Just Plain Ruff

Good to have you here. step on up to the plate and jump right in with both feet.

Your line officer talks behind your back and frequently mentions you. You realize that's a hostile work environment issue there and should NOT be tolerated. It's not the good old boy network anymore, it's about being professional and your line officer is being unprofessional. But it's up to you how you want to deal with things in your station but I for one would not tolerate it.

What have you done so far? What kind of EMS related business? How much money do you have available to start your business? Let's start there!

ok, how long do you have till you no longer have a chance to take the test? Is there a time cut off for you? If you do not have a drop dead date then this is what I would do if I was in your shoes. 1. I would first take off at least two weeks from doing anything school related. Dont' open a book, don't read a journal don't do anything EMT/EMS related. This might just break the cycle or log jam in your head. Don't even look at facebook posts relating to EMS. 2. Take each of your test results and look at what you failed - is there a pattern? Or did you fail at different things each different test. Now take what you passed and do a cursory review of those items, make sure you know those well. If you consistently passed those items, then you should(I say should but you never know) be good there. Now take what you failed, did you fail one category or multiple. Tackle each category until you know it backwards and forwards. On the 24 hours prior to the test, do not open a book, do not study, don't think you can add one more thing to your knowledge base, take that day off and just chill with friends, go to a movie, have a great dinner but don't get drunk if you drink. Just relax the day before the test. One caveat, if you consistently failed multiple categories each test, then there may be more to your knowledgebase than you want to admit to. Not saying this to bust your chops but most people who fail the test multiple times fail it for two reasons I've found. One, critical test anxiety and they just freak out on the test and do horribly OR - their knowledge base is horrible and they didn't learn the basics of what they should have. NOT saying this is you, but here is one suggestion if you fall into the category of consistently failing multiple categories on the test Look into a EMT refresher class prior to taking the test for the final time. It might be the best money you ever spent. Just some friendly advice. Not saying this applies to your situation but it might.

Wondering where the OP went?????

I appreciate the kind words my friend. One of the interviews is with a service I used to work for when I worked as a medic when I left EMS full time to go PRN in 2008 and the two people interviewing me are are still friends. I was also told that there is opportunities for the OR rotation for Intubation practice. My understanding is also that there is about a 2-3 week period of working as a 3 person crew before getting out there, which I think would be approximately a 2 month period for PRN staff. But not sure. I'll know more about this all after my interview.

nope, I'm back in Missouri, we moved back in march of 15

So I have the opportunity to interview for 2 different PRN paramedic jobs. I've been out of the field for about 5 years with the exception of working PRN very sporadically off and on up to about 3 1/2 years ago and since then, not a single patient contact. So I'm feeling a bit nervous about getting back into the field. I have not lost confidence in my ability to take care of patients but what i have kind of lost confidence in are the following: 1. Airway management - been a long time since I intubated anyone. 2. RSI 0f course 3. I need to bone up on my ACLS/PALS 4. Still pretty good on Cardiology but would like to know more about 15 lead ecg's, capnography and whatever else correlates between the two. So what I come here to ask is this, what does the peanut gallery suggest that I do, if I get either one of or both the prn positions? What books are out there that I can get to read up? What websites are good and which ones to stay away from? I guess this is a start. My interviews are next week. Tuesday and Thursday. Ruff

Yeah, Walle, I think you might be out of luck, but then again, I just went to a seminar and one of the guys key take aways from this seminar was this. When you are told "you can't do that" you just respond with "Yes I can" and this might be one of them. Just keep trying. Keep on the phone with the Dept of EMS or whoever you talk to until you get to the person who gets paid the most or has the biggest title. And yes, we do feel your pain. but what I would be doing in the mean time while you are trying to get answers(probably from a bunch of yahoo's who sound like a broken record) I would be trying to get into a EMT school at least to start. The worst case scenario would be that you get your AEMT and then you have to forfeit the money you spent for the emt class.

I would continue to call the state of hawaii dept of ems and stay on them until you get an answer. YOu will eventually get someone on the phone who will be able to help you. This might be one of those situations where you will have to outlast those in power. Good luck. What you may end up having to do is go back and start at EMT in Texas which is going to suck but you should be able to breeze through it. Again, I wish you well.

I've have numerous different codes for numerous departments 10-31 We need help here 10-99 Emergency button 10-51 "Dispatch, send help" Many times our dispatch has asked what we needed help for, and we've been in the uncomfortable situation to have to tell them. The best place was a small county service where we would get on the radio and say "Unit 5 dispatch, send truck 9" and they would send the calvary. I only had to use it once but my life was in danger and the response I got was amazing. 6 local area law enforcement units and 5 others from outside counties. The guy who I was fighting for my life had a knife and was about 1 minute away from killing me. Had there not have been 2 deputies about 3 miles away from me, I probably would not be typing this today. I was the sole responder to a man down call and had no reason to believe that this guy would become violent. he was well known to us and had never been violent in the past. I was first responding solo for the EMS system that day and I'll never do it again.

Unless you are watching reruns of rescue 911 or Turdwatch.

I'm quite concerned about the statement that your instructors told you. EMT school is the basic building block of EMS and by that effect it is not a hard class. For an instructor to tell you that you aren't going to see your family over the duration of the class is troubling to say the least. The only thing I can think of that would make that statement OK is if the course was one of those EMT mill programs that churns out EMTS in 6 weeks or less. And that is a whole other discussion, medic/emt mills. But I digress, I spent 4 months in my EMT course and I was also able to complete a full semester's worth of college level (400 level) courses as well. So honestly, there should not be any students that miss out on family time, not able to work a job, and not able to have a work life balance in EMT School. If there are students like that out there, then there is something wrong with either the class they are taking or wrong with the student themself. JTEMS, if I can ask you, how long was your EMT course?

And JT I have no problem with you, none whatsoever, I just have an issue with the advice you are giving. I get the fact that you have chosen EMS as your life's calling and I get it, I was like you way back when, but your advice is based on a small smattering of time and the fact that you were presenting it initially as fact is where I had the issue. Continue doing what you are doing in your life, I'm not here to tell you any way else to do what you do with your life, but when you tell someone that EMS is now to take over priority over EVERYTHING and all else is secondary, that's bad advice. Brother, I get it, I was like you once, I hope that you will see after a year or so of experience, once you do get a girlfriend who begins to get jealous of your EMS life, you will begin to understand the EMS is not everything. That the next major EMS Call is not going to be the next awesome thing. Again, I have no issues with you, I'm sure you are a great guy, I just have issues with your advice. Please don't mistake my criticism of your advice here as a criticism towards you as a person.

JT just stop, EMT School for some is the most important thing in their life but many adults in emt school have many priorities that they have to balance on top of EMS school. Kids, husband, family, work, church, other commitments that they also have to add EMT School or medic school. You lived at home, no kids, so do you really have the perspective to say that EMS takes precedence over every other aspect of their lives like you did in a previous post? It's obvious you have drunk the Kool-aid and are now a fully devoted EMS junkie with no kids and living at home (maybe not living at home now) but others have priorities bigger than EMS that they have to juggle and they do the best they can with what they have. EMS/school does not have to be EVERYTHING and be the number one priority of someone's life, That's bad advice, especially if that person has a family and commitments that go along with keeping that family fed and supported. You wrote "I would do it. It's amazing the things I've seen. I've done CPR on a man in front of his wife and got a pulse back. I've rushed into someone's house with the fire department to pull a man out who loss consciousness making his family breakfast. It's indescribable." Have you also done CPR on a man in front of his wife and not got a pulse back, or rushed into someone's house to pull a man out who lost consciousness in front of his children and not brought him back. That's not so indescribable. Don't just give the rose colored glasses viewpoint. it sounds like I'm busting your balls here, but the advice you are giving is in my opinion(and it's just that, my opinion - like it or dont) not great advice.

Are you kidding me JT? EMS Does not come before EVERYTHING in your life. That's terrible advice. I'm sure that many parents would argue against that advice, I know I sure do. My kids would not allow me to ignore them over school. They sure as heck don't allow me to ignore them over work. School should be no different. If you are living breathing and eating EMS to the detriment of everything else in your life then that's a burn out waiting to happen. You have to have work life or school life balance or you will be a very unhappy person.

You sound like a couple of medics I have had the opportunity in the past to mentor. I'm not saying this is what happened to you but maybe your being let go and then going to work for the less than reputable company started a complacency problem or a "don't care" attitude which can happen without you seeing it or recognizing it. Crappy companies of any sort can bring that out in people. My first thought is to get your head on straight and sit down with a mentor or with the person who told you that your performance is lacking and work on a plan to improve your performance. My second suggestion is to get into a refresher course taught by a reputable company - preferably at a college level. I took a refresher taught by a guy named Bob Page a long time ago and not only did he do classroom time, we spend hours of class in scenario based instances. It was the best 400 bucks I ever spent. Next would be maybe if you can and only if you can, take some time away from the grind. If you have a 4 day weekend, spend that time away from EMS and decompress. go camping, spend sometime alone with your family or a close friend or a spousal unit. Do this for the next couple of 4 day or three days off that you have. Dont think about EMS, don't do anything but spend the time on you. Sometimes we need a RESET, a cool down and a new start and once we do that, better things start to happen. If you need someone to chat with, pm me. I've been in your shoes.

Rural services and small services are more than likely going to want to know how you will fit with a small staff. They will ask questions accordingly. Large services are going to ask questions as to how you will fit within a larger organization. High performance services where they are doing cutting edge treatments will ask different questions than others. One service I applied for used a psychological approach and had a well known psychologist run part of the interviews - he did behavioural type scenarios - what would you do if confronted by this situation Others did the written test, then skills test, then ACLS test and then a panel interview, and then finally a sort of a group interview with 5 of your fellow applicants in the same room (that was the toughest job process I've ever gone through). but I got the job. And finally, I had one where I interviewed with the supervisor, he asked a bunch of what if questions and then asked me about myself. I answered truthfully and I got the job. So you can see, it's all over the map.

