jw-c152

Wow. And you wonder why EMS is still a second rate occupation in many areas of North America. In no other occupation will you find colleagues so willing to rip your head off and feed it to the pirhanas. If we, as one big EMS community, want to gain the respect, public support, pay increases, professional status, etc. that we deserve then we must stick together. We must support each other and our profession. Every one of us has made errors. Nobody's perfect. Mistakes will be made. That doesn't mean we should go running to management to get them suspended. Instead, we as a group should be protesting that suspension. If it can happen to one person, it WILL happen to another, then another, and then eventually... YOU. What EMS is lacking, IMO, is the 'brotherhood' (females included - 'siblinghood' ??) that Police and Fire have. They are a team. They support each other in good times and bad. Have you ever been to a police LODD funeral? Wow. Officers from all over the continent attend. That's because of the respect they have for each other just because they perform the same job. Connie, I don't believe you should be suspended, or disciplined in any manner. In fact, I'd like to thank you for recognizing a problem with that equipment and reporting it so that it could be replaced and your (OUR as an EMS brotherhood) patients received the best care possible. I respect you all as EMS professionals, but guys, come on.. let's stop eating our young and hanging the old, and tattling on each other. That's it for me. Later.

Toronto Dispatch: "OUT OF TOWN" unit 3xyz, I have an emerg call for you. It's a Delta response. Oh, that's a Code 4 in your lingo"

The CUPE Strike/Job action: This is slightly off topic, but someone else brought it up so here goes... CUPE Ontario is no longer initiating any sort of job action or strike. This includes paramedics who are part of CUPE. Hammer, you're almost correct by saying the CUPE was opposed to the bill because PD, FD and EMS were to receive early retirement benefits and the rest of CUPE was not. The incorrect information there lies in the fact that in actuallity (is that word??) EMS was EXCLUDED from any of the benefits PD and FD would receive in terms of early retirement. In Bill 206 (which has passed through the House btw) PD and FD would automatically see their Normal Retirement Age reduced to 60, which would effectively allow them to retire with full pension at around 50 years of age. They would also be permitted to negotiate pension improvements with their employer, which OMERS pension plan would be obligated to implement within 3 years. PD and FD would also be allowed to negotiate to their maximum pension accrual rate of 2.33% per annum as permitted by Federal Income Tax Law (because PD and FD are classed as Public Safety Occupations). So that's the basic run down on what this bill gives Police and Fire. This bill is GREAT for them. However, it sucks for EMS! Here's why: - For Paramedics, our Normal Retirement Age is and still will be 65, which would allow most of us to retire between 55-60. This wasn't reduced like it was for PD and FD. - Initially, in Bill 206, pension accrual rate for paramedics (as well as other CUPE members, ie. clerks, receptionists, janitors, etc) was capped by the McGuinty government at 1.345% per annum. 1.345 per cent! PD and FD got 2.33%!!! As an example, a police officer with 30 years on making an average of 35,000/year in his best 5 years would bring home a yearly pension of 19 thousand dollars. A paramedic on the other hand, with 30 years on, making 35K average for best five years would only bring home a pension of $11 000 per year because of our much lower accrual rate. This is what they proposed even though under federal income tax law, paramedics too are a Public Safety Occupation. CUPE fought against this and won a concession from the gov't that allowed us to negotiate an accural rate with our employer up to the max 2.33%... BUT THIS IS JUST A TRICK! Here's why: - Under Bill 206, PD and FD must negotiate any pension improvements with their employer. Once a deal as been reached, the OMERS (our pension) board must implement these changes within 2 years. Under Bill 206, EMS must negotiate any pension improvements with their employer also. HOWEVER, once a deal has been reached, the improvement must be voted on by the OMERS Board and receive 2/3 support from the board to be passed. - The OMERS Board is composed of 50% Employers side, 50% Employees side... Except for the fact that 1 of the spots on the Employees side is actually an EMPLOYER! (ie. The Manager of my service is a manager/boss, but he is also a member of the OMERS pension plan and my BOSS (the Employer) sits on the Employee side of the board). This system makes it virtually impossible for Paramedics to actually receive ANY improvements to our pension. In the end, Paramedics/EMS got screwed again, not only by the government and Bill 206, but also by CUPE... Because, CUPE gave up the fight with just a promise from the government to review bill 206 in 6 years. CRAP CRAP CRAP! We got SCREWED! Hope that helps you understand the problems with Bill 206 in regards to EMS and Paramedics. I'm sorry for adding my biases into this post.

