Lauri

Hi, all, been a member for a while, but really just lurked. I'm one of three EMTs on a rural service in NW Iowa. We have about 200 calls a year, majority being medical or transfers, we're ten miles from a level 4 ER and about an hour from the nearest level 2.. before becoming an EMT in 2010 I was involved in SAR, I took the first responder class in 2005, and knew then that I wanted to advance the training to EMT, took awhile, but I accomplished the goal. Now hoping to advance the training some more to either A or P, but no classes close enough at this point, and am still leary of the online offerings.

I did an interview today with my favorite paramedic and his fire chief about the fundraiser their department is doing to build a new shed, we talked about that, and about the challenges faced by those of us trying to serve small rural communities. Please give it a listen!

http://tallcornandcrossroads.blogspot.com/2013/07/granville-fire-and-ems-fundraiser.html

. I'd like to know a little but more about that. I think that she should (if I'm right and I could very well be wrong) think about that a little bit more; it's part of the reason why volunteer services are often looked down on.

explain.

Our pager goes off... within 2 minutes our rig is rolling to a call. ( our average scene time is also right at 10 minutes) What do I need to think about? We are down to three EMTs, with five going to school in the fall. we do not have any first responders, Fire only comes if we call for lift assistance.

Triemal04, that our protocols do not allow the rig to roll without an EMT. And the majority of our calls we all respond to, we don't all ride, but we are there for scene assist.

I guess what bothers me, in the whole paid vs volly fight, and has for years, and I said that also in my first post, Volunteers have the same level of training that someone on a paid service has. We are all professionals. No, we don't have the same call volume, but I know that on my service and the ALS service that we call for assist has volunteer members who take their service seriously, and work to maintain and advance their skills even with a limited number of runs. Would I be full time if I could, absolutely. Would I go to school to get my P if I could, you bet, but I'm not in a position to do either. SO, I and the rest of my team, work as hard as we can to offer the best care possible in the prehospital environment.

I really wish I had been able to read the original blog. Then I might not have gotten this thread so off track.

But...what does that mean? Part of the problem with volunteer systems is the "standards" they hold to are often low, and not based on real things.

Does that mean 2 minutes to reach the location of the call? two minutes from page to get to station and to have left the station and be enroute to the call. if the call is in town, 1 minute to get there.

Setting aside economics for a moment I want to ask why volunteer?

Please don't say, "Because I want to give back to my community". You can do that picking up trash, serving meals at the soup kitchen, putting time in with Meals on Wheels, be a Big Brother/Big Sister volunteer and more.

Why do people so insist on volunteer EMS?

MIke, I know our service is volunteer because we are a small, rural community, and don't have enough calls/year, roughly 200, to justify the cost of paying fulll time EMTS when we can go weeks without a call (I hope I didn't anger the EMS Gods by saying that)

The blog that started this has been pulled down. But here's my two cents on the paid vs. volunteer debate.... worth about a penny. :-) Whether we are paid, or volunteers, is moot. We are all, and should all be PROFESSIONALS. period. Everyone has to have the same training and meet the same standard of care whether paid or volunteer service. That said, i am on a volunteer service, we are paid for our time spent on a run, but not oncall time. We have 3 EMTS who have kept our service responding 24/7/365 for over a year, it will be next year before we have more EMTs, unless someone already certified moves to town, and then we three really won't have a break till they are comfortable. . our average response time is 2 minutes, even at 3am. :-)

Jax, I felt the same way! We were lucky that our instructor knew how to prepare us for the CBT. The best advice I can give for your friend is to read the answers first... then read the question. Also to take her time, and not get flustered by the wording, or if she gets one wrong.

Lauri

Agreed with Mobey. Just out of curiosity, when you checked for pelvic stability, what did your examiner say? While not applicable every time, remember when you see a pelvic injury - the scoop stretcher will provide the best support.

The Examiner didn't say anything, just glad that while I didn't do it in the test, my instinct to use the scoop instead of a long board was good. I think they were fairly lenient with us.... we were testing in a blizard and 21 of the 75 that were scheduled to test were crazy enough to come.

I have a question from the scenario in my patient assessment-trauma from my practical. I passed, YAY! But was just thinking over things and wondered what the best thing would be in a real world situation. I had a motorcyle accident victim, he had been wearing a helment (removed for the scenario) On the rapid assessment, found decreased lung sounds on right side, and pain when palpated, no abdominal pain on palpation, and pain in left hip on palpation and also on right tib/fib. I verbalized rolling the patient and DCAPBTLS on the posterior, So here's the question.... with significant injuries on both sides, what's the best way to get this patient on the back board? Roll him to the left side on the injured hip? or on the right side with the broken leg and thorasic injuries? OR would the best be a scoop? (also had the helicopter in air right away. ) thanks in advance for thoughts.