How to improve EMS professionalism

[Michael]

I am an animal trainer....

As an animal trainer, I guarantee I could set up a situation to remove the reinforcement for this behavior and redirect it to a productive behavior in less than 15 minutes...It's not rocket science. Find the reinforcer, remove it, and apply a new reinforcer to a productive, but incompatible, behavior. No labels attached, no stereotypes applied, not paper work to do or explain later

[web:9c302ef88b]http://cartoons-comics.deepthi.com/images/Dennis_The_Menace.jpg[/web:9c302ef88b]

[becksdad]

Laura Anne - Nobody wants you to go away and not post again. Other threads that you have posted in demonstrate that you are intelligent, professional, thoughtful, with the best interests of EMS as a profession at heart.

There are quite a few of us who have been argued with, ridiculed, beaten and eaten here at the City. We disagree, sometimes vehemently, with each other. For some reason, those of us within EMS seem to have cannabalistic tendencies. That is for each individual to examine and decide how far to take it or how much to control it.

Nobody wants Shira to go away, either. Look, as with all the other degenerative arguments here, we got angry, we hurt some feelings, we offer some olive branches. Then we have a little fun, and just move past it. Fuggedabout it!!! EVERYBODY!

K?

[DwayneEMTP]

I am honest.

I admitted to being wrong.

I am unprofessional. :roll:

I won't post again.

Sorry for speaking my mind.

Even to you, Shira.

Wow...When it was Shira taking a beating you had plenty to say.

I'm with the others, I will be sorry to miss your future posts...But I'm even more sorry to see that you didn't have the backbone for honest debate...

Good luck to you.

Dwayne

Edited for spelling.

[PRPGfirerescuetech]

I'm with the others, I will be sorry to miss your future posts...But I'm even more sorry to see that you didn't have the backbone for honest debate...

Unfortunately, there was no honest debate in this thread.

Poster #1 posted something we all thought unprofessional, called the person on it, and everyone agreed.

Poster #2 Didnt like what poster #1 said, and tore up poster #1, and the same people agreed.

So in reality, we have 4 or 5 people with opinions and about 50 cattle.

Im failing to see the true debate.

[DwayneEMTP]

Unfortunately, there was no honest debate in this thread.

Poster #1 posted something we all thought unprofessional, called the person on it, and everyone agreed.

Poster #2 Didnt like what poster #1 said, and tore up poster #1, and the same people agreed.

So in reality, we have 4 or 5 people with opinions and about 50 cattle.

Im failing to see the true debate.

Shoot PRPG, I'm guessing you know better than most that that's the way these things always go...There are always the core, with opinions and the gnads to express them, those without opinions, but willing to adopt those of the posters that appear to be "winning", and of course some that I have trouble telling what they are talking about. The greatest loss I think are those willing to express their opinion...but then unwilling to defend it...

I was kind of getting excited that we seemed to have cornered at least a partial definition of professionalism (I can be in pajamas and still be professional, I can be rude yet still be a professional, etc, etc.) I was curious to see how the parties would explain/defend or review their opinions...That is what I meant by the comment above.

Have a good one buddy...sorry if your lady was offended....

Dwayne

[Asysin2leads]

Affirmed:

1. Wearing pajamas is not professional.

2. Being rude is not professional.

Yeeeeehah... we're really making headway now! Hee hee, no wonder EMS is in such disrepair.

[DwayneEMTP]

Affirmed:

1. Wearing pajamas is not professional.

2. Being rude is not professional.

Yeeeeehah... we're really making headway now! Hee hee, no wonder EMS is in such disrepair.

I wan't looking so much at defining those two things as professional or not as I was curious of the thought process of those that chose to defend them. It certainly seems to be a common enough thought process in EMS.

It seems that if we can figure out what causes those that defend these practices to do so, then maybe the issue can be moved a bit...We haven't even defined the problem really. Being unprofessional isn't the problem. Wanting to be unprofessional, or not wanting to be professional is the problem. The act is an effect of the mind-set. It's really not more difficult to be professional, so why do people choose not to do so? (Find the reinforcers, remove them, reapply them to a productive, yet incompatible behavior) (Yeah, I know, this is going to start a whole nother thread)

Obviously what's being done now isn't working. Continuing to shout " We need to be better!" seems to make some feel better, but it doesn't seem to be moving the issue any...

Anyhow, just my thoughts...

Dwayne

[Michael]

1. Wearing pajamas is not professional.

2. Being rude is not professional.

curious of the thought process of those that chose to defend them

It's really not more difficult to be professional, so why do people choose not to do so?

Maybe not difficult in the sense of complicated, but perhaps sometimes difficult in the sense of requiring a painful renunciation of cruder comforts.

Professionalism seems to include a willingness to be held accountable for the effects of all one's actions on all one's surroundings. Professional satisfaction derives from benefitting others lastingly, a satisfaction that must outweigh the more immediate gratifications the practitioner would gain from acting impulsively.

Choosing to present a uniformly reassuring appearance (that's why it's called a "uniform") to all patients, and choosing to address all colleagues respectfully, invite confidence because these formal, surface features are the first, and sometimes the only, visible signs that the agent meeting you has acquired the taste for self-discipline required to make more consequential judgments wisely.

Public appearances in nightwear and other (eg, verbal) rudeness obscure whatever expertise they may contain, and thus further burden those who are forced to rely on that expertise. Gratuitously obscuring other people's view of your competence is not only unprofessional, it's stooooooooooooooopid. (Sorry.)

[MTNMANMEDIC]

Improve hiring standards for paramedics.

Improve education for paramedics.

Make everyone a paramedic.

Banish volunteers.

Pay us more.

The tones sound for a chest pains call.

There is no response.

No ambulance on the road, no one coming to the callers aid.

Why ?

We in this rural county I call home can not afford to pay for a 24 hour paramedic, we don't even pay for a dog catcher on a 24 hour basis.

This response is typical of a medic.

They want 24 hour ALS and then complain when the only calls they get are for hang nails and nosebleeds and wish they had a basic crew to pass it off to.

The number one thing that would benefit EMS in this country is putting a stop to canabilism.

EMS is the only field I know that practices the systematic eating of it's young and then complains about the lack of dedicated providers available to obtain higher education.

Volunteers laid the foundation of the modern day EMS service in this country, we never said we could do it all.

Another point for improvement would be across the board standards and teaching for everyone.

In my state it differs by agency and area as to what a basic and a paramedic does, one area to the north of me won't allow a medic to do much without calling in first, a county to the west will allow EMT-B's to start lines and give basic meds.

The hospitals find this very confusing, they never know what kind of treatment the pt. received in the field.

Better pay ?

I can't argue there but with better pay come better expectations.

[Asysin2leads]

You go into the hospital. There isn't anyone there. There's no one to take your blood pressure. There is no one to assess or treat you. I can come up with catastrophe situations for anything, it doesn't change the facts. Here's one I thought of though, how about government tax incentives to hospitals if they provide professional ALS to underserved areas?

Your response is typical of a volunteer EMT, self important to the point of lunacy. I'll tell you one thing that doesn't help EMS, its the good ol' boy network you have going where you only allow your drinking buddies and their families into slots that are open, rather than evaluating and employing the best candidate. Yes, certain times it is frustrating where you, as an ALS unit, gets tied up with a BS call, but it happens to the best of us. I don't think some grouching on the medics part is really a good excuse to not have ALS coverage. That would be like saying "We don't need professional police services, they just complain when they have to take a noise complaint." Yeah, no one got into these fields to do a BS call or take a noise complaint, but it is part of the job, so that's that.

You might want to check on those EMT-B's starting lines. We've already exposed one person on here talking about people doing something that's actually kinda against the law and stuff, so be careful who you might be blowing the whistle on. EMT-B's shouldn't be starting IV's.