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Scaramedic

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Everything posted by Scaramedic

  1. "AJ STEP AWAY FROM THE KOOLAID" Ruffems you win the award for funniest line in this thread!! =D> And to AJ, lighten up, listen to the advice and learn. If you don't want honest answers don't ask for advice.
  2. I agree with you Dust, again. :wink: When I was going to Medic school I had several jobs. Since my minor was Journalism I got a job at a major metropolitan newspaper as a copy aid. While I was working there I had many good conversations with the staff, reporters, copy editors, etc. One of those conversations was with one of the police beat reporters who asked me why I wanted to be an "Ambulance Driver." I explained to him my thoughts and asked him why he called us drivers. He stated that's what we do, drive an ambulance. I asked him if he wanted be known as a typist. He got indignant and said no he is a journalist. I countered with well you do type don't you, if you type you should be called a typists. He stuttered that typing was only a small part of his job and that his job entails more than typing. I then explained to him that Paramedics have many more duties than driving an ambulance and that ambulance driver was an antiquated term and should not be used outside of stories by Ernest Hemingway. We finally reached a nice accord and to this day when I see his byline he refers to us a Paramedics. I recall this because it was stunning to me that a Police beat reporter would still use the term ambulance driver. It is amazing to see and hear the ignorance of the media. Peace, Marty
  3. Ok let me throw in my two cents (that's 1 1/2 cents for our Canadian posters) on this subject. Start the hate posts now. Yes I have had the kind of partners mentioned above and that was ten years ago, it is nothing new. I started in this business in 1987 and worked until 2001, so yes I have been off the streets for five years. But I do not believe this "attitude" is a new phenomena, it is just the result of people coming out of school with unrealistic expectations. Like Dust said above, the ancient line of "I just want to help people" is BS for many trying to get into school or to get a job. Many new people have visions of critical traumas, light and sirens and being the hero of the day. As we all know EMS is not always exciting calls, it is often mundane with occasional moments of drama. It becomes a job, not a great adventure like they saw on "Paramedics." So very quickly they fall into the I hate this job mode and become what we are talking about here. And yes some come unto the unit the first day like that, I have no clue what's up with them. I think it has something to do with lead paint or being dropped on the coconut when they were young. So now the question becomes what do we do about it? This the part that is going to get me hate mail. It is up to us, the ones on this board complaining about bad partners to fix the problem. It is up to the lead person on the unit, be it a Paramedic or Basic, to be a hard ass. You must force these people to care and follow orders. Tell them, not ask them to clean the unit. No more McDonald's bags in the front, no more equipment scattered about, I want the unit high and tight, no if, ands or butts. If you do not keep my unit clean I will write you up or make your life a living hell. You will learn your job, you will know where every piece of equipment is and I expect it the moment I ask for it. You will keep all equipment clean and ready for use, you will keep everything stocked and up to date. Most importantly you will know the treatment modalities for this service, protocols books are for everybody not just Paramedics. I will help you with this, I will teach what you need to know and I will show how to do things you do not know how to do. I can be your friend or your tormentor, but you will learn this job. There are two roads they can choose, they can quit or they can learn either way is fine with me. We all want to be professionals but for some it must be forced upon them, they learn it or we send them packing. And to quote Dust one more time the key is education, the more we learn the better we can help those coming up. It is a waste of time to complain, it accomplishes nothing. And to answer a question some of you might have formed, yes I can be a royal hard ass, but I can be your best friend, it's up to you. Peace, Marty
  4. I am deeply confused. My wife says I'm a pig, but mines not curly! :-s
  5. Quoting Hammer "And Rid, if I had a broken leg and you were asking me about my last period and sexual history, I'd be like :shock: :roll:" Yeah there is much easier ways to get the info we really want. So do you want me to call your husband? No husband, Ok. Would you like me to call your boyfriend? No boyfriend, Ok. What's your phone number? I need it for the run sheet. Would you like me to check in on you later? OK, I'll see you in a little while. Just joking of course I would NEVER hit on a patient, very unprofessional! :wink:
  6. I Touch Myself by The Divinyls "I don't want anybody else When I think about you I touch myself" A total exhibitionist, you probably already are a stripper!
  7. Yeah, heard this on the news, it made me sick. History of prank calls or not this call should have been taken seriously. It's up to the responders, not a dispatcher to verify the validity of a call. The dispatcher should be fired.
  8. An old partner of my hated the vibration of her pager so she would never have it on vibrate. So I would ask her if she got the times on the last call because I didn't. She would give me her pager I would change it to vibrate and give it back to her. I just had to wait till the next page to watch her jump, scream at me, cuss at me, and laugh my ass off. I could only do it once every couple of months because it took her that long to forget. Good times.
