crotchitymedic1986

Good question, as I am sure you know, alcohol has no cleaning properties other than being wet, so betadine is preferred.

You need to go to the Director of Nursing at that facility and explain what has happened. At the end of the day you have to realize that there is only so much you can do. Another avenue would be to call the "mental health crisis line" in your area (or whoever is the gatekeeper to such services) and explain the situation. Lastly, a visit to the hospital Risk Management Department or even the CEO may assist, sometimes leaders have a better view of liablity situations than the folks on the front line, and as impossible as it may seem, he may have been seen by different doctors who were not aware of the previous issues (even though you told a nurse).

Also, I would make a note in your communications center about this patients recent activity so that he is transported every time. This is a lawsuit that is going to happen, would hate to see your company brought into it to, because someone got a refusal on him after 5 suicide attempts in 10 days).

I agree NY, but there must be something new to do besides being illegal, I wonder if we fail because we are all doing the same thing ? Can you prove that the money you spent on pads, pens, and other supplies has resulted in an increase in call volume ? The purpose of marketing is to increase market share, but I do not see many who are increasing share through regular methods.

Is anyone doing anything creative, or are you still just passing out donuts and pizza at the local nursing homes ?

No you just validated my point, in the right is always right scenario, it is wrong for someone to break in your house for any reason. Just because he is hungry does not give him/her the right to steal. There are food kitchens, support agencies, part-time jobs, and several other ways an individual can get food without stealing.

As far as unmotivated, what if the difference in motivation is purely greed. What if you have a single female employee who has been a great employee for 8 years, and does not work a parttime or other fulltime job because she has a disabled child at home, and the 10 year employee who got the shift works two jobs because he has to pay alimony to the exwives he cheated on, or just needs the extra money to support an extravigant lifestyle ?

No hellsbells, that is the problem, RIGHT IS ALWAYS RIGHT, it is we who choose to not do the right thing for a variety of reasons. I also disagree with your stance on management, I believe they were trying to do the right thing when they realized they were hamstrung by an ancient policy. I believe the right thing would have been for those who had other fulltime jobs to step down, so that the rest of these folks could still draw a full salary.

So you owe nothing to your work family ? Realizing that a multi-thousand dollar pay cut to someone who only has one job to rely on, whereas it will hurt you less since you have another job, you do not think stepping aside and helping your coworker is the honorable thing to do ?

Or to ask the question another way: I have heard of offices (non EMS) where the workers were given a choice: a) either everyone takes a paycut of "x" amount, or we lay off "x" number of fulltime employees. In the EMS world, what choice would we make ?

P.S. tried to edit 3 times, the above smiley face is supposed to be "" cant get it to delete.

I am not sure who said it, but the above quote is true, and it is why there are many 18 year old adults in the world, as well as many 50 year old children. Nothing defines you more "than what YOU DO". So are you doing the right thing when no one is looking ? A friend of mine just told me about the selfish children he works with. He works for a service who recently had to cut some 24 hour shifts due to budget concerns. The county has a "policy" that seniority rules in this scenario, so remaining 24s were awarded solely on date of hire. Management asked that employees who had a second full-time job, to opt for the 12 hour shifts and leave the 24s for those who this job was their sole employment. Not one of those people did so, so many employees whose sole EMS job was at that county just took a huge paycut, due to the selfishness of others. What would you do in the same situation ?

"Great topic CM ! You are pretty smart for a chick !!" Dwayne I suggest you start apologizing profusely; I know you didnt mean it, but that quote is going to cost you big time in your "popularity score", or does that only work when black people say something controversial ? Guess we shall see. If your score does not drop by atleast 10, then we know the truth.

Dont worry CM, the EMS Gods always take care of these type of problems: You dodge a BS call you are closer to, you are guaranteed to get the next nasty call. Get a little too full of yourself, the Gods give you a call that shows you what you do not know. Get a little too complacent or jaded, the Gods will give you a call that straightens you back out.

I think we did this topic before, but here goes anyway. Would you please share your quick and easy recipes for the fire/ems station. Here is one of my favorites, will feed 4 as priced, just add another can of meat for 2 more people.

Canned Pot Roast:

Need 1 can of canned roast beef per every 2 people. Cost $2.50 per can ($5.00)

Bag of potatoes. Cost 2.50-5.00 depending on 3, 5 or 10lb bag.

Cooking Oil. Cost $3.00

Bag of Brown and Serve Rolls or whatever bread you like. Cost $2-4.00

Directions:

Heat up oil, cut up potatoes into cubes, and deep fry until done, remove, drain, dump grease from pan or get new pan.

Heat up the canned roast beef in the skillet, just dump can of meat in skillet, with all juices. May need to break up meat with fork (comes in big chunks).

Once beef is bubbling and done, mix in potatoes. Serve with Rolls. Sticks to your ribs, is cheap, and tastes like a pot roast you baked all day.

No I am pretty sure it is the moral police deciding what is best for us ?

Do whichever seems best to you. There are plenty of people who will diss doing the "zero to hero" program, but I do not see a problem with it. There are very few jobs where you do half the training, go work, and then come back to complete the program. Yes you will be green, but everyone is when they start. Get school over with before you get married and have kids.

