medic42912

Wow. In 17 years, I have never been spit on. Pushed and been aggressive towards, but never spit on. If someone was acting as if they were going to do this, I believe we all carry mask on our units (required equipment) that could have been put over the kids mouth which I have used before to keep from getting that aweful assault, but knock on wood, they have not been successful yet. Full of holes, yeah, someone was paraphrasing when they wrote this, because had the kid been laying on his stomach, he could not have possibly drooled on the medic, and I don't call drooling spitting, unless it was intentional. In any case, what was the police officer doing, sleeping? He should have intervened somewhere. If it was an intentional spitting, then that is battery with bodily fluids and both the kid and the medic should have been charged. One with battery with bodily fluids and one with battery resulting in serious bodily injury. This is just amazing that everyone seems to be on the medics side, when the number one rule of all was ignored. When we have a patient in our bus, it is our responsibility to be the patients advocate, no matter how big of a turd they are being. We as medical professionals are supposed to protect these patients and not abuse them. It sounds as if maybe the medic had some other issues going on when this happened and this probably pushed him over the edge. If this was the case, then his co workers and field supervisors weren't doing their jobs by looking after their personnel. Anger Management anyone. Well, I will get off my soapbox now. Thanks. Craig

In any event - volunteer or otherwise, that service should still have at a minimum quarterly training for Audit & Review. We have 2 paid personnel, 8 hours a day, then back to volunteer in the off hours. We have 2 meetings monthly: business and training. If your training officer is proficient in their job, they should be putting out any new training as well as refreshing everyone's memories each month with some type of skills training. As the training officer at my organization, we have both Basic and Basic Advanced. It is very hard sometimes to accommodate both, but it is the training officers responsibility to at least offer it and if the personnel choose not to attend, then they should be sidelined until they can prove themselves, if not, then they should be let go. I realize it is hard to keep volunteers these days, but can hinder your organizations ability to remain licensed if they screw up by not staying fresh and up to date and being sued. It can close your doors in a heartbeat, especially for volunteer services who don't bill and rely on donations. I personally test each new member out after they have done observation time with elder members regardless of how long they have been an EMT. Once they do their observation time, they then test out with me and when I am satisfied, they go on a trial period on their own. All personnel should go through this. Get on your training officer and mak them stay up to date on their skills as well as tracking everyone elses. That is what they're there for.