6Echo25

Mike,

I'm so happy for you and Mrs. Mike, please pass along my congratulations! The two of you will very shortly have your very first Mother's Day and Father's Day, that's a REALLY neat feeling (even if she's not making handprint cards this year).

All the best in parenthood,

Jaime

(P.S. - How long after I saw you at SGH that day was your daughter born?)

Might be kind of hard to be a truly good ALS provider you can be without having BLS experience. Helps to have ALS exposure as well while you're at the EMT level. Alberta has some of the highest standards for prehospital care in the country. Why wouldn't someone want to give themselves a chance to be a good EMT and understand a little ALS before they continue on?

Also in Alberta one cannot call themselves an EMR, EMT or EMT-P without having passed the ACoP exam and received a reg # at their specific level.

My very first call was a 200lb++ woman miscarrying twins at 13 weeks. We got called out just as my partner and I were leaving the staff apartment to head for the base and go over paperwork etc. We're met at the front door of the duplex by the pt's hubby and other small children. He leads myself and my 2 partners up roughly a dozen stairs and into the bathroom, where our pt was sitting in the tub with blood ALL OVER the tub and walls.

<insert assessment etc etc here>

We put her on a stair chair with a frac pan under her to catch anything that may come out. She's grabbing grabbing at the railings half way down, and she's too heavy to stop and try to restrain her arms somewhat. Keep going keep going (I'm holding the O2 cannister hehehe), bottom of stairs and onto stretcher outside, into ambulance.

<insert tx here>

Get her to hospital which is like 5 minutes away, wheel her in, she's going shocky on us. We're helping out the RN's and getting her transferred over, hospital gown, etc etc. One RN goes to move the frac pan from underneath her as we moved her from stretcher to hospital bed ... she's obviously passed the twins at this point. So, nursey nurse puts the pan down on the table beside the pt's head. I was trapped between the hospital bed and a crash cart, was trying nonchalantly draw another nurse's attention to the blobs before the pt noticed ... WHOOPS, TOO LATE! Pt starts moaning, then screaming wildly and she ended up being restrained, poor thing. Nurse notices what she did and promptly moves the miscarried items to another location.

We ended up transferring her to another larger hospital 2 days later for admittance to a psych ward ... attempted suicide.

THE END.

We know your position. It's not my position.

But when you say you didn't say something and then you are proven wrong and then you get snitty and insulting about getting called on that error you have to expect the response you did.

No need to get your panties in a wad

Let's stop slinging insults at each other from here on out and leave it at that. Can you do that? I certainly can.

Then why did you get YOUR panties in a wad and tell me I was acting stupid, when in fact if that's the level I was on, you're obviously one of the same?

There was a discussion going on about a very sensitive and serious topic. You turned it into nitpicking about "he said she said".

One thing I didn't make clear before is that I do in fact respect the opinions of others, I just don't feel I need to state that at every turn. Don't make assumptions that you know what I think.

Now we can get along

Now you are just being silly or just plain acting stupid.

you are the one who opened the can of worms by saying you never said something which you did(and were called on the carpet on). I'd suggest maybe growing up and acting serious every now and then.

So I see the topic of this discussion has now turned into you putting me on a carpet, and getting snitty at me because I made a mistake on words? Ease up a little Ruff; don't get all upset because you don't like the way I admit to my error. I would suggest a vacation, and maybe some Ativan.

The SERIOUSNESS of the topic of this whole discussion is enormous. People who drink and drive sometimes kill, I have seen this first hand and perhaps you have too. They have no place in emergency or protective services.

Actually 6echo, read your 2nd post on the subject. You said "why not serial killers and rapists" aren't those your words there?

Ruffems ... Awwww so I made a little boo-boo. Hey, it's not like I was driving drunk or something dumb like that

Thanks for pointing that out.

I'm a pretty tolerant guy on past mistakes. Lord knows I've made mine. But DUI is more than just a crime or mistake. It's indicative of poor judgement and reckless disregard for others. If you hire one, and you end up in court over ANYTHING he does, this is going to be brought back up, and you're going to be made to look like a dumbass for hiring him in the first place. Five years. Ten years. Twenty years. Doesn't matter. The jury is going to say you should have known better than to hire him for a position of public trust, where mature and intelligent decision making is paramount to public safety. And, as an administrator for the agency, it is my job to look after the image and legal profile of that agency, not to provide a public jobs programme to rehabilitate criminals.

If you have an applicant that has been adjudicated guilty for any crime against a person or the public safety (altering your ID would not fall in that category, lol), you would be negligent to hire that person without seriously extenuating circumstances, like a pardon from the Governor or something. I hate to be that way, because I do not believe that all those people are bad people, or that they cannot be excellent employees. But again, that is not my concern. I'm an employer, not an unemployment counsellor.

Dustdevil, you said this a million times better than I ever could have imagined myself doing.

Opening the door for people previously convicted of DUI's for instance to work in an industry such as ours is negligent. I think it would only open more doors for more people convicted of more things to get their foot in.

"They hired that guy with a DUI, why not me? I only hit my wife once."

He's not the first person to get a DUI and he won't be the last. How long do you hold a boneheaded move over his head? Forever? That's certainly your prerogative, but I think that's pretty extreme - convicted felons get more rhythm from most people. Don't expect me to believe that you've never done something stupid before.

Full Disclosure: I had a DUI over 10 years ago. I'm considerably less stupid now than I was then - at least when it comes to things like drinking and driving. Edit: And while I don't reflexively defend folks who drink and drive, if someone in their early-mid 20's gets one and it's more than 5 years old, I'm certainly more inclined to think they were just an idiot as opposed to a menace to society. (Although, I see after the fact that the OP was older than that.)

