Equivalentrade Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 Hey guys, its been a while Ive been busy doing ride times/clinicals and studying. Some foreward information, I have currently done Three ride times (12 hour shifts) with my local Fire Department as an EMT-B Student. They were strict, well planned, and very proffesional. I learned alot and got to do alot. I can say I was very impressed. However, we are told that it was mandatory to at least ride with ONE private company. Since everyone does AMR, I decided to try another local company that I will not name because I am about to defame it. Today I had that ride time, with a company im going to label ACME so as not to reveal the true name. Just like my FR rides, it was a 12 hour shift. I showed up to the station nice and prompt, with everything pressed and all my items in order. The EMTs/medics that were at the station were all in what I can only describe as untidy attire. Shirts half tucked in, unshaven, wrinkled shirts, and worst of all, mouths like a bunch of sailors(even in front of patients). Even the guy in charge was cursing up a storm as they all sat around and talked about video games... The day continued to be one transport call after another. I was not guided at all to do anything, and thier PT care was less then BLS would provide even though it was a class 2 ALS vehicle. We would simply pick up a PT, and transport. No Pulse Ox, No EKG, not even O2 for heart PT's, nothing... We even picked up a CHF transport, and didnt even hook the women up to a god damn pulse ox! I am just a student so I couldnt scream at the medic in charge. It was frustrating. Yes the PTs seemed stable. BUT most of the transports took a good 15-30 min across the entire city, in which case some of them could have deteriorated and such. Some kind of diagnostic equipment should have been used! I personally have no interest in Fire academy or joining fire rescue, and after seeing how this private company worked.. All I can say is that I think im going to be going into LPN next term when I finish this BLS cert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridryder 911 Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 Sorry, you had a lousy clinical but welcome to EMS. I have yet to meet an EMS crew that were not cursing...yes, they probably did not walk around with shirt tails tucked in at the base (home) all day, hopefully they presented themselves better in public.. For as not paying much attention to you.... remember they probably see at least 6 or 7 students a week never to see them again... sorry basic clinicals are like ride-a-longs. Yes, they definitely should had performed better assessment and care.. period. But, if that is all it took to get you to leave EMS, then you are in for a surprise when you enter an LPN program (especially when they do not usually even understand how a pulse ox work) ... you will see much worse in your career. R/r 911 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emtkelley Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 Please don't be so quick to make a decision about being a medic. Look at it this way, the crew you did ride time with at ACME was a perfect example of the kind of medic you DON'T want to be! Blow it off and go on and stick with medics you can learn from. Stick closely by them and watch and learn. I would also be reporting that crew to your instructor on behalf of all the patients they MIGHT kill in the future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asysin2leads Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 Welcome to our fight for excellence in prehospital care. Always glad to have new member. Its a dirty war and no one will like you for engaging in it, but its a good fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustdevil Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 Just for clarification, was this "Acme" service an actual EMS entity, or just a transfer service? Not everything with a Star Of Life and paramedics on it is EMS. And if you are expecting professionalism out of horizontal taxi drivers, you're going to be sadly disappointed. These guys have a chip on their shoulders because they bought the big lie. They went to school to be paramedics, and now the only job they can get is driving a transfer ambo. So they cop an attitude and revert to being the slugs they always were, which is probably why they couldn't get or keep a real EMS job in the first place. If you think about it, you probably learned more about EMS (specifically, what it should NOT be) from that shift than you did in your three rides with the firemonkeys. That's a good thing. And I compliment you on recognising that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Equivalentrade Posted October 12, 2006 Author Share Posted October 12, 2006 Wow good feed back. I didnt think about looking at this from the point of view of "what not to do." The company itself is AMRs rival where I am. Im not wondering, is there a "most" proffessional company to work for? This one is obviously one I am 100% going to avoid working for. I keep hearing that AMR is the largest company.. Does that mean they will be the most proffessional? This was a good lesson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stretcher monkey Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 Wow good feed back. I didnt think about looking at this from the point of view of "what not to do." The company itself is AMRs rival where I am. Im not wondering, is there a "most" proffessional company to work for? This one is obviously one I am 100% going to avoid working for. I keep hearing that AMR is the largest company.. Does that mean they will be the most proffessional? This was a good lesson. Just remember all experience is good experience if you use it in the right way. At least you now know what