Are you proud of where you work?

[x3400]

I enjoy going to work everyday, doing the average 10 calls per shift, als, bls, and the junk that comes with it, but we all need to take the good with the bad

[Capman]

Interesting topic!

It's relatively simple to make a shallow statement such as, "The service I work for is terrible".

You take the pros and cons and weigh the balance. Do the pros outweigh the cons, and visa versa?

That being said, I would have to say in my case that the cons do outweigh the pros. For the most part, most of my co-workers are competent top notch parmedics and EMTs. I don't care where you go, for every 10 EMS workers, at least one is a knuckle head for various reasons. This can tarnish a service somewhat, but does not make it a bad service. Usually, there are others who recognize such problems and pick up the slack because they know by hanging a particular knuckle head out to dry can have a negative impact on a service. Those who truly care will want to avoid this.

One of the positive features of this facility is an incredible amount of overtime is available at your ability or choice to work it. This however, is not viewed as a gift or a generous gesture on their part. The bottom line is that they do not have a choice, and we have the option to capitalize on that factor. Besides, the overtime I perform generates them more revenue than they actually pay out for this overtime.

So where do the problems truly originate?

Problems originate in this case at the executive levels, where the brass of a large "Not for Profit" health care facility are more focused at securing their high paid positions by any means necessary. This means sacrificing quality to cut costs at the lowest level of health care at thier orginization, which in this case is the ambulance service.

Examples of this practice include, overworked employees who pick up the slack of a major understaffing as a result of poor wages. In short, increasing call volume and higer expectations with less staffing and failing resources.

Failing resources include ambulances; some of which are reaching 200,000+ miles, and a "don't fix it until it's broke" mentality. On two separate occasions wheels have literally fallen off while driving down the road despite multiple work orders stating that there was a concern due to vibrations. BTW, the work orders vanished which generated memos that scolded the staff for poor reporting procedures. No one was injured in these incidents due to low speeds as the failures occured, but this obviously could have been disatrous. Incidents not as significant as this happen regularly. It is also pertinent to add that none of our ambulances receive any routine maintenance... EVER.

Most signifcant of all, is the fact that 99% of our employees feel (due to recent negotiation practices on behalf of the employer and a multitude of other incidents) an ounce of respect is given to them from the employing health care facility or the executives who run it. We are in essence, the Black Sheep of their orginization.

So, my fellow EMTCity associates...

You do the math.

Thanks for reading.