Like I said, watch the "oh you're so harsh" posts fly. Blah blah blah. Like I said (which people obviously haven't read), I've done stupid stuff before however have never been stupid enough to risk a DUI. Kudos to those who never killed anyone while doing it, you're of another "special group", and again, consider yourselves LUCKY.

... and again, glad I don't live in an area that allows people with past DUI's (don't care how long ago they were) to 'get through the gate'.

HEAR! HEAR!

Now more on to reply to the OPs questions: I work for a company bought out by AMR last year, and we have had a couple of transferes already. One came from the East Coast with a bit of history he tried to keep quite. He apparently had a DUI (I don't know how old) but he was not allowed to drive for x amount of time. I say X because he did not fit in(peronality differences) and went back home.

I generally choose not to post in here so your cute little comment about 'status posts' really doesn't matter at all. Hey if we're letting in drunk drivers, why not serial killers and rapists?

Everyone has challenges and has made stupid mistakes, it's human nature. My mistakes I can assure you have not included driving drunk. So it brings me to comment on your comment about me being arrogant and insulting and having a big ego ... I've cleaned up after people like this guy and despite all the public education and information that's out there, people like him continue to make these stupid mistakes. I'm sure your tune would be different let's say if he had been pulled over in YOUR neighborhood while your kids were outside playing.

So hey, if that's the kind of person you'd want for a partner that's your problem, not mine. Fortunately for myself and my family and where I work, people are screened prior to entry level, education or employment- wise. So call me judgemental all day long if you so choose, I really could care less I'll just sit back and wait for all those posts now, telling me what a bad person I am for not forgiving Mr. DUI simply because he completed mandated court requirements. People are always calling for tougher penalties on crap like this ... until it's someone they know.

I am interested in pursuing certification as an EMT-Basic, with the goal of becoming a paramedic. Before I commit myself, however, I'd like to know how a past DUI conviction will affect my progress down the road. Will I be utterly wasting my time? I was convicted of a non-accident DUI in August of 2004, here in California. I promptly completed all of my court-mandated sentencing (fees and DUI education classes) and am presently in full compliance with a valid driver's license.

I appreciate any input! Thanks very much.

Since you put this out there, I have to say with great honesty that I wouldn't want someone with a DUI working in emergency services near me. DUI's (especially fatalities) aren't fun to deal with. Unfortunately most of us on this side of the fence don't have a lot of say in such matters. I am considering myself lucky not to live in your area, and only hope you move on to find yourself another means to pay your bills.

Fortunately for you and everyone else who was on the road with you the night you decided to drink and drive, you got pulled over before someone got hurt. Or worse ...

Oops I think someone's opened pandora's box a little to soon.

Why I say this is, the hard cold facts of the issues are never a solved problem, even with the high cost of living here in Calgary.

If you think your ER is in bad straights, and you think non-positive attitude, then the world is a never ending chaos. :roll:

Do we really need people in Parliment running Canada, and us?

Heck no they should go!

That's just my opinon.

What the heck are you talking about Wendy? Non positive attitude? Whenver I enter an ER where I work, I always go in thinking hmm, perhaps the staff won't take advantage of us and expect us to watch THEIR patients. Hmm, maybe they'll realize it's actually against currnent legislation for a prehospital care provider to practice within hospital walls ... And the last thing I want is to go out of town to back up some rural crew when it's not where I work ...

I for one am not optimistic on these changes ... the only thing that I've heard which is appealing is the fact we're finally being deemed an essential service.

Exactly why anyone would want to work in the oilpatch asides for a quick money fix is beyond me ... You'd probably have more fun sewing polyester pants at a senior's lodge.

I'm not an EMT, but I have worked in the oil patch before. First off it takes a special kind of person to do that kind of work. Hours of boredom, mostly spent in the front seat of a truck in the middle of nowhere (especially true if you are an EMT). The guys in the oil patch are pretty rough, you have to be able to put up with being yelled at and called names that would make you mom blush, and you need to be able to stick up for yourself. You may be working in very dangerous areas on very dangerous jobs, with guys that are probably nursing a hangover from the night before or are still a little tipsey cause they never really went to bed at all, just kept drinking until it was time to go to work again (yes this happens a lot, anyone who tells you otherwise is lying). The upsides to the job is that you get to travel a lot and some days when you are out working in the summer time and the sun starts to come up with the most beautiful red sunrise you think, "God, I can't believe I get paid to do this." It's the days like that that helped me through it, and the adventure of never knowing where or when my head would touch a pillow every night. It's a fun industry to work in for sure, but I can't see doing it for the long term, especially if you are in a serious relationship, it's a single person's world. I didn't sugercoat it for you, so I hope that helps you out.

Yeah, there's nothing to sugarcoat about the patch, nothing happens up there. You're in more danger of a needlestick (if you're not careful) or getting smacked by a combatitive drunk than you are of ANYTHING on the rigs. Well, except for some perv trying to pick you up if you're a female ... or perhaps even a male ... Brokeback Oilpatch ya know ...

If you want any hope of getting on with a decent service and/or being able to move around at all, take your schooling at a CMA accredited location. Don't waste your money at CCEMS.

I concur. As an EMT it's easy to make $350 a day with the right company and sure it's great when you want a new TV or to get a fat ass, but there's nothing EMS about industrial. There's nothing emergent or medical, it's just a service. Whoopedy doo.