Just Plain Ruff

And Jack Bauer finally won an emmy. woo hoo.

good luck to you. I would consider going on to paramedic school and going that route. In the end that is probably where you want to end up anyway right?

are you precluded from working elsewhere while employed by the fed dispatch center? If so then volunteer might be the best option but maybe going on to paramedic school might be a better option. Does the government provide educational assistance?

Rush didn't you say you were looking to make a few extra dollars working in ems?? As a first responder you are a volunteer and will not get paid. Plus you have to basically probably have to buy your own equipment and hope that the first responder agency will replace it for you. If you are not in an area with first responders and you have fire department coverage or EMS coverage then you mght need to move or drive a distance to find a place. Most first responders work out of their current jobs and if they are available for a call they go. You probably wont have a first responder station unless that agency has a station. Also prepared to be bored for you might not get called out for a call all day.

Dust, we need to get you home. Back to the arms of some beauty back here. Most catfights I've ever seen have been between two not so pretty women who were even uglier because they were drunk

Rid the poster said they are getting help but obviously it isn't working. They are still crying out for help. I think this is a true crisis and needs to be dealt with. I'd report it and I'd have done it prior to coming here but thats just me. I reported a co-worker about 12 years ago and they go the help they needed via an inpatient treatment center and they are still one of my best friends. He said he hated me for doing what I did but he realized that he would have done the exact same thing. so we became much closer due to this whole thing.

Hey dust

Rush, well I don't know about your thought process but I would go ahead and get the EMT, forgo first responder unless you are in an area that uses First reponders. Get your emt and then get on with a transfer service or a service who does 911 if you can. You can also get on with a volunteer service too. That will get your feet wet. Do not, I repeat do not go into paramedic until you know that this career is for you. If you have your sights on Finance then maybe taking additional finance courses instead of EMT is for you. I don't know your thought process though. If you are just wanting to help somewhere I'm sure there are countless volunteer options for you to consider and if you are looking to make some money doing this you are looking in the wrong place. If finance is your career of choice then what's the possiblity of doing a paid internship in a finance related capacity. Just some thoughts,

Your concern is evident and that is commendable. your co-worker is expressing suicidal thoughts? I'd be on the horn to your supervisor and tallking to them. If my partner told me he was considering suicide I'd take us out of service and hit the supervisor. You will kick yourself if you didn't bring it to the attention of the supervisor and your partner kills themself. I had the unlucky experience of running the suicide of one of our service members. Found him hanging in the meeting hall. He expressed suicidal thoughts but everyone just thought he was talking and not serious. so yes even though he was getting help he obviously isn't getting good help. Take action now while you still have a partner.

I normally stop iv access attempts after 3 attempts. That's just me but I do believe if I felt the patient warranted it and I had standing orders for pain control I'd have dosed her up. Just curious what are your standing orders for pain relief?

to save the

I've had patients like that too and was surprised to say the least. I've also taken care of a 101 year old woman with 3rd degree heart block with a rate of 30 who's only complaint was being a little tired and when her friend checked her pulse she called us. We put a pacemaker in her at the transferring hospital and she lived 2 more years. Amazing that we would see this woman driving herself to the market and church and always say, man if I looked that good at 101 I think i might want to live forever

of course with two providers you can get it done in 5 mins but he made it sound like the medics could do it all in 5 minutes or less. that's what I found hard to believe but he's there helping and they do have partners, I may have read it the wrong way. If I did then apology tendered.

That was an excellent response doc. Thanks a lot it confirmed what I was thinking. I have my own bottle of alcaine at home that I was given by the same ER doc. You answered it just like I thought was the answer. take care.

ahh ok that makes more sense. I've always thought it a silly argument to make. I've heard medics and students alike say that since they didn't get to do something or the doctor denies the order they hoped the person didn't need an ambulance becuase they never knew if it would be that person on the truck. It's like, well I didn't get my intubations or iv sticks so I didn't learn them so I hope they don't need me to help them out. blah blah blah. and by the way, I'm in a terrible mood and really tired and I apologize if I am a little harsh. I think I'll go to bed now

Doczilla, let me ask you about the corneal abrasion issue you brought up. If you numb the eye down without patching it so the person won't scratch it could it be possible for the abrasion to get a lot worse and threaten the vision? I got chastised by a Opthamologist who said that we never send the eye numb stuff home due to the patient putting it in their own eye and not realizing they were scratching the eye therefor making the eye injury worse. I sent the med home on orders of the ER physician but he denied it(lying weasel) so I took the fall due to a patient who lost partial vision due to using the med too much. No lawsuit cause my instructions on the discharge were crystal clear but I was shking in my boots. Just curious as to your thoughts on that.

