docspoon1666

Dust; your 4th paragraph sums up my job description. I’ve been on this construction site for 3 years now and we have had only 9 OSHA recordable. And in this type of construction work that in it self is a remarkable accomplishment. There was a fatality just prior to my arrival here and I can only trust my ability to teach safe work habits to the employees coming on site to insure that will not happen on my watch. Now if a person wants to work in an environment that has more injuries to treat then look into shutdowns at power plants or chemical plants. They had 12 OSHA recordable in 2 weeks. The workers are pushed to complete there work and the often take very dangerous shortcuts, often the employee losing that battle and sustaining serious injury, a come-a-long hook to the face for example. The OSHA 1910 and 1926 will present great value on my resume when I complete my paramedic. Safe work practices is something we all do, some are more receptive to the philosophy than others that is why I have a job, cause it’s like the little sticker on the left side of my hard hat reads “I can’t fix stupid”.

Ak, your right the legalese is subject to interpretation and the OSHA standards are merely “minimum” standards at best. It is up to the individual to make a self preservation decision to do the RIGHT thing. The only respirators certified by NIOSH under Part 11 that meet CDC filtration efficiency performance criteria for protection against tuberculosis (TB) are those with HEPA filters. Health care delivery settings are generally free of oil aerosols that would be degrading to filter efficiency. Therefore, N-, R-, or P-series respirators are appropriate for protection against TB in health care settings and other workplaces in which oil aerosols are absent. HEPA filters are critical in the prevention of the spread of airborne bacterial and viral organisms and, therefore, infection. Typically, medical-use HEPA filtration systems also incorporate high-energy ultra-violet light units to kill off the live bacteria and viruses trapped by the filter media. Some of the best-rated HEPA units have an efficiency rating of 99.995%, which assures a very high level of protection against airborne disease transmission.

Ok ladies and gents; the only real protection against airborne pathogens is the p-100, and referenced from NIOSH and OSHA requires a quantitative and qualitative fit test. Although OSHA merely recommends no facial hair, NIOSH which is incorporated thru reference set a specific standard that states. The following requirements and restrictions must be considered to ensure that the respirator selected will provide adequate protection under the conditions of intended use: 1. Workers are not exposed to a single unvarying concentration of a hazardous substance, rather, individual exposures may vary throughout a work shift and between days. The highest anticipated concentration should therefore be used to compute the required protection factor for each respirator wearer. 2. Qualitative or quantitative fit tests must be provided as appropriate to ensure that the tight-fitting face piece respirator fits the individual. NIOSH endorses the OSHA standard 29 CFR1910.134 for fit testing except for irritant smoke. Employees must pass a fit test with the exact model and size that they will wear in the workplace. 3. Respirators with tight-fitting face pieces should not be used when facial scars or deformities interfere with the face seal. 4. Respirators with tight-fitting face pieces (including pressure-demand respirators) should not be used when facial hair interferes with the face seal.

As a construction site EMT-B I also handle the workman’s comp claims, set up return visits to dr. I insure the company is in compliance with OSHA 1910 and 1926 standards and in compliance with there own policies. I tend to do more paper work and documentation than I do medical, but with that said that is a good thing since the training that I provide these new employees when they hire in shows there listening. So in this business if I’m working as an EMT then someone messed up and got hurt. Avoiding OSHA recordable is my objective, and most big company’s pay big for that. $22.50 hr.

Crap……..I have a suicidal mouse.

"C-med check the status of a chopper"

Well; just what do you want out of life? Are you looking for experience? -----a large metropolitan area, diversification of calls. Are you looking for a life after your shift? ---- (me) Miami or Hawaii (also; both large metros) Are you looking for the big money? ---- Industrial medicine or anywhere you most wear body armor as PPE. So with that said, the decision you make is from what you want out of life. The sweet thing about that is you can change your mind whenever you want. You have no ties, so think out side the box. Live life to the fullest, you have but only one.

The department I am on is a volunteer dept. but during the day when the rest of us are trying to earn a living there are 3 paid (if you want to call it paid) personnel, 2 engineers, and 1 administrator. The cool thing about them is that they are all volunteer members too. So the area they service is the area they respond to after hours also. We do both fire and medical on a BLS level. There is a county ALS truck that we assist on calls where the communication center feels they will need assistance on, response codes of charley, delta and echo. I’m sure that with the growing population of this area within the next 5 to 7 years we will be a fully paid department, to better service the community. Which I do not mind doing, I would love to get paid for what we do in the fire & rescue service. The training we do as volunteers is the same training that that full time paid fire and rescue personnel get. One of the real sweet things about the volunteer departments is they are normally county funded (at least here they are) and the education one can get with the investment of only your time and brain is great. So use that time wisely, in areas of rapid growth, it’s only a matter of time before you too will be a fully paid provider. If you use the system to its full potential then at that time you can just step in to a paid position of something that you love doing……….see no brain-er there.

till about 8 years ago there was 2 dept. in my district, rescue dept and a fire dept. at that point the 2 merged due to money problems with rescue. to merge only made all the sense in the world, we are a rural area and our tax basin is getting larger but money that is acquired thru taxes can be spent for both fire and rescue. thanks to smoke alarms and fire detection systems fully involved structures are rare. so the majority of calls are medical and 10-50s so equipping our first out engine with the basic extrication equipment makes sense, we also have a crash truck for more complex extrication and heavy rescue. we have 48 voly members and 3 paid personnel during the day when the rest of us work, with all the people in the dept. at last count we had 34 EMTs and growing. in our dept when a call come out as a lower GI bleed I'm lucky if there is one other there with me, but now dispatch 10-50 entrapment i get 47 people responding. in the fire service the leading cause of FF deaths is heart attacks so even when there is one of the few fully involved structures there is plenty of medically trained personnel to handle it. don't get me wrong i love doing medical but that doesn't mean i cant enjoy putting the wet stuff on the red stuff. its a totally different Adrenalin rush just ask any FF. so to the areas who butt heads to see who get to do extrication

dustdevil, hay good luck over there if you run into a medic by the code name rogo tell him uncle dale said hi. please be careful

this is something that i too am in the process of considering, NR-EMT-B, or even NR-EMT-I as the company i work for dose heavy construction work all over the US and abroad.