Skuter Posted September 7, 2005 Share Posted September 7, 2005 That is why I have long advocated the establishment of a very separate and unique identity for EMS personnel. Best I can tell, this is the only country that doesn't universally do so. Actually Dust -- while I can't speak for everyone north of the border -- our uniforms are very much like PD. In the part of Ontario where I work, we don't wear badges on our duty uniforms. But we do wear them on our dress uniforms -- something that has only happened in the last few years. We have the standard navy blue shirts with our service crest on each sleeve. We also wear epaulets to show our level of certification. One stripe for PCP, three stripes for ACP. It gets kind of funny when you get ex-military guys (especially veterans) calling you "Lieutenant-Colonel"! (Canadian Army/Air Force Lt-Col. wear three stripes on their uniform to display rank. I think US is a silver Oak leaf???) I totally agree that we should have a distinct uniform. Skuter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey Posted September 11, 2005 Share Posted September 11, 2005 At the service i work for, We are NOT to wear badges on our duty shirts; We do have badges to be worn on Dress Blues only for funerals and PR Events where the department needs to be in full dress. After the special event, the badge and dress shirt go back in the closet where they belong. One of the main reasons that our service has a "no badge policy" is that one of the patients pulled the badge off one of our emt's and actually cut him with it. Mikey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s_greene Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Just thought I'd add something. I am currently taking an EMT-B class and my instructor opened class today with a story about an EMT who was arrested recently for having a badge. I live in Brooklyn and apparently the EMT, who keeps a non-issued badge in his wallet, was going into federal court (nothing to do with his profession) in Downtown Brooklyn and one of the Marshals at the security checkpoint opened his wallet and saw the badge. He called NYPD over and they arrested the poor EMT. On what charges I am not sure, but my instructor said some bogus charges and that the EMT will most likely get off. And back to this whole thing about badges being a noob thing, I have to disagree. My main instructor and everyone else who comes in for practicals, about 10 instructors total, all have badges. I'm not sure if this a New York thing but these guys certainly aren't noobs. I also thought a badge would have been awesome but from reading this thread and from hearing about this EMT that got arrested I think I will refrain. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcmedic Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 There's a Six Flags near Fairfield?? :shock: Yup. It's been there for many years. You might know it by the name "Six Flags Marine World." A badge might look ok... if you were in a nice uniform.. at a funeral... (d'oh. didn't realize how old this thread really was!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustdevil Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 My main instructor and everyone else who comes in for practicals, about 10 instructors total, all have badges. I'm not sure if this a New York thing but these guys certainly aren't noobs. I also thought a badge would have been awesome but from reading this thread and from hearing about this EMT that got arrested I think I will refrain. Good on you! Your ability to resist the overwhelming temptation to do what all the cool kids are doing speaks very well of you and your potential to be a great medic. I hope you are representative of the new breed. It's definitely a New York thing, and one of the things that makes NY EMTs look like such wankers to the rest of the country. You (referring to all EMT's and medics, not Mr. Greene personally) have no authority. You're just a medical provider, and a poorly trained one at that. As a wise man once wrote, you have no more authority than a barber. And the barber has a licence and ten times the training you do, so get over yourself. It's not part of your uniform. And utilizing it to procure favour from merchants or the police is unethical. No good can come from possessing such a badge. None. If those instructors have old pre-FDNY badges that they keep as a matter of pride, I can halfway understand that. But if they walk around with it on their belt or around their neck like they are an extra from NYPD Blue, or worse yet, just had it made up out of the Galls catalogue, they're wankers, and anything they are teaching you is suspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 The only "badge" we have is a photo ID card that is clipped to your shirt (state requires it), but we have no badges, no collar brass, and no other "metalic" items on our shirts. Having a shirt that weighs 10 pounds and sets off metal detectors is not a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustdevil Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 The only "badge" we have is a photo ID card that is clipped to your shirt (state requires it)... Do you have a link source for that regulation? Never heard of it. In fact, I very rarely see an EMS provider wearing an ID card around North Texas. Arlington is the only one that comes to mind, and they are a bunch of AMR wankers. I can't imagine that if this were actually a law, so many agencies would be ignoring it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Do you have a link source for that regulation? Never heard of it. In fact, I very rarely see an EMS provider wearing an ID card around North Texas. Arlington is the only one that comes to mind, and they are a bunch of AMR wankers. I can't imagine that if this were actually a law, so many agencies would be ignoring it. Just what the regional office down her has been doing. The city made us start wearing the stupid ID cards (although I always seem to forget it). The other service I work for followed shortly, almost everyone (city services) around here are stuck wearing them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 The ID cards cover the requriement by DSHS to have name, level, and service on the medic. At Bay Star we don't wear any kind of "metal" so we have our service patch on one side, level on the other, and then they prefer the ID badges to cover name (even though they say service, level, and have our picture on them) instead of us wearing metal. At the city we have them because our shirts only have the department logo on the front and back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. JRR Posted March 16, 2006 Share Posted March 16, 2006 8) There is no need for the badge it's only a target for the other side and a great topic for people to laugh at when you look like Andy Griffith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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