  9. It was about 1992, January, we are coming back from the hospital and we get pulled over by a Sergeant in an unmarked cruiser. He walks up to the driver and says "do you know your tags are expired." We were like no, we didn't know, or to be honest really care they were expired. He says and I quote again, "yep they expired November 1992" Now it takes me a second to process this, and about the time I figured it out the Sergeant figured it out too. He says wait a minute, walks to the back of the unit, comes back and says "oh it was covered in dirt, but they're not expired." We were both like oh no you said November 92 dude, nice try. He turned red mumbled something went back to his unit and left. It was hilarious.
  10. Oldy but a goody. "You stab em, we slab em"
  11. Thanks for the definition, I was afraid I had a stroke or something and I was forgetting the English language. :roll:
  12. I would tell them the things that you like about the job, what brings you satisfaction. If there is someone in the class that feels the same way he/she might choose an EMS career. On side note to cosgrojo....What the hell is "squadushe" :shock:
  13. Ok,that ER has way too much downtime on their hands!!! Hillarious though. =D>
  14. Got this from E-Bay looks like its still blue & gold. http://cgi.ebay.com/NREMT-Subdued-National...bayphotohosting I didn't know someone could sell NREMT patches to the public.
  15. Just on a side note, I thought they were going to do away with term SIDS for cause of death.
  16. I agree, do not work the code. The moment you start working it, or the moment you put the child in the back of the unit, the parents start thinking " oh he'll be ok." It's putting them on a roller coaster of emotions. I have done both, worked and not worked an infant code. Neither is a win situation, but I think honesty is better than false hope. I think some medics work a infant code for themselves as much for the parents. When I would precept new medics I had many that would say "I'll work any kid you have to try" I just wonder if they felt that way after their 5th or 6th infant code. Telling anyone their child is dead is tough, I had one young woman who went nuts and started hitting me on the chest. I didn't take it personally and I just let her do it, she was angry and hurt, she needed an outlet. Also I think it can be dangerous for the medic. If you pronounce them you can tell yourself there was nothing I could do. If you work it then you end up playing the blame game "it's my fault I should have done something different."
  17. All very funny. Medik8-Yes you should have called an ambulance, but telling your co-workers you've puking for two days is hard to do. AnatomyChick-Jose Cuervo is no friend of yours. Dustdevil-I have a bad left ankle, so I can feel your pain. Just reading your story made me want to throw up. Hammerpcp-Not a bad scar, they had a plastic surgeon stitch me up. Were you wearing a speedo? I can just imagine taking report off some guy wearing a speedo, YUCK!!!
  18. Have you ever had to call 911 for your self in an embarrassing situation, or not so embarrassing situation. Here's mine, it happened while I was working for EMSA as Paramedic in Tulsa. I was going on a date and was running late, so I was taking a real quick shower. I had lathered up my hair and had my eyes closed (so I wouldn't get soap in my eyes, don't want a red eye on date) and turned around to put the shampoo back in the rack. I lost my balance, slipped, fell out of the shower thru the curtain and smacked my head hard on the toilet. I almost lost consciousness but fought thru it. I knew my head hurt but I didn't' want open my eyes, I still was afraid of getting soap in my eyes and just thought I might have a goose egg above my eye. So I stood up washed the soap out of my hair and opened my eyes. It was at that time I could see the arterial spray coming from my head and hitting the wall in front of me. I have seen some copious bleeding in my time, but damn this was impressive and it was my blood. The bathroom looked like someone slaughtered a goat. Big pool of blood around the toilet and spray on the walls. For the second time that night I almost lost consciousness just seeing my own blood. So I grab a towel out of the cabinet. put direct pressure on the wound for awhile and get out the shower on really wobbly legs. Go to the mirror and look at the damage. I had a an approx 2" gash that went from my nose across by brow and was full thickness, yes I could see my skull. And if you didn't see this one coming, for the third time that night I almost passed out. So I call 911, downplay the near LOC because I don't want a fire response and wait for the crew in front of my apartment. The crew arrived and I walked my self to the unit, refusing C-spine precautions. I am A&0x4, but just for fun the Basic tells dispatch they are 1x1 (lights & sirens, 1 patient) to the nearest trauma center for decreased LOC. I thought it was funny dispatch did not. Any way off to the hospital non emergent, walk into ER, the doc goes crazy because I am not in C-spine, they board and collar me, CT me and give me a ton of stitches in my head. Needless to say I did not make the date, but got a lot sympathy from her for my injury. :wink:
  19. I'm a former EMSA Paramedic. I personally loved working there. Ridryder 911 & jenniemt are right, 12 hr shifts, 4 days a week. Overtime is usually pretty easy to get. They post all over the Tulsa area, one minute your South Tulsa, the next minute your moving to a post in Sand Springs. Call volume is high, thats normal for system status, but you can have days with 1 or 2 calls. One difference I noticed when I started was that the Paramedic handles all patients, there is no its a BLS patient so the Basic rides in the back. So as a basic you are going to do all the driving. I recently third rode with an old partner for a night just for s^%$'s and giggles it was great. They have nice new units, PC tablet charting, MDT's and GPS. The Medical Director Dr Sacra is strong and hands on. He will support you when your right and let you know when your wrong. Just watch out if he takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes. I have no idea what the pay is for Basics. They are offering $3500 sign on for Paras, I do not know if they are doing something like that for Basics. I have worked in several systems and I was impressed with EMSA, like any system it has its good and bad points. In this case I think the good outweighs the bad. Good Luck.