you don't want to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medic001918 Posted October 12, 2006 Share Posted October 12, 2006 A companies size is not a symbol of professionalism directly. That professionalism required comes from management, and more important the employees themselves. I work for AMR in Hartford, CT and we are expected to be dressed appropriately for any duty shift and we are expected to provide quality care to our patients. In a large company, it might be a little bit easier for someone who's lazy to get away with more simply because there are too many people to keep close tabs on. At least that's how it was when I was in the city. I am still employed by AMR but am dedicated to a volunteer service that has a contract with AMR to provide them with a paramedic. In making this move, I've noticed the service tends to keep tighter tabs on your patient care and interaction with others. I'm also sure that this has to do with the fact that there are only 4 full time medics dedicated to a contract town so it's easier to keep tighter control on us and the responsibility gets shared between AMR (in this case) and the service we ride with. I also work for a smaller city service that is a smaller group of providers and they hold us to a much higher standard. QI plays a major role with this service and they track just about every statistic that you can imagine. It's kind of nice to be held to a higher standard, and forces you not to fall into a pattern of laziness. Any service you ride with or work for is going to have pros and cons. And they will have great providers and sub par providers. It's the nature of not just this profession, but any profession as a whole. It's up to you find who you look up to and respect and what you pull from every interaction with another provider. This applies if you're trying to pick up a new idea that you like, or seeing someone do something that you don't like. You can learn from nearly every provider. If one experience with one crew from one service is enough to push you away from EMS as a whole, that's your own personal decision. To me if you're that easily strayed from your initial desire to be in EMS, then maybe your desires were misplaced in the first place. That is being said not to be harshly critical or negative, but you're forming an opinion of a profession based on one negative experience when you've already had what has been described as a positive one to offset it. Also as Rid had mentioned, don't think you won't see some horrible patient care as an LPN. They're not exempt from the same attitudes and behaviors that you've already described. Many LPN's that I have spoken with don't appear to have a solid grasp of the how's and why's of patient care. On more than one occasion I have taken time to explain a disease process or an intervention. Any healthcare provider who will consistently put a patient on a non rebreather at 6LPM because their protocol calls for oxygen in certain situations hardly has a firm grasp of how their equipment and interventions are supposed to work. There are good and bad in the nursing field as well (RN, LPN, etc). Good luck, Shane NREMT-P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnthonyM83 Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 My ride-along with FD involved a medic cursing and making fun of his patient for complaining of severe chest pains, imitating his voice (in front of him). No monitor hookup. Homless guy was post-ictal with O2 sat in 60s and totally out of it...witheld oxygen and yelled and cursed and neck pinched him telling him to say his "F'ing name" trying to get him to become A&Ox4 before arriving at the hospital so he wouldn't have to get an IV going...i felt i was at my last job interrogating someone...after 5 minutes or so I finally worked up the guts to recommend O2 again, put some on, and his sat when up to 90s and suddently became completely oriented. A little more yelling at some non-english speaking transient and interrogating him on if he loved our country and if he wanted to be deported...a little pushing morphine all at once...little more holding back on O2 But I realized that's not the norm...and I'm working at a great ambulance company now. Things are very different and the FD medics are nothing like that ride-along. Find a work environment that's promotes the kind of style you want to be...best way to do that is to ask around at different places and talk to their employees...if you're looking to get hired somewhere that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becksdad Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 It is very sad that both you guys had such horrible experiences with such horrible "medics". I use the term "medic" here loosely, because what you describe is not fit for any job description. I echo Dust's sentiment in congratulating you on recognizing such piss poor care. Also echo the thought that these are examples of what NOT to do. It can be a strange situation as a student rider to witness such a barbaric scene. Student or not, I would be reporting these a$$holes to anyone who would listen, from my school's instructors to their agency administration. In written detail. They have no business touching a patient. Please, make a decision now to ALWAYS provide the highest level of care that you can for any patient. Treat every patient with respect. We are not judges and juries, we are providers of medical care. And even if you judge patients unfavorably in your own mind, you can still treat them with proper medical care and respect for the 15 minutes you are with them. Good luck to both of you! Just the fact that you recognize substandard care and want to strive for better reflects favorably on both of you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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