Sassafras

We wear light blue button up shirts (the supervisors wear white). When I first started with the agency, the only pants available were regular, dark navy blue pants. Nothing more than two pockets in the front and back. About 3 years ago, they entertained the idea of switching to polo shirts and let the field operations employees vote on whether they wanted to stay with the current button up shirts or switch to polos. Luckily, the majority voted to keep the former. My personal opinion, and I don't mean to offend those of you that do wear polos, is that they don't look as professional. Again, that's only my opinion. They eventually gave everyone the option of choosing between the original pants and the cargo pants. I stayed with the originals. I don't carry anything on me other than my pager and radio. Anything else that I may need (i.e. scissors) is easily within my grasp. We are not allowed to wear sweatshirts or t-shirts. If it's cold, the only things that we can wear are the issued jacket or the commando type sweater. If you wore a turtleneck with the sweater, it had to be white or navy blue. If it's cold and we want or need to wear a beanie, it has to be navy blue. Absolutely no exceptions. That was enforced after we women decided to add a little color to our hats. :laughing6: I was really disappointed to have to give up my cute little orange and baby blue beanie. *sniff sniff* So, there you have it. The uniform policy is pretty strict, but all in all it works and we look professional.

I had a patient about a year ago that yanked out all ten toenails with a pair of plyers. :shock: I've had worse, but the self removal of finger/toenails just gives me the willies.

If I were to break my ankle by stepping in a hole in my yard or something (assuming I would call an ambulance for that) and the responding paramedics attempted to remove my clothing, I would have a definite problem with that.

I wouldn't know. My employer put me through paramedic school but if I had to guess, I'd say anywhere between $4K - $7K.

Dahlio, thanks for the luck! I wish you the best as well. I'll never burn out of medicine, but the time has definitely come to move on from EMS. I've had a good run and I just don't see myself ever truly enjoying this job again. I think that a lot of it has to do with the company I work(ed!) for. Treat your employees like 'sheet' and they shall return the favor. I can only play politics for so long dude. :evil: Me, I'm looking forward to M-F work weeks, no pagers or radios to disrupt the air surrounding me, no more late calls, holidays off, and the list could go on and on. I have ALL the respect in the world for those of you who can do this type of work for years on end because I surely can't. But that's okay with me. I'm not sad about it, in fact, it's quite a relief to be moving on to something else. This has actually given me motivation to want to go back to school. For what exactly, I'm not quite sure, but the desire is definitely there. For now anyway, I have a new job and am excited to finish out my last 2 weeks in EMS. In all honesty, the hardest part is going to be leaving my partner ( ) and a lot of good friends that I've made throughout the years. *sigh* So anyway, keep up the good work you guys and I wish you all the best of luck! ps: I'll still be around here from time to time. :wink:

Aaaah, gotcha! :wink:

Who is this directed at?

I wouldn't have a clue. I know nothing about DC fire and EMS.

Oh man! You totally nailed that one! :laughing1: We'll ask a pt. which hospital they want to go to and if they have no preference, my partner and I go to the one with the best cafeteria! If we're out somewhere trying to eat and get a call, the person who will be in charge of pt. care gets to eat while the other one drives. Add on top of that dispatchers paging us every 5 minutes telling us to clear the hospital when we've been on duty for 9 hours and have yet to eat and it's enough to make me yank my hair out! I know it's all part of the job, but it just gets so old, know what I mean?

I'm approaching 10 years and I've pretty much had all I can take. I've had small bouts of burnout throughout the years but this one's eating me alive. I just don't care anymore (I still provide the best care possible) and that's not fair to my patients. Physically, I feel my body slowly falling apart and mentally this job is the biggest stress in my life. I'm not a pleasant person to be around these days and I firmly believe that 95% of the cause is this job. Time to go. I love medicine, but have had it with EMS. I can't wait for the day I turn my sh*t in and never have to step foot back in an ambulance. Woo-hoo! :(/

Not nearly enough employees to handle the outrageous call volume, administration that doesn't give a damn about their employees, driving the city streets incessantly throughout the shift, if you get time for lunch count yourself damn lucky, favortism shown in numerous aspects and by certain people all the time. I fully recognize that these are the same complaints a lot of people have. There's just no possible way that I could put down in words how horrible the place is, and it goes way beyond what's listed above. I get sick to my stomach pulling into the parking lot. Morale is at an all time low. Truth be told, if I had anywhere else to go, I'd glady turn my sh*t in with a smile on my face. I am searching though. You are absolutely correct.

Avoid Charlotte, NC like the black plague. It's hell on earth. :banghead: :angry7:

Nope. No can do.

