Dixieladyff Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 I'm a firefighter and proud of it. I am also a career EMT, and a soon to be medic student. Just wanted to point that out so you would know at what point I am speaking from in life. The rival between firefighters and EMTs have been going on for way to long. There are to many times we have to work together and count on each other to have the others back. We as EMTs are constantly talking about how our profession generates no respect or little respect from others. Respect is something that is not handed to you. And showing respect for someone else is the second step in earning respect. The first step is showing respect for yourself. Others have made most of the points I have thought about making so I will not repeat them. But I would like to add this. Pt care should be the most important goal after personal safety. Considering that most of your 9-1-1 calls will not only include a ambulance crew but also a crew from the fire department in some form, and police. Maybe we should try working together as a team instead of trying to tick each other off. Educate each other as to the proper needs and skills that must be applied. Sure there is always going to be a rookie in the bunch, there is always going to be someone who thinks they know more than anyone else. However we only make ourselves look worse when we try to cut someone down in the kind of manner this thread was started for. Just my .02 Dixie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceMedic Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 NS you bring up good points. Being a firefighter myself i work well with our local dept. It's like they feel like i am one of them even though i am a volunteer even though they are full time career firefighters and don't like volunteers. And the same holds true for us on the EMS side ( fire is city and EMS is county run.) feel like the firemen that fill our reserve squad ( as EMT-I's and B's) belong here. they work well with us and do an awesome job. However it is the rest of the Fire Dept. that was forced to become EMT-B's with in a yr of hire that have little to no intrest in the job we do while they are being taught only to find out that when they get to an accident scene they think they know something... only to find out that they only learned enough to really screw things up then get pissed off at us medic when we tell them what they are doing wrong. They always pull the " i know the job im certified " BS line. We have always had an open invitation to come and ride whenever they want to, to date we have 4 active firefighter/EMT-B's. The rest all sit in there stations and bitch that we block them from running medical calls with us. Last thing i want on a medical is a Fire engine blocking any and all available access points to the scene and 4 to 5 firemen standing with their thumbs in their butts because they have no equipment or even O2 on the truck to help. as it is they bitch when we get our own vitals on PT's after arriving on scene after them( thats rare but does happen). Even after it is explained that we even do that when we pick up PT's from the ER for transfers. They even caused our county commission to investigate our response times. That back fired on them as it pointed out that our in-service times were under two minutes on average and on-scene times were averaging less than 4 minutes. where theres were not so impressive. Everyone has posted something that we all have had to deal with. The attitude that a lot of us deal with is that EMS would not be here if it wasn't for Fire. To that i say they are only half right. Yes fire has helped in the advancement of EMS, right up until they figured out that EMS runs 10 times the calls. Then it took the turn that we are the redheaded step children that are used to justify the Multi-million dollar budgets fire dept's have based on run volume that would not be there if EMS was not attached, so they can buy that new Ladder truck or pumper that looks so good in the parade. Even here where we are third service and not attached in any way to the fire dept. they want our run volume to get more money. Now again i am also a Firefighter, but im a Paramedic/Firefighter not the other way around. PT care comes before glory or property. sorry for the rant Be Safe Race Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechMedic05 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Race: "Now again i am also a Firefighter, but im a Paramedic/Firefighter not the other way around. PT care comes before glory or property." You're one of a very few people I've seen use that order. Kudos! And good points brought up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceMedic Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Thanks Tech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asysin2leads Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 else is the second step in earning respect. The first step is showing respect for yourself. Others have made most of the points I have thought about making so I will not repeat them. But I would like to add this. Pt care should be the most important goal after personal safety. Considering that most of your 9-1-1 calls will not only include a ambulance crew but also a crew from the fire department in some form, and police. Maybe we should try working together as a team instead of trying to tick each other off. Educate each other as to the proper needs and skills that must be applied. Sure there is always going to be a rookie in the bunch, there is always going to be someone who thinks they know more than anyone else. However we only make ourselves look worse when we try to cut someone down in the kind of manner this thread was started for. Dixie Working together as a team? Wow! Hey, we never thought about that. Sorry, I don't have a big tolerence for cliches. Firefighters go for the glory calls, and if it happens to be an EMS call, they'll be all over it. Here's a trick: Get the FF's to take the cute kid on the backboard with a o2 mask to the ambulance, and tell them there's a news team on the other side. That should give you enough time to do your job with out them getting in the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerpcp Posted June 19, 2006 Author Share Posted June 19, 2006 Working together as a team? Wow! Hey, we never thought about that. Sorry, I don't have a big tolerence for cliches. Firefighters go for the glory calls, and if it happens to be an EMS call, they'll be all over it. Here's a trick: Get the FF's to take the cute kid on the backboard with a o2 mask to the ambulance, and tell them there's a news team on the other side. That should give you enough time to do your job with out them getting in the way. LMAO! Excuse me Mr. FF, could you go outside and make sure the ambulance doesn't fall over? Thanks for coming out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw-c152 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Wow, Hammer... I take it thinks aren't hunkeydorey out in Steele Town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackMaga Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Well, I don't know, but, don't you think you are a bit too harsh with yours FF? After all, they're trying to help you doing something that's not included in their job! Here in Italy, the FD nevere ever comes to a call, unless there's either a fire or the need for technical rescue, so I think it would be great to have a couple FFs at my side during the more tough calls, even if it does mean tell them what to do step by step.. Again, it is not the kind of thing they're trained for... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rescue25 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 I guess I should feel lucky that, for the most part, the first-response FF's I've worked with are a great bunch of men and women. Sure there are exceptions, but that's true of any service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whit72 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 We have had problems with FF's in our area on occasion but we both understand that the care of the pt is our first priority. We actually have a pretty good relationship with them. Its actually pretty neat to go to a fire standby have a ff explain to you what exactly is going on, as far as venting and different techniques, of which I know nothing about. I always assumed that they just put the fire out I never really realized how they got there. Its pretty interesting and definitely a science to it. I have tons of respect for them, the more I get to know the ins and outs of their profession. Could I do the job I highly doubt it, I have the instinct to run away from anything on fire, so the fact they run towards it is very admirable. So the fact when they hand me a neb when i asked for a non-re breather, doesn't really upset me, god knows what I would hand them if they asked me for a pick Axe or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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