MrsRankin0510

No kung fu nesesary, I don't derrive my professional confidence from strangers on a forum, though I enjoy the conversation. Although I think I was misunderstood. For the third time, I don't think I'm better or smarter than nurses. At my hospital the main difference between me and a nurse is that they are allowed to push drugs, and I don't think it's errogant to claim the abbility to push drugs, since afterall that is a part of my responsibility when I'm on the ambulance. That one difference means a heck of a lot of money. Again, I'm not bitter about it and I'm not crying that it's unfair, just answering the origional question of why medics are paid so little. If I was in this for the money I would have gone to nursing school. Apples and oranges are both fruit and can both be served with breakfast.

I"m almost done, it will be 2 years. Again, I'm not saying I'm better or smarter, just an untapped resource.

nremtp brittish dude, You're not wrong for thinking that way. If I didn't already know God when I started I might share your sentiment. EMS has definately made me more closed off. I've been pissed at God plenty, but I've been pissed at my husband a lot too but I'm still married to him

EMS is relatively new. Nurses and Docs have been around as long as disease itself. I think the entire healthcare system doesn't yet know what to do with us. There are idiots on ambulances, and then there are medics that I talk to before making an appointment with my Doctor. In Paramedic school we learn med math and how to set up drips, and we take the same pharmacology class required by the nursing program at my school. I work in an ER and have tought nurses how to set up nebulizers and how to work a stopcock. I have even helped ICU nurses figure med doses. Yet I still make 1/3 what they make. I'm not bitter about it and I don't think I'm better or smarter than all nurses. I just understand that in a hospital setting I"m not utilized to my full potential because healthcare doesn't know what i'm capable of.

This is going to sound really errogant, but hear me out... Anyone working on an ambulance, new or experienced, I think understands that the world has more idiots than non-idiots. While I agree with everyone so far, let me throw out the idea that idiots in EMS are partly statistical. We are recruiting idiots because we live in a world full of idiots. And to add to some of your previous points: the recruitment video for my city that airs on local TV stations is an action packed "race against time" complete with shaky camera movement and ends with the phrase "Lives need saving..." It's often a reality shock when new kids come becasue what they see on TV is glamour and heros. But then they have a choice to either grow up or fail and hopefully that weeds out the useless. BUT, unfortunately sometimes leadership passes them anyway to keep their numbers up and everyone suffers. There are a couple cases of that at my station.

Sammy I think I agree with everything said so far. Your faith belongs in every aspect of your life, but not your PTs life. I am not the holy spirit and it is not my job to convict the hearts of man. Definately speak with actions. I pray every time I do CPR. In small measure, I pray that it works this time unlike the millions of other times the dude died nomatter what we did, but I also discuss things with god as I go along. I ask him if the person is with him already and I am I just going through the motions- then I smell that he's pooped himself and I accept that I'm pumping on a dead guy. Find creative solutions to fellowship, you'll have to work on some sundays and some easters. Find a bible study in someone's house that meets on weeknights or something. Give up the idea of measuring your dedication by how much time you spend "in the word", I sat there and listened to a girl in bible study once go on and on "correcting" me for not making it a priority to wake up extra early on duty days to read my bible. Morning and night take on new meaning in this field. If I woke up any earlier it would be the previous night. I tape scriptures to my fridge, my notebooks and my backpack so that I have little bits of "bible reading" throughout the day when it's impractical to sit and "meditate on the word" without falling asleep. And don't ever stop taking care of a patient to pray for them like Laura's partner. That'll get you slapped even by Christian medics. God gave us medicine and training for a reason, and if you can't multitask it pray before and after the call instead. you can do it, staying on path with your faith while working in EMS is no different than keeping focused while holding any other job.

