Uniforms?

[Dustdevil]

Well, it would be great if there was some sort of uniform educational standards that applied to advanced care.

There are where I teach.

I have actually written a full-day curriculum on professional image for paramedic classes. There's a lot to consider, if you take the subject seriously.

[firedoc5]

There are where I teach.

I have actually written a full-day curriculum on professional image for paramedic classes. There's a lot to consider, if you take the subject seriously.

Would it be like a fashion show?

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[akroeze]

haha... no I just work for a service that believes in looking the part. You know the whole if you look it you must be it thing. Doesn't matter to me if they wanted me to wear a pink tutu and bunny slippers with little wings I would as long as my pay check, my pension, and my benefits kept going in and I still got to be a paramedic.

Seriously though, I think if your service wants you to look professional, then look professional. We all want to be in this business and we all want to be good if not great at it, then who really cares about a uniform. Let's talk about other things like services eliminating intubation and External Jugular Vein Cannulation. Or services that do not do 12 lead Interpretation or teach 12 lead interpretation. Sorry I will get off my soap box.

I guess the whole idea is what IS a professional look? To me someone wearing a business suit looks professional, someone wearing a lab coat looks professional, etc. Who decided and said that we have to dress like you described to "look the part" and be professional?

[BEorP]

But if the machine can interpret the rhythm, then why do we need to train the providers to do it?

I wonder what the accuracy is on those machine diagnosis?

I don't know about the 12 lead interpretation, but I sometimes even wonder about the shock/no shock decisions of the defibs.

[spenac]

http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.ph...=design+uniform

Long uniform discussion.

Just because trying to get back on topic.

[Dustdevil]

I guess the whole idea is what IS a professional look? To me someone wearing a business suit looks professional, someone wearing a lab coat looks professional, etc. Who decided and said that we have to dress like you described to "look the part" and be professional?

Excellent point, Al. And it's a point that is all too often completely overlooked.

When you talk about looking professional, you have to stay focused on that word, "profession". You are right, a business suit looks "professional". So does a hockey mask and jersey. But the key for us is that we have to look like a MEDICAL profession, not like a businessman or hockey goalie. Or a cop. Or a firemonkey. Or a soldier. Or a golfer. No matter how "professional" you look, if you you look like some profession other than that you are working in, then that is not "professional".

Of course, this does beg the question as to what we should look like, since defining that image is yet one more in a long list of tasks we have FAILED to complete in the last thirty-five years. Since the EMS boom came about on the heels of EMERGENCY!, an unfortunate majority of those who followed have lacked the vision and imagination to do anything more than maintain that we need to look like firemonkeys because, after all, "that's the way we've always done it". Bullshit.

Any profession that FAILS to even define it's own image is not a profession at all. If your uniform looks like some other profession's uniform, then you are not yet a professional.

[spenac]

We definitely need to get a uniform that is durable but obviously medical. I hate the tshirts, the cop shirts, etc. A high quality scrub top ( not the flimsy see thru crap ) with Paramedic pants would serve well. Then have extrication jump suit to protect you for the rare climb into the wreck situation. We are not cops, we are not fire fighters, we are not nurses, we are not doctors, we are emergency medical professionals that need a uniform that separates us from all the others.

[Scaramedic]

[align=center:fdbb5ef50f]The new Southwest Texas EMS uniform.

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[spenac]

[align=center:248499cab8]The new Southwest Texas EMS uniform.

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I am so going to sue. I never signed a release for you to post my pic.

[bigj1130]

Dust you and everyone else make great points. I wasn't trying to stir a pot or get everyone off topic. I apologize for that. I think professionalism is a state of mind since we haven't established what a professional is supposed to look like. I have experience both as a fire/medic and a third service medic. In my experience (8 years) it seems that the public looks to the person that looks LEAST like everybody else to be the professional i.e. the fire lt. in the white shirt as opposed to the 2 medics and 2 firemen both in blue. Before anyone questions it I know it is a broad generalization that I just said, but like I said just my experience. If EMS wants to be taken seriously we should on a whole try not to look like FD or PD in any way shape or form. I think White is good, but there are white shirts in the fire service. I think whatever is decided in order to look "professional" A paramedic in Dallas needs to be the same as a paramedic in Chicago, and Austin, and Detroit etc. But then again A Fire/Medic will never look like a 3rd service paramedic or private medic. SO I guess my point is if someone can portray a professional look; a clean shirt, clean pants clean face etc, then maybe the public will think they are a professional. I wish I had the answer