Dustdevil

See, kids... this is what happens when you jump into a conversation already in progress, making assumptions you have zero evidence to support. If our new friend had bothered to actually read a little around here before appointing himself my psychoanalyst, he would have known that I criticise paramedic education as heartily as I criticise basic training. They both suck. Ha! Get over yourslf.

Another item I could probably help you out with if I were at home! I have two, if not three of them in my garage. They still have the "City Of Dallas" property tags on them. When we finally dumped them all in the early 80's, I picked them up at auction for about $50 dollars each. Sold quite a few for $1000 each, haha! Does anybody even use the Med channels anymore? I figure California probably still uses them a good bit. Maybe even the Gulf Coast. But the advent of trunked radio has changed the way a lot of systems do their comms.

Hey, I heard that if you drop a bottle of nitro spray, it will blow a crater the size of a football field! Is this true?? By the way, if you forward this to everybody in your address book in the next fifteen minutes, Bill Gates will give you a free computer!!

Thanks, Man. Nothing here is personal. It's all about the profession. The shrapnel is a piece of shell casing from an artillery shell that was set up as a roadside IED not far from the base. It was set off right next to a heavily armoured truck and cut right through it like a hot knife through butter. The driver caught that piece in the face. Hard to believe that big, flat piece of casing came through several inches of armour, but it sure did. That wasn't the only piece that hit him, just the biggest. I still find it strange that people bring up the "Mission Accomplished" banner as if it is significant. Two sorts of people do that; the ignorant and the disingenuous. The ignorant truly are too dumb to have figured out that the banner was for the crew of the ship, which had indeed accomplished its mission. The speech explained that, but they didn't listen to the speech. Too busy watching sitcoms, I guess. Then there is the disingenuous who know damn well what the banner was for, but assume everybody else is ignorant and/or stupid enough to believe the lie if it is told often enough. Either way, it's a really bad sign, and it gets really old.

Nah, the Iraqi locals will build you numba 1 sand castle for $3 USD a day!

It's the tail end of a 60mm mortar shell that is buried in the sand. They shoot mortars at us everyday here, and a great many of them just land harmlessly in the sand like this, some never exploding. This one has obviously been there a very long time, and apparently has been run over a few times without ever exploding. The Marines stared at it for awhile, then, thinking maybe it was just a set of disembodied fins, kicked it. It was funny to watch. After the kick, there was about three seconds of them standing absolutely motionless. Then there was about five seconds of slowly backing away. Then there was the mad dash as they all came screaming past me, lol. No telling how many dozens -- if not hundreds -- of those things are sitting in the sand here.

No, it's not. It's a much greater education, but not a greater skillset, unfortuately. While I sympathise with your situation, I would wholeheartedly disagree with your conclusion. Education and training is NEVR a waste of time. I have been a medic for over thirty years and I have NEVER found a basic review to be a waste of my time. Get over yourself. You still have much to learn, and should embrace every opportunity you have to do so. It's 120 hours, for crying out loud. Just do it. Or, better yet, get your future husband to move to Canadia. New York and New Jersey are disgusting.

And there was much rejoicing! :lol:/

Can you clarify, does that mean to be a state cop, or for ANY new cop hired for any agency in the state? Good for him! And I believe you are absolutely right. That is exactly what we need. It is certainly not an original idea. Hell, it is what the NREMT set out to be, but they faltered along the way. And, of course, there are multiple entities, such as the NAEMT and others, that are pushing for the advancement of the profession, but I don't believe anybody is seriously taking the kind of approach you are talking about. Sure, there is the accrediting agency for ambulance services, but that seems less focused on medical professionalism than businesses practises. I know your dad had a very hard row to hoe when he set out to establish CALEA, and it would be even tougher for such an agency in EMS since services are provided by such a broad range of providers. But yeah, eventually, it has to be done. Just like CALEA, accreditation would not be mandatory. However, once established, it would certainly put all providers on the spot when they are asked why they are not accredited. How would you like to be the one to have to explain that to the media or city council? Well then, you still have a LOT to learn! But you show promise, so I am confident that you will someday come around. :wink:

Becksdad for president! =D>

You're telling me! Yet those classes stay completely full. Go figure! That is a systemic variable. In some systems, EMT-B is all they have. In other systems (the better systems), they would never even consider hiring an EMT-B for anything more than stocking trucks. In some systems that have both EMT-Bs and paramedics, all EMTs are partnered with a medic. But in some mixed systems, they are assigned separately, so that two EMTs work together without a medic. You just never know. It all depends on the system. If I had to make a statistical generalisation, based upon average urban system policies in the U.S., I would say yes, EMT's are usually supervised (or directly partnered with) an ALS paramedic. But don't count on it everywhere.

Wow, I can't believe y'all let my topic slip down to the bottom of page 2! Okay, so I got the photos on pages 8 and 9 back up, for those of you who missed them. And here are a few recent pics for your viewing pleasure. Working on casualties in the ER. In the OR. The shrapnel we removed from his face in the OR. Birfday present for me mum! Spray painted on the side of a Russian (Iraq Air Force) IL-28 Beagle bomber. Very proud of the M*A*S*H t-shirt she sent me, hehe! So... I see these three Marines standing around and staring at something on the ground. If figure they found a Camel Spider. But when one of them kicked it, they suddenly all took off running. It turned out to be this.. :shock: The few. The proud. The morons. :roll: And finally, me waiting in the ER for more casualties.

