Waddya hate?

[buckeyedoc]

Like most of you, I've been around the block a time or 2. I've been doing this job for almost 17 years now. I have seen the good and seen the bad. From patients, EMTs/Medics, hospital staff, management, the population as a whole, hell, from just about everyone. One of the biggest gripes I have is when a medic thinks they are too good to do the basic stuff. Street surgeons, paragods, call them what you will. The last time I checked, the first 3 initials of our certification is EMT.

I hate being called an ambulance driver. Yes, that is part of my job description, but so is wiping butts part of YOUR job description. Can I call you butt wiper and leave it at that? I hate management who has forgotten what it's like to be on the road.

Oh, something that really chafes my butt. I hate the medics who bitch and moan about a bad labs run. I've seen WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY too many medics throw the patient on the cot and gripe all the way to the hospital only to find out that their Na and K are in the basement and didn't even think to put them on a monitor. Oh, I also don't like medics who don't know common lab values. You see lab values more w/ private ambulance companies than w/ a 911 service, but they are out there. Oh, did I mention that I hate when nursing home nurses (contradiction in terms right there) will wait for 2 hours for a patient to be transported that should have been gone 2.5 hours ago. Or they'll have a patient who falls, hits their head on the crapper and has a hematoma. Yet, they'll pick them up, put them back in bed and call you 3 hours later because of an altered LOC.

[kjmasterstefone]

i would have to say when new supervisors come into a company and tries to run it without knowing what the company is all about and the people

[pmedic623]

Partners who leave their cellphones on the obnoxious setting and have their Squad 51 tones drop while I'm dealing with a patient or their silly Fed Q2 ringtone........Some people need killin...623

[buckeyedoc]

Partners who leave their cellphones on the obnoxious setting and have their Squad 51 tones drop while I'm dealing with a patient or their silly Fed Q2 ringtone........Some people need killin...623

I agree.

[AnthonyM83]

A lot of the job isn't that great, but I try to find ways to get something out of it. An interfacility transfer is a chance to read medical charts, read about their surgery blow by blow, practice assessments and vital signs, or get a good story from another time out of them.

Things I don't particularly like though:

-Partners who hate the job and have no interest in medicine. Just makes the shift a chore.

-FD acting in demeaning manner toward ambulance crews or putting patients at risk due to laziness.

-Immaturity. Don't mean acting youthful/silly, rather people lying, doing things only to appeal to management, narcing on crews for non-dangerous stuff (who even taught them to do this?), forcing others to comply to one's personal style, aggressive/demeaning behavior (gave that up in HS). Guess it's part of having a young workforce?... though didn't see ANY of that in any of my old jobs including college aged jobs.

-911 Calls for self-described non-emergency chronic problems (which hasn't recently become worse) for 3AM transport to ER (where we might be waiting until 7AM for a bed)

[AnthonyM83]

Ah! Yes, the common EMT gripe about how "Dangerous" our job is. This must come from all those incidents where EMS personnel have had shot guns pointed at our face. Sure it could happen, but this comment is way over used by some EMTs. You are probably not going to get any empathy out of any of the seasoned EMT/Paramedic's in here with that comment.

Estimated fatalities per 100,000 EMS workers is 12.7 Police is 14.2 and Firefighters is 16.5 National average is 5.0 (Refer Ann Emerg Med: Maguire, et al., 2002)

I can't recall if another article I was reading was in reference to 2002 or 2006, but that year had 10 EMS workers die on-duty from GSWs. Obviously, there were more that were shot but survived.

My guess is that certain areas account for large percentages of these incidents that other areas don't even know about.

[Deltasession454]

how nurses call their patients momma or poppa..... god that drives me up a wall...... and new supervisors on a power trip..... and super fat people... we have one guy thats 836 lbs and another one whos even more but we cant weigh him....my idea was to go to a recycling center or a chp weigh station but that went over like a fart in church.... takes 8-10 people to lift them.... so much for my back!

[firedoc5]

The "attempted suicides" repeaters. The guy who calls 911, then does whatever, knowing you'll get there in time to save him and get all the attention in the world. One guy gave us the wrong address after he moved. Luckily his former neighbor knew where he moved to. Or the drunk guy that goes in the bar, sits, down, has a couple more shots, then downs a handful of "red pills" making sure everyone in there see's him do it. Almost every time it's Tylenol.

Have you ever been tempted to write a book on how to commit suicide?