Christopher.Collins

If I may, speak from a BLS point of view. The only ALS 9-1-1 company I worked for had about 30 ambulances, only 2 of which were modular and were generally reserved for barriatric and NICU use. That being said, our medics mostly ran 9-1-1 in Type IIs. My partners have never complained regarding space. Ive ran a few criticals that had 3 people in back not including the patient. If the ambulance is spec'ed out well... you can place your monitor on a shelf and your bag on the floor next to the command seat, leaving room for any needed help as well as still being in reach. When it comes to modulars most medics in my observations just throw their gear on the bench next to them anyways. While you lose length in a Type-II, this option is still a possability. In all reality though you can quickly lose space in a modular. I had a chest pain call at the state prison yesterday... myself, the medic and his gear, the correctional officer and patient were too much. My preceptor opted to ride up front. In terms of Type-IIs lacking the seat on the drivers side of most modular ambulances, I can do without that... often I find its to far (behind) a patient whos sitting upright on the stretcher. When it comes to others riding in back... police and other EMS only. Unless its a pedi parent... there is never family in the back of ambulances around here. ~~~~~ Overall though I love the Type-IIs in terms of reach. I can get almost everything I need with minimal movement. I would much rather drive a bigger ambulance though. While you lose manuverability, you gain stability... its wider, and easier to lower the center of gravity. Additionally they dont get thrown around as much by the wind when crossing large bridges.

Well... I will say this, the agency I used to work for provides cover for the worlds largest casino. So yea, I was around and even treated plenty of cocktail waitresses :wink: :wink: I loved working the casino shift... recliners and video games in our office... free food cooked by real chefs and pretty much every sin in the bible going on around me :twisted: Back on topic... and cocktail waitresses aside, I have a 100% no bull sh*t polocy on fraternizing with patients or co-workers. Fraternizing with co-workers excludes hanging out with as friends though because Im not that up-tight lol. (edit): Oh yea and Im married anyways, so I dont get my flirt on outside of that.

Crotchity.., your my new hero! Thoes are words in which I know many people (not saying on this site per say) should live by!

Paid wise if I were given the option to cut my losses and find something better or keep my job... Id probably try to request to stay part time. I love what I do, through the good and the bad its not about the money to me. Volunteer wise... I would stick to it. Untill equipment starts to put us in danger and/or people start getting hurt because of funding, Id keep going. Even if it got to a dangerous point Id like to think Id stick around. Someone will have to be there to bail things out, and best to be someone who knows whats going on rather than some newbie who knows nothing of the department.

Im ganna play devils advocate for a moment. Would it be bad thing to say that I hope the state of the economy greatly effects EMS in a negative way? Ok before you all start jumping me... I mean that with the fullest respect to us. Of course I would never actually want any of you to lose your jobs, thus hurting yourselves and personal/family lives. And of course I would never want to see an increase in death tolls and serious irreversable effects on patients due to lack of manpower and such. I love my peers and I love my patients. But long run I could only see posative things come from such a tradgety. Think of all thoes people who curse and spit at us untill we are needed then they praise us untill they die. If the economy essentially shuts down EMS then the world will see how much they need us. ~~~~ I recall a couple years in my hometown where the refferendums wouldnt pass. It once took an entire fiscal year to pass a refferendum... of course by the time it was agreed on it was time to vote for the next fiscal year. There were significant cuts in emergency services... to the point where there would at times be only one police officer on duty for the whole (BIG) town, including a stretch of I-95 and Route 1. For thoes of you not on the east coast... I-95 and Route 1 are major arteries here. There was semi-serious but mostly joking talk amongst us in the volunteer fire station of shutting it down. Most of our equipment was old and not suck it up and deal with what you have old, but dangerous and insufficient old. Our light rescue had holes rotting through the floor boards, our boat had electrical problems up the wazoo, the boom on our ladder truck didnt function properly if at all and its hydraulics leaked. We needed new equipment and it was to the point that it could put us at more danger than do good. Our ambulances were non-profit therefore town budget problems didnt effect us in that aspect. Anyways we never did shut down. It would have been easy being all volunteer, and we know it would have made a point, but ethically we could never do it as it would have caused bigger problems. ~~~~ But theres a difference in just walking away and being part of the problem versus being shut down because of finances. Yes many of us would be hurt emotionally and possibly physically. I dont see it as a worthy sacrafice but regardless of what some plotical official thinks in saying we are non-essential... I garuntee they will whistle a different tune when they have to drive their dying a$$ to the hospital themself.