Good to be excited, and scared, but don't be too scared. Emt is your basic building block of EMS, hopefully you will continue on to medic and beyond. Take your studies seriously but have fun as well. Enjoy the class. Come back often and ask questions.

Man Bjorn, not a good situation and my condolences on your father's death. I'm not going to speculate as to whether you should have waited for an ambulance or driven him in yourself. What country did this occur in? I would say I would have waited for the ambulance if it was a country with good EMS resources but if not, then probably the best response was what you did. As for not intubating your father, did they do any other type of airway, one that you didn't realize was an airway that would have taken the place of the E.T. tube? There are others out there that some facilities with less resources might use. There are so many variables it's hard to tell in this case. It's hard to play armchair quarterback at this time but if this was my father I'd want more answers but I'm not sure how I would go about getting them. You might not be able to get those answers unless you file suit and you might not like the answers you get. Or you might just be able to do a medical record review of his chart if possible. not sure about that though.

It's the essential oils that are so popular these days that take the place of the missing stuff. I should know because I stayed in a holiday inn express last night.

never too old, well maybe some age is too old but I worked with a 84 year old medic and she could run circles around many 20 year old medics.

I was just thinking, these two classes might be helpful 1. Conflict resolution 2. Human behaviour - from infancy to death. the type of class that outlines why we do what we do when we are a baby all the way to end of life. Not sure if colleges offer these classes though.

1. Dress for success - don't go in with mismatched clothing, wear a tie. Or a nice dress if you have one and are a girl. 2. Shave and brush your teeth, comb your hair, put on deodorant, don't put on any cologne or perfume 3. bring a note pad and a pen, a copy of your resume 4. Don't study the night before. They probably won't ask you any medical questions that you can study for anyway 5. Eat a good breakfast but make sure you bring an extra shirt and tie just in case you miss your mouth, you can put that extra shirt and tie on. 6. Greet the receptionist and anyone else that is there. You never know who will be tasked to watch you and report back on you. 7. FOR GOD SAKES, LEAVE THE F'ING PHONE IN YOUR CAR, IF YOU CAN'T BEAR TO BE AWAY FROM YOUR LOVER(PHONE) FOR THE LENGTH OF THE INTERVIEW, TURN IT OFF AND DON'T LOOK AT IT FOR THE ENTIRE TIME OF THE INTERVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do I need to repeat myself. 8. learn as much as you can about your future employer 9. Take that notepad and pen and write down every person you interviewed with. Then write down the address of the company you interviewed at, and then after your interview, send each of those people a personal note thanking them for their time that they spent with you. Make sure that you put in your personal note, one thing from them that you took away. What question did they ask you that you remember, and then answer it more fully. If you need help with this one, PM me and I'll help you with it after your interview. 10. Firm handshake 11. ASK LOTS of questions 12. The best question to ask them and it will make them think. They will ask you this question "do you have any questions for us" you can then ask, "Have I given you any reason during this interview not to hire me?" If they say "no" then you can ask them, but only if you feel ballsy, "When can I start?" I did this at my current job and got the offer the next day. 13. Do not be afraid to say "I don't know the answer to that question, but I have a group of colleagues and reference materials that I go to when I do not know the answer to hard tough questions". Interviewers want to know what you would do if you don't know that answer. 14. Another question to ask at the end of an interview is "What is the culture like here?" "what is the management style here", "Would it be possible for me to take a look at the employee handbook to get a better idea of what would be expected of me as an employee" , "Can I talk to the employees to get a idea of what it is like to work here?", "Can I see some of the letters from patients or customers who have written in to your company?", "Can I sit in Dispatch for a day, or do a ride along with a supervisor for a day prior to making my decision on coming to work here?" 15. Do not be afraid to ask about What your first 30, 60 or 90 days would be like? What do they expect you to provide versus what they provide new employees? Ask how long the probationary period is. Ask about the FTO period and how many FTO,s you will be paired up with. I'm a real advocate of being paired up with at least 2 if not 3 during your orientation. If you are paired up with just 1, you risk being put with someone that you just might not click with. So having a 2nd FTO is a good thing. A third can round out the experience to make it a good one. I have so many more but I think 15 might be enough for you to start.

So question regarding your accelerated class. Do you think that in 4 weeks you were adequately prepared for the upcoming test when most other classes take at least a college semester to complete? Do you feel that you are adequately prepared for the test? What do you think are the advantages of a accelerated course over the traditional length course? What are the disadvantages? What was the cost of your course? Again, not busting your chops for your choice, but I think that you can provide some good insight and first hand knowledge of the accelerated program that could be beneficial to some of our members who are on the fence as to which course to take. Also - welcome to the CITY