Dustdevil

My patient? She couldn't sleep. That was her entire chief complaint. And she owns a car.

Yeah, well that was Michael Jackson's chief complaint too.

Obviously, it should not be taken lightly.

Isn't a bus a large awkward vehicle to respond in ?

Sure, but it beats wasting an ambulance on BS runs.

Anyone who uses the term "bus" here, who is not with FDNY, should be banned. And kill themselves.

Anyone who stops a transport in-progress to whacker-jump another patient should also kill themselves.

Agreed. There was a time when 40 was "old". Humans naturally aren't able to live to 90. We can thank Semmelweis and modern medicine for the average life expectancy in the 70's.

I thank them for nothing. I blame them for overpopulation.

When they say to wash a cut with water to clean it well...

Who is "they," so we can put this in context?

I'm looking for a state that allows EMT's to practice the majority of their skills...

LOL... what "skills" would those be? Please take as much space as necessary to give us this long list of "skills" you learned in a 3 week-long first aid course that most any person on the street could also do. To be very honest, you have less training and skills than most nurses aides. And even if you do get a job, you'll still use those "skills" less than the aides do. The only difference is that they don't get to drive like maniacs. But, if you think about it, you didn't get any more driver training than they did. At least their school was cheaper than yours, and they won't have any trouble finding a well paying job with it.

Not busting on you personally, bro. You're just one of the thousands who get sucked in to this every year by too much television, and take a big leap without looking first. One day's research -- or one HONEST instructor at the school (very rare) -- would have told you what you now know, but don't want to admit. Your mum was right. You made a very poor choice. And these patch-factory EMT schools get rich off of that choice. Half the guys teaching them never found an EMS job either, unless you count teaching.

I believe it was Will Rogers who said, "If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging." You can either take this one on the chin and proceed to better think out important life choices in the future, or you can stay here in this hole with a million other unemployed/underemployed EMTs and keep digging yourself deeper. Then you'll wake up one day, closing in on 30, still with no education or "skills," and too broke and busy with life to start again.

Pretty impressive to see such a narrow-focus bill, that doesn't promise big kickbacks for the legislators, attain any momentum like this! Here I was thinking that Ohio sucks for not recognising Texas CHLs.

It is indeed a bad sign that the media attempts to sensationalise it into a white-herring issue though. A lot of ADD readers will walk away from the first couple of paragraphs with a completely inaccurate idea of what it is actually all about.

2c4, can you specifically define "regular EMS" for us? EMS varies so greatly from location to location that I'm sure we all have a different idea of what is "regular".

She gave me two weeks to move out.

Hey, at least she gave you enough time to go through EMT school. It could be worse.

No, wait... it couldn't be worse. My mistake.

I'd be willing to bet she got half a dozen marriage proposals in the last year. She's going to have to leave the country to enjoy life though.

It's so funny that they actually think the uniforms will present a safe atmosphere.

A couple of minutes here should dispel that idiotic myth ---> http://www.odmp.org/

Even if you have volunteer experience, I wouldn't list it in DFW. It just tells the employer that you aren't in it for the long term.

Not like you're going to get an EMS job right out of school anyhow. Non-emergency taxi driving is the only job you'll possibly get, and they don't expect experience. In fact, if you already have experience, it probably means you got fired somewhere.

I'd hit it.

Here in California, non-citizens can become EMTs and Paramedics, though it may be different in other states (and different companies will have different hiring policies).

I believe all US states will allow you to license and work, so long as you have legal US residency. Calif and Texas definitely will. Hell, you don't even have to be a citizen or legal resident to join the military.

But yes, I too would be interested in knowing what madness drives you to consider doing this.

Yeah, another US medic on that site called BS on him, and the lifeguard's reply is that the medic was being "disrespectful," lol.

What is lifeguard FA there, like 2 days, versus 3 years at JIBC?

It wont work, alot of series that have been created by the Brits have been attempted by the Americans and it doesn't work or come across as it was intended.

Yeah, the last time it worked was when Saturday Night Live came out of the Monty Python model. But even SNL sucks today.

NO ONE went to school "just to learn" how to drive an ambulance, write a report, or restock an ambulance.