Thanks Fireland, So what are these steps? Is there a website or something I can visit? I've only been at this for a little less than two years. My system has a really great program for critical incident stress management, for after bad calls, but they're very demanding of our time and don't seem to take burn out seriousely. When I stumble into the station to start a 12hour shift just after leaving my 12hour shift at the hospital I get the world's smallest violin. Everyone else has been through what I'm going through and they somehow stuck it out, and the last thing they need to hear is the new girl whining. Not all of them have a little girl at home who stands at the door and cries becasue she doesn't know when her mommy will come home next. I think my spark first started to fizzle when I experienced my first baby-code. She was 2 weeks old, she had a congenital heart defect and there was nothing we could have done to save her short of open heart surgery on the rig, but I'm sure you know exactly what I mean when I say I still felt like crap. We all did exactly what we were trained to do but sometimes it just isn't enough. I was pretty messed up for a while but I came out of it okay I think. I've seen some pretty gross things in my short career but I can honestly say that a dying baby is the ugliest thing that has ever exhisted. Now, along with riding the ambulance and going to school, I work in a pediatric ER to pay the bills. About a month ago we had a really aweful day from hell. First a 2 week old came in for a "fever" but showed obviouse failure to thrive and turned out to have bilateral femur fractures and 4 fractures in his left humerous. Needless to say the social services and the police got involved, and may his mother rott in hell. Just an hour later I took blood from a 7 year old so she could be tested for STDs, then escorted a pregnant 13 year old to ultrasound. That's not exactly a typical day at work, it just all piled up. When I came home my husband had invited another couple over for dinner and everyone was talking pleasantly, but I just slouched like a defeated soldier and muttered synicle remarks. the next week I did a shift at the hospital and then ran to the station, changed clothes and headed out for our first call and the calls just kept coming one after another. We didn't make it back to the station for the rest of the night. I was so tired and so frustrated after my shift that I went home with bags under my eyes all sweaty and frizzy haired from the heat and humidity and cried like an idiot. Ever since then I've been trying desperately to hold onto my compassoinate side. Last week at school, after running on the rig all day and rushing off to school 5 minutes late, one of my preceptors got on a tangent about responsibility as a Paramedic, and added that if your job makes you miserable enough to have a bad attitude you should quit becasue there are plenty of medics out there who love their job. I had been trying to ignore it, but that night I finally accepted that I was in seriouse burn out danger. I put in for a leave of absense. It was aproved but i still have to fill my obligation for august. I stopped and thought about it and realized that I'm always cranky at home, on the rare occasion that I am home, and while I used to love getting to know people at work I suddenly wanted nothing more than to be left alone. I hate showing emotion and the only reason I have the nuts to write this is becasue I'm tired enough to claim intoxication. I do love EMS, enough to destroy myslef for it as it turns out. How do I get back to square one? I'm in the book-nerd pathophysiology phase of school and i can postpone my clinicals and ride time until my leave of absense is over. I think spending some more time with my daughter, working in the hospital and going to classes should be a more apropriate work load right now. Come to think of it, I haven't had the energy to exercise or the regard to eat right for about 9 months. So how did you "get out of it?"

This was good reading tonight. I admitt I am guilty of a bad attitude on the street lately. I'm taking a leave of absense from the truck durring the next semester of paramedic school becasue I think I'm coming dangerousely close to burn out. I thought it would take 10 years before I lost faith in humanity, but I guess if you do anything 6 days a week 12hours a day it will start to wear on you. Thank you to everyone who's been doing this longer than I've been wearing big girl panties who shared their perspective.

If anyone out there is currently sitting at your computer typing a defense for drinking any amount of alcohol while on duty or at the station, stop what you're doing and go rip up your certs.

we rely on donations, especially donations from large businesses. I'm sorry, I should have worded that differently: We don't have to pay for our training, the city doesn't have to pay us, and the citisens don't have to pay for ambulance rides. I think I'll consult the thesaurus next time before I post, I seem to wrile people up easily on this forum.

