medicgirl05

Most 911 services I have worked for had a child safety seat built into the captains chair, it made it quick to secure the child, but I'm not sure if that is the best option.

I also was told that if a child was in a wreck and you didn't take the child out of their car seat you could transport them in it, but if they were removed from it then the car seat couldn't be used. 

I hate the idea of innocent children dying, do I have a better solution? No. It's just sad to me that we live in a world where these attacks are "necessary"

I actually left the field to be a paramedic jailer. Much less strenuous, without being boring.

After I got out I realized I had some issues besides the pain. I've worked 24/48's and 48/72's for the past 10 years and I was exhausted ALL the time! I didn't even realize that until I started having normal sleep habits. 

I actually took a pretty hefty pay cut, but I'm much happier for the most part. I never thought when I started that EMS would become what it did for me. I now completely understand why the old guys turned so mean, I was getting pretty close to that myself.

Post your questions...I am sure people will respond. At least I probably will respond.

I don't think there's anyway a person can know how stressful the job is without doing it for a few years and running some terrible calls, I sure didn't...but you didn't want advice on that so against my better judgment I'm going to skip that part.

First, I would be super careful posting about depression/suicide if there's ANY way the post can be traced to you. Police departments do online searches of your name and some are VERY thorough.

Question 1-I've worked for about 4 different EMS agencies and besides asking how I handle stress nothing about depression or mental health has come up. 

Question 2- If the department requires a physical exam the meds might come up, I've worked with several people who were on anti-depressants and it didn't interfere with them getting hired in EMS.

Question 3- I recently went through the sheriff departments hiring process, and it is VERY intense. You do a long background investigation and they contact quite a few people.You also have to pass a psychological evaluation where you meet with a psychiatrist. Mine asked me different questions about stress and how I deal with people and situations, it got pretty detailed. I spent about 20 minutes talking to him, I don't know how your history would affect this part.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

As an EMT and paramedic I always carried a field guide. In the beginning I used it every once in a while, but then it was just part of my uniform. It made me feel better having it even though I probably didn't use it in the last 5 years or so...

When I did use it it was more for looking up medications...of course smart phones weren't really a thing back then.

It doesn't hurt to carry one, but they make some good field guide phone apps these days I hear. 

Get certified first though, don't get in too far without that certification.

Super inappropriate. I used to follow ghettomedic, but stopped a while ago when I had a similar issue. 

I don't think there's anything that can be done, though I hope the company is handling it internally.

A latte has helped me be a paramedic many times. Lol

Have you heard of John Puryear? He's in Texas, but has audio files that helped me pass the paramedic national registry. 

Also, try taking tests on FISDAP. That will help you get more comfortable with the test taking. Good luck!

Some EMS agencies allow people to do ride alongs, you might want to stop by your local service to chat with them. 

The EMT class is a short class that you can find at a college near you. You are not required to take anything prior to that course, but a college level English class would be helpful as well as medical terminology. You have to be 18 to certify as an EMT. You must have the EMT certification to advance in EMS.

Why do you want to work in EMS? 

Feel free to post follow up questions.

So your entire motivation for becoming an EMT is money? Do you have any idea what an EMT does? And EMT school requires clinicals that don't normally fit into a nice little box. If you want to be a nurse, be a nurse. 

That being said, idk what the pay is like where you are. I know where I am EMT's are a dime a dozen and 15/hour isn't realistic. However, overtime is usually readily available.

Also, non traditional EMT classes are usually available but in my opinion the quality isn't as good. I took a non traditional class  3 nights a week with a few Saturdays thrown in for 3 months. I was in high school so I thought it would be fun, didn't expect to make a career out of it. Anyway, 30 people took the class and 2 of us passed national registry.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Some ideas from when I worked for a very similar service...

A monthly newspaper column taking about whatever is happening...as in heat related emergencies in the summer, the importance of having the address visible, importance of car seats. We had lots of people come and talk to us about the articles and it was a great way for the community to SEE us, if you know what I mean.

Another thing, we had student athletic trainers at the local high school. We would go once a year and teach them different things(bandaging, backboarding-when it was a thing-, splinting, proper lifting). We found this was a good group of people to reach out to as some of them had true interest in EMS. We encouraged them to drop by the station with any questions and some of them really seemed to enjoy that.

This may very by state, as the state is the licensing body...I work in Texas, so I'll speak to that. I assume the process will be similar, but won't swear to it.

A misdemeanor on your record shouldn't prohibit you from becoming licensed, the problem would be an agency hiring you because of insurance concerns related to the reckless driving. If this gets expunged, I would think it's no longer an issue.

