VCmedic

Asysin2leads, thank you for your reply. Everyone who has replied I thank you for your time. At this point in my life where I have no family to feed, just myself, and don't need to settle for a life career just yet, I am going to pursue a different goal I have opted for and see how that goes and really just try to find myself. I would love to keep the option open for later in life. That being said, can anyone help me with information on keeping my P number while out of service? Is it mandatory to keep working to keep it? I am going to put in a call to the registry and talk to them about my options but I would like to hear everyone's input and suggestions. Thanks again guys and gals.

I dunno, Man. It'd be hard to say at this point that EMS isn't for you based solely upon your Kalifornia experience. Kalifornia EMS is not real EMS. It's some bizarro world where they do everything exactly opposite of the rest of the world, and non-fire medics are lower than pond scum. I think there's a good chance that if you were to work someplace that is not hung up on living a 1970's fire-EMS fantasy, and doesn't run 24 hour shifts, you might actually find that it is your thing. Unfortunately, with LA county experience and the average LA county education (a whopping 14 weeks :roll: ), you might actually have a hard time fitting in somewhere where they take EMS seriously.

Of course, I may be confused about what you are getting at too. You mention fire certs. Are you still interested in fire? Were you ever interested in fire, or was it just a means to get a medic job? Are you saying you may not be interested in both fire and EMS anymore, or just EMS?

If your heart's not in it, then cut your losses and do everybody a favour by just leaving before you burn out enough to hurt somebody, possibly yourself. Find something you really want to do instead and make yourself happy. But if you really want to do this, but just aren't certain you can, then give it a shot in a new environment. Seems a shame to waste the experience you have.

Is your girlfriend rich? If so, just kick back and relax, bro!

i think my past experience is a little misunderstood as i only worked as a basic in la county for a private company and to be honest i enjoyed it. i only worked as a medic in ventura county (which borders la county and now that i think about it, is getting to be the same as LA). our relationships with FF's were NOT good. they thought we were wannabe nobody's and during my 2 week training for the company i watched my FTO just about get into a fist fight with the ff/pm's more than once on scene. its not a good environment to work in. the guys i worked with in the couple months i was there had nothing but negative things to say about the job and their attitude really showed in the way they treated certain patients. as for your question about my fire interest, i did my internship at a fire department and just didn't click with their system. i had a great crew but it just kinda turned me off from fire which was the reason i got into ems in the first place. i was a volunteer ff during medic school and ended up dropping it cuz i hated it so much. good training but so clique. was never really welcomed it felt like. all of these experiences have just boiled up inside and made do what i did. if i could keep my P number up without working and keep it an option so when i re-evaluate my career opportunities, that would be awesome. but i know the registry requires u to be in service.

Perhaps it's not for you. Shoot, no shame in that. But many here I believe will tell you that you began your career in the shittiest possible scenario. It sounds like you certainly got your trial by fire!

Whether you return to the field or not, there is no shame in not wanting to whore yourself out for no money in a system that has proven to need serious help.

We have some good providers here from L.A., yet they'll be the first to tell you that the system is even more broken than the rest of EMS.

Take a breath, regroup, decide on your future, then refocus and move forward. You're young yet, you've got time. But know that your EMS career may not be worth fighting for...Know what I mean? It's a big world out there, full of jobs and careers that make EMS look silly by comparison.

Dwayne

i thank you for your reply and i agree 100% with everything you have said. i'm just really discouraged at this point to go back to the profession if its going to be an atmosphere like that again and i'm scared to lose my card and not have it as an option later in life. i almost feel pressured into working again just to keep what i've paid thousands for. shouldn't be like that ya know?

Hi everyone. Just needed someone to vent to besides my family and girlfriend for once. For an introduction, I'm 22 y/o, started fire tech classes in senior year of highschool, became an EMT-B first semester out of hs, worked 3 years as a Basic all over Los Angeles, graduated medic school, and began working as a medic for a private ambulance company in, what I would call, a "mini tijuana". So I've been a medic for about a year and this company had us running 12-14 calls average per 24 with basically no sleep just about every shift. In just the 5 months or so that I worked for this company I saw some things that I NEVER saw as a Basic in LA. I found myself so stressed out on duty and off that I was having a hard time sleeping at home knowing that I had to go deal with the same crap again the next day and started taking pills to help me (not illegal ones). My family noticed my mood changes and I was taking it out on people I didn't want to be taking it out on. I took up chewing tobacco and took it to a new level during this time. The company was so short on medics that they were sticking supervisors on rigs to fill spots, the pay sucked, and the firefighters we worked with were just burnt out and fed up with dealing with all the drunks and other frequent flyers. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and I turned in my stuff. I packed up my room at home and a week later my girlfriend and I moved to beautiful Tahoe, CA.

I am curently beginning to persue my first goal (before EMS was ever in my head) of being a personal trainer, live in an awesome cabin in a beautiful place, and love life.

I believe that happiness is the most important part of life and I couldn't see myself being happy there. I felt like the only reason I was staying was to make my family proud and save my hero image. Was it the lack of sleep EVERY shift? Was it the sudden boost in responsibility once I promoted from Basic to Medic that overwhelmed me? Was it the way the company treated us? I think a combo of all of the above, but mostly the added responsibility and stress of being a medic. As one who prides hisself in being viewed as a strong leader by friends and family it takes a lot for me to say I just don't think its for me. I don't know if I just had a bad first experience and its better other places, but please if anyone has felt like this and overcame it, I encourage you to reply and help a brotha out. Thanks guys and gals.