalism and why I couldn't deal with volunteers anymore. They all come out of the wood work for an MVC and yet if its the 3am N/V call, I'm sitting there by myself in the ambulance (not bus) waiting for some other shmuck to show up. And they never do, so it goes to mutual aid, blah blah blah.

I don't know...it's been happening quite frequently lately...

I am guilty of stopping at the scene in my POV, but ONLY if I knew there was a unit on the way. If not I would go on by and get it myself. Talk about embarrassing.

Oh, I've had to stop if I came up on something. But if I was dispatched as a volunteer, I always went for the truck, unless like you said, it was on the way.

Volunteer system + Run by Basics + rural community = FAILURE

Eight minutes. Eighteen minutes. Eight hours. Doesn't matter. Those kids were doomed, regardless of whether an ambulance showed up or not.

But yeah, management and supervision of the 911 comms center there need to be sacked for dereliction of duty. Won't happen though, as they are probably employed by the Sheriff's Department primarily as cop dispatchers, and nobody cares about EMS, especially a bunch of vollies.

Yes, they were doomed. It's obvious they wouldn't have survived more than likely. But what if it was some injury or drowning that had a chance? That was my main point of concern.

[web:ea11165093]http://s7d1.scene7.com/is/image/RandMcNally/0528866982?layer=comp&wid=250&hei=300&fmt=jpeg[/web:ea11165093]

$17 of pure win. Should be a required component of any emergency vehicle, GPS or not.

HAHA.

Good luck.

Giving the benefit of the doubt here, the article states that both times the two people who responded via POV did so while off duty. Given the language used in the article, it appears that there is some sort of schedule for who is responsible for the ambulance. Being ignorant of the system that they use, it could be a dual system or just scheduled watch. The problem doesn't appear to be people not bringing the ambulance, but people jumping calls when off duty.

I tried that too but I gave up.

I read the language as this :

(1.) 2 people responded so they must be part of that covering ambulance squad

(2.) The dispatch software also screwed up.

(3.) The chief of the said squad listed him as a volunteer too.

So, therefore, I get that all of these people are from the same squad. Also, even though the software screwed up, the two people in personal vehciles found the right place. So this goes back to, get the ambulance next time.

I know, I know, I wasn't there, so I should give the benefit of the doubt, but I can't. I can almost guarentee you, the 2 responders O/S personally knew the caller, heard it go out as pediatric and got all "ba-gock" (chicken noise), and FAILED to realize they should get the ambulance first.

[web:39cb17b266]http://www.emsresponder.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=7309[/web:39cb17b266]

See, this is why Dust is always saying volunteers are useless.

I may have missed something in this article, but heres my take anyway.

Two whackers showed up in personal vehicles. Which means they didn't bring the ambulance. Not once, but twice they did this.

Um, hey, jackas*, how about you bring the god forsaken ambulance instead of your personal vehicle? I don't care if you have to drive passed the residence to get the thing, do it anyway! See the result????

I used to volunteer (yes, I admit it) but I got so tired of loser whackers showing up on scene with their little blue lights and radios. You couldn't get the ambulance to respond to the scene because all the idiots went to scene. Especially if it was an MVC. Oh dear lord, don't bother looking an ambulance if it's an MVC. It's sitting back at the building.

God this infuriates me!!!!!!!! This is why is turned all my crap in and said "I can't deal with you people" and left.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

I feel better now

My Name : Sonny

1. Famous singer/band: Sonny & Cher (HAHAHA)

2. 4 letter word: Sony

3. Street name: Sanddune

4. Color: Silver

5. Gifts/presents: Silk shorts

6. Vehicle: S10 (Chevy)

7. Items on a menu: Shrimp

8. Girl Name: Summer

9. Boy Name: Sam

10. Movie Title: Saw

11. Drink: Sprite

12. Occupation: Sanitation worker

13. Flower: Sunflower

14. Famous Person: Samual L Jackson

15. Magazine: Spin

16. US City: San Ysidero

17. Famous Sports Team: San Diego Padres

18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Shit your pants (HAHAHA)

19. Something U Throw Away: Shrimp peels

20. Things You Shout: Shout! Shout! Let it on out!!

21. Cartoon Character: Stewie (MY MAN!)

Acute epiglotitis.

