Dustdevil

Damn. Even caught me with a Littmann around my neck. I'm so ashamed. :oops:

Dude, don't play stupid. If this argument were about anything but your pet issue, you wouldn't even make such an absurd statement. Tick tock. Seconds count. Every minute your patient waits while volunteers at home decide whether or not they want to respond to a sick call while they're watching ER is a minute against their survival clock. Same thing with waiting for you to respond to the station to pick up the ambulance. And especially those daytime runs where nobody is available. Does this happen often in YOUR little squad? I don't know. Doesn't matter. As Rid has pointed out, this isn't about YOU. This is about a broader issue of volunteers in general. Focus. Well then, like your friend RiderRob, you have yet to read the ten pages of the volunteer topic, or any of the other multiple topics here that have thoroughly addressed the subject. Do your homework and get back to us when you're educated.

Yeah, I got that announcement in the mail from NR yesterday. One word: FUGLY Or, should I say, fuglier than the previous one. Wish I still had one of my old "Ambulance" rocker NREMT patches from the 70's for my collection.

They are great immobilisers, but how do you get your patient onto it without overmanipulation? We played with a few for a short while in the late 70's. They promptly ripped open, leaving a billion Styrofoam balls all over the place and rendering them entirely useless. I hope they are made of tougher materials these days.

You're dodging the point. Nobody said anything about you being a bad provider. The point is simple if you read it. The reason your community doesn't have full-time professional medical personnel standing by in an ambulance 24/7 to respond to emergencies is because people like you will provide half that service for free. It is the reason people in your community die. And it is the reason that there are no actual EMS jobs for you or any other EMT or medic in your community. So yes, you are screwing your community. However, yes, I will agree with 422 that it is mostly out of ignorance. And a lot of selfishness. Certainly not out of any altruistic sense of civic pride. Otherwise, all your community's trash would be collected by volunteers too.

When you say the "physical exam is unremarkable," are we to assume that this was a thorough and comprehensive exam, or just a typical EMT-B once over? How do the mouth, lips, tongue, and throat look? Ears? Cervical or axillary adenopathy? Any sort of rash anywhere (sorry kids, but you have to remove clothes for this one!)? Did the previous doctor do a culture or at least a rapid strep, or was the URI a simple empirical diagnosis? Why was he given Zithromax? Seems a poor choice given the history. Is the patient a tobacco product user? What kind, how much, and how long?

Not really. Tonnes more job prospects for in the restaurant business. Better pay in the restaurant business. Better working conditions in the restaurant business. Better hours in the restaurant business. And significantly more chance for advancement in the restaurant business. I don't see a single advantage to being an EMT over a restaurant worker except for the uniform. I STRONGLY encourage you to do some serious and extensive job market research before you waste any time or money on this thing. I think you are likely to find that the prospects are not nearly what you think they are.

This is true. The dilemma comes immediately after they are extricated onto the board. Now what? Moving them off the board requires too much manipulation. There is simply no safe way to do it until the c-spine is cleared. Consequently, once they are on it, they are on it til the end. Not because the board is good for them. Just because moving them off of it may be bad for them. Kind of like the impaled object theory. The same dilemma comes when putting a supine patient onto the board. You have to roll them, which is potentially injurious. Consequently, I don't use a backboard for those patients, and instead opt for that other under-utilised piece of equipment, the scoop stretcher. When they get left at the hospital, my scoop stretcher comes with me. No need to leave it behind to never be seen again, like a backboard.

Yes, it has already been stated at least twice in this thread, but it certainly is worth repeating!

No. It just means that you are depriving your community of full-time professional care through your selfishness. But if your conscience is okay with that, good for you.

Two words: Intubation practice. :wink: But yeah, no resuscitation for me either.

Simple. The paid people they would hire to replace you. Don't kid yourself. You are the ONLY reason they haven't hired them already. Thanks for screwing your community out of quality, full-time care. I hope you're proud of yourself.

One night while flirting at the ER, my partner and I got paged out for a chest pain run. We pulled out of the ER dock and made it less than a block before we got broadsided by a pickup truck. My partner got suspended for a week for running the stop sign (lights, no siren, since we were only yards from the hospital), and I was off for a week on muscle relaxers for a stiff neck. So, a week later, my partner and I are both back on the job for our first shift in a week. Our very first run of the night was to take some guy home to his apartment from the ER. It's my partner's turn to attend (dual medics), so he's with the patient and doing the paperwork. We arrive at the address and unload the cot from the ambulance. As I am about to shut and lock the back doors, I see my partner left his clipboard on the squad bench. Thinking he simply forgot it, I step up into the ambulance to retrieve it. As I step back out, I step on to the side of a goddamn speed bump in the parking lot and completely invert my ankle. The crack was so loud that my partner says, "What the hell was that?" So, he helps me up into the ambulance and puts an icepack on my ankle, then requests a fire engine be dispatched to help him take our patient up two flights of stairs to his apartment. With the patient offloaded, my partner makes up the cot, puts me on it, and drives me to the ER in my own ambulance. The look on an ER nurses face when a paramedic wheels his own partner -- in uniform -- in on a cot is priceless! Consequently, nobody wanted to work with either of us for months. Me because I'm an arsehole, and him because he is trying to kill his partner.

