emtkat

I think that wearing a vest is a good idea, if you have the area/need for it! It protects you, as an ems provider (safety of yourself is #1)!! But do I believe in carrying a gun on an ambulance......?? If we where meant to carry guns and possibly use them (why have one, if you don't think you are going to possibly use it?) we would have been trained in emt class on how to carry and use a gun! We are there as emts to fix injuries no cause more!! I have heard of some police emt response units (mostly FR though) ....but they have been trained and not only carry an emt patch but a police patch as well..... ~Kitty Kat~ *meow*

A damn good trauma call!! =D What would you rather have, a 12 hour shift or a 24 hour shift? ~Kitty Kat~ *meow*

Well I work on a small volunteer ambulance service, where we have a total of 15 people on our agency (9 women, and 6 men) LOL!! Lets just say there isn't much female harassment, I feel more sorry for the guys really... lol! But when we get out into the field and have male patients trying to feel us up, it makes me really happy that I have another EMT (a guy) with me!! We stick together like a family, and that is the way ems is suppose to be!! ~Kitty Kat~ *MEOW*

When I was really little, I wanted to be a nurse. But then as I got a little older, I wanted to be a massage therapist or physical therapist. I Also wanted to make a career out of Photography (I still might). But I love EMS the most ! ~emtkat~

Well I have waited awhile to respond to this topic so that I could think about it. And I have come up with this reply. I think that having emt-b's is a good thing, for this reason. The world is full of different places and each place needs different things. Where I live we have a 2- tiered system. A BLS/ILS unit gets dispatched while at the same time the county ALS unit gets dispatched. Some places this would work and other places it wouldn't. But if we got rid of emt-b for good what would happen to the more distant small towns? Example below: My town is a half hour away from ALS and the Hospitals. But is too small to staff a paramedic due to limited calls (we only have MAYBE 1 call a day). The local emt-b and emt-I's respond and asses if the patient needs advanced care, if so we package up the patient, keep them stable to the best of our ability and training and meet ALS in route (since they where already automatically dispatched). If the patient didn't need advanced care and emt-b's can handle the call then the Paramedics will be available for the rest of the county (that has about 10 other small city's). In this way patients get the kind of care they need faster. 8) If it there was no BLS, patients would wait close to an hour before getting to the hospital (half hour for ALS to drive out to the patient and half hour for them to transfer the patient to the hospital)! So in this case EMT-B's are very important to our community! But I can see how emt-b's would not be as vital in large towns. One thing to keep in mind though is that training is Very important for emt-b's! My agency meets 1-2 times a week for OTEP (continuing education) training. We have a High turn over rate here due to people wanting to learn more and become paramedics (A good thing)! I have valued the time as an emt-b and I think it is a very valuable step to becoming a Paramedic ( I will be taking the paramedic program in a year or so ). Most of the time we meet ALS, they let us jump in their rig with them and learn from them (great opportunity)! ok I have said my peace and hope I gave another angle or perspective to the topic. ~EmtKat~

If I would have been allowed to write the original documentation I definitely would have written it right but I wasn't. But that is why chief suggested that I should have written an addendum and attached it. I have since learned and will definitely do that in the future!! ~Emtkat~

In our department we are only an ILS (no paramedics). So the way you become a Lt. is by being there the longest...And since he has been there for 3 years, he got promoted. Sad isn't it. We didn't put the straps on in the back of the ambulance because, the Lt. didn't want them on her and told me NOT to put them on. And being new I thought I would get in big trouble for going against his order. I stated second guessing my self because I was new and he had been there for 3 years so he should know right.......... lol boy have I learned a lot since then! ~Emtkat~

Hey all, Just to finish this topic up and give you all an up date. I went to my chief last week and we talked about the situation a little more. He felt that we had both learned from it and he said that if I was really good and bought him ice cream (hehe as a joke, not a bribe) he would remove the write up from my file in a month and no one would be the wiser that it happened! He suggested that next time run into a problem like that I should write an addendum with the corrections and put it with the file later. Also, due to other reasons besides my situation, the Lt. is no longer a Lt. and I heard rummer of him wanting to quit! So everything worked out. Thank you all for your comments it helped! See ya all around!! ~EmtKat~

Alright a public notice all (at least in this post) that yes I did not read the rules... *blushes in shame :oops:* And I am sorry to everyone that I confused or annoyed. I do believe I learned my lesson and will hopefully post better topics. I was intimidated by dustdevils posts..... :? but as you said cosgrojo, he did have some valid points. I did however follow one of the rules though by not replying the second time to avoid an argument! I am strong headed too sometimes and when someone goes after me, I tend to get :evil: . So I just cool off for awhile and look at it again later. With all that said and done it is water under my bridge. Thank you all for putting me in my place... 8) Sorry once again, ~EmtKat~

Thanks cosgrojo and Anthony for the advice! ~EmtKat~

I come from a small private volunteer agency, so we all "try" to work as a team to provide the best care for the patient. But the person with the highest rank is always the one in charge or has the final say :? . Since I come from a small town (where everyone knows everyone) and there are a few co-workers that like to drop by and check out the topics on the forum, I didn't fell comfortable going into much detail about the case, to protect the patients ID. Someone informed me that I spelled HIPPA wrong :oops: .... sorry it is HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) a privacy code. And I am sorry if you thought that my topic title was horrible but I didn't know that this was a judging contest.... ! If you where stumped by this entire post and thought it was poor then why did you reply?! I am new around here and just wanted to get some feed back on this situation to learn from it! :? Hope I answered you question. ~Emtkat~

When I was a newbie emt-b on our ambulance service, I went on a call with one of the Lt. (emt-b as well). While assessing the patient I realized that, what we had believed was just a medical had now turned into a trauma induced by the medical. I promptly told the Lt. of my findings and said that I would go get a back board a c-caller. He said that he didn't think the patient needed it and wanted me to take vitals. But due to the small space we used the back board to remove the patient from the area, but the Lt. didn't want me to strap the patient on to the board saying the stretcher buckles would be fine. while in route the patient became :pukeright: and needed to be placed in the recovery position. This was very difficult to do with out compromising c-spine :? . When we arrived the hospital staff also had a difficult time and asked us why the patient was this way.... Also because the Lt. is higher in rank he chose to do the paper work and screwed everything up! :? I was new and he was a Lt. so there was no way for me to disagree with him, especially in front of the patient :shock: . And as a result I got written up!!! and will be in my file for awhile. Even though I knew what he was doing was wrong and I voiced my opinion (in a nice way of corse) I still got in trouble!! How could I have avoided this situation? THANKS, ~EmtKat~ P.S. Hopefully you where all able to understand kinda what I was saying..... I didn't want to say too much due to HIPPA.