firegurl_33_02

NO the town that we volunteer for is a good distance away from a hospital and the paid paramedics and EMTs that transport take longer than most, and they are very thankful for our help!! But I guess if you want your relatives to wait thirty to forty minutes with no help go right ahead, we can't take away from something that will never exist in a small town sorry to disappoint you.

My biggest pet peeve is people dissing volunteer departments, yes I realize there are some morons out there who are volunteers that show up with no clue what so ever......BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN ALL OF US ARE LIKE THAT!!!!!! Just because I don't get paid and I don't respond to 100 plus calls a year does not mean that I am incapable of helping someone who is sick or injured!! :evil: Also and I replied to this post as well is those in the EMS service that are intolerant against young ems workers. Yes the girl in the post about the house on fire was an idiot, but I have been in EMS since I was seventeen and yes I have made mistakes, but I also know that my Chief who is a paramedic has immense trust in me and knows that I will do my best and represent the department well. :evil: ok sorry I had to rant.....I feel better now

I know how you feel, I am in a volunteer organization so it is a lot different from a lot of the members on this site. However I can tell you I started in EMS when I was seventeen with nothing more than a first aid/CPR card, now I just got my EMT-b and I am still learning things, and I still have a passion for it. Even though we don't have calls every day I still can have the satisfaction that I am giving back to my community, and there are always opportunities to go to classes and learn new things and refresh myself on things I haven't done in awhile. Good Luck!! and Have Fun.... I did!!

Never puked have come very very close though, the district we work in is mainly elderly residents and a lot of them have tons of animals. I can remember one very well, female pt pushing 300lbs diabetic in this house that smelled like a combination of every horrible smelly thing you could think of, and to add to the wonderful smell we got to deal with...(her included) she heaves all over the place. There is puke everywhere (thankfully i was running the clipboard that day) one of our guys is at her head practically kneeling in it my face is buried in my shirt sleeve as i am trying not to gag. I usually do not puke but between the house and the 300lb woman who hadn't showered in a week it was a struggle for me to keep breakfast down. It was not one of my finer moments and I now consider using Vicks before going into any house that has the possibility of being less than aromatic.

Wow..I really feel like a hick now responding to calls i wear t-shirt and jeans of course the towns we respond to our four hundred people and less and we don't transport...Yet. I am on a volunteer department and when you join you might get the department t-shirt, which is blue with the maltese cross on the front and our department name on the back, on our rescue squad we order shirts every year I think we have three... As far as equipment we easily have the nicest equipment in the county we have a box unit ambulance that is very nice, and our chief tries to keep up us updated with equipment and grants, and if you are a firefighter as well the fire department provides bunker gear.

Do you also mean in volunteer settings? Where I work at we have several who are first responders myself included, however we also have a B an I and a paramedic. I have been allowed to go on calls since I was seventeen as long as I wasn't overstepping my bounds, I don't have a problem with it as long as they are supervised and can prove they are capable of handling themselves.