HOLD IT. Now I've heard a lot of generalizations in the last few days since poor Mntsldr asked where to buy pants. It's one thing being painted as a psycho killer or have my words turned into a chovanistic joke, but I'm not cool with anyone talking poorly of EMT-B's. I know some of you have been medics since saline came in glass bottles, but that doesn't negate the value of us "new kids" with less experience or lower certifications. Remember you were not born a medic, and at one time you had to work hard and get your training just like us. You obviousley don't work in a tiered response system. I may be an EMT-B still working in medic school, but that doesn't automatically give me a disregard for my patient's safety for the sake of something shiny, nor does it mean I don't know my contraindications. In two years time I'll be a medic too, and when that time comes I'll need the EMT-B's just as much as the medics need me now. If one of my medics treated the B's with that kind of condescending attitude they wouldn't be medics in this city long, because we have a lot of very accomplished B's with just as much experience as you who have earned some high positions. As a B and a new kid I expect to be corrected when I'm wrong and be told things I didn't know before. But I ALSO expect to be respected as a member of the EMS team. I wake up just as early and work the same hours, and go to school, and work my clinical shifts in the hospital, and pay a ridiculous amount of money for my daughter to go to daycare while I do this all for the goal of being a professional, competant provider and confident in my skills. A specific letter in my current cert does not make me a moron or anything less of a healthcare professional. If you simply use your knowledge and experience to puff yourself up then you're useless to the rest of us.

I urge anyone who has all that extra crap on their belts and pockets, when was the last time you truly used each piece of what you carry? Can you remember the last time you used the small hemostat? or the last time you used the ring cutter? -now that's a professional, kind way to tell people to carry less crap. Thankyou for sharing your experience.

No MntSldr, it's not always "my way or the highway" here, certain topics just get people more wriled up than others. I hope you will still consider this a good place to ask questions. That is, afterall, how we learn. Work your butt of in EMT training once you get there, and don't EVER let anyone make you feel lowly for having a lower certification, or being "just a student". You're just as important as anyone else out there. The Fire captain is nothing without his crew, and the medics wouldn't have time to push meds if they had to also drive the ambulance. We may do the "grunt work", but as an infantryman you know the importance of grunts. BTW, what kind of training are you doing? is the military providing it? My husband has never been through a formal training or certification for combat lifesaver, he's just joe-shmoe soldier/sailor, but they give him a med pack and a 10minute speach on how to use it. It includes a 14ga needle and they tell him to shove a cathater into someone with a sucking chest wound. I was looking at all his stuff in his pack and figuring out what it was all for and how it translates to the gear we carry and stuff, and I asked him "Which intercostal space do they tell you to shove this in?" He looked at me like I was speeking greek and said "Intercostal what?" I looked at that big ass needle, then looked at him and said "If I get shot don't you dare touch me with this thing." But the rules are different when you're being shot at, If you stab your buddy in the chest with a bigass needle that you don't know how to work he's not really much worse off than if you did nothing and let him get blown up. And no one's going to sue you for trying to save them in battle. Their contract sais they can't. Whenever my husband and I talk about anything medical we disagree, because his rules are COMPLETELY different than mine. And for the record, everyone, I'm also aware of the rules of gun safety, and well read on the local and federal laws, and I know very well how to use and maintain each of my guns. If that weren't true I wouldn't even own a gun. And I wouldn't carry it if I wasn't licenced and couldn't conceal it carefully and abide by every part of the law. My husband is an NRA certified defensive pistol instructor. Now everyone sleep sounder knowing I'm not going to shoot any cameramen or stab the mailman. And if I do I will be completely prepared to explain myself to a jury and accept the consequenses of my actions. Anyone who isn't shouldn't be carrying. Thankyou all for sharing your opinions, even the rude ones. I'm glad that hundreds of thousands of medics get along without knives every day, because otherwise they would be more expensive. The ones that ride with me get along well without a knife because they ask to barrow mine all the time. But the same goes with pens. I buy huge packs of black pens and bring 5 in my pocket at each shift and end up empty from handing them out to firefighters and medics who lost or forgot theirs. okay, now bring on the can of worms I'm sure I just opened....