Caridac arrest secondary to respiratory failure secondary to acute angioedema.

Surgical cric with assisted ventilations. If HR doesn't improve after that, deal with it.

Maybe that whole neb epi thing after cric..

you are GODS!

Why couldn't I google that earlier?

Thanks a million!

Yes, I goolged AND I searched here first.

I am searching for a web site, or your own pics if you've got some, for 12 leads. I am specifically looking for GOOD ECG tracings that I can incorporate into a slide show presensation for training. I am looking for MI's and your basic rhythms. I am doing a training session for the docs here and I want some good examples. Like those from a lifepak 12 that are easy to read.

Thanks for any help!!

As a comedian once said :

I like to bring a book a read during the interview. When he asks me what the hell are you doing, I say this.

If you are in a vehicle traveling at the speed of light, and you turn the headlights on, would anything happen?

When his reply was "I don't know..", I said "Then I don't think I can work for you."

We had a jumper with a 2 year old and of course the mother lived. I think she was vegged out but still. It's like the drunk driver who survives the crash from hell from everyone else dies from the minor accident.

This might be a stupid question, but...Can they merge the two and rename it something like "The FDNY & EMS Pipes and Drum Corps"?

Like I said, it might be a stupid question. :violent1:

The Water Fairies and the Band-Aid Boxers.

This hasn't been locked yet?

When a physician RSIs someone, does that chart get QA'd?

I would hope so. But I doubt it.

There are so many people who believe that medics do not have the mental capacity/skills to perform RSI and therefore a LOT of places rip your chart apart should you RSI someone. In New Jersey, your individual project immediately QA'd your chart and had to forward it the State Dept of Health along with the tape of your conversation with the doctor about the RSI. Then you heard back from everyone about the case. I'm not saying this was a good thing or bad thing, but it was what it was.

How in the hell would his lying improve anything? I don't mean to sound like I'm praising the guy, let me be clear, maybe he's a fire department yes-man jackass, but it sounds as if you're critizing him for the modicum of truth in the dalmatian crap. Again I ask you, how would his being consistantly bad rather than rarely, rarely, sorta OK improve things?

Allow me rephrase myself. I have no doubt this is probably what that service needs, along with many others. What I was conveying, was that the medical director was very candid to the news about his lack of faith in his own service. I was surprised that he didn't say something more to the effect of "This is something we felt we need to do. Let's wait and see what happens." Something like that versus telling the newspaper that you have no doubt that some of the people employeed by you, don't belong there, or are too stupid to function. What my comments were geared towards is his way of building morale amungst the people he oversees.

Horrible call.

My first "real" call as a paramedic, was a burn victim times three. Two twin three year olds, and their grandmother. Grandmom lived for a few days but later died in the hospital. The kids never had a chance. And this was just days after Christmas. Thankfully, I didn't yet have children which I think helped me a lot. If that happened now, I'm sure it'd hit me a little harder.

Anyway, it bothered me for a while but I eventually dealt with it on my own. I did have a burned kid when I was first an EMT. I was forced into going to a CISD. And not to discredit them, but all it was, was a group of people talking about how they felt and spilling their guts. I was 18 or so, and I wasn't overly torn up, I don't know why. But CISd was useless to me. No one there is licensed in psychology or psychiatrics. If you have trouble sleeping over this event, you need to speak with a LICENSED mental health provider, not CISD. Go talk to a mental health person before it's too late and you get burned out. Even if it's just a neutral party to talk to. Do yourself that favor.

I've worked a service that NEVER did QA in my very short tenure there. For obvious reasons. This was the same service that allowed medics to RSI someone without ever speaking with a physician or having that chart QA'd.

On the flip side, I've worked for systems that critic (?) every little thing you do and makes the medics afraid to make solid decisions.

I like how this medical director has no faith whatsoever in his own system. I've never dealt with DCFD but I've seen some storied here and there. It's funny how he blatantly said people would fail and be demoted. It would have been nice to see him at least lie and say he has high hopes. Oh well.

Does it matter? Do a pronouncement and leave.