Question for you-Why do you want to be an EMT? If you have a degree in microbiology it seems like you could use that for a much better career with advancement opportunities. No judgment, I'm interested in your answer.

Yes, the question is do you want to be a firefighter?

If you're asking if becoming a volunteer fire fighter first would be a leg up my answer would be a big fat NO. I guess that could be different in your area. There is a line between fire and EMS that is difficult to be on both sides of. It took me YEARS and lots of effort, to gain respect of firefighters in my area, but now they are some of the best friends I have.

Here in Texas you do have to be an EMT to be a certified firefighter, but that may depend on your state. 

Fire and EMS are 2 different services, different passions. 

So as my time on the box has come to a close, I have been reflecting on all the calls I've worked and the things I've done over the years. I'm so sad that I'll never respond to tones again, or use some of the skills I've worked so hard to "perfect". On the other hand, I'll never have to work a 48 hour shift or do a fire standby for hours on end.

My question is...if you knew then(when you stepped into the first EMT class) what you know know, would you have done things differently? What would you tell your younger self?

I would have been much more proactive in learning and practicing skills in class, I was always nervous that people were "watching" which I later learned is a character trait that is very bad to have in EMS.

I would have told myself after the first code that it would get MUCH worse than that. I would have told myself to really cherish those first few years when the adrenaline was "fun". Some days I think if I had it all to do over again I would tell myself to get the heck away from EMS, it definitely hasn't been the easiest journey.

I recently got a job as a medic in a jail...after jumping through a bunch of hoops I start next week.

This is very bittersweet as I've been a paramedic in a rural 911 environment for the past 10+ years. Extenuating circumstances no longer make that possible.

Has anyone ever worked in a jail as a medic? Any tips or advice?

On the plus side I will get to sleep in MY bed every night. :-)

This is interesting. I don't have a lot of advice, but here goes. The first thing is, does he actually need medical care(during transport) or just like hygiene things? In one of the updates the dad mentions finding an EMT or nurse to accompany him on a commercial flight for emergency medication administration...an EMT without a medical director is just a person. Without more details I'm thinking this option isn't realistic.

A private service near me took a patient 5 states away(20 hours one way), they took 4 medics and switched drivers every few hours. The family of the patient had plenty of money and offered enough money that the private service accepted it.

I think the first issue here is him having a place to go when he gets there, and I have no idea how that works. I'm sorry I couldn't offer more advice. Hopefully someone else will have some words of wisdom for this man.

Did he, or will he, receive and kind of settlement from the driver of the vehicle that hit him? That money could help.

Why is it so hard to remember somebody doing something good? I have thousands of stupid people stories...here is a good one.

We were dispatched to a residence for an unresponsive person. Dispatch instructions were a tad more ridiculous than normal. No address or info. Upon arrival a little girl let us in, she was 5, hadn't started school yet. She was alone with the mom, mom had been cooking and fell and hit her head on the stove. The little girl knew to call 911, didn't know her address, but enough so we could find the house fairly easily. She unlocked the door for us. If she hadn't known to call 911 the woman would have surely died. 

I get an email seemingly every time "Julia" posts. Is there anyway to make that stop. I messaged Admin, but no response yet.

You know I worked for a 911 service on the beach and they didn't carry backboards...I wonder if this is why. It only takes one crew getting caught using backboards to get unstuck to ruin the beach for the rest of us. Lol

Admin-is there really nothing you can do about Julia? This is driving me crazy. 

I went from a service that didn't use them, back to a service that uses them religiously. It's SO frustrating. The ER doctors have a fit if you show up without a backboard, this is something that frustrates me to no end.

There are SO many studies that prove them to be more harmful than helpful, yet it takes so long for services to get on board.

On another note, I broke my back 2 years ago and there's no way in hell I could have been on a backboard. That just adds to my hatred of them. I don't like to knowingly cause more pain for my patients.

In my 10 years I've only had 1 patient who's seizures didn't respond to Valium, and it was a really awful call. 30 minute transport time if back to back seizures. Young lady with no history, didn't carry sedation, so I gave all my Valium and tried to maintain her airway when she couldn't. It turned out she had a brain bleed causing her to seize. 

I'm interested to see how others respond to this.

I think that would depend which country you are moving to. Some countries are ahead of us with their EMS services, while others are behind us.

I don't really understand what kind of class this is for, as it sounds like you're not in EMS class yet. So my suggestions may not be what you're looking for, but I'm going to try anyway.

Tourniquet usage pros and cons

Advanced airway control in the prehospital setting...are we effective, or what could be done to be more effective?

Something that I personally am interested in...reliability of manual vs automated BP's.