Dustdevil

NOW I am offended! I'd rather my kids see hardcore pr0n than half the crap on MTV, or anything on www.peopleofwalmart.com

Depends. If you're just providing transport for the firemonkeys, who are the "real paramedics", then no. But if the service actually provides 911 Emergency Medical Service, sure. Not that it is necessary to utilise any of those words in a service name, 911 or not. And any one who uses the word "star" in a service name should lose their licence. That's been wore out since the 80s.

I like that term! It should be used more during paramedic education! It's not enough just to do all the right things. It is important to do them in the order that optimises their efficacy!

I dunno if I can really concur with that. In the 70s and 80s, the lesbians were quite obvious. Stereotypically butch with bad attitudes, especially towards men. Nobody but other dykes wanted to work with them. On the other hand, the queer men (so as not to offend 2c4) were almost all in the closet. Generally, if you found out they were queer, it was either by accident or rumour long after they were gone. So really, I can't tell you how the men were accepted in the old days. There were only a couple that I ever knew about at the time, and they were okay guys that were well liked. Several were later revealed to be queer after leaving, but all were guys who were well liked while employed there. In the late 70s, I had a partner that was awesome. Our station was always being visited by hott chicks coming to see him, which was nice for his partner. He and I both left the service to become cops. He was a cop for over ten years, and a good one. Then, years later, I saw him on the front frigging page of the Dallas Morning News. They did a big story on him, talking about how hard it had been to stay in the closet as a gay cop. That was big news to all of us who had ever worked with him! But, in retrospect, none of us ever remembered seeing him actually date or bang any of those hott chicks, so we felt pretty stupid for not figuring it out. Then there was the fire battalion chief I worked with in the early 80s. Decent chief. Knew his stuff. But he had a personality that sucked. Always acted like he was the smartest person in the room, but obviously was not. The kind of guy who sucks you in with his smile at the beginning, but quickly shows himself to be an arsehole and backstabber. Hadn't seen him in several years until bar closing time one night. Partner and I made the scene of a shooting in a gay bar parking lot. One guy down and circling the drain. I hopped out to make a rapid assessment while my partner went for a backboard and MAST pants. A few seconds into it, the flamer in the pink shirt and tight jeans, who was hovering over the victim and answering all my questions, addresses me by my first name. I turned to take a good look at him, and sure enough, it was the fire chief. Despite being an a-hole, he covered his private life well and did well professionally. I wouldn't really say that lesbians are better accepted. I think they're still pretty well despised. It's just that we have come to realise that they are the majority of females in EMS, and you can't fight those kinds of numbers. Besides, they tend to only want to work with other dykes, so it doesn't affect the rest of us much. As for the queer men I've worked with in the last decade, I never really saw anyone having a problem with them. They were not "in the closet", but neither were they carefully hiding their status. I really think that is the key. No matter what your orientation is, if you make that the defining characteristic in your life, you'd better expect people to be offended.

F+U was even better! Are we talking about an EMS service, or just an ambulance service? Ambulance services should not be able to utilise the term EMS in their advertising or materials.

LOL! Yeah, and it's legal to have sex with a 16 year old, but illegal to have naked pics of her/him. Society is fcuked up. I get that. And that was my point. Any politician wasting his/her time and my money debating any of this should be burned alive. I got no problem with naked people in the library. We're so worried about our kids seeing nudity, but then we send them to school to take showers with a room full of kids, while a perverted coach or two watches. It's time to grow up.

You say that as if you believe that being black is something to be ashamed of. Me thinks you be the closet racist.

Yep. Definitely management material.

You'd get that feeling today in most of the middle east too!

If you meant argue AGAINST those limitations, then yes, I can. Survival of the fittest. If you (not you specifically) FAIL as a parent to properly educate, socialise, and protect your children, that is nobody's fault but your own. I don't understand how the presence of nudity makes something "dangerous" or otherwise unacceptable. If your children are raised well, they won't have a problem with it. But if you just saddle them with the same 14th century puratainism that we were saddled with, you are at fault for the damage. Despite what we were taught in paramedic school, kids ARE just little adults, and should be given credit for that potential. But if you meant to argue FOR those limitations, then yes, I agree. I cannot.

Actually, there has long been speculation on that question. I sure wouldn't want to drop the soap around him.

