Dustdevil

Nice! :thumbleft:

LMAO! That's hilarious right there! I could watch that all day! Anybody find any story about this anywhere? It's gotta be on the Internet.

Just my personal thought, if I were in your situation, when it came to question time I think I would say something like, "I am a professional, and I am interested in being the very best provider I can be. But I am also admittedly very new to EMS. What process does your agency have in place to get new graduates oriented and up to speed? Is there a formal orientation program? How long is it and how does that work? Would I be partnered with a senior medic who has experience precepting new graduates?" Questions of that sort will be beneficial on several levels. First of all, it demonstrates honesty and humility. Trust me, EMS administrators get really, really tired of all the wankers that come straight out of EMT school copping attitudes as if they are a trauma god who already knows everything there is to know, and are there to show everybody else how great they are. It is extremely refreshing to hear somebody basically say, "yeah, I'm new. But I want to be a part of your team and do the very best job for you that I can." And of course, by this line of conversation you will walk away with clear expectations as to what your first weeks are going to be like. That beats the hell out of worrying yourself sick the night before that first shift wondering if they are going to throw you straight to the wolves. You might also ask about educational opportunities. Do they provide in-house continuing ed classes? Or are you going to have to go find your own $50 CPR class every year? PHTLS? BTLS? PALS? Those are all things you will want to be looking into once you get comfortable in your routine. If your employer provides those things, that's a real plus. Good luck!

It's covered in the big New Members- Read This First!!" topic that you apparently didn't read first. But yeah, as usual, I would echo what ncmedic309 has to say. There is no such thing as a safe scene. There is no such thing as a secure scene. And police presence is quite meaningless. Use your head. If cops were such a securing factor, they wouldn't be getting shot and assaulted themselves so often now, would they? The majority of the times that I have been shot at or assaulted in the field, it has been with the police present. And the other times were completely out of left field. Old ladies with OBS. Middle aged COPDers with steroid psychoisis. Unconscious persons that woke up to be drunks looking for a fight. Low priority "general medical" patients that turned out to be cracked out. Of course, I firmly believe that the concept of "scene safety" is completely mistaught and misunderstood in EMT school, and it ultimately contributes to mortality and morbidity among providers. I see all these rookies verbalizing "scene safety" as a mantra, but they obviously haven't the slightest concept of what it really means. Their instructors aren't giving them scenarios that involve scene safety threats to where they understand exactly what they are verbalizing. Scene safety isn't something you say. Scene safety is something you do. And if you think that wearing gloves and waiting for PD is all you need to do to keep yourself safe in this business, Darwin is just waiting to make you a statistic. You are a hell of a lot more likely to get run over by a car at an MVA than you are to get shot while caring for a shooting victim. Yet the same people who stage half a mile away from those shooting runs don't give a second thought to walking around an accident scene on the freeway with no police directing traffic. Now tell me, have you ever seen a medic park half a mile from the MVA and wait for the police to show up before making the scene? Nope. Don't even get me started on "scene safety." I am at the point that I believe more than half the people that get killed in this business were asking for it.

But nobody is stopping those schools from exceeding the minimum requirements. In fact, most schools I see do so significantly. Those schools who do not extend their curriculum in order to give their students an education sufficient to produce competent practitioners are the main problem. And those students (and agencies) who choose their school simply based upon how short it is are also a problem. The point is to elevate education to a higher standard, not to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator.

Why?

North, I completely agree with you. There are always personality quirks and simple bad days that create an uncomfortable environment. And many times, a little honest communications, understanding, or compromise is all that it takes to turn a bad match into a great partnership. Heck, sometimes people don't even realize they are being a jerk until somebody holds a mirror up to them. That should always be plan A. But this does not appear to be one of those cases. This appears to be an intentionally malicious attitude. This is exactly how this person is intending to act, believes it is appropriate, and intends to beat our friend down. This is not a simple personality clash. This is premeditated hostility. She is intentionally mistreating our friend. This is no different than if she were physically abusing her. There is no working this one out. And if she tries, then when the issue does finally go to management (as it ultimately will), our friend is going to be portrayed as being part of the argument. In that case, management will not see her as a victim of harassment, but as a mutual combatant. I have been in a lot of similar situations over the years. Ask Rid. Even being twenty years the senior of your partner doesn't mean you don't still get guys who cop a serious attitude on you. And usually, by the end of the third shift you have it worked out to a mutual understanding. But when somebody goes from zero to bitch in the blink of an eye, you are no longer obligated to escalate your response in small steps. You are not obligated to wrestle with a knife wielding assailant. You may skip directly to the appropriate amount of force necessary to safely and effectively neutralize the threat. Drop the big one. Go to management.

