Sassafras

We wear light blue button up shirts (the supervisors wear white). When I first started with the agency, the only pants available were regular, dark navy blue pants. Nothing more than two pockets in the front and back. About 3 years ago, they entertained the idea of switching to polo shirts and let the field operations employees vote on whether they wanted to stay with the current button up shirts or switch to polos. Luckily, the majority voted to keep the former. My personal opinion, and I don't mean to offend those of you that do wear polos, is that they don't look as professional. Again, that's only my opinion. They eventually gave everyone the option of choosing between the original pants and the cargo pants. I stayed with the originals. I don't carry anything on me other than my pager and radio. Anything else that I may need (i.e. scissors) is easily within my grasp. We are not allowed to wear sweatshirts or t-shirts. If it's cold, the only things that we can wear are the issued jacket or the commando type sweater. If you wore a turtleneck with the sweater, it had to be white or navy blue. If it's cold and we want or need to wear a beanie, it has to be navy blue. Absolutely no exceptions. That was enforced after we women decided to add a little color to our hats. :laughing6: I was really disappointed to have to give up my cute little orange and baby blue beanie. *sniff sniff* So, there you have it. The uniform policy is pretty strict, but all in all it works and we look professional.

I had a patient about a year ago that yanked out all ten toenails with a pair of plyers. :shock: I've had worse, but the self removal of finger/toenails just gives me the willies.

If I were to break my ankle by stepping in a hole in my yard or something (assuming I would call an ambulance for that) and the responding paramedics attempted to remove my clothing, I would have a definite problem with that.

I wouldn't know. My employer put me through paramedic school but if I had to guess, I'd say anywhere between $4K - $7K.

Dahlio, thanks for the luck! I wish you the best as well. I'll never burn out of medicine, but the time has definitely come to move on from EMS. I've had a good run and I just don't see myself ever truly enjoying this job again. I think that a lot of it has to do with the company I work(ed!) for. Treat your employees like 'sheet' and they shall return the favor. I can only play politics for so long dude. :evil: Me, I'm looking forward to M-F work weeks, no pagers or radios to disrupt the air surrounding me, no more late calls, holidays off, and the list could go on and on. I have ALL the respect in the world for those of you who can do this type of work for years on end because I surely can't. But that's okay with me. I'm not sad about it, in fact, it's quite a relief to be moving on to something else. This has actually given me motivation to want to go back to school. For what exactly, I'm not quite sure, but the desire is definitely there. For now anyway, I have a new job and am excited to finish out my last 2 weeks in EMS. In all honesty, the hardest part is going to be leaving my partner ( ) and a lot of good friends that I've made throughout the years. *sigh* So anyway, keep up the good work you guys and I wish you all the best of luck! ps: I'll still be around here from time to time. :wink:

Aaaah, gotcha! :wink:

Who is this directed at?

I wouldn't have a clue. I know nothing about DC fire and EMS.

Oh man! You totally nailed that one! :laughing1: We'll ask a pt. which hospital they want to go to and if they have no preference, my partner and I go to the one with the best cafeteria! If we're out somewhere trying to eat and get a call, the person who will be in charge of pt. care gets to eat while the other one drives. Add on top of that dispatchers paging us every 5 minutes telling us to clear the hospital when we've been on duty for 9 hours and have yet to eat and it's enough to make me yank my hair out! I know it's all part of the job, but it just gets so old, know what I mean?

I'm approaching 10 years and I've pretty much had all I can take. I've had small bouts of burnout throughout the years but this one's eating me alive. I just don't care anymore (I still provide the best care possible) and that's not fair to my patients. Physically, I feel my body slowly falling apart and mentally this job is the biggest stress in my life. I'm not a pleasant person to be around these days and I firmly believe that 95% of the cause is this job. Time to go. I love medicine, but have had it with EMS. I can't wait for the day I turn my sh*t in and never have to step foot back in an ambulance. Woo-hoo! :(/

Not nearly enough employees to handle the outrageous call volume, administration that doesn't give a damn about their employees, driving the city streets incessantly throughout the shift, if you get time for lunch count yourself damn lucky, favortism shown in numerous aspects and by certain people all the time. I fully recognize that these are the same complaints a lot of people have. There's just no possible way that I could put down in words how horrible the place is, and it goes way beyond what's listed above. I get sick to my stomach pulling into the parking lot. Morale is at an all time low. Truth be told, if I had anywhere else to go, I'd glady turn my sh*t in with a smile on my face. I am searching though. You are absolutely correct.

Avoid Charlotte, NC like the black plague. It's hell on earth. :banghead: :angry7:

Nope. No can do.

Sorry for bumping an old thread but I don't come around too much these days. I just HAD to agree with this. That annoys the p!$$ out of me. And I hate when I can't stop them from doing it in time. Yes, you're a colleague. Yes, you have an ambulance just like mine. Yes it flashes perty red lights. But must you be a nimrod and turn them on just to say "hey"? Just wave at me for crying out loud. :roll:

Wow, that's so different from what I'm used to! Yeah, we have outside compartments and inside cabinets, but we strap all of the "portable" equipment (again, the monitor, O2, drug box and airway bag) onto our stretcher to take in with us. If we don't need it then no big deal, we just carry it back out (great exercise ).