sirduke

Any of that can happen just as quick in rural areas as well. I have had weapons pulled on me and some of the same safety issues as well. Add in the joy of discovering a meth lab during a call and you have a party.

Yep, very familiar with finding the Meth lab after you are on scene. We worked a fire call last week that was discovered to be a meth lab explosion after we'd started treatment on the patient.

I just wouldn't want to work in the big urban areas due to the traffic, concentration of idiots, high rise buildings, etc. etc. Anyone who does has my respect, but for a country boy like me, Oh Hell No.

Rather deal with farm accidents, drunk rednecks smashing their trucks into oak trees, falling out of deer stands way back in the woods, or the 3 am shooting at the local watering hole.

We treat in the house if neccessary, try to move them to the unit as fast as we can do it without endangering the patient, and transport. Our transport times to the nearest trauma center is appx. 30 minutes, same for definitive cardiac care, so delay on scene isn't a good thing.

Anyway, hats off to those who work urban, it just isn't my cup of tea.

All this just affirms my choice to stay in Rural EMS.

As Hank Williams said, Send me to Hell or New York City, it'd be about the same to me.

Depends on the patient and the situation, too many varibles to make a blanket statement.

Spent over 10 years in the military, and know for a fact that it was harder on my marriage than EMS. I was deployed for long periods of time, as opposed to now, being gone two or three days at most.

I agree that people who are prone to cheat will cheat no matter where they work.

Best policy there is keep your damn pants on away from the house.

Been married to the same woman for 28 years.

Just one man's opinion.

I'm still keeping your liver though

Take her, I have plans for her.... Leave a bag of extra spicy porkskins

take it, use it on my next diabetic call. Leave behind a case of expired date Pepsi Lemon

Stay out of Georgia, we have enough jackasses already, don't need another one.

Leave it, HALO is for whackers, leave Crotchity's deranged mind....

Crotch, if I saw you coming I'd probably take my own life to avoid the shame. This diabetic will keep close reign on his blood sugar...

This is impossible, too many flamethrowers on this site, won't happen.

I had a partner who would shoot oral glucose up their ass in a hurry, but in my experience, it makes a shitty call....

My name is Michael and I don't know if I'm a whacker.

Can someone help me decide.

I work full time EMS and my part time job is also EMS

I have a stainless steel 12 inch Star of Life in on a post at my driveway.

I have a EMT tag on my truck, along with various EMS related stickers.

I paid an additional $50 bucks for my Georgia EMS tag.

My wife wears a jacket that says Paramedic's Wife

I have at least 5 toy ambulances in my display case

I have my own jumpbag

My watch has a Star of Life on the face

I have a Star of Life necklace, tie tack, and suspenders.

I don't meet the criteria do I???

Ahhhh, thats thats what I thought, the cost of living offsets the higher pay, so I guess I'll have to pass.

Thanks for the invite though.

Don't I wish, we get paid full time pay for all hours there, and we get time and half for everything over 80 hrs in the pay period, however, in south Georgia, the pay scale is much lower. The cost of living is lower as well, but you won't get rich here.

By the way, I am assuming you are in Alaska or somewhere else north, cold and remote?

Need any help there??? Or does the cost of living offset the money you make. I could be persuaded to leave this misquito infested, high humidity, backassward paradise and relocate.

I for one never said a damn thing about volunteers being unprofessional, so I refuse to take offense at your diatribe. But Jesus man, must be hard to work with that big ass CHIP on your shoulder.

Are you angry for a reason, or are you defensive because you feel inferior? WTF?

I work for a small service, we get sniped at and crapped on by the local trauma center and the "big" city EMS where it is all the time, but you know what? We keep on doing our job day in and day out and let our record stand for itself. They got really pissy when we won Service of the Year for our region, but who gives a rats ass.

If you are doing your job, if you are providing quality patient care, then hold your head up, and walk proud.

But seriously, coming in here and ranting and raving like a 13 year old girl ain't the way to prove you are professional.

I know for a fact that there are paid EMS personnel that are as sorry as hell, same goes I'm sure for some volunteers, but the opposite is true as well.