The one reason I would say you should work awhile is just to make sure you like the job, before you invest in Paramedic school, and then determine you dont really like it.

The answer probably has something to do with the costs. IM Glucagon use to cost around $80-100.00 per dose, I imagine "IN" is very expensive, but do not know for sure.

Its not that women can't find a penis in film if they search hard enough, it is that someone else is determining that they cant see one in a movie, while females are shown nude all the time. I liken it to laws that forbid you to buy alcohol on Sundays. Yes I have 6 other days to purchase alcohol, but its the fact that someone else's morals are dictating what I can and can not do !

1. I am not sure that women would get their way if they wanted to. I dont think the country is ready for that.

Ok, just trying to lighten the mood abit, if anyone is offended by this topic, I do apologize, but I really do wonder about this. I was watching an episode of Andy Griffith today, it was the episode where they got an unexpected female prisoner who happened to be very attractive. There was a sexual tension in the air between Andy, Barney and her, when she laid on the prison bed and her leg showed from the knee down (gasp), then in what must have been one of the most sexual scenes on TV in the 50s, they hung a sheet across her cell to give her some privacy and she changed for bed. The light from her cell lit her sillouette, as Barney and Andy watched her take her top off (like the episode of seinfeld when george is in the hospital with his mom, and the woman in the next bed gets a sponge bath).

I am not sure if you call it progress, but obviously we see alot more of the female body on tv and in the movies today. It is not uncommon to see almost full nudity of some female at some point in any movie, whether it adds to the plot or not. With that being said, some 60 years later, women do not get to see full frontal nudity on the male form, unless they rent or buy porn. Why is there such hypocracy ? Shouldn't women be allowed to see nude men in movies ? Then the next question, do you women want to see nude men in movies ? Does the hypocracy bother you at all, in the age of women's rights ? We have no problem showing a person being beheaded or set on fire, but god forbid we show a penis or the world will fall apart !

Airbag deployment is not guaranteed as it depends on whether the airbag sensors are engaged. Depending on the location of the sensors, and the area of impact, it is entirely possible that airbags would not deploy, even in a serious crash. I would also seriously doubt that the secondary collision was at 40mph, unless the vehicle was going in excess of 70 or 80 mph before the first collision.

thats probably cause they are not talking about you.

thank you crapmagnet, I apppreciate the compliment more than you know, especially since they are so rare.

Its all about confidence, not skill, so keep at it, it will come to you (assuming you know basic vein anatomy).

I'm not reading this entire thread, but I am tossing in my opinion, for what it's worth, which isn't much.

I'm female, and I generally HATE working with other women. Women make me crazy with their incessant chatter about their boyfriends and baby daddies and whatnot. I do not like the gossip, I do not like the catty crap, and if I don't feel like talking, I shouldn't have to talk. I've had several female partners through the years and of them, I could only stand one. Ironically, she was a lesbian and more masculine then most men I know. I hardly have any female friends. I'm just not designed "girly." I have always gotten along better with men then women so I prefer to work with them.

From a psychological standpoint, I feel double female crews are dangerous. Not because they can't lift, because a lot of them can, and not because they can't do the job, because most of them do, but because a female is a bigger target then a male. Imagine you're some seedy dude up to no good wandering the streets at night looking for a victim. You see an ambulance parked on a street corner, which is not unusual in a third service or public utility model, and you know you have your target in sight. Once you walk around to the side you see a man and a woman, or a man and a man, will you walk away and look for something easier? Very likely. Same ambulance, this time with two women. All you can see is "easy target" because there is a natural assumption that women are the weaker sex and can be over-taken with little effort. It's not sexist, it's about safety. A douche of a creepy man looking for a target is much more likely to choose an all female target then a combination or all male target.

Be a woman and hear you roar. No one is more pro women's rights then I am, but I'm also pro staying alive, and if that means I have to take into consideration that some scumsucker is likely to target me at work because I have a female partner versus a male partner, then I'll take safety over my rights.

WOW, Helen Reddy is rolling over in her grave !!!!!

The state is Pennsylvania, but i do not want to name the service for obvious reasons. Also I must admit, I do not know the other female, so it is possible that she is a diva who doesn't want to break a nail, so the company has a good reason for not giving her a female partner, but my friend presented this as a blanket policy (she had not realized that this was the policy prior, as the men outnumber the women 3 or 4 :1 at that service). I just remember seeing double female trucks in an urban service back in the 80s, of course they always had plenty of firemen around to assist in that department, so it seemed odd that it would be that backwards in this century.

But I must defend whoever stated most women do not measure up to men in lifting ability and are often NOT required to take the same physical agility test as men, that has been the case almost everywhere I worked.

I also have to take exception to whoever said 400lb patients are rare. I can remember early in my career, if we lifted someone over 300lbs, it was either a wrestler or a professional football player, and it was rare. These days, you get a 350-400 pounder at least weekly if not daily.

So I can see both sides, but I am not sure a blanket policy is the answer to any perceived problem

I am not sure, but i do not think they make them lift 150 at time of hire. I think they have to show proper technique, but I believed they dropped the lift requirement after a lawsuit.