Sorry for bumping an old thread but I don't come around too much these days. I just HAD to agree with this. That annoys the p!$$ out of me. And I hate when I can't stop them from doing it in time. Yes, you're a colleague. Yes, you have an ambulance just like mine. Yes it flashes perty red lights. But must you be a nimrod and turn them on just to say "hey"? Just wave at me for crying out loud. :roll:

Wow, that's so different from what I'm used to! Yeah, we have outside compartments and inside cabinets, but we strap all of the "portable" equipment (again, the monitor, O2, drug box and airway bag) onto our stretcher to take in with us. If we don't need it then no big deal, we just carry it back out (great exercise ).

Yes.

1) So linens and a pillow take presedence over the majority of your medical equipment? Wow. 2) Yeah, I prefer to have my equipment beside me on all calls. Cardiac calls and bad resp. calls are not the only patients that require immediate help. Sure it's easy to start pt. care in the unit, but it's not always appropriate. I don't find that beginning pt. care in their home and then transferring everything to the ambulance to be exceptionally difficult. What happens if you're dispatched for a 56 y.o. male with a sudden onset of weakness, diaphoresis, and nausea (might not be dispatched as a "cardiac" call)? Does he have to wait until you and your partner are able to place him into your unit for a full evaluation? If so I find that absurd. Here's a good example of why you should always carry your equipment in. A while back, a couple of co-workers were called for a "general illness" on the 6th or 7th floor of a hotel (call made by person with the pt). The information they received from our dispatchers (which I can't specifically remember) was that this 30ish y.o. pt. was extremely stable, extremely BS, CAOx4, and c/o something like toe pain. The crew decided that all they needed was a BP cuff and the clipboard for a refusal. They got all the way up to the pt. and the pt. was in full cardiac arrest, witnessed by the fire dept. :shock: They wasted precious minutes by having to retrieve all of their equipment from the unit and the pt. ended up being pronounced at the hospital. Would the pt. have died anyway? Who knows? But they assumed they knew what they were walking into and they were wrong. Needless to say, the disciplinary action was severe (as it should have been). Being unprepared even one time is unacceptable. This job isn't about what's "easiest" for you. It's about what's best for the people we care for.

Zoll monitor, drug box (which includes IV supplies & bandages), airway bag (contains intubation equipment, adult and ped. O2 masks/cannulas/BVMs/nebulizers, OB kit, soft restraints, infant, ped., regular, & large BP cuffs, OAs, nasal trumpets...etc.), and of course one O2 tank. Everything goes in on every call.

Occasionally when I'm taking off my uniform after work, I find a pair of gloves in a pocket, so I do have a small collection. They come in handy around the house when I'm doing heavy duty cleaning and are especially wonderful when I take out the trash. Other than that, I don't carry anything with me when I'm off duty.

On duty I carry the radio, my alpha pager (call info. comes across this), and ambulance keys (unit has to be locked at all times when we're not in it). The minitor pager stays in the ambulance (we're rarely out of it anyway :roll: ) and when we are at a post, I monitor the radio. Gloves are in the front and I grab a pair when we arrive on scene. Shears, pen lights, flashlights, and my personal stethoscope are all in the back and easily within reach when needed. I can't stand a bunch of stuff hanging from my belt, and this system has worked very well for me for 9 years. Edit: My personal bag on the other hand contains just about everything you can think of (I work 14 hour shifts). Books, pens, magazines, gum, make-up (I know, I know...), several medications ( ), 2-3 extra drinks (water, soda), other female "items"...hehe...small containers of disinfectant (for funky pts., not me!), etc., etc., etc. I come prepared!

Young male with belly button lint. Young lady who wants a pregnancy test at the hospital. Man that stepped on a toothpick and had approx. <1mm of it still in his foot. He wanted us to dig it out with tweezers. Young man with ingrown toenail and associated toe pain. Girl with yeast infection. The list goes on and on. It keeps the job interesting! :wink: Oh, and the only one that didn't want transport was the guy that stepped on the toothpick.

That's exactly how it was for me. We would also (try to) find an anesthesiologist (or nurse anesthetist) and introduce ourselves as soon as we got there. They were usually more than happy to take us under their wings for the entire day.

I don't let things like this bother me. Why do we expect people (i.e. general public) who have absolutely no understanding of EMS to know our *appropriate* titles? Even when those people who should know better refer to me as an ambulance attendant, I either correct them or shrug it off. I remember when I was brand new in EMS, I asked the young lady at the ED who had 'BSN' on her name badge if she knew where I could find the receiving RN. :oops: I could tell she was taken aback, but she simply informed me that she was the RN. I felt stupid, but was glad she told me. EMS is not the only field to have this issue. Just like ERDoc mentioned, I'm sure residents have to explain several times a day that they are doctors, security guards have to explain they're not cops, hostesses have to explain they're not waitresses, and so on and so on. So instead of being so annoyed by it, use the moment to educate people on what you really do. It's really not worthy enough to cause such agitation.

:shock: Somehow, I'm not picturing you chasing after an actual beaver. All the same, when you catch it, I hope you two have fun. Stay safe over there Dust and keep in touch! Muah!

I've never had an issue arise because I wear a (small) badge. Never.