I had a feeling this would be blown way out of proportion. As I said before, don't assume I'm running around trying to kill people on the truck. I've never used it to cut a seatbelt and I know better than to use it in a confined space or within three feet of anyone as they might bump me etc. And please do not also assume that I'm not well read on local and federal laws of self defense, and I do take those laws very seriously. Jeff Cooper puts it, "I'd rather explain it to 12 than be carried by 8." I'm simply prepared to defend myself if nescesary. Sorry if you think my avitar gives me a "tough girl" kind of immage that offends you. If it makes you happy, I leave my gun at home when I go to work. I've carried a knife in my pocket since I was 10, and the day I leave it at home is always the day I seem to need it most. I've never stabbed anyone or even pulled it in defense. If you'll scroll back a few messages you'll see that I casually listed it among the things I keep in my pants. Pretty much anything in my pants could be used as a weapon with the right motivation, and yes, that includes my knife but that's not what I use it for. If having a knife near you makes you uncomfortable, well... we'll never have to ride together so it won't be an issue. You've taken what I've said, exaggerated it in your mind and judged me for it. At this point I think you're just looking for a reason to be better than me. Maybe you are better than I am, but making assumptions and putting down people in a forum certainly doesn't convince me. But what do I know, I'm just an EMT-Basic afterall. Now if anyone wants to have a rational, freindly discussion about things job related I'm all ears.

Anyone who picks a fight with me in the back of the rig has already upped the anti as high as it will go, and until I can call for help over the radio and a cop can get to us, my personal safety is my responsibility alone. Hopefully no one here is stupid enough to carry anything they're not trained to use, weather it's a knife or an airway adjunct. The word "weapon" is subjective. If it's nesescary I can turn an O2 bottle into an effective weapon, or a pen, or my ears, or anything else within arms reach. My knife is mainly used for stubborn packaging and poking a hole in the top of saline bottles to squirt into the eyes of guys in handcuffs who just got pepper sprayed. With the combative patients that I've had I can usually restrain them effectively and my knife never even enters my brain. Don't assume there are crazy people in ambulances trying to violently kill their patients. Buying a ton of cool gatgets is a sign of enthusiasm and there's nothing wrong with that, my husband is always looking online and telling me I need something shiney. You can carry whatever you want to carry and it won't make you a better or worse EMT. What does make you a worse EMT is arrogance, and I hate riding with other EMTs who think they're better than someone else, whatever the reason. If someone feels they have a better way of doing things, then by all means I am happy to listen to their experience, but when someone gets snooty with me for being different from them I see errogance and my trust-o-meter plummets. Carry all the crap you want, or carry nothing and barrow a pen every call, but everybody cool it, no one intended this to be an argument, just telling the new guy where to buy pants!

duh, you're an infantryman, I guess i should have looked a little closer at your stats before I went on trying to describe in detail what BDU pants are and where to find them- ha! I don't carry trauma scissors, mainly because mine got lost and I haven't bought new ones yet, and becuase by the time we strip the pt they're in the back of the rig where we have scissors stashed anyway. I keep a army ranger knife (yes, I'm a huge poser) in my R pocket for different cutting nesescitites that scissors won't do. My husband's in the military and has aquired some pretty cool stuff. He's tried to outfit me with a geek belt before but his particular stuff didn't work for me. Dig through your gear and see what could be useful, a lot of the stuff you use is the same as what Blackhawk charges a fortune for. If you're really new to ambulance work I'd suggest working a shift or two so you know what you wish you'd had and don't overpack.

I work for an all volunteer department in a relatively large city. We are scheduled for four 12hour shifts per month, and durring those 12 hours we're on duty at the station. We have some paid medics to supliment our schedule holes throughout the city, but my station prides itself in being staffed completley with volunteers 24/7. It's rough for some of us who have families and jobs but we make it work. For some of us the city pays for all our training and we committ to volunteering a certain amount of time in return. We have all the same responsibilities and training of a paid department, the only difference is a paycheck, or lack therof. My brother calls me a communist because we get free training, the city gets free labor, and the citisens get a free ambulance ride and treatment.

BDU (military battle dress uniform) pants are relatively cheep so if you get blood or vomit all over them it's no big deal. You can find them at your local military surplus store or on cheeperthandirt.com, they come in a variety of colors that may fit your department's uniform. They have on big cargo pocket on each leg and the standard side and butt pockets. It really depends on what you carry. In my R back pocket I keep my protocol manual, RF pocket keeps my keys and tissues, R cargo keeps gloves, pens and a good size notebook. My L cargo pocket holds my wallet and cell phone and anything else personal. I have a pair of BDUs that I paid $18 for, and a pair of "tactical pants" that I paid $54. The tactical pants are a little thicker material and they have a special pocket for my cell phone. The BDU pants don't have velcrow on the cargo pockets, but that's easy to get used to. If you want more storage you can always invest in a "geek belt" from Galls or something. I asked for one for Christmas.

