Dustdevil

Much better, actually! At least it tells us what the topic is about, which is kinda the point of a subject line.

Since you asked, no. You are incorrect on each and every point you covered in your last two (four if you count the repeats) posts. Not even in the ballpark. Nope. It would only erase them from ambulances. They would still exist on fire trucks. Hmmm... I have never seen a paramedic school, nursing school, medical school, PA school, RT school, phlebotomy school, CNA school, x-ray school, or any other medical profession school besides EMT-B school that didn't graduate with considerable hands-on patient care experience. I suppose your school probably sucked arse, but that wasn't a professional school either. Just a little EMT course. Paramedics DO have hands on patient care experience before graduation. It is a DOT requirement. If you had ever gone to one, you would know this. Although, most of them should add a lot more patient time than they currently have. Read carefully, n00b. Apparently you missed it the first 57,000 times it was posted here... [marq=left:644adfb131][align=center:644adfb131]IT IS NOT ABOUT SKILLS!!![/align:644adfb131][/marq:644adfb131] If your vast "hands on" experience has not yet brought you to that realisation, then obviously your experience is suspect. As is your education.

After the initial few years, the pay difference isn't that great. And you stand a much better chance of actually retiring with a pension from FDNY than from any hospital job. If nursing isn't really your thing -- and apparently, even EMS isn't really your thing -- then go with your dream. You'll kick youself the rest of your life if you don't. Just don't ever again let me hear you say that becoming a firemonkey is a move "up" from being a paramedic. :roll:

Very true. The pervasive EMS culture in this country does ineed promote this nonsense heavily. Apparently, EMS is overpopulated with people with very fragile egos that need a lot of positive strokes to validate themselves. When one has little intelligence, little education, and a job that really amounts to nothing more than blue collar labour, one needs copious amounts of smoke blown in order to obscure that pitiful reality from sight. Out of sight, out of mind. But the interesting thing about EMS is that so many people blow their own smoke! Be afraid. Be very afraid.

While I admire your attempt to illustrate your argument logically, you unfortunately fail because of your misunderstanding of the term "fascist." Fascism has no imperitive relationship to liberalism or conservatism. It is a system of intolerant enforcement that can be applied to either or both.

Wow. :shock: I don't think I have ever seen anybody so thoroughly ruin their own credibility in one post here before. And then to repeat it two more times? I'm stunned. I thought this chick actually knew what she was talking about before now. A reputation is a terrible thing to waste. :?

Back in the early-mid 80's, we still had a few ambulances with mechanical sirens in addition to the electronic siren. The floor buttons (both sides) operated the mechanical. One busy afternoon we caught a run for an MVA several districts away. As we left the station and entered traffic, I hit the floor button. The mechanical siren wound up full blast and stuck there. It would not release. Mind you, we can't hear the radio or even each other in the cab with that thing peaked out. So, during the ensuing ten minute response, I am trying to rip the foot button from the floor and cut the wires. I got that accomplished about halfway through the response, but the siren just kept wailing. Now we're on the freeway and can see the lights of the accident about a mile ahead and are now going completely deaf. As we finally coast the last 100 metres to the scene -- where there are already several fire trucks and two ambulances -- with the engine shut off, hoping that would kill the siren. It didn't. Before we came to a complete stop, my partner was already trying to shift the unit into park so he could kill the ignition. We're now just a few metres from the scene, siren still wailing at full peak, and every cop, fireman, medic, and involved party on the scene is now standing and staring at us wondering why the F*** we won't turn our siren off. As the truck finally grinds to a stop, both doors fly open as we both jump out and climb on the roof of the cab. My partner is beating the siren with a MagLite while I am hacking at the power wire with my trauma shears. Cutting the wire finally stopped the siren, slooooooowly. Turns out that immediately after we had checked enroute to the run and turned on the siren, dispatch had disregarded us. Unfortunately, we couldn't hear them over the siren.

And sometimes the cops just fark it up, even with reliable witnesses. In my accident (I was not driving), the cops told several witneesses to leave because they did not need them. And the main witness they relied on for their case said we were "running red lights." The cop actually presented that to the DA and the Grand Jury as though we had run through a red light. We had to get the witness to come back and clear up that he was NOT saying we had run through a red light. He was saying we had the red lights running on our truck! Despite the worst efforts of the stupid cops to prosecute for manslaughter, my driver was no-billed. As for the hands-free thing, I am pretty sure that flight-lp was referring to the siren, not the radio.

I hate to see good sarcasm goes to waste like that. :? Get a job. They'll give you an actual emergency vehicle to drive so you don't have to build your own.

Congratulations! But minus 5 for a horribly unimaginative subject line.

If you really need them, I have a guy here with RBCs to spare. His CBC came back with a red count of 48.5 the other day. :shock: Obviously, the lab farked up and misplaced the decimal point, but it was fun to ponder for a moment.

Is there not a company policy prohibiting it? I'd give the guy one warning, then turn his arse in and refuse to work with him.

LOL! Nah, I enjoyed the story. And you are right, it is a relevant point for us all. I just wanted to hear the rest of your personal story!

Yes, this is a question that is going to be wholly dependant upon where you are and when. There is no one size fits all answer.

You got sidetracked with your war stories before you ever got around to mentioning paramedic school, which is what the question was about.

Plus 5 for that.

Hmmm... :-k I think you may be on to something here. Senior nursing students are hired as nurse techs. Senior medical students work pretty much solo in some clinicals. Gives the facility extra people and the student valuable experience. Can we agree that these would be senior year students who have already finished all prerequisite courses, and that continued employment would be contingent upon graduating from paramedic school and getting licensed? Otherwise, you'll end up with drop-out partners. Those that couldn't hack it, or were too eat up with working overtime and volunteering that they drop out and stay EMTs forever.

A truly educated EMT is a medic. :wink:

This topic is just too easy. All EMT-Bs providing ALS care are fair game.

Well, you already doomed your system to failure. Step one would be to make it a MEDICAL profession, and not a public safety job. :wink:

In the immortal words of Harry Callahan, "Some people need killin'."

And that is my point. This would never happen to me or anybody else who is alert and aware of their surroundings. They survey the interior of the elevator before they just blindly walk in. It's common courtesy to allow those already inside to depart before you go charging in. It keeps you from getting bowled over. And it keeps you from sloshing through a puddle of urine that you would have seen if you had actually looked in before walking in. This same situational awareness applies to all driving. In fact, it is the cornerstone of defensive driving.

I think the button is broken. Reporting the gratuitous profanity storm at the bottom of page 9 yielded no results. That was far more offensive than the occasional nudity that gets regularly deleted here.

Minding your own business is not enough. You have to mind the other guy's business too. That is the point. Assuming an intersection is safe just because the light is green is every bit as foolish as assuming that other drivers are going to yield to your lights and siren.

He's not talking about the actions of others. He's talking about YOUR actions. By failing to take due caution at an intersection -- red, green, or otherwise -- YOU are being unsafe. And yes, YOU are totally in control of whether or not you slow down and/or even stop at that intersection before proceeding. Blame it on the other guy who ran the red light if you want, but YOU gave him the target, and YOU are the one who gets run over. Being "right" is no consolation when you are dead.