jens2angels

I took my written for EMT-P not too long ago and it shut off at 70 and I passed. I truthfully found it not at all as hard as I thought it would be. You CANNOT over think the questions and always go with your basics first and it's not too painful. I thought the basic test was harder than the medic test.

well I finally had enough and told them I was done. I was not going to be 30 miles away from my coverage area when someone's child stops breathing and I can't get there quick enough because they don't know how to cover their area properly. It's sickening. The new area I was working in was PROMISED 2 ALS trucks in the area at all times. They fail to provide that nearly everyday. A friend of mine that works there told me he was 30 miles away, coming back from a transfer and the crew that was down there covering the are called them and told them they had to go back up north to the other area and they were up for the coverage area. He told her, I am 30 miles away still, and they didn't care. Now how would you feel if your loved one went into cardiac arrest and there was supposed to be an ambulance 5 minutes away and they were actually 30? I'm done. Actually a very reputable hospital in our area called me the next day for an interview and I also still have my part time job with the ambulance service here in town I have worked for for quite awhile so I'm hoping I can get enough hours there to survive until I hopefully get the hospital job. Thanks for everyone's input!

I have been on a wait list for a position with a very good hospital in our area and called to check on a job with them other day. They said they had just referred my name to a hiring manager so I am hoping for an interview with them soon. I am going to address my manager at the current company and tell her that I cannot work this way and perhaps it would be better if I went to a part time basis. Between my other job with the local ambulance company and there I am sure I would make it ok. Still, I hate to see their practices still continue. I have had a couple employees say they would support me if I went to talk to the labor board about them and see what we can do from there. But I feel it would be more professional to talk to them about thier practices before taking such measures.

See they don't even have a dispatch at night. The senior medic that is on for the night has to move everyone, which I disagree with too, they need to worry about taking calls and being a medic, not a dispatcher. Where they have us sit post there are no sleeping facilities (which doesn't bother me as much as no bathroom, I actually find a stretcher fairly good on my back actually, lol) and no bathrooms near by or anything. One is literally in the middle of a blueberry field where we park in a drive that the owner plows out for us.

They do 400 e calls, and approximately 2000 transfers. They make all their money on transfers and expect us to treat transfers as priority one calls. If we are about to make a 3 hour trip, we are not even supposed to stop and get a drink for the trip, even if it is BLS. They did have 4 stations until recently when they just added 2 more. Guess I should have clarified that better, so now maybe they might get 6-700 e calls a year, but more transfers added to the list too because of the hospital in the new territory. I think I will start making a journal of all the movements and work on another job asap.

I just started working for a fairly rural EMS company. I also work for a larger ambulance company part time that has a very high call volume in the city, and also has several other sub stations that are rural that do 24 hour shifts. The larger company takes to heart the need for EMS workers to get rest and do everything possible to ensure that after 10 at night that they do not have to go out and sit point and lose sleep unless absolutely necessary. Of course they still are required to run e calls, but they rotate transfers between stations so one station isn't constantly getting hit. Some nights you may go with no sleep, but for the most part you can get a few at least. Now I work for this rural company and they run maybe 400 e calls a year and survive solely on transfers. They have no organized dispatching and if one car has to go out on a call or transfer in the middle of the night, then everyone in the whole company (approx 6 stations) has to get up and move. One night I had to drive a 50 mile transfer on 1 hour sleep in the last 20 and was so tired I was seeing double. It scared me. Now they have started a new territory and the previous company had 2 cars in the city during the day and then went down to 1 at night. They did this successfully for over 3 years with no problems. Now that we have taken over, they have 2 on all the time and if one goes out on a transfer, then they are still moving the other cars from miles away so they still have 2 cars down there. They are flat out running down their employees to the point of exhaustion and it's not safe for the worker, not the patient they are transporting. The president of the company has been told about our exhaustion, his answer, I pay you to work. I have told him that perhaps it would be safer to hire 12 hours transfer cars so that they can rotate, but it falls on deaf ears. One night they even woke me up and had me drive an hour to go to a wheelchair call and then after I came back, I got sent on another one. They split up cars and shuffle things around so much, it's maddening. My question is, is this normal at other places? it's one thing to be woke up for e calls, you get a certain amount of adrenaline going and it naturally wakes you up some, but this disorganized dispatching and misuse of resources it really becoming maddening. I cannot afford to quit, as I a family to take care of and am waiting for a full time spot to open at the larger one I have worked at for awhile. One supervisor said they have had 3 accidents where employees have fallen asleep at the wheel, thank god they had no patient with them. Any feedback you have would be appreciated.

EMT-B. I am waiting to get into the nursing program here at the local college. I was going to take the paramedic program this fall but after a lot of thought, the EMT B program was really hard on my 4 and 2 year old and the medic program is all the more worse. I decided to wait until my daughter is in Kindergarten in 08 to go (if I'm not into the nursing program).

Thanks! Right now I'm working as a nursing assistant at the VA here and I was so excited to get the job because I would be making so much more than I was. I am finding out the hard way though that it's one thing to make money, but you really need to have your heart into also. My heart is in EMS and for the awesome people that I worked for at the company I did wheelchairs for. They genuinely cared about you and we are all like a big family. It's not the case there. For being the government, I've never seen a place so backwards in my whole life! I hope they post it soon so I can get out of there!

I passed my written at the end of June and passed my practical last Weds (the 18the). The coordinator that did our scoring said he was inputting them into the computer as soon as he got home that night and then the guy that needs to send them in would send them off the next day. It's still not showing up on the NREMT though. I went and did the agility test for the ambulance company that I have working for (doing wheelchair van) today and I'm sure I passed that, but I'm just worried I might have to wait forever for the practical to post. Any idea how long it usually takes?

Congrats! I'm glad you found out so soon! I took mine last week, it went to 120 and I was a MESS! I passed though!

There is hope! Mine went all the way to 120 and I found out I passed this morning! I'm assuming you know by now, but I was a mess all night until I found out this morning! I swore I failed that test.