Christianity would be perfect if it wasn't for all the Christians. It's become such a loaded word. I rarely tell someone I'm a christian without elaborating further because I shudder to think of being lumped into what Christianity brings to mind these days (I live in the same community as Pat Roberts). I grew up in the church, I've been to more churches than I can count, and I"ve been shunned for raising my hand and asking "Where does it say that in the Bible?" I've been kicked out of church for not fitting in the box, told that God hates rock and roll, ordained as a revolutionary prophet, had people try to excersise demons out of me, and pretty much every other wacked out thing that Christians are famous for. No one from a church has ever tried to kill me, but other than that I feel confident in saying I've experienced it all. The reason I still go to church, besides the fact that I'm blessed enough to have finally found one that fallows the bible and not their own cultural whim, is because over the years I've learned the hard way to seperate a relationship with God from all the religiouseness that seaks to steal his glory. Here's what I believe the message of the Bible is, and the foundation of my personal faith: God is perfect, God made man, man fell from perfection (garder of Eden) and therefore cannot be in God's presence since light and darkness cannot coexist (Ephesians blah blah). God sent Jesus to take on all the imperfection of humanity on our behalf and die- therefore accepting the consequenses on our behalf- then came back to life 3 days later-therefore conquering death and bridging the gap between God an man. Then God sent the Holy spirit (same thing just different form) to Earth and now we can be with God again. If you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord you will be saved. That doesn't mean you have to pray a special acceptance speach, it's the condition of your heart being humbled before God and realizing that you need a savior to bridge the gap because we cannot acheive perfection on our own. My theology and semantics may be rusty but that's the basic idea. All the other stuff (wearing dressy clothes on sunday, not getting tattoos) is just what people choose to do and there's nothing wrong with it, just preference. We in the churchy world call that "Non-essentials". What I do have a problem with is people telling me that I'm "unholy" becasue I have tattoos and play rollerderby. I try to live my life in a way that gives glory to God, and that does not include nagging everyone withing shoutting distance or passing judgement on people I barely know for not sharing my passion. My idea of "spreading the faith" is to give glory to God with my life and hope someone notices. If someone is dying in the back of my ambulance and asks me to pray with them I wouldn't hesitate. If they ask me to help recide a Hindu prayer I'll do that too, becasue patient care is not about me, it's about my patient and I'm not the one dying. On my wedding day the pastor tried to perform a "faith healing" on me. Talk about stealing my thunder, I was pissed. Immagine if someone tried forcing their rituals on me in my last few moments of life. Not cool. Pretty long whinded, not meant to offend any christians- or anyone else- just a statement of what I believe in. -Cori

That was a little overly sassy of me. Unelequantly I was also raising the question: why do we (and I do mean WE) oooh and ahhh when Keanu Reaves starts blasting away security guards with a fully automatic, then start respecting life when it involves our medical practices?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought the first part of your name meant "Asassin".... is it okay to kill people if you're wearing an olive green suit and dark sunglasses and you're a computer program going after "missster Anderson" with your desert eagle?

I don't like Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, I'm more of a Bruce Willis fan, and since I noticed a little blue arrow in your profile you don't even kind of understand what I mean. Pointe is, taking human life is taking human life, so if it's such a rough thing to prepare yourself for killing someone to save your own life how much harder would it be to kill someone strapped to a table?

I voted yes, I'd do it no problem, but as the desert storm chick noted you'll never really know until you've done it. Every martial arts, self defense, or defensive firearms instructor I have ever had or even spoken to has started off with a lecture on preparing yourself with a combat mindset to be able to take life for the sake of your own or your loved ones. It's a rough mental hurtle. If I met some dude in a dark alley there's nothing I wouldn't do to mame, destroy or kill him. Personally I'd rather be on a firing squad or be a headsman simply because it would be wierd to bridge that gap between what I do to save other lives and what I train to preserve my own. So eventhough I voted yes I have to confess that since I've never had to take a life I can't say how I'd react. I hope in a dark alley my conscience leaves and my training kicks in, but similarly I think I would be tempted to do CPR after pushing the button.