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how does your department deal with cell phone ring tones?


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Other than drivers cannot be on phones- obvious- no policy on actual ringtones. As was noted, having an obnoxious tone is unprofessional. That said, I am guilty of forgetting to put mine on vibrate at times and I have had to frantically shut off the ringer on calls. Embarrassing. My tones range from the theme from Benny Hill to Pretty Good at Drinking Beer, to Don't Fear the Reaper(I know-probably not a good one to start playing on a call, LOL)- depending on my mood.

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We have a professional commitment pledge on a plaque in every station. We also have a policy about general professionalism and conduct.
What do they say (text/wording)?

On the cell phone question: we don't have a specific policy. Most of us switch to vibrate and don't answer during calls. One or another occasionally does but that are those colleagues I don't attest much professionalism anyhow. We have cell phones issued by the department for organizational business (one per unit), those are answered even during calls, if appropriate - it's most probably regarding the actual call, mostly even a call-back to a inquiry initiated by the unit.

Most "creative" ring tones are a plague. Some have a defib loading sequence. May really scare me at the wrong time...

Edited by Bernhard
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It's not an issue for us since we can't get a signal in the hospital. I do admit to downloading a ringtone of a Minotoaur pager going off (yup, I had a whacker moment). Maybe someone here should get it and see what happens when it goes off on a call, although I imagine it would be like watching a bunch of doctors in a group when a pager goes off.

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One of the Ambulance Service's "core values" is professionalism.

Now I mostly think this "core values" stuff is touchy feely management bullshit aimed at dick shaking and self promotion however the underpinning idea is there.

Professionalism is something taken extremely seriously here; by the vast majority of Ambulance Officers at least. This means no untucked shirts with your fat guts spewing over them, no chewing gum or spitting on the floor, no blindly following standing orders "because", no going "I dno they didn't teach us that" or things like that - which includes your cellphone having some weird ass ringtone that starts blaring across Nana's living room as you're popping 50ml of 10% glucose into that free-flowing drip under gravity to cure her hypoglycaemia. That's two fold right there, being a well educated professional has taught you that if you extravasate IV glucose Nana's arm is going to turn black and not work so you always give it in a big vein through a free flowing drip under gravity.

It's about having a bit of bloody pride and importantly "doing your bit" for the profession and upholding the collective requirements for advancement of said profession.

Specifically, the old Ambulance Standard Operating Procedures (ASOP 15.8) prohibited Ambulance Officers from using their personal cellphone during a job, the new Operations Manual doesn't have such a provision that I can find however it's just not something we'd do; it goes back to that whole thing of professionalism.

Ambulance cellphones are different, they just have the standard ring tone. My personal phone just has the old school "ring ring" tone so I know it's mine, everybody has some weird bloody tune that is torturous to the ears and when it goes off half the populace reaches for their pocket in the 'is that mine?' reaction lolz

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We had a guy that recorded our call tone and used it for a ringtone. He would giggle when we would all jump to his incoming calls. It was kind of funny once or twice. We convinced him that his tone was not conducive to the wellbeing of EMS workers, him in particular. He changed it.

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We had a guy that recorded our call tone and used it for a ringtone. He would giggle when we would all jump to his incoming calls. It was kind of funny once or twice. We convinced him that his tone was not conducive to the wellbeing of EMS workers, him in particular. He changed it.

My operations manager, when I first started at my current job, had a "Klaxxon" horn style ringtone. It was the exact same ringtone that my previous employer would use when a hazardous/toxic release was occurring. Needless to say, when his phone rang on my first day of work, and I jumped out of my seat like a bee just stung me, he was too busy laughing for me to tell him WHY I was so anxious.

Seems like we're all in agreement regarding professionalism and the "appropriate" usage of your cell phone. Personally, I don't see why anyone who isn't either a 16 year old girl, or actively engaged in filming a cell phone commercial, would use anything but the stock "ring ring" style tone. Sure, having a fun tone for your friends is hilarious, but is "I like big butts" really the song you want playing when you're on the job? I like Sir Mix-a-lot as much as the next guy, but seriously?

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Yes, I was working a code last week when a fire monkeys phone blurted out, "I like big butts and I can not lie, other brothers can deny". Family was very offended

What did they have against big butts?

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