shade

8) Thanks, I am only older for a while,

We use the term; "Medic 1, Medic 2" to designate our ambulances. We presently have one smaller response vehicle and will be adding another in the near future. What does everyone call their smaller response units? Presently the one in service is driven exclusively by our director and he uses his persoanl radio number, but whe the 2nd one comes online, we plan to name them individually. Just looking to see what others are calling thier smaller unit. Thanks in advance!

We've been toying with the idea of changing our lens on the front of our units to eliminate the clear lights. All the suggestions are to shut down clear flashing lights on the scene and a few of our members are semi drivers and they say the clear flashing and rotating lights really blind the drivers of big trucks. National standards state we must have at least 1 amber flashing light on the rear, but we can find nothing about amber on the front.So here's the question: Do any of you have amber lens on your flashing and rotating lights on the FRONT of your units?

I know a few from Kansas are at this site. Just curious if anyone has any EMS stories from the tornado last Friday night at Greensburg, Kansas? The entire town of 1500-1600 people was wiped out in a huge EF-5 tornado Friday night. Our prayers and thoughts are with those in Greenburg, and all the other storm victims all over the county!

I've found that you should never let your guard down, even with law enforcement on scene. Seems like Law Enforcement can make quite a few people very irritable. We carry a trauma kit in on all calls and I like to have it close in case I need something to defend myself with. It is a little bulky, but not as cumbersome as our airway bags. It amazes me how law can clear a scene and we see knives, ball bats and the such close to our proximity. Worst thing I ever encountered was an old pit bull/doberman cross. Partner got in the house and let the dog out. I had to contend with him getting the cot into the house. As I was getting the cot in, the dog shot through the undercarriage of the cot and was now in the house with us. Just nipped at my hands and was a little playful, but I knew he would get very protective when we took his owner. I made my way to a room on the far side of the house and the dog shot by, right into the room and I shut the door behind him. We got the owner on the cot and just outside the house. I filled the dog's water and food bowl, then opened the door on the room the dog was in and beat feet out the door, shutting it behind me. That dog was really upset that his master wasn't there. At my part-time job we carry dog biscuits and they work good. Think I'll get a ziploc bag and put under the seat of the unit.

We had formed a volunteer First Responder group in a small town about 15 miles from the county seat with an ambulance. We fought hard to be accepted and help the ambulance and always was met by resistance. We had been threatened by the owner of the private ambulance service that if we ever responded, we would be thrown in jail. (Not too sure why, but it got our attention!) One November morning in 1994 I heard the ambulance get paged for a possible code blue in our town. The big cheese with the ambulance service was not on call that morning and the lead tech asked for us to be paged. Heck, we didn't even have pagers yet for us, just the FD had them. Heard him ask on scanner so I went. Yep, no mask, gloves or nothing and, you know it, a code blue. I was alone and did CPR for the 15-20 minutes it took the ambulance to get there. Then assisted all the way to the hospital. Pt. didn't make it,. The operator of the service showed up and gave me a ride back to our town. Told me, "That's how they end up, the dead ones don't give you any trouble!" I thought, "What a jerk!" That guy has been gone now almost 7 years and we are now a strong county based fulltime service, since 2000. I came on fulltime in 2002 as just a First Responder, immedicately got my EMT-B then my EMT-I. Anybody ever makes a statement about "The dead ones don't give you any trouble", they will get an attitude adjustment.

We work 24 hr shifts here: 12 at the staion, then 12 "on-call" as long as we can roll the unit in 5 minutes or less. We get paid a small amount to be on-call. Helps on the gross at year end plus it encourages part-timers to help cover call in the evening and night when we have classes or school events. I agree, it was strange to be getting paid to be at home (I'm about 1 1/2 miles from staion), but very used to it now. From a sound sleep we can roll in 4 minutes in the middle of the night. That counts putting on jumpsuit, driving and getting in unit. Worst time is from 7 in the evening till a little after 10. Lots of cars still "cruising", from 10 till 6 in the morning we can make it very easy as traffic is nothing.

We don't run hot with a patient usually. Only to the scene. Dispatch can't and shouldn't diagnose. Heck, send us to a breathing difficulty and they've been gone for a day or so----wow!! Guess they were right? Huh?

We respond hot to all 9-1-1 calls. Dispatch isn't trained to get the pertinent information to make the call about L & S. If caller requests "No L & S", and dispatch advises it over the radio (now it's on tape of caller request), we respond normal traffic. However, if it sounds like time is a factor, we roll hot. We do fire standbys for structure fires and used to roll hot to those. Now if there is no patient and only standby, we respond normal traffic. We had techs park the unit in the way of fire trucks---DUH! In Kansas the law is if the lights are on, so is the siren.

We do CPR training for numerous groups and individuals, as well, as in the local schools. Course the new guidelines developed by AHA, we had to update our videos/dvd's. I'm sure that other EMS agencies do the training and I would like to know what your opinion is of the material? I am very disappointed that they do not do very much on children and that choking is a "just mention" anymore. We are developing our own system/style to address these items in class, but the students prefer the practice with the dvd format. They seem to skip around and not follow any order to the presentation. I think the practice as the dvd plays is a good tool. But then they switch to scenarios that are difficult, it seems, for the students to get into. Anyone else seem to think it may have been produced with very little thought??

8) What equipment do you take in on the cot on each call? We run a BLS service with ALS capabilites and I'm just curious how others equip their cots for calls. We carry a; pillow, Airway bag, Zoll table, sheet and blanket. Then under the head there is a pouch with 2pr. of med gloves, 2 pr of large gloves, 3 quick straps, a nasal cannula, a nrb, and a soft stretcher. Course an o2 bottle at the foot. This isn't meant to be a criticize session, just curious how others equip their cots. Thanks for the replies!!!

Here's how it works: Holiday not worked = 12 hours of regular pay; Holiday worked=12 hours of regular pay X2. (To me this means we don't get any "extra" for working a holiday". A lot of the posts get their holiday pay PLUS time and a half). I.E. we get our regular pay plus regular pay for holiday. They push that we get "double time" as a benefit, but really we are only getting a paid holiday and regular pay for our working of the holiday.

:? This might have been discussed before, but I couldn't find anything on it. How does your EMS service handle holiday pay? Here is our situation: If the holiday falls on our day off- we get paid for the holiday regular pay. If we work the holiday- we get double time for the hours worked(you get paid your regular hours plus get paid your holiday pay; thus you get paid for the holiday and not actually double time). Just curious how others are compensated for working holidays. We are curious if we should get our holiday pay plus double time; that way we would be actually paid something extra for working the holiday. Hope this isn't too confusing and thanks for your replies!!!

Posted the question about Thorogood boots back in the EMS section. Now I'll do it in the right place. I would try them on first, but no dealer close by and 150 miles to the nearest dealer, then that dealer always has to order and his return policy is terrible. So---- I am curious about the Thorogood Commando Deuce. Profile says it meets bloodborn pathogens and waterproof, 2 features I like. Looks l ike that boot is made in USA also. Thanks for your replies!

Dust, Sorry about putting the post in the wrong section. Looked all over for apparel, but no luck. Will move it to the equipment page. Thanks