xselerate

I can be having the very worst day of my life but as soon as I make contact with my patient I forget everything. I am for them... I smile if they need me too, I become sad to empathize with them if they need that, when I say "how are you feeling dear" i make damn sure that 90 year old women knows she is the center of my world. And for a half hour she is... and by the end of my tour I don't even remember them. That might sound cold but I don't burn out and every single patient I have feels like the most important in the world. And when I have random people come up to me and thank me for being so wonderfull to them I smile like I have some clue who they are. It dosn't matter if you remember them afterward or not... just make sure that for those few minutes you are there very best friend. If that makes you burn out in two years then get a new job... at least you made every single patient know that you cared.

Okay... perhaps I was not completly clear in this regard. We operate under a physicians license, obviously, but other medical personell who also work under physicians licenses still have no athority outside there work enviornment where as the street is our work enviornment. A nurse can not do didly squat without her doc over her sholder. I thought this would have been obvious and that's why I didn't mention it. That was true when I was working private transport where we wanted to keep our customers calling. I'm sorry but when someone calls 911 and I show up I'm there for the patient, not the general public that wants to get in my way. I'll do my best to treat everyone with respect but I won't extend myself if they give me any problem. I'm sorry but I must disagree with you on this. And just so you know... if it were your family I was called for and someone made it difficult for me to take complete and total care for them I would damn sure get them removed real quick... and I won't waste time with plesentries after my initial "please let me take it from here".

I'm sorry but I have to agree with cotjockey.... kinda. I would expect a nurse to step aside for me but I would also try to get a history from her. And when people don't step aside from me and allow me to do what I need to do then I have them remove. That's that. I also have no problem requesting a boss to come and tell them to step aside. My customer service skills are unmatched... but they are for the customer, my patient, not for bystanders and not for off duty medical personell that don't have there own medical license with which to work under ( nurses still need doctors to work under ).

Hey... that makes a lot of sense.

ive had tons of nursing home horror stories but this one takes the cake... we got a job for a g-tube change. we walk into the room and this nurse is holding an albuterol treatment over this womens face. the women is in respirtory failure... at the front door of arrest. We immediatly began ventalating her... no radials... little bp to speak of.... shocky shocky shocky. she was on a vent 10 minutes later... dead 2 hours later.

The symptoms you are describing strike me as extreamly odd and as such make me wonder if perhaps there was more than one thing going on here. Maybe ( however unlikely ) he was having both a cva and mi. Maybe he was having a thoracic aa ( although i doubt it... but I'm willing to consider anything ). Well anyway... think about multiple seperate causes if no one thing fits everything.

LMFAO Dear God.... cotjockey you have made my day... thank you so much! LOL LOL LOL

LOL Isn't it the truth....

Although I can't claim to be an expert on the matter I have to agree with Dustdevil on the simple premise that everything wonderful written about MLK in history logically must have an equal and opposite side that is conveniently left out of history. And I find it completely ridiculous that you think Dustdevil would have to qualify his statements simple because he is from the south. Who is acting in an unethical manner now UMSTUDENT??

Just south of Winnipeg? Well... that makes sense... I wouldn't honestly expect you to speak with more than your experience at the local volly fire department. FDNY EMTs are the best compared to any EMT that has been trained as per the national curriculum... which is everyone if I'm not mistaken. The FDNY program is signifigantly more in depth and advanced then the national curriculum.

I work EMS in NYC and we don't carry weapons as such. We are issued bullet-proof vests and radios. So if we get in trouble we basically key up the radio and pray... but you would be amazed how many cops you can get at your side after shouting a 10-13 or 10-85 over the radio.

This is an understatement. I spent two years doing the transfers and it's where I learned all my meds, histories, and which go with which. You learn an awfull lot in the private transport industry... don't be to excited to jump right into 911... although when you do take your experience into 911 it's that much better because you generally go into it knowing your stuff.

Thanks Asysin2leads for the support. FDNY Medics are to all other medics what FDNY EMTs are to all other EMTs.... I've heard what FDNY Medic Basic classes are like.... but do me a favor.... next time... I'm not a she. But it's all good, cause we're still the best around.

or you can just apply to fdny ems and work for us, or you can join a volly for 6 months of 911 experience and go work for one of the private hospitals that are allowed to participate in the 911 system.

Well.... I work in NYC for FDNY EMS and I don't know if anyone knows but we have been without a contract for over 40 months, the contract that they havnt made yet is already expired! Im making crap starting salery... $28900 / year. In all fairness between overtime and meal money you could technically make upwards of 45000 without too much of a problem.... but your not going to get much sleep. We need a fair contract.

There is a damn good reason why FDNY EMT's should be paid more then all other EMTs.... THEY ARE THE BEST. The FDNY EMS Academy is BLS on heroin.... it is super intense and super hard. A huge amount of them fail the Academy outright. Don't even try to tell me that a 'volly' EMT can diagnose traumatic asphyxia and pericardial tamponade or tell the difference between rising ICP and shock.... it just ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN. FDNY EMT's are trained to a level far beyond other basic EMT's (and I'm not even including all the Haz Mat and MCI Incident Command System training they get). FDNY EMT's deserve pay equal at least to cops and closer to firefighters. And another thing.... these volunteers are operating in there nice local neighborhoods.... FDNY EMT's have to work the worst neighborhoods in the city. And anyone who says it's not dangerous should ask themselves why FDNY EMT's are issued ( that's ISSUED, not bought cause there buffs ) bullet proof vests and gas masks. Yeah.... there's a huge difference between FDNY EMT's and all others.... now pay them accordingly!

Actually, despite what akflightmedic says, there is something you can do... call your investigator. Don't worry about the psych test, no news is good news and if there was a problem they would have called you in to explain yourself to the in house docs. So call your investigator and say "Is there anything else that you need from me or are missing?" If they say no then sit tight. Also the open filing period for civil service is ending next week and you really need civil service cause those who file get first pick for the academy. They are desperate ( DESPERATE ) for new techs and are running classes on top of each other ( the current class graduates march 14, the next class starts march 13 )... lets just say they lost more emts to the firefighter class then they are gaining from academy classes, that dosnt include the emts they lost to the medic class they recently started and those that are retireing / quitting. Threre will be a dump load of academy classes this year so CALL YOUR INVESTIGATOR!

hmmm... cfr's on the bus? i came on scene once to find a cfr engine company doing cr... thats cpr without the pulmonary part. they looked at us and said "do you guys have an ambu bag? cause if not i'll try this peds one." the cfr was doing compressions with one hand and proping himself up against the floor with the other. another time.... i come on scene and this cfr says "glad your here, i can't get this airway in." after a 1.5 second visual exam my response was "allow me to introduce you to rigor mortis." no... cfr's don't belong in the back of a bus (or rig if thats what some call it)