It is sometimes the opposite here. Community college rates are pretty reasonable in Texas, and semester hours are all you're really paying for. And since you are paying only a little each semester, it is a lot more manageable than the one or two lump sum payment an independent school usually asks. Especially if you take your prerequisites (A&P, English, Psych, etc...) over time. Something to consider if you are on a budget.

That raises a very good point. This kind of behaviour does not develop overnight. Chances are that she did not just look at you and decide this is how she was going to act. She's done this to others before you, and others before you have reported it too. That's most likely why she doesn't have a regular partner and is being stuck with newbies. Report her immediately. With any luck, you will be the final straw.

You do charts hours after dropping off the patient? :? That's a disaster just waiting to happen.

First, look before you leap. Don't get too excited about down time until you know for sure you will actually have some! Do you know where you will be working? Some places have no down time. They have you driving around the city constantly, with no station to rest at, so you're stuck in the ambo for up to 12 hours at a time. That pretty well limits you to reading, listening to music, playing catch, Frisbee, or cards, sleeping, or eating. You get ambulance ass pretty quickly doing that. But regardless of whether or not you have down time and a place to spend it or not, if you are new to the field, you need to be spending that time studying because you didn't learn a thing in EMT school. Don't worry about whether or not it's embarrassing to study in front of your partner. There is no shame in admitting you are new and just a basic. The shame is in doing nothing about it. But yeah, not all ambo jobs are created equal, so make sure you know what the shifts are like before you take the first job offer you get. Because most of them aren't like Turd Watch where you sit on your ass in a station for most of the shift. In fact, they don't even do that in NYC. Good luck!

The Copyright owner doesn't want their property reproduced and redistributed, and says so in plain English on their website. The owner of THIS website states in his written policies that he doesn't want you doing so on his property either. What the hell else do you need to know? The law is not a semantic game for you to play. There is no room in EMS for people who want to make up their own rules as they go. And, of course, this discussion is in no way educational, so forget that argument.

Okay. The question mark threw me off. Made it look like you were asking a question.

Exactly. Three decades of paramedics have managed to elicit the very same information from their patients without a mnemonic device to prompt them along the way. I am all for anything that facilitates the learning process. Heck, ABC is the best thing to ever come along in medical education. But I really, really hope that these aren't becoming crutches for field practice. And I really, really hope that people aren't becoming so focused on working through these mnemonics that they lose sight of their primary purpose, which is to evaluate the patient's condition so that he might be treated.

Just the fact that she calls "her" ambulance a bus is all I need to know about her. :roll:

Is that a statement, or a question? :?

I still stand by the advice I gave you the first time you asked this question last year. Cleavage or tight sweater. :wink:

That's a damn fine idea, Jo! I think I would maybe even go a step farther. I would have them read it, and then return to me with a research paper of similar style on their own community so none of them will come out of school whining about how they can't find a job.

Haha! That's awesome! There's a lot of really good stuff on that site. I highly recommend it! I especially liked, "With Mouth Wide Open" I wish I had a dime for every time I had to explain that to some medic or nurse.

If you think there is a chance he is going down the tubes, then that is even more reason to get on the road. The more time you spend on scene asking pointless questions, the more likely it is that he will worsen enroute. The only reason to delay getting a patient to the hospital -- especially in a case of respiratory distress -- is if you have some type of therapeutic benefit to offer them there. You don't. What they need is at the hospital. Therefore, there is no excuse for pissing around on the scene just so you'll have something to write on your run report. Do it in the ambo.

Not particularly. The ER is going to ask it all over again anyhow. And there is nothing you can do with that information even if you do get it. While it should be elicited enroute simply as a matter of routine, it should not keep you on the scene for an extra minute.

I don't know where you searched, but it obviously was not the website of the Copyright owner. From: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html

Unless you have a paramedic with you, forget all that crap. Put oxygen on him and get on the road. There is nothing you can do for him sitting around in his living room and asking pointless questions.

Meh... Mike's an uber smart dude who I trust, but I've just seen this situation way too many times in thirty years. Working something out mano a mano only works if you're both interested in reaching a compromise. It seems absolutely clear to me that she is not. And any attempt to discuss it will likely result in an ugly confrontation for which she will report our friend as insubordinate and argumentative. And with him being the newbie, guess who's going to be believed. There is no settling this with this broad. And it ain't going away on its own. This requires moderation and intervention from upstairs. And I will repeat one of the most important facts about working in EMS:

This isn't the real world. This is EMS. And in EMS, he who gets his story to management fist wins, regardless of who was actually right or wrong. Screw the broad. Go up the chain of command immediately with your concerns. If they are unfounded, they'll tell you and move on. If they don't like what she's doing, it's her arse instead of yours. But if she goes to management complaining about you first, you're screwed.