According to the OPSEU (the teachers union) the strike is over work load and class size. I don't believe it's over money, because the Colleges have offered a nice raise in their last offer to the teachers... a raise which would see the college teachers making 94 000 dollars at the end of the contract. Not bad IMHO. If they think that is not enough dough then I believe they're getting a bit greedy. So maybe it's over the workload and class sizes. But why not have their protest during the summer when it will not affect so many students. Once again, Ontario's students are being used as pawns. Hope you all get to finish your classes and rideouts and graduate before the EMCA... good luck.

to EMT: Based on your original post ("EMT-B, but PCP-Trained" - can you explain further?) are you an EMT-B or PCP? Curious if you're PCP why you can't administer Glucagon

Some great points... but wasn't this beat to death in a recent thread? Don't mean to try to end your discussion, Zach, but you'll find a lot of this info already discussed if you do a search for it. P.s. Where in Ontario do you work? I'm in that service just to the east of T.dot

SooC... Assuming we're all talking about the same college here... Cent doesn't have a 100% pass rate first time on EMCA. Perhaps some classes have.. mine did. But I know 100% for sure there students who have failed EMCA 1 or more times after graduating from that college (I know some of them personally). That said, I'll be the first to say the education I received there is top notch, IMO. But faculty/student relationships have occured there. No one's trying to slam your college, but it's the truth.

Hey MedicDude... by chance does the name of your college have the initials C.C.???

As my fellow Ontarians have said, ACP/ACP (advanced care paramedic) crews in this province are rare. In my service you will find that configuration only in instances where a PCP (primary care paramedic) books off and an ACP is called into work overtime with another ACP. As far as ACP's attending ALL calls, it doesn't happen. If the patient requires a level of care above the education/training/skill set of a PCP then the ACP will attend. If the care required falls within the PCP's scope of practice then we will go call for call. If there is a change in patient condition then the ACP can always switch from driver to attendant if necessary. As an example, I, as a PCP, will often attend on an ischemic chest pain call. My ACP partner must start the line and give the fentenyl (if indicated) but I can monitor the patient, administer the Nitro and ASA, aquire/interpret the 12 lead, etc. That being said, the opposite regularly takes place... a car will often be staffed PCP/PCP... J

Wow, I don't know what I'd do without my time off.. When you guys say you don't have any time off is it because you work more than one job? Because you work your one job every day?? Because you work more than one job and go to school or other activity? I truely hope you aren't serious when you say you have no time off. Personally, working one full time job it seems that I have a lot of time off.... in my service we work 12 hour shifts and follow this pattern... 4 days ON from Monday to Thursday 6 days OFF from Friday to Thursday 4 nights ON from Thursday night to Sunday night (that's what I'm on right now! 3rd of 4th night, almost done WOOHOO!) 6 shifts ON - Friday to Sunday DAY, Monday to Wednesday NIGHT 4 days OFF from Thursday to Sunday Back the the start - 4 Days on The 6 shift split sucks large, but it's well worth the week off every month. As for what I do??? Some days I lounge around and do nothing. I like going to movies. I play my bagpipes. I go to pipe band practice. I teach first aid to Scouts. I swim occasionally. I study for the aeromedical course I'm taking. In the summer I ride my motorcycle. In the winter I shovel snow. I love camping, but don't do it nearly enough. Some days i lounge around and no nothing! Once a month or so I go to a planning meeting for the Skills Competition we host here (near Toronto). If anyone is interested in competing we'd love to have you! I have the info... you can just PM me! 3 divisions.. Advanced Care Paramedic (= EMT-P), Primary Care Paramedic (= EMT-I maybe? I really don't know) and Student. That's my time off in a nutshell.. sorry for writing so much. J

The region I work for is 2 590 square kilometers (1000 square miles) and has a population of approx 550 000 residents. We have in the vicinity of 150 full-time paramedics and approx 100 part time paramedics (a mixture of Advanced Care and Primary Care paramedics ... which I guess would be EMT-P and EMT-I??) We have 9 stations, of which 6 are urban and 3 are rural. On a day shift we have 18 ambulances to service the region as well as 4 Rapid Response Vehicles. At night time that number decreases to 14 with no RRV's. With the exception of 3 of the cars, we run with an ACP/PCP crew so all calls get an ALS response. Of course there are times when the ACP books off and the shift is filled with a 2nd PCP. As far as number of calls, the latest data I can find about our region is dated a few years... in 2000 we responded to 38 185 calls for service throughout the region plus an addition 8 000 stand-by responses. Numbers are a fair bit higher now as the region has experienced quite a bit of growth. As far as FD response to medical calls, we have a Tiered Response system where the FD is dispatched to certain medical calls, ex. VSA, Unconscious, CP, SOB, etc. However, the EMS system is entirely separate from FD and the FD has no paramedics working for them. Here, their role is to provide first response with O2, bleed control, CPR/Auto Defib if necessary prior to EMS arrival because there are many more fire halls than Paramedic Stations they often have a better response time. So that's my story... and my first post!