Does any one else work for a combo paid/volley dept?

[JPINFV]

... we get free training, the city gets free labor, and the citisens get a free ambulance ride and treatment.

Err, who pays for your free training then? There is no such thing as a free lunch, someone had to pay for it somehow. If you get any money from the city, then the citizens are paying for it by taxes. It's like my school's student government giving out "free" food at events. It's not free, I already paid for it at the beginning of the quarter.

[MrsRankin0510]

we rely on donations, especially donations from large businesses. I'm sorry, I should have worded that differently:

We don't have to pay for our training, the city doesn't have to pay us, and the citisens don't have to pay for ambulance rides.

I think I'll consult the thesaurus next time before I post, I seem to wrile people up easily on this forum.

[JPINFV]

No problems. I generally try to keep out of the volly vs paid debate since there aren't any vollies in my area. From my experience with other students at my school, though, it seems like the term "free" is thrown around when people have no idea on how something was paid for.

[retired_medic61]

My favorite EMS paid job was at a service that had both paid and vollies. The vollies stayed at the station. We typically ran dual Paramedic units but occasionally we would split and ride Paramedic/EMT with the vollies. Most of the vollies were EMTs at the service although there was one who was a fulltime nurse (RN/Paramedic) and rode out to keep up her Paramedic skills. The reason that it was my favorite job was not because it was a paid/vollie service but that we had a medical director who was excellent and knew his medics well, we enjoyed progressive protocols, had a great schedule, pay and benefits. We also had an in-house CE program as well.

I had been a vollie for over 5 years before I became a fulltime paid Paramedic. Some of the paid staff resented the vollies but I had no problem with them for obvious reasons.

I volunteered for 11 years for a service that started as a 100% volunteer service a little over 30 years ago and have had paid medics the last few years. It was still 100% volunteer when I started. Many times then my vollie partners and I would stay at my apartment with the ambulance and I would prepare a fantastic meal for the crew. I also ran every Thursday from work and my partner worked in the same building and we had permission from management to run on Thursdays. The initial meetings to start the service took place where I worked and many in that particular community who volunteered worked in the same place. Those were the days.

Later on I still vollied (less frequent when I chose EMS as a career) and ran with a paid partner who had been my regular partner at the nearby fully paid service. Interesting huh? I lived in an apartment complex located behind the building and had a response vehicle at my apartment. After I moved, I stayed at the station. The service is now almost 100% paid staff. The paid staff resented the vollies and most believed that vollies keep the pay scale down overall for EMS. I am thankful that I volunteered. I paid for my initial EMT but was reimbursed for it once I started volunteering after I received my certification. I was reimbursed for my EMT-I certification and the service paid for my Paramedic training as well. I received free ACLS, BTLS, PALS, PEPP and the Street Level Airway Management (SLAM) course. They were even willing to loan me a textbook for Paramedic so I would not have to buy one. I bought the book because I wanted one of my own to mark in. Total cost for my Paramedic education: $48.00 Experience...priceless.

Thanks for the stroll down memory lane

[weasel 108]

My main full time EMS job ,we are an all career service with 1 volley EMT in the whole dept.( a captain :roll: we keep this volley for nostalgie. I'M KIDDING ) At my other full time gig,we have maybe 5-10 volleys that still ride the ambulances and 4 volleys that are the exec board,the rest are career.

[gods_medic]

8) The county where I volunteer at covers about 8 to 9 small towns with only 2 paid crews from 6am till 6pm.

From 6pm till 6am is strictly volunteer status. There are EMS stations in 6 out of the 9 towns.

The volunteers that live in the towns they run in must have a response time of at least 5 minutes to the station.

The rest of us must stay at the EMS station for the duration of our shifts. Volunteers get paid per call according to their cert levels.

Let's be proffessional about our duties and responsibilities as EMS techs. The lives of the people in our communities are counting on us.

Your brother in EMS,

gods_medic :wink: