Help Needed; EMT-B and above: BOY SCOUT CAMP

[Eydawn]

Hey, y'all. As a lot of you know I work out at a boy scout camp in Elbert County, CO; The name of the camp is

Peaceful Valley Boy Scout Ranch, run by Denver Area Council Boy Scouts of America. We're currently short 2-3

medics. So far, they've got me and a noob both in other positions split shifting coverage on the cub scout side,

but they've yet to find our head medic or medics for either of the other two camps.

Pay is terrible, but includes room and board and is negotiable at this point because if we don't have medics, camp

doesn't open. If you're out of state, at this point Council will probably pay for your airfare. Here's what you need

if you're interested in this:

1: Must like children and have a clean record

2: Must be EMT-B or above (they're looking desperately for an RN or Paramedic, but will take what they can get)

3: Must be able to tolerate dust and being near horses; must be able to negotiate moderately rocky/tricky terrain.

4: Must be able to work from June 1 through July 29th.

5: Must be able to tolerate having one day off and one night off per week until camp close.

I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, I'm sure Admin will put it where it belongs. If anyone is interested in this,

please PM me and I will get you further contact information.

Help me out here guys! If you can't do it, ask around, especially if you're in Colorado.

Wendy

CO EMT-B

MI EMT-B

[ptemt]

Hi Wendy,

You might try recruiting at HealthONE in Englewood for recent EMT-B graduates or medics. Six out of seven days for two months could be a hard sell for someone currently employed with a family. There were lots of young folk in the program when I went through two years ago that I suspect would have jumped at the chance. Put the job in the EMT jobs link above.

Good luck!

[Eydawn]

Hey, thanks for the suggestion. Yes, this definitely lends itself to the younger folks w/o a lot of responsibilities, haha!

Wendy

CO EMT-B

MI EMT-B

[Dustdevil]

I wish I had money for every inexperienced Basic I ever warned not to do this, who later ended up having a horrible experience.

If you do this, I'm warning you, you are going to be very, very tempted to exceed your practical limits and the limits of your education. Not only tempted, but expected. If you don't, they'll think you are worthless (which you probably are), and if you do, there is a very high probability that you will screw up and end up with a nightmare of a memory, if not worse. Maybe one in fifty patients you see will have an injury or complaint that was actually covered in EMT school. The rest will be things you were never trained to deal with on any level, except to transport them. And many of these camps have a caniptian fit if you call an ambulance or transport for anything that isn't immediately life threatening. And, of course, there will be other people on the camp who are higher educated than you, and they will know that you are out of your league. You would be amazed how many Assistant Scout Masters and dads are paramedics and physicians, and you'll never know who they are.

The good news is that it is a lot easier gig at a Boy Scout camp than at a predominantly girls camp or heavily mixed camp. Scout troops are pretty self-sufficient units. They take care of business in their own unit and don't go to the clinic a lot. At non-scout camps, you don't have so many people with first aid skills, so you are a lot busier in the clinic. And, of course, girls just go to the clinic a lot more than boys in general. I've worked Boy Scout camps where there were a thousand boys and maybe 5 or 6 girls and women in residence (usually wives and sisters who live there to work the summer), and each day my FAR will consistently show more girls names than boys names. It's amazing.

You're genuinely appreciated by most of the staff at Boy Scout camps. Many go out of their way to welcome you and make you feel a part of the big picture, instead of isolating you in that lonely little building on the hill. You build a comeraderie and friendship with people that you will remember for a lifetime. But there seems to always be one or two people on staff who have a problem with you for some reason, will try and tell you how to do your job, and will be constantly complaining about you. And sometimes, they win. Politics fester when you are secluded for three months, and sometimes it turns into a whole "Lord Of The Flies" thing.

The one thing I cannot overemphasise is that, as an EMT-B, you simply aren't trained, educated, or experienced in the illnesses and injuries you will be expected to deal with. Not in the least. And you can't be a protocol monkey out there and expect to get by either. If you go transporting every abdominal pain that walks in the door everymorning, they'll have your arse out of there quickly. Conversely, if you sit on an appendicitis, or a sore throat that turns out to be a communicable disease, you just bought the Council a lawsuit and probably lost your certification forever. You can bet the Council will say the buck stops with you. So, how do you know the difference? You don't, and that is my point.

Best of luck to all who work the camps. You are definitely needed. But really, they need you AND so much more.

[Timmy]

I had the pleasure of working 3 of 11 days at a scout camp with 25,000 of them in stinking hot, dust filled, wind blowing hell hole.! Never again lol… But I must admit I learned a heap and it was a pretty cool experience although I must backup dust, most of the presentations you see you really can’t do much for eg. Fungal injections, gastro, homesickness, coughs and cold, cell phone sickness, computer sickness, pains and aches so on and so forth… Also infection control was a massive issue, gastro was pretty much an emergency and the patients got isolated immediately, we went though thousands of liters of anti bacterial gel, we don’t need 25,000 kids with gastro!! Although on parents and friends day it was emergency after emergency after emergency for our 12 hour shift lol

We had 6 first aid posts an ambulance station and a fully equipped hospital onsite (the whole area had been set up like a mini city) so if anything was above our or the first aiders capability we organized a referral then took them over to see the docs.

Good luck with it anyway!

[Eydawn]

Thanks, Dust. Obviously you can't maintain and treat everything. That's what Memorial and Parker hospitals are for and that's why we have strict rules about handoffs to helos or the local BLS crew when stuff exceeds our capabilities.

And pardon me if I'm wrong, but don't you remember the nurse I told you about that took the job last year? The cert, education or license behind your name means very little. You have to prove yourself capable. I'm sure we'll find people capable of stabilization and acute treatment, just like we need.

Good to see you're still goin' over there in the sandbox!

Wendy

CO EMT-B

MI EMT-B