The really unfortunate thing is that you are right. The profession would be a lot better off if schools did in fact competently teach those things though. As it is, most new grads suck at all three.

Read this on another, non-EMS forum and had a good laugh over it:

I am a lifeguard. In Canada (specifically British Columbia), lifeguards are trained just about as well as paramedics. We just cant insert IVs, take blood pressure, and a couple other things.

Comments?

Dude that was harsh!

Very. I am sickened. And that takes a lot.

Titles, yes at the end of the day, are just titles...

That was a lot funnier before I realised you weren't saying titties.

As for the AF, couldn't tell ya what gets yelled, lol, they don't have much in the way of field situations where it would matter. The closest relative to a combat medic would be Pararescue, they are all medically trained and badass. On base, there are Emergency Management techs who create and maintain disaster plans and various clinical techs in hospitals. The actual day-to-day emergency medical on an Air Force base is actually covered by civilian EMS.

Is that universal? Every base I was on up through 1990, the ER staff ran the ambulances with med techs and nurses.

All PJs are NREMT-Ps these days. And, like the Army, all AF basic med techs are EMT-Bs. That transition started around 1976, when they started putting all existing medics through EMT-B (actually EMT-A back then) at their duty station.

Medic is the generic term in the AF, although, until the current conflicts, flight crews were the only personnel often facing hostile forces. Most AF personnel probably don't even know what a corpsman is.

If I think something up, want me to PM you with the result? ...they do on line orders I think as well.

Well, I am out of the game for good. And my Big Shears are still in my footlocker from Iraq three years ago, so I won't be shopping for a new holster. But I'm sure the question will come up again, so definitely share anything you find.

I found the horizontal holster quite uncomfortable while in a vehicle seat. But since I spent most of my time on my feet or in an office chair, it wasn't a real problem in Iraq. Of course, in the field, I had to just revert back to normal shears, as it was impossible to wear the Big Shears while armoured up.

Meh... standardised Scopes Of Practice only result in dumbing everyone down to the lowest common denominator (California firemonkeys). I fail to see how that is a positive thing for the profession.

I didn't mean to imply that the others don't do it, and I apologize if it sounded that way, the DNPs just seem to perfect it. It's funny, they say they should have the same privilages as the doctors so that they can fill the physician shortage in primary care.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that either. I agree with you. Patients shouldn't have to sort this out. It should be cut and dried. If you're ashamed to be called a nurse, don't become a nurse.

On the other hand, the nurses do have some legitimate beef. Why should physicians be the one profession to claim sole ownership of a term that has never been exclusive to them? Why not just focus on building the recognition of the term 'physician,' which you do own? The public is never going to stop calling dentists, psychologists, and podiatrists 'doctor,' so why waste the breath on it? Hell, y'all were still squabbling with the DOs about this when I got into medicine, not so long ago. I remember when they had to travel cross-country just to find a hospital that would allow them to practise. Now you have FMGs coming from God knows where, with minimal (sometimes even online) education, and being given the title just for passing FLEX.

Why? Because every new grad wants to be a 8 to 4 boob-jobber or radiologist, not a PCP attached to a pager 24/7. If medicine would clean up it's own act, this wouldn't be an issue. But when you create a crippling void like this, you can't be shocked when some other power seeks to fill the vacuum. And -- right or wrong -- the nurses are the emotional favourites with the public in this fight, so they will continue to make inroads. I don't like it any more than I like firemonkeys being the popular favourite in EMS. But it is what it is.

EDIT: Note, the term "you" above is not pointed at anyone in particular, but at physicians as a group.

Around here, and EMT-P starts at about half that.

After state taxes, union dues, and cost of living adjustments, it evens out. Don't be fooled by raw numbers.

Unless you are inthe middle of nowhere, and the ambulance takes 45 minutes to get to the scene,,,,, as someone said, wouldn't you better served joining the local volunteer FD ?????

If it's really about better serving the community, how about they quit spending money on pointless first responders and just pay for more ambulances?

Dust, it's not a pure northern thing. Take a look at what has been going down in Arizona.

I dunno, man. Even in the far north end of the state, I doubt any of them know anything about snow tires.