FormerEMSLT297

DC Fire/EMS is putting all EMS personnel thru their basic Fire Academy, so that they are truely a combined Dept. It isnt doing much to stem the tide of griping old timers that do not want to do EMS, but it is putting all personnel on equal footing for promotions, pay,jobs, etc.

Obviously you have never worked for a Volunteer sqaud, especially not in NJ Define the "PAY is GOOD", what is the annual salary ????????????????

I would either tell her where to go, or FIND ANOTHER PARTNER.

What a joke. Instead of the NEW YORK Times, doing a study about DC, they should look no further than their own FDNY-EMS.... 13+ years since the merger, and we are no closer than the loftly goals that Mr. Rudy, talked about. Community EMS Stations, more medics, training, etc. With 10% unemployment, I'm happy you have a JOB. DC Fire/EMS has made GREAT STRIDES in combining EMS and Fire, They are in the process of taking all EMS personnel usually Medics, and making them pump operators/EMT-P's.... So they can be the "Medic/Engine".

Hmm ,,, How about starting witha PCR review. How many patients last year needed ALS, how many actually got ALS, how many could have benefited by faster ALS care.. Once you have the numbers, hold a meeting.. Heah folks,,, look at how many patients could have benefited from ALS, maybe we should go to medic school ???? ... Whatever happens you need the support of members of the unit as well as community, and Hospital, you also need a Medical Director, and to buy about 10K worth of ALS gear.

one system i worked in allowed you to give IM valium, we sometimes did that, it worked, but not as fast as an IV..... Also i did dozens of status eps, and i cant remember more than 1-2 that we could not get a line on.... 6 y/o girl was one of them though.

I just went thru refresher at UMBC and they touched on this topic, basically saying that it would soon be the "new standard" CBA,,,,, you know EMS always changing. I understand the rationale, and it kind of makes sense. Stupid to start pumping and blowing if you're just forcing the blood out to the vitim faster. Take 1 minute to stop the bleeding, then do the breathes and pumping if necessary.

Sorry Island emt but this is just wrong information. NCIC (National Crime Information Center) is a federally run data base on Stolen vehicles, tags, guns, missing persons, wanted criminals etc, and HAS NOTHING to do with DMV. Each state has its own DMV, which is linked to each other thru a sytem called NLETS National Law Enforcement Telegraph System. This system allows each state to enter driving records, and vehicle registration records for all vehicles registerd in that state. It also allows an officer from one state, to communicate via NLETS, and check a driving record of anyone. This system is RESTRICTED to official LE purposes only, and is not used by MOST private ambulance and EMS companies to get "driving historys".. Usually an employee will ask you to fill out a waiver and send away to DMV for you record, (it costs about 5-10 bucks) or if they are a town FD, or City EMS, they will ask to local PD to run it for them as part of a pre-employment background check, or a continuing check every X number of years. I know of some pvt ems agencies that required you to bring a driving record with you when you submitted you application. NYC-EMS used to check it every 3 years (when you went to refresher) simply make sure your license was not SUSPENDED or REVOKED. every time they ran a check they found several employees who were. Most were not fired , but merely prohibited from driving until the got a clearance. Bottom line there are MANY ways of checking your driving record, but if a PD does its thru NLETS, not NCIC, also differnet states go back different number of years.. For Example, NYS registers a lot more cars than Rhode Island so you might get a history from RI for 11 years, NYS make only go back 7, it all depends how their data base is set up.... As for NCIC, once a Stolen, Missing person, wanted person or Unidentified person is entered into NCIC, it become a PERMANENT record, and CAN NOT BE DELETED until removed by the agency that entered the case into the system. I hope this clears things up. Stay safe ... FormerEMSLT and current NCIC terminal operator.

MD requires it for Paramedic, an teahces the the NREMT-I-99 standard, and im pretty sure they require NREMT-I-99 to get the MD CRT cert, unless you are grandfathered in before i 99 took effect. a buddy of mine just took the I-99 test, thru MD. NYS was rumored to be going to NR but as of yet they have not, i think it is back on hold.