Wonderful argument. Stick to that and you might make some sense. But your attempt at a historical context falls far short.

No. I do know of some agencies that require a certain number of college credits to be eligible for employment (usually 30), but they are either fire departments or municipal EMS agencies, not ambulance companies. Sounds like you probably have that covered though. EMT basic is not rocket surgery. It's just first aid. Any idiot can do it. Your college background will definitely be an asset to you, as it enhances your abilities to learn in a structured environment. Many students don't have that experience, and they have to work harder at it than you will. But the knowledge you both take away will be about the same. But don't even think of going to a paramedic school that doesn't complete with a degree. Good luck, and welcome aboard!

The problem is, in this case, the meaningless job IS her dream. Completely different situation. Your husband was always working. Changing careers is not changing his role in the family unit. The original poster is talking about completely changing her role in the family unit and her contributions to the relationship. That is deal breaking.

Accelerated courses are great for military medical personnel, experienced nurses and allied health personnel, or for former EMT's who are recertifying. Both times I took EMT, it was a 2 week or 4 week course. But yes, it is a risky proposition for the general population. Many big city fire departments have 3 or 4 week EMT schools. Dallas does. Eighty hours of didactic in the first two weeks, followed by eighty hours of clinicals and field time. It works well for the intelligent and well educated people who are scientifically minded and have good student skills. Especially since the clinical and field experience is immediate and intense and strongly reinforces the theory. But a lot of the products of civil service and affirmative action don't pass. And, of course, some really intelligent people simply do not have an aptitude for medicine either.

Among other things. It was also to allow people to eat, since in the 18th century we still had to hunt our own food. Regardless, you just contradicted your own lame theory. The National Guard and Reserves ARE the government. Consequently, they do not and cannot stand defence against themselves.

Sounds like the preceptor is an anal protocol monkey, and probably a very new paramedic, with a poor educational background and insufficient experience to understand the relevant pathophysiology or practical alternatives. If your ambos carry D[sub:46558d147a]5[/sub:46558d147a]W, then this was a perfectly rational and acceptable use of it. It's like arguing the benefits of a venturi mask over a nasal cannula. It's stupid. There's just no significant difference. Both get the job done, and neither of them creates a risk. I would give the preceptor a bad evaluation and send him back to school.

Grossly incorrect. The functioning National Guard was not established until long after the Constitution was written. To make the NG relevant to the Constitution would require a Constitutional amendment, which has yet to even be suggested. You disappoint me with such a silly notion. I expect better from you, Zip.

And I just found my new signature line! =D>

Guaranteed? NEMSA gave you a written guarantee? I'd sure like to see that. I want to know what they will be eating in a couple of years. Incorrect. You aren't being singled out for crap wages. Look around you. Look at what medics are making nationwide. Look at the comments on this or any other EMS board. You aren't making crap wages because you have a bad union. You are making crap wages because crap wages is simply what EMS makes, by and large. And this didn't happen overnight. It is not a recent development. It has been this way since I started in 1973. So, you either knew or should have known this long before you decided to go to EMT school. Therefore, yes, YOU made a bad career choice. You didn't do your homework or a rudimentary job market analysis before you jumped in. Otherwise you would have known long ago that the field simply did not meet your needs and chosen a more appropriate career. Now you're scapegoating others to cover for your own bad choices and lack of attention to detail (as evidenced by your spelling). Your argument is bogus, and anybody who's been in the field for more than five minutes knows better. Sorry man. I have no sympathy for you. If you were taking one for the team and trying to do something to improve the profession as a whole, I would at least respect you for your altruism. But you're not. Despite your constant reference to the term "professional," you don't appear to care the slightest bit about the profession. You're just looking out for number one.

Ah, well then we're on the same page. I do wonder if the supervisor in question was even offered a field position. After all, I do believe that a company is well within justification to put its own management and supervision in place and is not in any way obligated to keep old management. Again, it is the whole concept of replacing what the city obviously didn't like with something new and hoping for better results. But I would certainly be disappointed if he wasn't offered the opportunity to stay in some capacity.

Should everybody pay the same for their hospital bill, no matter what is done for them? Should everybody pay their mechanic the same, no matter what work he does on their car? Should everybody pay the same for their meals at a restaurant, no matter what they order? Should everybody pay the same for their home, no matter how large or small it is? I fail to see your logic. :dontknow:

Exactly. If he is NR, it's in the bag. Just need a 48 hour refresher course, which is not terribly hard to find at all, and then retest to reactivate the old cert. If he's not NR, then again, a lot of states have their own provision for it. Contact the state in question and/or www.nremt.org Definitely a lot more convenient than a full course repeat, but if you can do a full course repeat, I would certainly not discourage that. You can never have too much training, no matter your experience. Welcome to the forum. And bonus points for picking the correct forum for this post! :thumbright: