+medic

Heck, dogs are far cleaned than many of the humans we pick up.

You can always clean the rig when you are done with the call.

Dogs are also better behaved then a lot of the patients we get.

Any how is service dogs are allowed in lets say Walmart they are defiantly allowed in the ambulance.

MA requires two per truck we normaly keep them in the bench seat to keep the stuff down there from rattleing around since our trucks are old. Most of the patients we take have there own pillows from there home or nurseing home. I have found that most Dialysis patients we transport feel better when they have there own pillow from home. Alot of the nurseing home and dialysis centers give there patients pillows with the centers logo on them and sometimes the patients name stiched on.

As for Emergency calls the patients normaly dont ask for pillows but we run very few emergencys.

I work for a BLS transfer serivce so our first in bags are a bit basic with nothing really special.

Our basic bag has in it.

ASA

Glucose

Jr and Adult Epi Pens in the side pockets

B/P cuff

Pen light

Watch

BVM with OPA's and NPA's

Bulk dressings and triangle bandages

Sam Splint

Ice and hot packs

Combi Tubes and King Airways for NH crews.

Glucometer for NH crews

2 bottles of sterile water

Assortment of guaze packs and band aids

tramua dressings

Box of Lg goves

Rolled up news paper

I work for a Transport company and everything we do is still on paper. We do mostly Dialysis and Hospital Discharges so our narratives tend to look the same after a while. This is a basic narrative for a tansfer from a Dialysis center to a privet home. Im so use to useing paper and pen typeing out a narrative feels a bit odd.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A-7 dispatched to FMC Dialysis for 60 y/o female with Hx of CRF, Hip Fx and unable to ambulate on own -----> prvt home. Upon arival crew found Pt in Gerichair ----> cot via 2 EMT lift, secured x 5. -----> A-7.Vitals taken, B/P HTN with normal pulse and resps. Pt hasn extensive Hx Cardiac with recent heart attack, CRF, unstable gait and needs medical supervision during transport. Pt apeared well today with no signs of distress or pain. Pt denies any pain or major complaints. Uneventfull plesent transport to prvt home. -----> from A-7 into home via stair chair up two flight of stairs. ------> into bed via 2 EMT lift secured rails and left Pt in care of family. A-7 Cleared 1047.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

----> - Moved and or transport

A-7 - Ambulance 7

Hx - History

Pt - Patient

Fx - Fracture

HTN - Hypretensive

Edited for content and translation from paper to keyboard.

Wow that video is full of 80's coolness. When I was in the Military they still had Ambulances that looked like the one in the video.

As a new EMT it’s hard to find your first job. Even with Military experience and experience as a British EMT it took me a while to get a job. I ended up going to each Ambulance company and talked to as many hiring managers I could before one hired me. It will take some time and allot of luck to find a place that will hire you but keep at it and I’m sure you will find a job.

The best advices I can offer is too get out and talk to each Ambulance Company and EMS agency you can. Make sure you look professional and have a résumé in hand with the right certs and with some luck you will find a job. The key is to get your foot into the door with a company and start to get some experience. Once you have experience more companies will want to hire you and offer you more money.

Yes as I agree with you, I have done what you staited in your post many times and there still is a very large issue. Where I work we have no set partners so its like a dice roll each day when you come into work.

Thanks for all the posts and good thoughts. It has helped me get my mind around this topic very well and gave me alot of info to bring back into my work place.

Cheers.

Long live the City.

Here is a question for everyone............

AMR in the states is a union shop for the most part. What I want to know how well does the union work for Americas biggest Privet Ambulance Service? I ask this since it could be used a a base line to guage the oringinal posters question.

I have been 100% flat footed all my life and I use to have some of the same issues as you when I was in the Air Force.

I use to have to deal with chronic foot pain all the time till I started to exercise my feet mussels more without running. I also where stiffer shoes/boots with gel insoles that were fitted and recommended by my podiatrist.

In EMS depending on where you work there is either a lot of sitting, lifting or moving of your feet. I highly recommend a nice pair of combat boot with good soles and side zippers. Spend more than 20 bucks trust me the cheap shoes are crap and fall apart.

There are many paramedic programs out there that don’t have a Physical Training test or requirement perhaps you could find one of them while you try some the suggestions stated in the replies here?

Hello and welcome

Trust is a very important thing to have in a partner but it seems each place has one person who does not quite fit in or has severe trust issue with their co workers. Such as Lying about things on incident reports, laziness in many forms on and off the truck, miss treating hospital staff/co-workers, inability to do ones job at when crap hits the fan or just having a very bad/loud mouth.

