For Old EMS Veterans Only....

[Ridryder 911]

The Old Emergency Workers Test Scale

(Beyond Veteran Status)

You know you're an old emergency worker when . . .

You notice that your colleagues no longer introduce you to others as "a dynamite paramedic", but instead introduce you as "a dinosaur paramedic."

You notice that new partners are not that much older than your own kids.

You notice that enthusiasm and excitement for the profession correlates most greatly with the relative youth of the person.

You realize that several "crops" , "graduating classes", or "generations " of trainees have passed through your tutelage in the field.

You notice people looking at you strangely as you describe actually learning to use Colonel Holger-Nielson's Method of Back-Pressure Arm-Lift Artificial Respiration and feeling that you were prepared with the latest and best.

You notice that you're the only one who knows, understands, and can explain equipment such as "three-bottle suction set-up for chest tubes", "Thomas Splint, Keller-Blake Half-Ring Traction Splint, Pearson Knee Attachment, etc. When astonishment is expressed, you find yourself saying "they even used to have a Murray-Jones splint for traction splinting of the arm!"

You are the only one in the group who can explain "How To Help A Wounded Man From His Horse."

You have used a Stevenson "Minuteman" Resuscitator; or can explain the differences between it, the "Emerson", "E&J", etc., and basically give an experience-based history of "Artificial Respiration" and mechanical resuscitators.

You have done gastric lavage with a hanging glass jar and red rubber tubing.

You have carried patients with a "Poles and Canvas" stretcher.

You're not only the only one who knows how to use a triangular bandage as a sling, but know six different ways to do so.

You can recall when only one crewmember on the ambulance had to have a first aid card and that person was usually the driver. You can further recall that a mechanism existed whereby counties could be exempted from the equipment, staffing, and training requirements if hardship existed, thus less than minimal standards could be legal.

You remember having to ring a doorbell or call the hospital telephone operator to have the Emergency Room opened for your patient.

You remember when ambulance or E.R. equipment included a blackjack or billy club.

You are the only person who knows what is meant by the phrase "Converta-Hearse."

You remember when a mortuary operating an ambulance was not thought of as a conflict of interest, but a public service from the only fellow in town who had a car in which one could lie down .

You remember when a doctor's house call "was" the Pre-Hospital Care.

You remember the phrase: "Is there a doctor in the house?"

You remember (and can still feel) nurses telling patients "The Ambulance Drivers are here to give you a ride" or even "The Ambulance Boys . . ."

You remember explaining countless times each day "What's an Emergency Medical Technician?" to which the invariable reply was "Oh, you mean an Ambulance Driver!"

You are introduced as a "Pioneer" in emergency medicine and you suddenly realize that you are.

You realize, or it is pointed out to you, that many of your conversational items begin "I remember when . . . "

You notice people remarking as they hear your paramedic number "God, that's a low number!"

You realize that more than half of the hospitals you go to have been renamed, reorganized , merged, or closed.

You find that most of the people you now work with don't know any of the people who "used to be here" and they really don't know anything about your original preceptor, and there have been several chiefs or bosses since you started.

You find it is necessary to explain how vehicle manifold suction worked and how, to get full vacuum effect, it was necessary to call out "Suctioning!" so that he could let up on the accelerator pedal. People also don't understand how "The Resuscitator" had an oxygen-powered venturi "aspirator."

You qualify if at any time in your career you worked in ambulances made from "station wagons", "panel trucks" (including "step vans" and "metro vans"), "sedan-delivery" vehicles, low-top Cadillacs or other brand of "limousine chassis", any "Converta-Hearse", etc.; younger emergency workers may qualify if they worked in any ambulance that did not meet federal KKK-1824A specifications.

You qualify also if a substantial portion of your career took place before rubber gloves were supplied.

You earn additional points for qualification if your career began before seat belts were common.

You admit to yourself that nowadays the chief reason you enjoy precepting paramedic trainees is that you don't have to carry the gurney anymore.

©1994 Tom Trimble

For all of us that remember these..

Be safe,

Ridryder 911

[tunnelrat83]

sounds like comments that my dad has made... he was a career EMT-P for 35 some years...

[AJ]

You notice that new partners are not that much older than your own kids.

this stems back to a conversation i had last week with my partner....i think it started as we were discussing music, and he was listing bands/singers i've never heard of....it wasn't long into that conversation before we figured out that he got his certification 2 months before i was born....lol

[THE_DITCH_DOCTOR]

I recently met the man who ran the call for the accident that killed my grandmother in 1970. He was a rookie at the time and still remembers the "lady who went off of Coal Creek Bridge on 63". He's now the chief for one of the local VFD's. How weird is that?

[tunnelrat83]

thats when you know that you been doing this crap for a while... lol

[JimH]

My God, that is me, on a number of criteria, but the ultimate insult was working out of a Cadillac Hi-top-

Guilty, also Pontiac low and high top-

You forgot knowing how to apply a Thomas Half-Ring traction splint :wink:

[WelshMedic]

I can remember one time when I picked up a young girl who'd been kicked in the stomach by a horse. She obviously had a splenic injury and so I decided to get her quickly in the back of the vehicle and transport. On the way I gave her two IV's. My colleague driving in the front kept giving me funny looks but said nothing.

The next day I was summoned to the boss. How on earth could I be so stupid and dangerous as to cannulate a patient in a moving vehicle? No-one had ever attempted it before and I was, on no account, ever to try again.

How things change...

wm

[tinman694]

I still miss the Federal Que (Like on the fire apparatus) we had on the caddy---an of course the Meteor's...

The reason for hearing loss is probably because of the electronic siren on the roof...

And the manifold suction!! oh god, it never did work worth a damn..

And to think I left and came back through again!!

[JimH]

One unit I worked in was a Pontiac low top, and looked strangely like a hearse-

One day, filling the tank, I flaked some paint off the inside of the hood, and under the red paint was black.

I have always wondered where that one came from. :shock:

[itku2er]

man RID you sure know how to make a GIRL feel ANCIENT.......I vaguely remember writing a PCR on a stone tablet.......i still have my chisel :!: :!: :!: :!: :!:

but these were good ones......thanks for sharing........

later

Terri