Yes as with everyone else welcome. I am also Chris. Welcome to the states... neighbor to the the north (Connecticut here). Best of luck on the remainder of your EMT. Check out UMASS Memorial some time.... that place is massive. The ED looks more like a mini-mall than anything. Ive spent many a time up in that hospital.

Anyways, I mainly responded just to show that some of us do care about what we read. And to add one more post to up the ratio vs. reads.... I wrote this in a seperate reply.

Well, natural human/animal curiosity is a part of it. I didnt know what it was we were all scared of untill I opened this thread and read it. And now I know. Anyways the thing is sometimes there is just no need to respond. Take that thread a month or so back when the poster was talking about porn in the station... while I respected his opinion, regardless of how rediculous the whole thing became... I felt no need to respond. It was an entertaining read for the first 4 or 5 pages but then I was bored and reading the same junk over and over again. Additionally, maybe what one person said many others wanted to say? Its possible, we are all very opinionated people of course :wink: Hell, I could be sitting here typing my response and someone will beat me to it in the process cuz they are a much faster typer than me... or maybe its already up there and I didnt read it. Who knows. But yea... I could probably sit here and come up with lots of reasons why someone would read and not post. Man I gatta lay off the sauce lol Joking of course.

Typically the reason I stayed out of most of the pranks myself. Its great to have fun and all but even if you have every possible scenario thought out as to how itll work... you could never think of what will happen beyond that. I remember getting shot in the eye with a nerf gun when I was like 10.... if fu*%ing hurt!!! It was my best friend and I know he didnt do it on purpose.... but I was still pi$$ed at the time.

Are you up to date on your vaccinations? :twisted: Sorry, I must have missed that. Sorry for the re-post. Anyways... Im only being an ass, you dont need to justify yourself to me Sir. Im sure we can all agree that there are alot of times we'd rather be available doing nothing in the event of a serious call... than we would taking Mrs. Doubtfire to the hospital cuz her dentures fell out. Then again, that could be a choking suffocation hazzard :evil: lol

In regards to the OP: Well Ill say in my humble opinion that buying more ambulances alone will not solve the problem. If staffing is a problem as well, then who will run the additional units? Its one thing if you have the man-power to effectivley do so but completley different if not. By effectivley doing so, I mean NOT putting alot of personel on overtime. Of course overtime can be an option but it should be regulated to prevent over work and burn out. For instance my old agency did it like this: We had 8 hour shifts mostly for the transport services and 12 hour shifts mostly for the 9-1-1 services. Regardless of what shift you worked your allowed to work a maximum of 16 straight hours, and generally have the right to deny any (non 911) calls twords the end of the 16 hours if they will run you beyond that alloted time. Say you worked 0700-2300 and you were asked to do a transport at 2230 that would take you about an hour to complete, you can deny it. Between shifts you must also have a minimum of 8 hours off. This is especially required if you worked a 16 hour shift. For thoes unable to work a shift a SWAP must be completed between an equal or higher certified member. Anyways... even with all the overtime oppurtunities and in my opinion fairly lineant rules, staffing was still a problem. We had about 30 or so ambulances in the agency but no bodies to fill them all. ~~~~~~~~ First and fore most I would start seeking funds and grants to become more compliant to safety and comfort of my crews. I know its not an easy thing to do always... but thats my start. Second... Id also listen to my employees and find out what they need and maybe from time to time want. Using Acadian Ambulance who is based in Louisianna, Texas and Mississppi for example... Ive spoke to some of their employees and many of them seem very happy with the company. All of whom have encouraged me to apply to Acadian. Personally, nothing draws me more to a potential place of employment than happy employees. With respect to my friends and peers, most agencies I know of seem to have nice and good people working for them... who are happy about what they do, but miserable about the company. Continuing with happy employees... I would want a proffesional but FREINDLY management staff. Returning from a call I ran into the CEO of my old agency, I introduced myself and he flat out ignored and walked around and past me. Great way to treat people who are putting money in your pocket! I like open door polocies myself... knowing that if you have a problem you can go to a supervisor or manager and they will do the best to address the matter. Of course, its important to make sure employees know to follow the chain of command when doing so, it creates less headaches for management. (*NOTE* No matter what you do to maintain proffesionalism but try to keep everyone happy theres always going to be something wrong, there will always be some drama. We are human and not perfect. But keeping an eye out and reporting issues of course should be EVERYONES duty). Happy patients is another important start. What good is happyness in the company when we have a bad reputation. Hopefully all that love and happyness within the ranks will rub off causing proffesionalism and good care... and happy patients Once I get my happy employees and proffesional managers then solve my drama problems... Im ganna start recruiting. By recruiting I mean getting out in the publics eye and showing that we are hiring and a good company in addition to the usual "Now Hiring" on the company web site. I dont see a need to activley recruit if a company has a bad reputation. My old agency had a local news station run a couple of stories on how they need paramedics and EMTs... truth be told the company is a damn joke. They even cut the paramedic class curriculum hours in half... bear in mind that even the class instructors will say the course is a joke. Their reputation is known throughout by patients and fellow EMSers alike. If I have instructors in my ranks, Ill start hosting in house classes. Ride time of course to be done on our rigs with our staff. Maybe put some recruiting videos on local TV like LAPD and the military. Now that I have my happy well funded staff and a bunch of wet behind the ears, fresh ink on the card rookies with some damn good FTOs training them. I am ready to prove to my community that we take care of our people and equipment... once they are caught off guard with pleasure and open wallets twords our great service... THEN ILL BUY NEW AMBULANCES! Im sure I dont need to mention my tone is mostly sarcastic. Ideally I would try to work in that order though... start cleaning in-house before worrying about more bodies and more buses. Though in some areas, and no to mention with this economy... it may not always be a realistic approach.