I know in EMS it’s impossible to get along with everyone but I feel there is a unspoken rule of being able to trust your partner when the crap hits the fan even if you and your partner dont see eye to eye. Sadly some people just don’t get it they piss off co-workers or make bad mistakes on the truck and then the feeling of mistrust grows to the point where no one at the company wants to work with them.

I have a person in my EMS Company who is like the above. This person has made a lot of mistakes and errors both personal and work wise. This person was also let go from another larger EMS company in the area for a very bad error in judgement and for a lot of the same things stated above. Now this person is creating problems where I work. Our management had been very quick to deal with the issues and the person is being carefully watched and supervised.

So I ask you all this since I have to work with this individual who I don’t fully trust 100% on the truck to do the right thing or to help me when crap hits the fan. As my partner we had a very bad incident that I don’t want to go into here since it’s a personal matter and such things should not be posted here in my opinion.

The reason why I posted this is because I feel trust is a very big thing to have in a partner. While I may not like certain people for what every reason in EMS, I have to trust them to enough to have them be my partner on the truck. So how would one deal with a person like this when you have to work with them?

Cheers and thanks

Oh sorry I should given more info since there is more then one way to skin a cat it seems.

This pt is a 85 y/o women who cant walk or have any torso control besides use of her arms. She weighs only 80 pounds and its snowing lightly outside. She is being transfered by a two crew of EMT-B's into her home from a Dialysis clinic. She is Alert, oriented and stable, for a IFT company this is a very normal transfer.

There are so many options. Experience, situation, condition, and resource dictates the proper way.

Agreed 100% but I am trying to get good views on what could be done in this situation and how it can be done better and safer.

The three No-No's: DO NOT HURT THE PATIENT, YOURSELF, OR OTHERS... Good luck; all the best....

Agreed but thats easyer said then done at times. The reason why I ask is for personal reasons after a hard call the other day.

So given the three options with a wide set of five steps into a home with light snow falling with the patient a elderly women who cant walk and has NO mobility. I ask what would be the best option based on the info I have given.

Hello and welcome

I work for the small transfer company we do mostly Dialysis, Nursing home, Hospital Discharges and the occasional emergency. The most difficult part of working in a transfer company I have found is the lifting and moving of patients. Most of our patients are very elderly and frail while others are very large. Some patients are easy to lift while other requires more than just me and my partner.

So I ask you all this question when you have a patient that needs to go up just a few steps, say just a set of five steps into a suburban home would you

A. Use a stair chair

B. Use the Patients own wheel chair and you and your partner bump it up the steps.

C. Bring the whole ambulance stretcher up the steps into the home.

I ask this since where I work I have seen all three done and I’m afraid the B and C options are the most dangerous and could cost me my job if the patient was to fall.

I ask this since I just want to get input from others who have different ranges of experiences.

Cheers and thanks!

First off come one there are good places to work and bad places to work in life. Not all are the same or always the best. I understand you in the SF Bay area and thats fine. Up in New Hampshire EMT-B get paid about the same or less depending on who you work for. However if you get your Massachussetts EMT-B card your pay rate at most places will jump to about 12 bucks and hour since you can do calls in both states. I work for a small Ambulance company thats very good to its EMT's with decent call volume. We do mostly BLS transfers from state hospitals and elder care homes its a good place for some one new to cut their teeth or burnt out people to come and have a rest.

If I were you i would compare what EMTs in your area make and see where you can move to in your area that may give you a pay jump for the same work. I make more money just having my MA EMT card since it makes me more marketable since most calls move in and out of MA.

Also I dont belive in the BS of call bonus for runs. There is no ryme or reason to call voulume at most Ambualnce companies your either have more work then you can deal with or are dead with a little bit of space in between.

It seems your unhappy and thats something you just have to deal with it since thats just life and the way some Ambulance comapanies are. In short Privet EMS sadly is a for profit serivce its sad but thats the way it is however if your lucky you will find the right company whos in EMS for the right reasons.

No need to do it where I work we do mostly BLS transfers. If the case came up to ever look though a patients phone we probably would not do it.

With the sole exception being Verizon Wireless phone if it ever came down to it. Since they have the icon in many of there handsets phone book for ICE. But its only if the user selects it for a contact and adds it and even then its a gray area but nice to have in a pinch or what if situation.

