cloe911

I work for a private BLS company who gets primarily non-emergent calls from nursing facilities which means lots of hip fractures. We use the KED upside down (so that the head points towards the feet) as a hip stabilizer. It's a pain in the butt to get back from the ER, but have heard lots of good feedback from the doctors about it's effectiveness and pain management.

This may be from an entirely different angle, but here goes. During medic school and clinicals I "interviewed" 8 preceptors. My sole intent was to find a preceptor who would be an all-in-one medic and could teach me in a way I thought was fair. I ask questions...constantly.....and "why?" is the most common. While I know when to wait to ask, I can never seem to "get it right" without making a super patient preceptor go nuts. I agree that there are to many medics out there who are superior medics, but have no educating skills whatsoever. I have heard to many horror stories of interns being made to wash the preceptors car for asking a dumb question. I have had several people tell me that I should just shut up and stop asking, and I've told them all the same thing; I want to make sure I have the right answer when my patient asks me questions.

I currently work for a BLS transport who RARELY does anything code3. But when we do, it seems the company is divided, half want to go as fast as the diesel can flow and the other half use it with a feather touch to ensure a "speedy, get there faster and alive" trip. I personally agree with the later in almost every situation. But I do want to point out the there will ALWAYS be the one in a million (ie. AAA) injury/illness that requires surgery an hour ago, which makes the speed a required thing. We have the lights and sirens for that one in a million chance, but I think far to many tend to "abuse" it or simply do not fully understand it's repercussions.

I work for a BLS company in an area where Privates cover most of the inter-facilities and nursing facility BLS ER calls. There are roughly 15 companies in the are with some running only one rig on up to 30 rigs. These Privates do play a major role in the EMS system: they relieve the mundane tasks off the 911 crews who are able to handle the truely life threatening calls. They are a place to work and gain experience and knowledge you will never get in EMT school (which is a joke in this state, but that's a whole 'nother posting!). They provide a flexible schedule while you are in Paramedic or RN school. They can "weed out" those persons who should never be on the business end of a defibrilator or a syringe. But........I can make more money working at In N' Out Burger, gain more respect at Starbucks, and get better benefits at Walmart. But in the tradition of "paying your dues" it's something 99% of EMTs go through on the road to the 911 career. My company pays just enough to afford a 300sq. ft studio with mac-n-cheese for dinner, but I also get use a power-cot all day and save my back for the medic life. Every company has it's evils and it's upsides.