sumozebra

i'm curious too. Since in new york city, EMT's and Paramedics are considered "Public Safety Officers" and we are also protected under some of the laws, such as it is a felony to attack any public safety officer / peace officer. I don't know how they are in other states or cities, but that's what it is in new york city, we've been given extra roles to play, but yeh.

1aCe3, you're becoming a dangerous, man. Glad I'm not working anywhere near you. You are making dangerous assumptions and taking dangerous actions. You do not have the "authority" to provide a safe scene. You have a RESPONSIBILITY to assure it is safe. Authority and responsibility are completely different things, and if you are taking it as an authority, you are jeopardising yourself, your partner, and your patients. If a scene is not safe, you don't make it safe. You don't go at all. That is what they were trying to tell you in EMT school. If you find yourself on a scene using "authority," you are guilty of disregarding scene safety to begin with. And if you find yourself doing that on a regular basis, you should be fired.

You have NO business directing traffic. None whatsoever. Either block it completely or get out of it. That is the full extent of your responsibility. You weren't taught it in EMT school. You weren't tested over it. So where do you get this imagined idea that it is your "authority" to do so? If somebody told you that, they too are dangerous and should be fired.

If you think the badge you are wearing inside an ambulance is going to make somebody pull over for your lights and siren, you are seriously delusional. You're letting that badge give you false bravado and a sense of "authority" and invincibility that you simply do not have. Sounds to me like it's giving you a real attitude, and one of those days you're going to stick that badge in somebody's face with an attitude and they're going to shove it up your arse. And if you think that the rest of EMS is going to have any sympathy for you, think again. You will reap what you sow.

Once you know everything you need to know about emergency medicine, then you can go learn to be a cop. Until then, focus on your actual profession, not the one you fantasise about when you go to bed at night.

By the way, how much time and money have you spent on continuing education in these last nine months? Bought any medical books lately? Have you taken that PHTLS course yet?

Yes, you're just stroking your ego, and spending more time trying to be like all the other wackers than trying to be a medical professional.

no offence but dust, how long have you been retired? you do know time moves forward, not backward, so what you learnt and what you may have thought you know may not apply to every single situation. Yes you have more experience, yes you have been around longer, but no you don't know it all. have you worked in EVERY single district / county? have you done EVERY job? and if you say yes, then i agre with ace, u're definatly stroking your ego. if not? then thank you, welcoem to the human race. as for "once you know everything in medicine" i HIGHLY doubt that you do, so don't bash people on that. as for "how much time and money have you spent on continuing education in these last nine months?" that's just purely bashing and uncalled for. when was the last time YOU bought any medical books? and read it from cover to cover and that u know it off the back of your head that i can test you on any single aspect.

Further more, please work on your reading comprehension skills, understand other people's points, and their ideas first, absorb it, rather than going straight to bashing, i swear your post is prob the most unprofessional post, and "I'm" glad that i'm not working anywhere near you.

"Yes, you're just stroking your ego, and spending more time trying to be like all the other wackers than trying to be a medical professional"

actually, it seems like you're the one whose stroking the ego, trying to sound superior and making it seem like you know it all. to me, it seems like you're not much of a medical professional to me either from the way you post

True 3-4 minutes is valuable , but if you don't arrive alive .. will it matter ? Again, speeding and endangering at double the speed in a residential or even high volume traffic .. how many lives are you jeopardizing other than your own ?

R/R 911

As i said, you use lights and sirens with due regards of safety. there IS a reason why there's the EVOK class you know? And yet again, i'm sure i've said it quite a few times, not everyone who has lights and sirens are morons who want to drive fast. There's those who just drive fast for the sake of it, and those who do it with a purpose, and knowing that purpose and the neccessity of getting there quickly as well as safely.

"how many lives are you jeopardizing other than your own ?" answer is None. Before you rush the red, you look left, you look right, you see it's clear, then you go. so i mean SERIOUSLY, before anyone starts bashing bout lights and sirens even more, please think about this topic from ALL perspectives, and not just YOUR perspective

also, for the person who said "True, it only saves three or four minutes.... but can YOU go that long without oxygen? If you can't, should the patients have to if we can help it?" you are one wise man, and i salute thee

Yes, actually it has been proven not save very much time if you do drive safe. Do simple mathematics... you would have to double your speed to cut it in half...

Again, if your kid/ loved one was in a Regional Level I Trauma Center, do you really think the extra 15 minutes would matter.. remember you have to allow for "scrub in" time ... etc..

Of course, I am not worried, I really doubt physicians & especially surgeons would become wackers.. they have more professional attitudes. Very seldom you see any markings on that Porsche or Mercedes that identifies them as medical. Strange you don't see stickers, bumper stickers, vanity plates, etc...

R/R 911

Yes u're right in terms of it doesn't save that much time, but there's quite a few cases / times that it was those few extra minutes that made all the difference. and in terms of crazy maniac drivers, yeh i guess we odn't have to worry bout the surgeons / docs being one of those, even with lights and sirens.. porch / ferrari's / bmw's come first, saving lives come second =P

well, badge or no badge, in my opinion is completely up to the owner / person. If you feel better having a badge, get a badge, for those of you who don't like it and feel differently, don't get a badge. It's that simple. Further more don't forget that many of us are in different parts of the united states / different country, and what may hold for your county / state may not hold for others. so basically all i'm trying to say is, don't impose a single view from a single county across the whole country.

so yeh, if u want a badge, go get it. if you don't want one or don't like it, then don't get it. It's simple as that

Slightly on topic / off topic

ok.. we've concluded that having a badge isn't good.. and i see reasonings behind it now

but how about a vest that says EMS or EMT on the back.. that ok or not ok?

just curious

Ok i don't know where everyone lives, and how your area is. But in Manhattan, traffic gets pretty damn bad, somtimes it'll take like 30 min to go 3 blocks, let alone 20 blocks. Here the municiples / fd / pd / ems / docs are pretty tight with each other. But yeh anyway, why is it so bad that Doc's and other emergency workers have L&S? Not to bash or anything, but say hypothetically, if your wife / child / family member was in an accident, and required immediate neuro surgeory or some speciality surgory, and this just happens to be the manhattan 6pm rush hour where it takes 30 min to go 3 blocks. The surgeon responds to the call, but is stuck in traffic and unable to get through, and having to stop at every red light because he is following the traffic law. During this time, your family member is in critical condition and needs the surgeory within 15 minutes. Because of the lack of lights and sirens, your close one is either dead or permenantly vegitated.

So far majority of the comments i've read have placed an automated assumption that everyone with lights and sirens are egoistical, power hunter, like to show off, drug intoxicated, irrational drivers who don't care about anything else. If any of you have taken an evok class, then you know there are limits and safety restrictions that you must still follow. Just because you have lights and sirens does not mean you can rush red lights without looking, you still have to slow down, look left look right, then proceed. In my opion, it's basically like having a police escort, without the patrol car being infront of you. What difference does it make? so are you saying that the PD or basically no one should have lights and sirens? that's just... wel i won't say, but yeh, my 2 cents

LOL!!! i did it and i got startled. My roommate came in and was like, did it get you? that scream? and i was like a little, and i told him to try it. He was expecting the scream but at the end of L3, he friggin jumped off the chair and tried to bolt for the door, and rolled around on the floor and almost had a heart attack =) priceless!!

I'd suggest you check out Saint Vincents down by 7th Av between 11th and 12th street

they got a great program *that i'm doing in september* but u gotta register and get the info pack and stuff, and they also require you to have 2 recommendation letters http://www.svhiec.org/