  20. Clackamas Community College has a summer accelerated Basic program. http://depts.clackamas.edu/emt/
  21. From NREMT website. Lapsed Registration To be reinstated once EMT-Basic national registration has lapsed, the candidates must: If lapsed within a two-year period, document successful completion of a state-approved DOT National Standard EMT-Basic Refresher education program within the past two (2) years; submit a new application and fee; and successfully complete the NREMT-Basic written examination and state-approved practical examination (within the past 12 months) that meets or exceeds Registry standards. If lapsed beyond a two-year period and still currently state-certified at the EMT-Basic level, document successful completion of a state-approved DOT National Standard EMT-Basic Refresher Training Course within the past two (2) years; submit a new application and fee; and successfully complete the NREMT-Basic written examination and state-approved practical examination (within the past 12 months) that meets or exceeds Registry standards. If lapsed beyond a two-year period and state certification at the EMT-Basic level has also lapsed, document successful completion of a new state-approved DOT National Standard EMT-Basic education program within the past two (2) years; submit a new application and fee; and successfully complete the NREMT-Basic written examination and state-approved practical examination (within the past 12 months) that meets or exceeds Registry standards.
  22. Just for the record I wasn't taking sides either way. I was just noting the cost of living. I know this not just because of a web site but because I looked into working for San Fran DOH as a Paramedic years ago. I would be making more money, but would not even be able to live like I did in Portland because of the cost of housing in the San Fran metro area. I do not care what mags rate things as, I know it is more expensive to live in Northern California. I just used a website to quantify the difference. I also know that Portland has a very volatile history when it comes to EMS. For those out of the area let me give you a little history about Portland EMS (Carl forgive me if I get the dates wrong). The city of Portland used to have three ambulance services and the city was divided roughly into three zones. AA ambulance in north/northeast, Care Ambulance in west Portland and Buck Ambulance in the southeast. In the early 90's AMR came to town and bought Buck and AA. They then got a contract to be the sole provider of 911 service in Multnomah county (Portland) eventually driving Care out of the ambulance biz. In about 1995 The Portland Fire Bureau made a bid to take over transport in Portland. The PFB even started hiring Paras and buying units. They lost this bid after a public outcry that forced a vote, a levy the PFB lost. In 1997 AMR almost went on strike, I cannot remember which union that was, I had left the Portland area by that time. I knew about the strike because I was working for EMSA who contracts with AMR, and there was talk about transferring me to back to Portland because I still had my Oregon cert. I know that their have been several unions at AMR, I also remember reading about the new contract signed by the ATU, that sounded like it was ugly too. I throw this history out there because it shows that it's not just about ATU vs NEMSA, turmoil in Portland EMS goes back for years. As for me living in Longview, my wife and I moved back from Oklahoma to be closer to my parents whose health was failing, not to save money. I am an ex Paramedic, I am not working in Portland anymore. I foresee in the next six months of applying at AMR again, I am in the process of getting my cert back after it lapsed. As for the union situation I will wait and see what is like when I get there. I have worked both union and non-union jobs, both have positive and negatives. I just wanted to respond and give a little history on the situation, I did not take it personally.
  23. My favorite dispatch idiocy. Stand by for a page. Why? I was moving around for the other 80 pages you sent me today and I got them just fine.
  24. Hey Dusty here's the difference in the cost of living between the two regions. I know the numbers are alot bigger than any Para salary but it gives ya an idea. Found this on a real estate site. Your right there is a huge difference. Portland OR income of 100,000 = San Jose income of 167,476.
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