EMT Clothing

[Just Plain Ruff]

NREMT basic, you are not reading my post. I have always said in my posts that you carry what works for you. I've never called anyone a whacker on this forum and I have never said it's my way or the highway.

Plus, I hope that you are not thinking I'm calling you a whacker when you carry that trauma pack, if you use it on a call and regularly use it then thats a good thing. As long as you use it. A carefully packed trauma pack is different than what we are talking about here.

I said specifically that you carry what works for you. You need to re-read my posts.

I've always said that if you can't remember the last time you used something you carry then it might be time to re-evaluate the usefulness of that piece of equipment that you are carrying.

If you have every size hemostat imaginable which in the past I did, then you could be considered a whacker. But I reiterate - you carry what you feel you need to carry and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I'm speaking from personal experience on the amount of stuff I carried and I realized that I didn't need half of what I carried. I've never told anyone what to carry and what not to carry, just the fact that if you carry it just to look cool and have it for that one in a million call then you need to re-evaluate what you are carrying.

I have to wonder if you wonder who appointed me the Whacker-sheriff, who appointed you to criticise my opinion. It's my opinion and you have yours and I have mine. Do the job you are hired for, do it well and don't let anyone tell you it's wrong. you know opinions are like aholes- everyone has them. You have yours and I have mine. I'm just speaking from 20 years of experience what has worked for me and what i've seen.

So please stop turning my words around.

[Dustdevil]

[stream:f54d0aebc3]http://www.destgulch.com/movies/luke/luke18.wav[/stream:f54d0aebc3]

You're wasting your time, Ruff.

What we've got here is... FAILURE to communicate. Some men you just can't reach.

This guy has some serious self confidence issues, and is bound and determined to make himself into a victim in every forum.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'm not gonna touch that one Dust with a ten foot center punch.

[mtnsldr]

Ruff,

We do use a saw. But in order to use the saw, you have to be able to get it through the window. A lot of techniques can be used to get that saw in the window, and one of them would be a punch. Another, as I saw effectively used was the sledge, although not the most delicate of tools...

Thats what it all comes down to, techniques, gentlemen.

[Just Plain Ruff]

thanks for that clarification --- I thought that the saw could be used to get a hole in the window. It's been a long time since the extrication class I must have missed that part. I've not done extrication, I've always let the firefighters do it

[mtnsldr]

Well, we're a small town. It may not be the latest in technology... 8-[

Hell, our chimmney fire tool is a steel weight on a chain...

[Mastabattas]

Say hello to my new signature line!

Dust...in his truest style!

Hey sweetie, why don't we see you on the other site yet?! Missing ya!!

[Scaramedic]

I think the difference in opinion is related to where the posters practice. It seems to me that those of us who work in large urban areas have a different outlook than those who work in rural areas. Let me lay this out for you.

Urban EMS-Tend to have more runs per shift, my record is 19 runs and 23 patients transported in a 16 hour shift. The calls also tend to be all over the map as far as type of calls. First call could be a simple NH chest pain, but the next call could be a nice hike up four flights of stairs of a nice new apartment building or a ratty old flop house. You can go from a simple MVA to dangerous scene in a project with multiple gunshot patients. The key to the urban EMS calls are diversity, no one type of run is more common than any other. Also urban EMS tends to work with Urban Fire Departments and the role of each agency is known and well planned. So urban EMS workers tend to carry as little equipment as necessary to do the job. With FD working with us we have multiple personnel on scene, each person carrying the equipment they need for their part of the job. In an MVA fire takes care of extrication issues, EMS takes care of the patient.

Rural EMS-Tend to be a bunch of backwoods hillbillies with only four teeth. :evil4:

Just kidding. Rural EMS tends to have fewer resources at hand; therefore EMS personnel have to multi-task. With less population they tend to run less calls but those calls can be more serious secondary to response and transport times. With this lack of resources and longer call times they feel the need for more equipment tan those of us in the cities. Hence the "Randy Rescue" syndrome seen so many times in rural EMS. Many times the equipment carried is needed in farm and timber land America. Call volume also affects what they carry, when running one or two calls a day it’s easy to carry 20lbs of equipment on your belt. Unlike their city cousins they do not have to carry equipment up six flights of stairs on a regular basis. When it comes to MVA's many times they are dual role both Fire and EMS. Lets be honest this whole debate is based on equipment needed in an MVA, window punches anyone?

In conclusion many of the feelings expressed can be traced back to where the posters work.

But, having made the above arguments I must add that experience dictates what we carry also. The older more experienced providers who have ran thousands of calls a year for 10 years is different than those who are just getting into the job and have only ran a hundred calls in their career. A word to the youngsters, listen to the Rids, Dust and Ruffs of the world, they have been there & done that before you were even born.

Peace,

Marty

:bigsmurf:

P.S.

...i once pulled a 24 and went of 5 mvas and needed that punch every damn time.

Ahem... :jerk:

[becksdad]

Ya had me ROLLING with the rural EMS crack!!!LMFAO!!!

[MrsRankin0510]

This is a prime example of why basics should not be given "more protocol" and "more skills." They tend to be too eager to utilise their shiny new tool when it is not indicated.

HOLD IT. Now I've heard a lot of generalizations in the last few days since poor Mntsldr asked where to buy pants. It's one thing being painted as a psycho killer or have my words turned into a chovanistic joke, but I'm not cool with anyone talking poorly of EMT-B's.

I know some of you have been medics since saline came in glass bottles, but that doesn't negate the value of us "new kids" with less experience or lower certifications. Remember you were not born a medic, and at one time you had to work hard and get your training just like us. You obviousley don't work in a tiered response system. I may be an EMT-B still working in medic school, but that doesn't automatically give me a disregard for my patient's safety for the sake of something shiny, nor does it mean I don't know my contraindications. In two years time I'll be a medic too, and when that time comes I'll need the EMT-B's just as much as the medics need me now. If one of my medics treated the B's with that kind of condescending attitude they wouldn't be medics in this city long, because we have a lot of very accomplished B's with just as much experience as you who have earned some high positions.

As a B and a new kid I expect to be corrected when I'm wrong and be told things I didn't know before. But I ALSO expect to be respected as a member of the EMS team. I wake up just as early and work the same hours, and go to school, and work my clinical shifts in the hospital, and pay a ridiculous amount of money for my daughter to go to daycare while I do this all for the goal of being a professional, competant provider and confident in my skills. A specific letter in my current cert does not make me a moron or anything less of a healthcare professional.

If you simply use your knowledge and experience to puff yourself up then you're useless to the rest of us.