Hello and welcome

I just got a new job in the Boston area as an IFT-BLS EMT with a local service so I understand where you’re both coming from. Before I was a US EMT I was a British EMT while I was in the Air Force stationed in the UK. Once I got out I got my US EMT cert and well here I am.

As a new EMT-B you’re looking at mostly Inter Facility Transport work with a privet Ambulance service, volly work or hospital ED work. You will be very hard pressed to find paying 911 EMS work as a basic but as a 911 volly you will find the connections you need to get jobs later down the line as your experience grows.

EMS is 90% boredom and 10% excitement so strap in for the long haul. But in all honestly being an EMT is allot of fun as long as you’re willing to learn and grow your knowledge base to be a good patient provider.

Allot of people your age in your place join the National Guard or Reserve and become a Military Medic now keep in mind a Medics in the military are just EMT-B who can also do IV's . That is a great option to gain the needed experience and your military training school will be shorter since your all ready an EMT-B.

Other than that your options for your age and experience are this from the way I see it

1. Military Medic

2. IFT-BLS transfer EMT

3. Volly as an EMT-B riding third jump

4. Fire Service EMT

But in all honestly if your attitude is not fully 110% positive in EMS you won’t last long, EMS is 90% boredom and 10% excitement.

Come on up to the Boston area there are tons of EMT-B jobs. Cant throw a rock around here with out hiting a IFT- BLS truck. If thats not an option for you go volly with a local serivce till you can get though medic school.

I'm moving to MA soon, and will have to take only the written portion of the Mass EMT-B test. I'm currently an NREMT-B, would you say the Mass exam is easier than NR? Harder? Any tips?

I just took it and the questions are worded very oddly so make sure to read them carefully very carefully. Infact the questions are worded to be a pain in the A$$. Oh and they want 200.00 bucks to take the test. I guess they dont call it Taxachussetts for nothing. But the good thing is when you pass the test they give you your EMT card on the spot.

Try this

Emergency Fans.com

I have a bunch of them on my phone

Guys the reason people fail CBT adaptive tests is because they stink.

When you having something a warcraft addict who lives in his room all day could pass with two months study and never leave the room, yet however a combat medic with say 2000 hours on the job/same time studying might fail more often, you have something that stinks.

Adaptive tests are an old 1950's fashion that thankfully went out of fashion mostly as you needed another person real time choosing the questions. Thanks to computers and internet its come back into fashion for underfunded orgs who want something " cool and technical and ADAPTIVE" to try and make up for poor practical standards.

Adaptive tests stink for all the same reasons they originally went out of fashion for.

If they were any good the whole academic world would be using them.

But the real world knows they can't afford to have college students who have spent 4 years and a lot of money studying their butt off, and knowing 100% of the subject matter, completely fail some lunatic adaptive test on the last day.

There is never a sure way to make a computer test work for everyone. Adaptive testing is more to see what you actually know then what you think you know. Many times people know the material they just don’t know or understand the testing system. The NREMT test system is a good system to make sure you can think on your feet. You are only as good as the person who thought you the course material in the first place. The EMT class I took had a very high pass rate and the instructor was top notch. In fact he would not even let us test if he felt we were not ready both for the written and the practical. EMS is not for everyone but I’m a firm believer that being an EMT Basic is something most people can do.

You, my friend, have just explained 90 % of the work we do. Sometimes "Hand holding" is all that they need, outside of the transportation itself.

I lost track of how many families had come up to me, after I transported their friend or relative, on just how much better some patients felt, emotionally, even those on "final rides" to a hospital, because someone simply had a conversation with them, or listened to them.

You know something EMS is like any thin elce from a customer service point of view. Your provideing customer serivce rather then just transporting a patient from A-B as well as good patient care. I have a Sales and Marketing backround in addtion to EMS. I honestly belive that you must be nice and provide good customer serivce and patient care when doing your job. Its all part of the promt and kind serivce one should provide when working with people.

So many times I have seen people in our profession forget that what we do is more of a customer serivce as well as provideing patient care and transport.

This is a good topic for myself as well. I currently work as a EMT-B in NH but there is very little to no work in NH for Basics. I am geting my EMT-B in MA soon. I know when I get a full time EMT job in MA I am 99.9% certian it will be with an IFT company since there are so many hospitals in and around Boston and more IFT Ambulance serivces then you can shake a stick at in MA.

I have worked EMS for a while doing mostly medical standy for sporting events and convention it will be nice to work in a Ambulance transporting patients instead of stablizing them then calling for transport.

Cheers

PM sent with N.H. info.