JenW

Lone: I know why you decided to post on this subject and I agree with you totally!!! A person who is infected should be responsible enough to take themselves out of the position of harming a patient not to mention the rest of his or her crew. The person that brought this subject to your attention stated that he or she just needed to be very careful, well as far as I am concerned it's not possible to be "very careful" in the EMS field. The person stated that his or her squad had rip proof gloves. I have NEVER heard of rip proof gloves for one and for two even if there are rip proof gloves out there, the blood in your hands is not the only blood that can contaminate another person. A person in the field can cut any part of their body at an MVA scene or be hit in the nose by a combative patient. Gloves don't stop the spread!!! I feel that if the government is not going to take action and ask these people to step down from their position it should at least enforce a law making it mandatory for the infected person to inform his or her squad and the people that he or she work with on a daily basis. I understand wanting to help people for a living, however an infected person is putting people in more potential danger then they are doing them good. A person with an infectious disease should not be working in the field where the potential for contamination is high, they should be working at a center for HIV or as a councilor helping other people with infectious diseases. The person that brought this subject to your attention was almost bragging about the fact that he or she was infected and still working in the field and i feel this is reckless and unprofessional. I just hope that these posts will convince any infected EMS personal to step out of the field and into a job that is more suited to their health issues.

I live in central Illinois and am a member of a rural ambulance, and with the resource hospital out squad operates under, I as a basic can intubate. However, as a basic I can not start a line. I understand how you feel as far as ALS is not always close enough to help, there have been many times that an ALS rig intercepts with us five minutes from the ER and in my opinion by then they are unneeded and unhelpful. If a line was important enough to call for ALS support then it should have been established much sooner then three blocks from the ER. I totally agree with you that basic training should include the ability to run a saline line and intubate. If they don't want a basic to have the ability to push drugs or run anything other than saline that’s fine but there are times that a normal TKO saline will help the patient big time and the 30cc that are given once ALS does intercept are not helpful.

I don't understand the whole dress pants rule. I do understand that dress pants look nicer then ems pants but at the same time they are much more impractacle. I guess what i would say to my suppervisor or whoever made that stupid rule is: ems pants protect from blood and other contaminents leaking through to the skin and they are stronger. Not to mention they have pockets for your pens, scissors and gloves ect...i would also find out why the rule is in place. If they want dress pants to be worn for the neat look or beacause not everyone was wearing ems pants then maybe they would be willing to have a "test run" with ems pants instead of dress pants. My final advice is to talk to the person in charge and not to the other members of the squade. if you don't go right to the top you will never get the truth.