xselerate

It's regional jargon. In New York City an ambulance is referred to as a bus, not a rig or truck or ambulance but a bus.

I remember an almost identical thread a few years ago...

Considering how a large percentage of our patient population acts this should have provided you valuable experience! I'm sorry I couldn't help it, it was too easy! As for the rest of you, shame for not jumping on such a chance yourselves hahaha

FDNY is becoming less and less an agency that fights fires and provides EMS and more and more an agency that provides EMS and occasionally fights fire... the fire side know this but won't admit it... and they know that we're saving firefighter's jobs with medical runs...

If your at the point of needing epi theres probably a fairly decent amount of perephial shunting away from the skin from shock (perephial vasoconstriction). There isnt the neccessary blood flow to make SQ reliable to work quickly. Excuse any spelling, i'm mobile...

Depending on how far your willing to move nyc is always hiring emt's. The've hired a couple hundred this year already and expect to loose several hundred in the next several months to other agencies. And if you plan to stick around for a bit they will pay you your full salery to go to medic school full time. Not much further than philly, any job these days is worth it, right?

Has nothing to do with clinical knowledge or training, it has to do with having been by yourself with a critical patient and knowing what its like. You all want to jump on me and attack you can all you want but that guy is still going to be a crap medic. Experience in medic school riding as a third? Fail. Nay, epic fail. Go ahead and whip yourselves into a frenzy now.

No one should go straight from emt to medic. You need time in the back of a bus (ambulance) by yourself with a patient in need to have the clinical experience to make you ready to be a decent medic.

Perhaps a bit heavy on the drama lol but it gets to the point. I can put an argument to any reason one can give about not using surnames but in the end no one's mind will be changed by either side of the argument. I will still think that first names are unprofessional and some will live in fear of offering there last. It's all good either way I suppose.

Hey bushy, pal. There's some great jobs selling insurance if it's that rough for you. When your making decisions that effect life and death, 1000 dollar ground transport vs 20k medivac, painful electrical therapy vs long half-life meds, RSI vs cpap, etc ad nauseum, you don't get to be anonymous.

I'm sorry but I've been dealing with this in both an urban system and a rural system for years and have never known anyone to have a problem with there name being known. That gang banger that charged you doing an arrest? There not coming after you when the job is over. I've been there. Maybe every single experience I've ever had interacting with the public is the abnormal case but I've never had a reason to worry about someone coming after me. This sounds like such a no-brainer to me I'm surprised it's garnered so much discussion.

The confusion seems to be the term "medic". Army medics aren't paramedics. There fancy EMT's.

I'm an officer in a busy city system. On a typical day I turn out 9 ambulances and 2 supervisor units. Our uniform shirts have our last name embroided on them. Sometimes a guy shows up for work with navy blue marker through the white embroiding of his name. It's real simple, regardless of what anyone says about "putting there family in danger"... if you don't want people to see your name then your walking in knowing your going to be a jerk to them. People are frustrated because of the BS jobs and have an additude problem which is why they don't want there name known. Treat people with professionalism and respect and you won't have to worry about them knowing your name. And when one of those guys show up they can change the shirt or go home.

Im really surprised this has generated such varied response. In NYC it's so simple, if your in an ER there's no rma, no patient assessment, no patient period. The assignments an 'unfounded' and closed out. I don't see the need for any any other argument. If the caller don't like it, well... tough. There's someone else out there we could provide real help to. Have a nice day. Obtaining rma's? Actually giving into these drains on the system and transporting? No thanks. They are in an er already. Done.

This topic seems to have been clubbed repeatedly in the head now... let's talk about something fun that we can all agree on like firefighting 101: fire bad, water good... or firefighting 201: more fire bader, more water gooder... Lol... sorry...

And most of those FDNY engines get credit for the run regardless of the fact they cancelled themselves enroute because ems got there first o O

When EMS "forces entry" it's called breaking and entering, when FD or PD does it it's called "gaining entry". If the hose boys don't want to do it and PD don't want to do it then call it a day and move on. Not our job...

this is what i'm confused about. how does one become an emt at 16??? there is something to be said for age vs maturity.

Are there states out there actually giving certs out to kids younger than 18?? I know in NY you need to be 18 to sit for the state test, 16 if your going for CFR. And CFRs can't do an ambulance run.

I'd have to say that it's a good thing to hold every EMS professional to a single national standard. It will allow us, as a profession, to gain the respect we've been due for years. Every FF and cop is generally regarded the same as any other because they generally recieve the same training, where as a NY EMT can work in NJ but a NJ EMT can't work in NY due to hours of training. And I'm fairly sure that anyone who has attended a reputable medic program will have more than enough hours to keep there medic certification, especially if National Registry is used as the model.

Actually I've had EMT students from private schools do ride alongs on my unit in brooklyn out of station 43 when I was there. And I've seen the ride along requests in the station... I've laughed at them... Reasons for request: "I want to know what it feels like to save someone".... HAHA

Amen to that. My service is a part of the fire department, but we're not firefighters. We do, however, have a 2 or 3 month long academy... and it would seem that the EMTs/Medics working in the privates that bad mouth the municipal service just can't cut it themselves.

I hope I'm not being blasphemous here but... I'll be damned. That kinda just makes so much sense it couldn't possibly be rebutted. If one believes in God, how could one think that one of God's creations is above taking blood from another equal of God's creation? I think this string just came to a perfect end. Nice work Amytxn4.

While I know you are just quoting, the numbers are a little off... FIRE DEPARTMENT City of New York Statistics Citywide Performance Indicators 01/01/07 - 12/31/07 Citywide Ambulance Incidents & Runs 1,363,893 Thats over 1.3 million. http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/pdf/stats/ems_cwsum_cy07.pdf

I work in a system where people are only gonna get narcotics for stat-ep and flash ape, as far as what I have witnessed and know as a BLS provider, and I will say that some of these low lifes have a firm handle on the finer art of faking stat-ep