JB Rotten

I was quite sure I was doing the right thing by asking for advice to help me better myself. I don't do this for fun or glory like several vollies do, and if I can gain the knowlege to at bare minimum be the one to know exactly what to do, be it calling for the Air Cav. or a rapid package and transport, so it isn't left up to the chest thumping supermen don't kill one of my friends. If I am able to be the level headed knowlegeable member of something that should not be (but is) and not have a snot nosed 18 year old (with enough blue lights on his car to land planes at a major airstrip) thinking that his meager 120 hours of learning makes him a lifesaver I think that I am doing something better. Feel free to set up shop here, as long as you afford me the same respect and courtesy that we do the local Flight Medics(60 miles away) when we know we are out of our league. We are not a "gung ho super crew", we know well and full that we are nothing more than a big box of bandaids with a great supply of oxygen. I never ever hesitate to call for MedStar for our serious calls. 90% of the time we are nothing more than a taxi with pretty little flashing lights, and the other 10% we call for the people with the training and tools needed to provide for the PT. You do the same for me in HVAC and you can move in tomorrow. Change the filters and clean the dust out of the system for free all you want, but when it is truly broken I can show up and fix it. As I stated earlier we have tried at the city level to get it changed, no dice. We don't respond to pages, other vollie EMS from neighboring towns paged to handle call. The county has trouble funding LE and could care less about EMS education level problems, the county hospital is manned by EMT's who complain about being on call and at times never show up. My unit has been paged out to handle calls for them because they didn't have anybody willing to work that shift.(these people are paid by the way, and are all EMT-B's) Honestly I would love for a full time paid "professional" EMS unit to be set up here. I could focus on my work and let somebody else haul all of the people I know to the hospital, or stand there and comfort the family of my friend while waiting for the coroner to arrive. If I lived in a bigger city I would have a very hard time deciding between EMS or HVAC as a profession. Both are very challenging and make you learn every day. A mistake in either could very easily cost somebody their life. HVAC has the potential for causing a greater loss of life, but that is another subject altogether. I honestly don't do this for fun or as a hobby. I am trying to get it changed, but it takes time and I cannot justify leaving everybody in this little town flopping like fish out of water until it gets changed. I want to be the best possible provider for these people that I can until it is changed. If I am wrong in this desire, I guess I should just become one of the vollie sheeple that everyone loves to hate and do it to make myself feel like a hero. Thanks for your honesty Dustdevil.

It amazes me that when the word volunteer is uttered the "professionals" in the EMS community act like gang members towards a rival in their turf. Do you all feel that a member of the Military Reserves or National Guard aren't as important or capable as the Regular Military? Is EMS nothing more than a paycheck, or is it still meant to offer aid to those in need? We have basically gone "on strike" and demanded that we receive pay for being on call, and refused to go by not answering the pages. The solution, page out another town and have their volunteer squad take care of the PT. In a town of 400 nestled neatly in a county of 10,000 surrounded by other towns who have volunteer departments how do we make a stand? These other towns refuse to give up their services and man their crews with retirees who have nothing better to do. I can't change it, I have tried. I aksed a simple serious question about keeping my skills up with a low volume of calls, yet very few of the replies even came close to touching the subject, all I received is a load of BS slamming me for something I have no control of. Thank you for the link spenac.

Wow yet again the mere mention of volunteer has awakened the angry beast! Maybe I should have put a few more things into perspective, and given a concise SITREP for my area. I live in a county which covers 2,340 sq miles with a population base of just over 10,000. We aren't a completely "free vollie" department since we do get paid for the calls we run, we just do not have a shifts or a set schedule. Every community which has opted to not have a "vollie" EMS now relies on BLS from the county hospital, which is more than 30 mins away. They are a paid unit that operates as a "vollie" unit, so there is always a waiting period for full manning which only increases the wait time. There are accidents caused around here all the time by people bringing their loved one to the hospital, I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when 30 minutes one way is doubled you can get them there in half the time. With such a small population there are a small number of calls, so no full time ALS or BLS companies are willing to "lose money" to provide service here. It was tried in the past and when people started dying while waiting for a crew to arrive the volunteer system was again the only option. But I guess you all are right, it is better for me to let people die because no "professional" service wants to work in this area. How could I ever be so blind to the obvious answer?

We only get paid when we go on a run. Budgeting doesn't allow for full time $. There aren't any full time agencies within 60 miles of me.

If I become a full time EMT in the the "big" city I will not be here to provide for my community. I am 60 miles from full time paid EMS. There are only 6 of us who are EMT's here, and 3 are working out of the area during the day. I am hoping to go to classes to become an EMT-I, and eventually become a Paramed, but that won't be for a few years at best.

I am in a very rural area with next to no calls. I am a vollie as is the rest of our EMS. I have been on 11 calls since January and find it very difficult to be 100%. We train monthly, but it just isn't the same as an actual call. I work in HVAC full time and EMS when needed. There is no way to earn a living doing EMS as a volunteer, and finding a paying EMS job elsewhere defeats the purpose of being an EMT in this area. Anybody have any suggestions? Any help is appreciated.