Unfortunately, as our country is becoming overpopulated with third world savages, who are much more reproductively active at a much earlier age, we're going to have to look at instituting such educational efforts at an even younger age. Not that I have much faith in their ability to be educated. We're dealing with piss poor protoplasm in that gene pool. But hey, we gotta make the effort if we're not prepared to deport them.

Beggars can't be choosers. HPC is just racist. That's why they won't recognise Ronin. I have no forst hand knowledge of Ronin's quality or reputation, but they have a great concept going there, providing care to an otherwise underserved population, which in turn provides for a clinical experience second to none. I gave serious thought to doing something similar in Mexico, and wish I had.

If you have the time and circumstances, then yes, that would be the ideal application process. But again, there are a lot of times that you don't have that luxury. And if you're rushing someone to trauma surgery, they're going to be getting a buttload of 3G cephalosporins anyhow. I wouldn't delay their care or transportation waiting for iodine to dry. And again, I expect chlorhexadine to become the standard in the near future. I think the old technique of iodine followed by alcohol was mostly aesthetically driven. It just seems intuitive to "clean" the iodine off, if you don't understand how they work. Lord knows I did it that way for a very long time.

I've been wearing body armour in EMS since 1979. It has saved my life twice in serious accidents, as well as numerous prevented rib fractures. Bullets aren't the only thing that can collapse your lungs, you know. In fact, bullets are pretty far down on that list. That's why I call it body armour, not bulletproof. Use your head and look at the hazards around you in the back of the ambulance. It's pretty scary. Ever been hit by the sideview mirror of a car driven by a rubbernecker at your scene? I have, and only the vest kept me out of the hospital. No, I am not saying that all EMS should. In fact, I'd like to see most people in EMS have to get out, so anything that promotes the Darwinian evolution of the profession is a good thing. Anyone who dies in EMS because they didn't take that reasonable precaution is too stupid to stay in the profession anyhow. They won't be missed in the long run. But, urban or rural, day or night, I wore armour. And I encouraged my partners to do the same, to the point of even buying a vest for one of them. Good partners are hard to replace. If you could interview every provider who was injured or killed by chest trauma if he knew thirty seconds earlier that it would happen, one-hundred percent would say 'no.' So only a complete idiot would carry one, but not wear it unless he felt threatened. The real world doesn't work that way. Speaking of being different in NYC, that brings us back to the 'job shirt' thing. In Texas, California, and Floridia, it's almost impossible to get people to even buy a long sleeve uniform shirt, lol. They just pile on layers. I always hated that look. It's so unprofessional. Especially the dorks who wear a long sleeved shirt under their short sleeve uniform shirt. Ugh. So, when I ran things, I forbid that. Either wear long sleeves, or wear a jacket. And if you're wearing long sleeves, long underwear, and body armour, it's pretty rare to be in the elements to even need a jacket. But I'm curious if the use of long sleeve uniforms is more common up north. The down side to long sleeves is, if you pick up a stanky patient, the odour sticks to your sleeves the rest of your shift. Even though everyone should have a backup uniform with them, the stanky one is still in the truck and stanking!

I don't doubt that she successfully delivered. Seen that ore than once. But, I'd sure like to know if she was physiologically able to breastfeed. But I have to agree that this nation is way too hung up on this kind of thing, and needs to get on-board with at least the 19th century, if not the 21st. I blame the Muslims.

What you are doing wrong is choosing a field that has only one job for probably every two hundred applicants every year. If your school didn't explain the job market outlook to you before the class started, then your school sucks, which makes getting a job even harder. What kind of assessment questions are you talking about?

Apparently you completely misunderstood my post. The first sentence should have told you that I accepted certain exceptions. Even the closing statement indicated that. But yes, there have been many studies on EMS, as well as drivers in general by the DOT, and medical practitioners in numerous medical journals. 1992 was just yesterday in the grand scheme of things, so don't expect that you are saying anything we haven't covered exhaustively before now.

LOL! I gotta admit that, except for their politics and weather, Illinoise is pretty cool for a northern state. Ferris Bueller's Day Off sold me on it! Welcome back and good luck!

You would know the likelihood of it more than me, but you should give at least passing thought to the possibility that the instructor and/or preceptor intentionally put you in this position as a "Candid Camera" type test of either your integrity or your knowledge. if that were the case, then not being forthcoming would be a bad thing. Like they always say, the cover-up can be worse than the crime. Just a thought.