Oh boy, we're opening this can of worms again :twisted: :roll: I spoke to my STATE OEMS Director on this whole matter as well as local hospital directors and many peers and instructors... and everyone came back with the same thing. Its not our job to decide what an emergency is, at least in a diagnostic sense. They all gave examples of true emergencies that may not present as such... tooth ache and jaw pain (without chest pain) could still be an MI. Finally, for your reading pleasure: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man Dies at Home After Paramedics Diagnose Acid Reflux By Elissa Silverman Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 4, 2008; Page B04 A 39-year-old Northeast Washington man died yesterday, a few hours after paramedics responding to his complaints of chest pains and trouble breathing told him he had acid reflux and did not take him to a hospital, family members said. D.C. fire officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Edward L. Givens, who was found by family members just before 6 a.m. in his home in the 700 block of Division Avenue. Paramedics told Givens late Tuesday that he had acid reflux, instructed him to take Pepto-Bismol and left, family members said. "I don't understand the paramedics, why, when he said he was in chest discomfort, he wasn't taken to the hospital," said Lolitha Givens, the man's mother, who lives in the home and was there when 911 was called Tuesday night. "I'm just baffled by that." Paramedics are required by department protocol to transport by ambulance a patient who asks to go to a hospital, said Alan Etter, a spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services. Officials said the D.C. medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine a cause of death. The department has launched an investigation into the call, Etter said. He said that the department will interview all personnel who responded and that top officials are involved in the review, including Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin and Assistant Fire Chief Lawrence Schultz. "As per protocol, we are conducting a thorough quality assurance case review, and we will determine whether proper care was provided and if the two medical events are related," Rubin said in a written statement. Lolitha Givens said her son was in the living room Tuesday night when he yelled out to family members to call 911. He was on his back on the floor and said he had chest pains and was having trouble breathing. A firetruck and ambulance from Engine 30 were dispatched to the house at 11:40 p.m., Etter said. The truck, staffed by three firefighters trained in emergency medicine and a firefighter-paramedic, arrived first. Lolitha Givens said the firefighters asked her son what was wrong, and the emergency medical technicians who arrived by ambulance checked his vital signs and performed an electrocardiogram, the results of which they said were normal. The EMTs asked Givens whether he had eaten or had anything to drink that evening, and he said he had eaten a burger, Givens said. They told him and his mother that he probably was suffering from acid reflux and suggested he take antacid. "Six hours later, my son was on the floor, dead," Lolitha Givens said.

