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Ride Along Etiquette?


Caduceus

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Awesome post Clutzy :punk:

Hello Caduceus welcome to the City. I see your welcome has been a warm one.

Let me add a little to the discussion. As a former Captain of a squad I see a lot of liability issues but depending on your area (things change from area to area) might be able to get a waiver. One thing I would suggest is maybe not a ride along but more of an auxiliary. Help out around the bays, work those football games, pitch in at events. This way you get the experience of working with the EMTs but in a more controlled environment. As Clutzy said, if the scene goes wonky I may forget about you for a minute, in that minute a whole world of bad can happen. At a football game the chances of that happening are less. Plus helping around the bays helps you get a feeling for the crews and how they interact. Maybe crew 1 is crass and obnoxious maybe crew 2 is more laid back and receptive, ect ect.

Not saying don't do the ride along just saying maybe wait a little. Get to know the crews a little. It may even make the ride along more enjoyable because those awkward silence moments would be fewer and farther between.

As I think about it a little more let me ask you this, you said you have experienced bad in your young life already, are you ready to have that experience again but with the added weight of everyone wanting you, personally, to fix it? Even though you are just riding along and not being an active participant you came through the door with us so those around the scene assume you are "with" us and may expect action. Sometimes the hardest part of our job isn't so much what we do but what others seem to expect us to do. Call it the Hollywood Medic curse, people assume we show up and fix everything like they do in the movies and TV when in actuality it is far different.

I'm glad to see someone so young willing to take the step and join our ranks, we need more motivated young participants. By all means stick around here and pick our brains.

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As Clutzy said, if the scene goes wonky I may forget about you for a minute, in that minute a whole world of bad can happen.

Ok, let me give you a real life example of the above.

I'm precepting a very gung ho new emt. We get a call to an overdose. On arrival we cannot find the guy. Police are looking, myself and my emt partner are looking and we are thinking that our new guy is right behind us. Well he wasn't. He went down in the basement looking for the patient, didn't tell us where he went. Next thing we know we hear screaming and yelling and the five of us, three cops and me and my partner are rushing downstairs. We find the overdose patient and our new guy in a wrestling match with the new guy holding the overdose patients hand which has a 6 inch bladed knife. My new guy has already been cut on the arm and he's screaming "help help help".

We are able to subdue the patient and then treat both patients until a 2nd ambulance gets there.

I have a long talk with my new guy including the part where I told him emphatically at the beginning of our shift together "NOT TO F'ing leave on scene without telling me" and then I transported him to the ER. Once done, we had to go to the supervisor's office and we both got a ass chewing that actually still hurts if I think about it too long.

This is what can happen on scene if we forget you. And with you being 16, your safety is tantamount. Can you see the headlines in the papers and Facebook "EMS Agency allows 16 year old to ride-along which resulted in injury to said 16 year old" That would be bad. I for one would not really want the added responsibility of having to watch you and take care of my patients. BUT--------------- Why not ask if you can ride with a supervisor, that way you get to go to all the best calls and can bypass the routine calls that are a dime a dozen.

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I've got to play devil's advocate here. I started in EMS at 16y/o. My volley allowed us to ride the ambulance at 16. We could not drive and obviously could not be an EMT. I think it was a good experience and is what turned me on to medicine (on second thought maybe that wasn't such a good thing).

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I'm all for letting Cad, get out on the trucks but strictly speaking liability wise, I'm not sure it's a wise idea but my alternative suggestion of having her ride with a supervisor would be a very viable alternative.

There are so many things that happen on scene that having a medic watch a teenager (who I believe to be mature but we only see what we see in her forum posts) as well as control the scene puts just another variable in a very fluid situation. The medic will have the distraction of keeping her in his view finder constantly which might in the end compromise patient care.

I have full faith that Cad will do what she is told but that is NOT a guarantee and to have to control a teenager, who may or may not be beyond her years in maturity, is not something that should be thrown into the mix.

So if the option is there, why not allow her on with the supervisor, I mean really , they don't actually do anything on scene except try to steal tubes and just get in the way, having a teenager to babysit(no offense) would take the supervisoritis out of the mix.

Of course my barbs at supervisors is just that, Barbs because at one time I was one of em and I welcomed ride-alongs of 16 year olds up to 80 year olds. Plus the riders can go to the BEST restaurants out there to eat at.

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We didn't have supervisors since we were a VAC, it was pretty much whoever responded for the call. The student program has been going on for about 30 years with very minimal problems. I can guarantee you, we were in no way mature beyond our years and our advisors have the gray hairs to prove it.

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We didn't have supervisors since we were a VAC, it was pretty much whoever responded for the call. The student program has been going on for about 30 years with very minimal problems. I can guarantee you, we were in no way mature beyond our years and our advisors have the gray hairs to prove it.

My parents keep telling me that my childrens giving me gray hair is just payback for my giving me theirs.

The supervisor ride is only good as long as there is a supervisor to ride with.

If no supervisor, then the medic/emt crew really needs to be on the top of their game to make sure that this rider comes home safe and sound, not like the dumb ass who was riding with us as a new employee. He didn't last long at our service. He was a problem child from the get go. Needless to say, he was put with another FTO and did some other stupid crap too.

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Ruff that sounded like a bad day for everyone. Definitely what I was thinking about when I said what I said. Well maybe not that drastic but still the headlines would be no less as bad. Looking at it strictly from a liability issue.

I think the supervisory ride along would be great. Like you said get all the good calls leave the stubbed toe alone LOL If the super ride isn't available I still think helping around the building, participating with them at sporting events ect will garner some great knowledge and experience but in a more controlled environment. I was always looking for help for events.

I was thinking of another thing between posts, see if you can come by for a rig check. OK I know it doesn't sound fun or exciting but you can learn a lot. I know with all the new recruits I made sure they did rig checks constantly. Who knows by going this route might make it easier to get a ride along once they see how you are around them.

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