Ease up dude, we aren't the enemy. And by the way, if you could be paid, would you be interested? Just asking, no real reason.

We ran 4104 calls last year, about the same the year before, some days, though few are extremely slow, others you never see the station all day and half the night, seems lately we are slow through the day, then come night fall, fun all damn night.

We too have no paid fire service in the county, and depend completely on vollie units, and to be fair, they are great about responding, and do their job well. I agree with the statement about the whackers, they do give us a bad name, but fortunate for us, all the vollies here are quick to let it be known that they are FIRE and not EMS, so that helps. The county volunteer units are well organized by the head firefighter or Cheif as he prefers, and he is strict about training and conduct on scene. I've seen him send more than one off and told not to return till he got his head out of his ass. And, he will boot someone out of the dept quick if they fail to maintain their certs and meet his standards of preformance. He's pretty damn squared away.

I have zero experience with vollie EMS services, so I can't comment on them except that I think they should be paid services, and that we need a national standard that really has teeth, unlike the frigging NREMT.

I guess my opinion would be more adamant if I was affected by the vollie EMS and seeing it cut my paycheck, but the ultimate goal is patient care.

As for vollie fire, well, let the firemonkeys sort that one out.

You people work some odd shifts in my humble opinion. I work for a small rural county, our service is owned by the county government, we are funded by the county, ie taxes, all revenue generated by our service goes back into the general county fund, and we are allocated a budget each year. It often gets slashed towards the end of the year, but there it is.

Our shifts are 24 on 48 off, no "on call" luckily, we run two trucks and a extrication unit.

We hope in the very near future to add another ambulance as our call volume is sufficient to justify it, however the county commissioners have yet to allocate the funds. What chaps my butt is seeing the sheriff's depts budget get increased each year, and at the same time they keep taking money from us.

We are centrally located in the county, but due to the size, some points in the county are at least 15 minutes away on a good clear day, and those on the dirt roads, depends on if it rains.

Until the county administration decides to do something to improve it, and that will be when the citizens raise enough hell, it won't get much better. We have many volly fire depts that will respond on scene and assist us, and we are trying to get them all certified as NREMT First Responders, which will perhaps give the patient a little better chance.

That probably just set me up for a flame as I support vollies, in the proper context. Extra hands are nice sometimes, and I haven't seen my paycheck suffer because they rolled out. Granted they don't have ambulances, but there have been several calls that went a hell of a lot better due to the assistance. Having a pair of eyes on scene, assessing the patient as I roll hell bent for leather to them, can give me a much better idea of what I might find on scene, than the scant bit I get from a bored dispatcher sitting at the control desk doing her nails.

There is a lot that needs improvement in EMS, but the first thing we can do about it is to be the best we can, and keep advocating change.

Just one man's opinion.

Lots of studying, lack of sleep, learning exactly how much you really don't know. Tip from someone who just finished paramedic school, make sure before you walk into class that you've read the material at least two times, take notes if you are a note taker, and listen about 10 times as much as you talk. Save the war stories for when you aren't in class, and enjoy.

It will seem like it will never end, but it will be over before you know it. Good Luck and study hard.

Ours starts when we get the page.

Hard choice..... but since a broken femur will heal, I'll opt for that

Which would you rather have, hypothyriodism or hyperthyriodism

I just turned it around on her, pinched the shit out of her nipple and said, Nope, married. Needless to say she screeched because I'd touched her. Seems whats fair for the woman to do ain't fair for the man to do.

Just another case of double standards.

Anyway, it stopped the crap cold.

Been married too many years and got too many toys to lose to cheat.

So what do I call the 250 lb female medic who pinched me on the nipple and ask me if I wanted to have fun? A sow?

After watching about 5 minutes of the first episode I vowed never to watch it again.

And after the call I just ran, let me add another NASTY smell. A house full of cats reeking of urine, some of which I suspect was the patients.

Now I'm having difficulty breathing, and the patient, a obese woman who smokes 3 packs a day wonders why she has difficulty breathing...WTF?

We are required to take a drug test, both parties if involved in an accident. Don't use drugs, so I don't have a problem with it.