I can attest to that. Hamilton is just like you describe your service. You spend as much time at other people's stations as at your own. Although, you spend more time in ER waiting areas and at Timmy's than in any station. The beds are a nice thought, but don't see a whole lot of use. But then again you ought to be coming to work rested, no matter how long or short your shift is. I worked a rural county service in Texas that not only had nice stations and beds, but sleeping was allowed anytime. You did not have to wait for evening. At first, I thought this was the ideal policy. But serious problems rapidly developed from the policy. Many employees simply made no effort to get sleep the night before their shift, because they expected to be able to go to sleep at work as soon as they checked out the truck. So now, it is automatic bad attitude if they catch an early run, and patients and co-workers suffer. Also, if the off-going crew had a busy night, and wanted to sleep in, they would end up in a fight with the on-coming crew over the bed. And to make sure that didn't happen, the on-coming crew would make as much noise as humanly possible, assuring nobody could continue to sleep, even if they tried. Consequently, personnel relations were very strained and clickish. It was a sad situation in an otherwise excellent, county hospital-based system. That's what happens when management tries too hard to make everyone happy. Be careful what you wish for.

Unless you have a multi-hour commute between home and work (which is indeed the norm in some systems), I never saw the allure of 24 hour shifts, personally. You can't easily go to school on that schedule. You cant easily work a second job. You can't spend adequate time with your loved ones. Not to mention the proven increase in risks and liability involved in employing potentially un-rested personnel to practise medicine on human lives and operate dangerous machinery. It's archaic and frankly retarded policy that EMS outgrew in the 1970s. Unfortunately, we are generally managed by idiots, who are no smarter than the knuckle-dragging firemonkeys they get all of their inspiration from. But then again, management wants it this way, even if they know better. Anything that helps prevent burnout is to be avoided at all costs. After all, if people don't regularly burn out, they stay with you and eventually expect a raise, or worse yet, retirement benefits. Better to keep working conditions uncomfortable enough to promote regular staff turnover. There's always another class of eager new EMTs graduating next week, who will work for less, and are counting on you to grow up and get a real job so they can take their turn playing with the siren. That, my friends, is why we have 24 hour shifts. You'd have to be an idiot or a rookie to think that is a good thing.

There used to always be an ad here for www.allheart.com, but not since they changed ad formats here. But I strongly recommend them for medical instruments, scrubs, etc... Better selection than most, good prices on all of them, and very reliable. The last several stethoscopes I have bought for myself or others came from there. Honestly, you don't need to get ahead on any of this stuff. It won't do you any good. And if you put money into a stethoscope before you've ever used any, you're buying blindly, which is not a good way to go. If you do buy a stethoscope, I would not spend more than $35 bucks, and I would buy it along with a manual blood pressure cuff. That way you can actually practise something with your scope. Scissors and scopes are available at any and all medical uniform shoppes, where nurses buy their costumes. That makes it nice to actually handle what you are buying, instead of mail order. Whichever you prefer. Any other supplies or uniform accessories should be bought ONLY after your school tells you exactly what they prefer or allow. But yes, if (BIG IF) you get a job, scissors are about the only thing you may have to buy for yourself, besides uniforms. But you will almost certainly have to provide them and a stethoscope for school. P.S. The EMS job prospects for an EMT in Orange County are slim to none. And even if you were to somehow get one, you wouldn't be making enough to live on. If you're used to no state income tax and cheap casino buffets, SoCal will be a very rude awakening for you. Good luck!

Definitely always a tough call in these all-too-common situations. I'm not proud of it, but I almost always chose to hold my piece. As long as I knew better than to believe whatever BS s/he was spreading, that was enough for me. Just like in the military and politics, sometimes you gotta just play the game. Again, I am certainly not advising you that this is the best way to go. It's just what I've usually done. Since you are dealing with a preceptor who is also an instructor, if you feel strongly that this needs to be addressed, I would meet with a dean first. Either the Dean of Health Occupations/Nursing, or whoever is over the program, or the college Dean of Instruction. Let them know that you are submitting an honest, but negative critique to your instructor, and that you simply want him/her to be aware of it ahead of time, should you encounter any negative repercussions. They've heard this before, so they should be understanding. Tell him/her that you are not looking for any intervention on his/her part, just CYA in case, and that you will report back with any problems after the fact. I had to do this once in nursing school, and it saved my arse. And there were no further problems. Hopefully it will work out as well for you. Rep points for your integrity, Bro.