RNMEDIC you sound really really bitter and are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy off. RN MEdic, like others have said, you can't generalize that the entire country is like your neck of the woods. I've worked in 2 different states as a medic, I've been at hospitals in 14 of the 50 states and talked to medics and what you say about if every ems service was with the fire department then things would all be rosy and hunkydory is just plain wrong. I've spoken to hundreds of medics and emts from private, volunteer, career and part time services and many of them, I repeat many of them are happy and the respect I see the community and the ER's give them is quite good. You factor in the helicopter services of which Iv'e seen many in each of those states and the level of respect there is immense. Your second to last paragraph is downright wrong. I've worked at services where starting medics are making 50K in a service population of 25k. The work 24 on and 24 off. So I guess they don't get to see their families. Shame on you if you allow the service you work for keep you from your family. That's your own damn fault. Is that the kind of service you work for???? Yes we deserve more respect but don't come here spouting that you know all because there are people here who have seen a lot more than you and worked in a lot more areas and we know that respect is earned and you have to give it to get it. Your little corner of the world of EMS is a small one as I'll bet many others corners here is small too but you cannot generalize that EMS Sucks every where when it doesn't. If you want me to give you the list of states, hospitals and EMS Services I've talked to and have worked in I will. Until then, stay safe. You sound burned out.

So how likely will it be that his student will take care of him during his big MI. That's a silly argument to make.

I have a friend at work who says "Bush is an idiot" when I ask him to explain himself he just says "Bush is an idiot" but when I tell him that John Kerry is just as big an idiot but more boring he goes off and calls me an ignorant pig. I explain my reasons and tell him I expect the same too but he just goes back to the "Bush is an idiot" statement. He'll then get up stomp off and not talk to me for the rest of the day. I then one day asked him why he was mad at me and he said that he was mad at me due to the fact that since he's gay I hate gay people. He's so unstable. That's why you never talk politics and sexual lifestyles with anyone at work.

I hope to never never never never never never can I say never enough times, to have to pace a child. CPR and workign the codes are bad enough.

everything done in 5 minutes, I find that truly hard to believe. Are you talking about assessments primary and secondary and then any interventions you have to do? Are you counting that in the 5 minutes?

Toysoldier, quit reading the forum rules. You could move this off this thread area if you want but many posts stay where they started out at. You could ask a admin to move it or just make your own new post But then again, keep up the good posts. I'm waiting for more posts from you with good quality subjects. take care.

DANG 45 pages. how long can this go on. Is anyone transcribing it for the novel. I'm sure it's a best seller in the making.

Nate, great post of course. Yes, as long as you don't impinge on my rights or try to get me to change my beliefs then I don't have an issue with you. I once rode with a emt that was a staunch liberal republican(is there such a thing) and he was also a bible thumping freak with a minister license or whatever. He spent most of his time trying to either convert me to his political view, his religious view or criticising my patient care as being too this or that. We had a come to Jesus meeting and in the end he was fired for a hostile workplace - yes virginia you can have a hostile workplace and it not be any way related to sex. So as long as you don't try to turn me away from my religious beliefs, my sexual orientation or my political stance then we're all right. Otherwise, if you do I'll tell you to go away.

I've worked at 9 different services over the past 20 years and none of those services would hire you either. 6 points is way too high. The insurance we had would not even approve if you were only patient care. Due to the fact that there is always the off chance that you would have to drive incase your partner took care of the patient on that one time odd deal. Good luck, I'd be really careful from here on out with your driving and not get any tickets. I understand that these points might have been when you were like 16 or so but the fact of the matter still is that you have 6 points and that will count against you big time.