When i worked for NYC*EMS, back in the 1980's, they did at least a 4-6 week academy that was basically an EMT- refresher, and orientation to radio codes, NYC Protocols, and EMS Operating Guide Procedure, followed by a 1 week EVOC class.... Then that was it, you were out there usually you rode with a senior person for a few days or weeks if possible. When I worked as a Paramedic in the ER based sysytem, the orientation was 1 week, and that was more hospital procedures, than anything else. My current job as Flight medic is a minimum 120 days before you can ride as senior medic.

Thanks for all the responses.... IT IS NOT 24/48..... What i need is to cover 1 unit 24/7 395 using a 4 day work week with 3 days off, as that is what is contractually allowed for.... so basically we have a 12 person minimum to run 24 hours with no OT.. (we have some over lap during the day and evening shift to allow people to go to CME, PT, etc. What im trying to figure out is, when they set up the schedule, they never afctored in people taking vacation, or calling in sick, so that is currently covered by OT.... How many FTE's do i need to have to cover vacations, and reduce OT, obviously since we only hire F/T peole when we have "extra" people around, we either send people out to CME, or sometimes run an extra unit. Thanks again

So, I have been tasked with looking into our staffing needs, and I have a question for system managers and bosses. How do you calculate your manpower needs ???... For example, how many Parameidcs do you need to run 1 unit 24/7 365.... I know in NYC, the old formula was 3 medics per shift x 3 shifts =9 medics at a minimum to run the unit 24 hours a day, factoring in vacation, they used 10 medics to cover 24/7.... The unit i am curently with runs a little diferently, and i was just wondering about any "formulas" out there to help with this little tidbit.. Factor in that a lot of our medics are senior and get 3-5 weeks per year of vacation. Thanks in advance for the help.

Hello, all, havent been here in a while,,,, As far as working as a medic in NJ, lets just say, I have worked with a ton a people from NJ ems units, and NONE of them were really happy with their job. The fact that BLS units are run by volunteers, and still in the 21st century allowed to be called "First Aid Squads" should give you just a hint of how archaic the NJ EMS System is. Thats not to say I'm either anti NJ or Anti volunteer, but just talking to NJ medics, who sometimes have to wait for volunteers to respond, and do not have the means to remove a patient themsalves, and how the politics of volunteerism works, is just screwed up. The fact that all ALS units MUST be hospital based, and that the hosptials sometimes look at profits when they deploy or cancel the medic units tours,, it is just a mess, check this site out and you'll find tons of horror stories... safe tour good luck with your career move,.

Thanks for all the responses.... I agree with "benzo boy" that the NR is a bit of a scam, to make money. When i was originally cert. in NYS, I did not take it, because it was not needed and 50 or 75 bucks was a lot of money back then. I stand by my post, and will add that there are nervous test takeers out there, who are GREAT medics, but just test badly. I think that the inability to know what you FAILED on is some kind of HUSH, HUSH, the "mystic" of NR, and so on... about 3/4 of his class failed some portion of the practical.. In NY and MANY other places, this is unheard of. by the time you get finished you are READY to test. and if you get testing gitters, you are handed a skills sheet saying this if what you fialed, and you retest the same day, and usually PASS.. I think that the high level of failures in both practical and written indicates that there is a BIG Problem with NR.. Unfortunately it is the cert. i have to live under for right now, and i'm/we are stuck with it. Remember years ago, you could not even get copies of NR skills, sheets, like they were blueprints for a nuclear warhead or blueprints to the White House... My point is the high level to SECRECY detracts from making Pre-hosptial care providers, and Paramedics in particular recognized the way firefighters, and police officers are. IMHO.