That I will say was always the staple of the annual prank wars. It was essentially no-holds-barred provided the following: There will be NO messing with gear, apparatus or equipment. And nothing potentially dangerous... One day FD B tried to frame us by making their own portapotty, putting it outside another department and lighting it on fire. That turned out to be really bad by the way. Fortunatley they knew who actually did it, so our department wasnt held responsible as it wasnt.

The town I got my Fire and EMS origins has an ongoing prank war / rivalry every October and it runs up untill elections. So no feelings are hurt, in case anyone from the area is on this site, we will call my old station Fire Dept A and theirs Fire Dept B. Generally Im not involved in these pranks but Ill also use we meaning FD A. In FD A alot of us have some sort of manufacturing and trade backrounds... machinists, carpenters, electricians. I dable in a bit of electronics and machining myself. Anways alot of our pranks often involved home built outhouses rigged to cause some sort of chaotic problem which would deploy or trigger when a the door was opened... which would in turn be left outside of FD B's station. A couple of years ago we built the usual outhouse, took your average air compressor sold at Home Depot filled it with water and AFFF foam and rigged it to a small nozzel that would be stuck open once the outhouse door opens. Additionally we rigged a car alarm and car battery to go off at the same moment, but sealed that into a container. Now, at FD B alot of the guys who have been around know the usual approach we make so they steer clear of anything looking like a portapotty. But the new guys and junior members... well thats a different story. So we drop this thing off at the station and take up hidding positions. Sure enough everyone comes down to the station to hang out and within a couple of minutes the front of their station was covered with a foam blanket and the air was filled with shouting and car alarms. The outhouse was destroyed! ~~~~~~~~~~ One prank I was there for involved another car alarm. Small holes were cut into a metal box so not to drown out the noise when closed and the alarm was rigged to a standard light switch with a pull string leading out of the box and car battery. The box was padlocked and welded shut. Dropped it off at the station... and sure enough someone played into it. In fact they couldnt even break into the box... it wound up in the river running along the station. ~~~~~~~~~~ So what do they do in retaliation? Well, not much... they toilet papered our north end station (Station 2).

HOLEY FU*KING SH*Takee Mushrooms Batman!!! Time to grow up and clean the skeletons out of the closet. Im sorry for the reasons harboring your feelings against paid EMS... but before you generalize that ALL paid EMTs are a$$holes, you need to get out of your small world and possibly your personal bubble and take a look around. I am both paid and volunteer. And for the record that same atitude us paid guys have... alot of volunteers have also. And before you go saying everyone here just does the job for money I am going to first question this 1) What money? Who in EMS makes good money? Let me know so I can work there!!! 2) READ SOME OTHER POSTS in this forum... you tell me that we are all about money after youve read alot of the posts pertaining to our work. Youll see how educated and proffesional alot of people here are. By the way... Mr. "All Patients Hate paid EMTs".... do you know that alot of beach and pool patrons hate life guards? I mean, they are more security Nazis than they are LIFE guards. This is not to say there are not decent life guards out there... but your approach twords paid EMS as a whole isnt much different. Normally Im not one to stoop to the low level of others.... but this is a bit rediculous.

Ok, I agree to an extent and will admit to being judgemental from time to time. **I do not agree that one should be judged based on how they dress outside the job.** If they are dressed in such a way in their internet profile then, well ok thats fine. BUT I would never allow someone to be hired if they showed up for an interview wearing "street clothes." When I first broke in to paid EMS, I wore a suit to my interview... everyone else was in a t-shirt and jeans. They were all nice people, but time showed that they wernt all that proffesional, in fact some were rather dumb too. If you cant present yourself as a proffesional for 15-30 minutes during a job interview, you have no business looking for proffesional work. Cant afford? Borrow!!! Or look clean at least. **As I said a few minutes ago I wont judge a person/co-worker based on how they are outside the job however, there is a but in that also. If someone is wearing a company shirt off duty or is just a total ass to people overall then by no means would I want them in this line of work. In terms of internet profiles... they have every right to do as they please... but if they put company information on their profile, then that profile best be clean or there is need for disciplinary action. I know that clean is a broad term... but Im sure you can figure it out. Just so everyone is clear, Im not directing this twords the OP or his "friend." But I do think that personal judgements are important to an extent. I will say in fairness that sometimes a good judgement of people may also go wrong as well.

