Kookaburra

Here I had a whole long reply prepared, discussing whether or not the humor is "othering" and a whole bunch of other sociological terms and theory, and you managed to condense it down to six words. Bravo/a.

There is a big difference between "dark humor" and humor that is derived from hatred and scorn of others.

I would say that pride in the people we serve is a very large part of professional pride. I admit, I have not been a good example in this area in the past, and I still find myself sometimes slipping into the mindset, but I think it's imperative that people in EMS work undergo a major attitude shift. How many times have you heard EMTs and Paramedics groan when dispatched to an address in a predominantly immigrant area of town? What about jokes about the "trailer trash" we often find ourselves serving? Griping about going into nursing homes, even though the vast majority of our patients are elderly? Treating people who don't speak English or geriatrics as if they are children, or too stupid to know what's going on? I did quite a bit of thinking about this last night, and I came to the conclusion that lots of our EMS slang is actually very disrespectful to our patients - "frequent flyer" for example. Sure, you could argue that it is supposed to reference people who call all the time for very minor difficulties, but I've never seen it used for someone like that. In my experience, the term has been used for addicts, the poor (who have no way to get to a hospital, and no way to pay for non-emergency care), people with mental disabilities, elderly individuals with chronic conditions, in short: the forgotten of our society. Personally, I'm going to work to purge that term from my vocabulary. Here's a short list off the top of my head of things I have heart EMS and Fire Service workers either state in person or write about in various Internet media: -Joking about sexually assaulting minors in the back of the ambulance. -Joking about taking Spanish-speaking patients across the border and leaving them in Mexico. -Saying that a homeless "frequent flier" should just die already. -Saying that an incontinent elderly gay man must have been "quite a bitch" in his younger days. We all have our moments of ugliness, when a cruel thought comes into our heads (yes, it's a natural human reaction to frustration and weariness, but that doesn't mean it's right), but EMS seems to be an echo-chamber for those thoughts and words. If the industry truly had pride in who it serves, such attitudes and language would be unheard of, and regarded as utter nonsense. In addition, an attitude shift to one of service and pride would undoubtedly bring a trend of EMS/Fire clamoring for more education. After all, with pride invested in our patients, we would want to be able to give them the best care possible, not just "good enough" care.

I know a remarkable EMT-I who is over thirty, and on track to enter Med School in a year when her eldest enters High School. Life isn't over then by a long shot!

Methuselah, apparently.

Yeah, our school didn't get enough vaccines for everyone, so people already in departments were supposed to get it through them. Now getting the vaccines to the departments is turning into a big hairy mess. Hooray bureaucracy!

Argh. My department still hasn't gotten our vaccinations yet, and clinicals for my Paramedic program start in a week or two. I'm just about ready to try and buy the vaccine out of pocket because I can't afford to get sick at this point in the program.

Yes, getting things is writing is of paramount importance. Though I would suggest that people of gen X and Y don't clean because they are slobs. (I am a gen-y-er and came to this conclusion during my first year at college. I can be messy too, but holy geez!) Has anyone here been "mentored" in the fire service and/or EMS like he talks about?

I saw a statistic somewhere that 96% of people who get into med school graduate. So perhaps it is just that getting <i>in</i> is the hard part.

Wow, stay classy, guys. I can see the problem - sure, they likely have proper PPE on the fireground, but what about after, when driving back to the station? When they have to be in close quarters with a bunch of Cro-Magnons like the ones up thread? I wouldn't want any part of me on display. You can deny it all you want, but women exist in a state of pre-porn in our society (a woman is always evaluated on whether she is 'hot' or what would need to be done to make her 'hot' as evidenced by the replies to this thread) and to be taken seriously need to be on constant guard against becoming "porn-ized" and seen as a victimizable target... which would happen with a t-shirt that becomes transparent upon becoming soaked.

I'm a paramedic student pursuing an AAS in Paramedicine, but I put down that I am BLS with a Bachelor's. My degree is in Art, from a liberal arts college, so lots of science, philosophy, history, and literature.

Unfortunately there seems to be quite a culture of... jock-itude and frat-mentality in EMS. It's hard to take pride in a profession where anyone who is not a white, heterosexual male is constantly derided, so much so that I wouldn't take my best friend to visit my "workplace". (In my case, a volunteer FD/Paramedic classroom) Though I'm hoping that most of the people who exhibit those traits in my Paramedic class wash out.

Here's a question - how far up must one be in the medical establishment to be a force for change? Are there doctors who would be allies in working to mandate increased educational standards? Or would Paramedics and EMTs who wish for prehospital care to become a respected profession need to leave the field behind and go to medical school in order to be in a position with sufficient leverage? Are medical directors able to require that all Paramedics working under their license have an AAS? And VentMedic's reputation meter keeps going up because people recognize that she is saying what needs to be said. We're dealing with people's lives here - no room for mollycoddling. I may be a rookie, but I can tell when someone is speaking from a place of experience. Like I said upthread, I came into my EMT/Paramedic program expecting the people in it to be the best of the best. While it's too early to tell in the Paramedic program, I was appalled at the lax attitude of many of my fellow students in the first year. I can also say with confidence that I would have learned more if those students had been washed out early in the program. Their presence was a constant drain on those of us who took the course seriously. Getting an AAS really is not that hard - most of my classmates have families, and there are several single mothers who also work full time in slave wage positions. They are some of the most organized and dedicated students. If they can do it, anyone can. The biggest obstacle people have is in their own mindset of "can't".

So here's what the steps seem like to me: 1. Get NREMT to be the National Standard. 2. Require entry level Paramedics to have an AAS. 3. Establish a nationwide professional association for Pre-Hospital Care Providers. Though, due to how incredibly resistant I've seen Paramedics be to increased educational requirements, maybe just starting a new level of care provider and letting the EMT-* levels just wither away is the way to go.

Forgive such a rookie question, but is there a reason the National Registry hasn't developed into a professional organization/union? Seems like the logical place to start something like that. If we develop a professional organization, and only award full voting membership to those with a degree, that would accomplish both the increased education requirement and professional association requirements. Seriously y'all, where do we start with something like this? I want to help, and I have the boundless energy and enthusiasm of youth! Even though I have -.9 years of experience, I want to be a part of a profession that I can take pride in.

Hi, I've been following this discussion for a bit - I'm currently going to Paramedic School in Oregon. I already have my BA, but I'm getting an additional AAS for Paramedicine. Unfortunately, I can't tell you how the pay stacks up, because I haven't worked in a paid position at all - for people just entering into EMS, the expected route is to get your paramedic ASAP after Basic. (Also, all of the payscales I've seen for the State include professional firefighters, so they're skewed.) I was shocked when I started doing research into becoming a Paramedic, I had assumed that it was a 4-year degree, at least. Personally, I will always be for increased educational requirements. Especially basic math and writing - I shudder when I see some of my compatriots make basic spelling and grammar mistakes.