I have not been on here for a while but today i feel the need to RANT and RAVE. A co-worker of mine recently finished his Medic class, and took the NR- Practical exam. He got very good grades throughout the program, interned with me and others and we all felt he was progressing nicely. Got a 90 something on the class final, and sat down the other day to take the NREMT-P practical skills station. HE FAILED 3. One he knows what he did wrong right after he did it, and the other 2 he has NO IDEA. I asked him if they gave him back the skills sheets, and he said "NO, they don't do that" I said "how are you supposed to know what to study" to which he shrugged his shoulders. now I was fortunate enough to pass the practical on the first go around, so i didnt need the sheets back. And in New York, where I have been certified for 25+YEARS, if you fail a skills station, they give you back the sheet with the "critical failure" on it, i.e. FX management, you forgot to check pulses. So my question is this. NR is supposed to profesionalize, EMS, make it better, blah, blah, blah, and yet, you can not even get your skills sheets to know where you deficiencies are... WTF ???? Now that is just WRONG in my opinion. Is it like that in Nursing school ???. Is it like that in Medical school... Then here's the KICKER, the Instructor asked "ANY COMPLAINTS, but before i take them if you have complaints it will need to go up for review, and you can not get your pass/fail today.... I dont know about you, but this does not seem like the way to "profesionalize EMS" IMHO, intimdating students into not asking questions, and then not telling them the area of deficiencies so that they can work on it.... Some one who has a clue, and maybe can EXPLAIN a rational REASON for this .... PLEASE POST UP.... I'd also like to hear from MD's, DO's RN's CRNA's etc. to see if this practice is donw with other "professions".... Thanks RANTING COMPLETED .... for now.

I can tell you from personal experience that Maryland as listed, is artificially high... Most places in MD are paying between 15-20,, some privates are paying 25 if you like that type of work.. The ONLY ones that are paying $29. are fire based systems where your actual title is FF-EMT-P..... I think they are getting these figures by averaging out the career firefighters some of whom are making 60-70K and the small depts. where the medics make 10-15 per hour... and coming to this artificially high number

In my opinion, having worked, Private, Hospital based, and for both FDNY-EMS and NYC-EMS, No Private ambulance companies in NYC are "good" they all have the bare minimum of equipment, the smallest cheapest ambulances, and they also pay the least.. If you want a good private company go to a Private hospital they pay better, and they do 9-1-1 call. With Pvts. in NYC you will do mostly transfer work.

To answer the question,, WHY WERE THEY FLYING ?... Read the NTSB REport,,, Tower gave the pilot 5 hour old weather info....... he did not have current info.

UHO,, whatever,,, I say most calls wins,,,,,,, NYC..... everything else is just voodo in my opinion

Dear Docharris,, I worked for NYC*EMS long before there were psychological exams,,,,, and to be blunt and open, they hired a lot of mentally screwed up employees. I had several instances where I had empolyees return to the station, and I simply asked them "Why are you out of service, or what are you doing at the station, ?" and they WIGGED out... One employee started throwing chairs, another ran thru the station screaming "I cant take these people anymore, they are all f%$^&KED Up, etc. ... slamming doors and what not.... Now that I have moved on, and went to a job that REQUIRED A pre-employment psychological exam, I can say without hesitation ,,, PSYCH EXAMS are needed....... Now I do not know whether someone who has attempted suicide 2 times would be barred from employment, but in my mind, It should raise some red flags about the individuals state of mind...... Now that FDNY-EMS does psych evals, I say ,, let the person apply and see if they pass... MY OPINION was , I would have some concerns either working with or supervising that person..... That is all CONCERNS,,,,,,,,, .....

It would concern my to work with such a person, or supervise, one.. They get depressed while transporting a patient and decide to drive the ambulance off a cliff, intoa tree, whatever.... I would not want that person driving my unit ..... but as someone said with privacy laws, how would they find out ? ?

to quote Willy Wonka. "GOOD DAY SIR."

You've been a NY Medic for how loong ??? Dont worry about it ,, much of it is identical to NYS skills testing stations,,, go the NR web site and download the skills sheets... Rembmer bleeding control is a new one that uses a tourniquet if Dir. pressure does not stop bleeding.... Good luck,, you'll be sporting that NR patch real soon.

I've been doing this almost 25 years now and while I know the order of preference ... I have NEVER heard that anacronym before.

http://www.combattourniquet.com/ This is the one they are using and the prediction is that within a few years in will be in EMS protocols throughout the country...