I could find you a handfull of Junior/Explorers certified at the MRT level who I'd rather have in back over Senior EMTs and Medics... thats pretty sad. As blunt as some of the advice in these forums may be at times... it is more often than not good to follow. Im still failing to see how a lifeguard counts... unless your in LA Fire (Or is it county?), Hawaii, or some place where they are medics and EMTs... lifeguard isnt much. Here in Connecticut they are barley certified to the MRT level let alone EMT. If you want qualifications... seek out stuff like PHTLS and PEPP, take some train the trainer classes to show you want to teach your perspective subordinates. I know I wouldnt want a leader who couldnt teach or show me what he/she is telling me to do. If your area medevac has safety classes on when to call for them, how to operate along side them and such, take that too! Point is... you need to seek out pertinant training to what your doing. Your past experiences mentioned are not even a drop in the barrel of what you need. I mean wow, you were an Eagle Scout! Thats great, seriously... but big deal at the same time. I was in the Army for a year before being honnorably discharged... that dosnt make me a good potential leader.

Yea, Im a struggling alcoholic.... struggling to become one :twisted: lol

What an erie time that was... I remember it quite well as it was when I found out my girlfriend of the time was cheating on me with ALOT of people. So my best friend and I hung out to get my mind off things... bear in mind the blackout hit Connecticut too so nothing was frigging open. We just kept driving and driving through the night... nothing but generators could be heard. Can hardly imagine what it was like in NYC, the news coverage alone made me happy I wasnt there... no offense Richard.

A black light and JD? Thats just more than Im willing to commit to that experiment... though Ill still take the JD :twisted:

I havnt read every post yet so I dont know whats still going on in this thread... so my appologies if I stir anything back up or just continue to beat a dead horse. Are you a registered voter? Do you pay attention to any polotics at all? Or are you one of thoes people that dosnt care cuz "your opinion ultimatley dosnt matter." Elections in the political world are no different, in that they are popularity contests. What you may have experience in another may not... but they may have experience in something else that you do not. Running an organization isnt just about field experience... maturity, organization and the ability to teach others are some of many more important leadership characteristics. When I was 20 I was still relativley new to Fire/EMS, having obtained my EMT-B at 18 and my Firefighter-1 at 19. My department had a low call volume (average 800 a year) so gaining experience took ALOT of time. Anyways when I was 20 I was already a lead Engineer of our first due apparatus as well as the departments battery powered equipment, I was often called upon to train new and junior members and help them as they needed guidance. Eventually I became head engineer for an entire station in the department and was told Id make Leutenant pretty quickly if I kept it up. Im not trying to brag or toot my own horn, just make a point. I didnt have much experience on the job... but Im quick to learn, work very well with others and take initiative. You may have 400 calls under your belt in 1-1/2 years and may have been a boy scout, but (with all respect as I do not know you) that does not make you a good leader. I would expect that if you have all the experience you claim to, that your awareness of how the emergency medical comunity operates would be just as equal. Afterall, it sounds like your at the station enough to know whos who and how they run.

What Im trying to say is Im not sure if in the filtering process the two seperate chemicals will lose their ummm, glo-ability? Im sure it wouldnt work at all... but Ive heard it from multiple people (yes I know that many stupid people, its rather unfortunate).... I would imagine youd have to drink alot of them before it would, if at all.

My saddest call ever? Well it was an hour before my 12hr overnight shift (1900-0700) was set to end. My partner and I were called to pick up a patient at a near by hospital and transport them to one in New Bedford, Massachusettes. Needless to say that tacked on about 4-5 extra hours on our shift. In seriousness though... I dont know what my saddest call was because I havnt really ever been affected by the things Ive seen and done. Id say maybe if anything itd be an MVA I worked with a teenage couple. They wernt in critical condition but they were banged up pretty bad none the less. I wound up transporting both in my rig ALS to Yale and just listening to them cry and tell eachother how much they love one another... etc. It wasnt so much what happend to them, more so the emotions between both.

Sorry... but the State of Connecticut has forced every EMS agency to switch to EPCRs, I honestly cant remember how we have the paper ones made. Do you guys make your own forms or have someone else make them up? The best I can think of is look through an EMS Field guide and photocopy one out of there, then add it where appropriate to the needs of your PCR. It should be a decent enough size if taken from the field guide.

Hi everyone, my name is Chris. And well.... um, Im an alcoholic! Ooops wrong group. Welcome to all the new members!