If you are able to easily comprehend that, then why would it be so hard for you to fathom being stationed at a hotel room or apartment? And if you are keeping ambulances at private homes of medics, why would you be questioning the funding of a US service? Again, I don't get where you are coming from on any of this. Niftymedi911, let it go. You need to stick around and catch up on what has already been discussed here before you go flying off the handle half-cocked. Nobody is bashing anybody. People are merely making factual statements about the inadequacy of EMT-B training in your country. If you are not personally undertrained, undereducated, or otherwise incompetent, then it obviously doesn't apply to you, so don't bother responding. It only makes you look guilty. And "BLS BEFORE ALS BABY!" is just one of those stupid rookie sayings that EMT's use to feel better about themselves. It's something your instructor told you to make you believe you actually got something of value out of your thousand-dollar, 120 hour first aid course. It's a joke, and we all roll our eyes at those who parrot it as if it were something profound.

Touche'!

Forgot? Where did you ever get that idea in the first place? It is wrong. Talk about your under-funding! Sounds like a nightmare right there. Forgive me if I am mistaken, but you're not in EMS, are you? If not, when and where you park your ambulances would't really be relevant to this comparison.

Ambulance stations are expensive to acquire, build, and maintain. And the ideal location for ambulance stations varies with time of day and shifting demographics within the community. You can get a hotel room anytime, anywhere. It takes months and lots of money to put up a station. And if priorities change, you can easily change the location of your hotel room. You can't do that with a dedicated station. Let me count the ways! First of all, most EMTs I have worked with, I would not want at my home! Not to mention that most people do not live in a geographically strategic location for the ambulance to be stationed. Many people do not live in their district at all. And, if my employer wants to use my home as a station, he is going to have to pay me extra for that. Does your home have a garage big enough for an ambulance? I'm afraid I just don't get where you're coming from with these ideas. :?

Think really hard about it. Urban environment. You seriously cannot think of any advantages to this? Not that I am particularly fond of this concept, but I do have to admit that it is full of advantages. If you can't handle the idea of being stationed in a hotel, just pray you are never stationed in a place like I am stationed!

This should be a sticky post!

Therein lies the problem. We are therefore not considered part of real medicine by the public. Therefore, we get none of the respect of real medicine. Easily fixed, if it weren't for the IAFC. And conversely, the people in this career aren't worth that money unless they are better educated. So again, education is the answer. The dog and pony show happens everytime the tones drop. Well then you need to improve your reading comprehension. I was speaking very specifically of public perception, not my personal beliefs. Regardless of what I think of them, the public generally does not view those people as true professionals, but simply as providers of a service that their tax dollars demand. Public servants, who are taken for granted and given no professional respect because, after all, they work for us. That may be the lifelong dream of the typical firemonkey, but not me. And education will ensure that EMS providers are considered professionals from the bottom up, not from the top down. I fail to see your point. Or, more likely, you fail to present a point. I think you are seriously overestimating the professional lure of the police and fire services, but okay. My point exactly.

Dude, I would love to check those out! We have three types of ventilators here. Set up in the ambulance, we have a PneuPac Parapac, which is simple (too simple, actually) but effective. In the ALS bag we have an LSP 2000 hooked up to the O[sub:2806b85bd8]2[/sub:2806b85bd8] regulator yoke and ready to go (meh... it's light and easy). And in the hospital we have Impact Uni-Vent 754s for flights and long term controlled ventilation. I wish we could leave one mounted in the ambo, but it isn't happening. I have been wanting to play with the VAR though and put it through its paces. Is is paramedic, I mean "idiot" proof?

Education. It is THE answer to every question facing EMS. And we already have permanent stations with a huge public presence. They're called hospitals. This is MEDICINE. The sooner we embrace this, the sooner we will be a profession, and not just another government service that people take for granted with no respect. Where is law enforcement requiring an associates degree for entry?? You must mean individual departments, because I know of no state that requires it.

I'd like to no how you ever got past the third grade. :?

I can't get past the fact that they were driving a fifteen year old ambulance! :shock:

You raise an excellent point, Todd. This is one of the prime reasons that we have such a low retention rate. Blood and guts is only "cool" for the rookie. Soon, that wears out and all you are left with is the emotional grind. Nobody signs up for that. For this profession to ever stabilise, it will be imperitive for our public image to become more realistic than what it obviously is, as evidenced by this topic. As somebody so astutely mentioned, does anybody ask their doctor what the grossest thing they've seen is? Nope. The medical profession (not to be confused with EMS) is viewed as a PROFESSION that is more academic than action packed. In reality, that's how EMS is too, but that is not the perception. The day that people choose EMS as a profession because they truly seek the intellectual challenge of diagnosing disease and alleviating suffering is the day that our profession will grow ten-fold. But as long as the majority of the people are attracted simply by the thrill of the siren, the mystique of the blood and guts, and the ability to have it all in two weeks of 8th grade level training, EMS will continue to be $hit. I am disgusted. :roll:

Plus 5 for an incredibly honest and intelligent post, Mackeydad! :thumbright: