ABC News says we are ambulance drivers.

[JPINFV]

I agree with everything else you posted except this. Yes. One of us has to drive the ambulance. That's a given. But please consider the following:

What do you call the guy who drives the fire engine? Do you call him a fire engine driver?

What do you call the guy who drives the police car? Do you call him a police car driver?

No! You call him/her a firefighter or a police officer.

So why are we "ambulance drivers" and not EMTs or paramedics? [emphasis added]

Just food for thought.

-be safe

As I talked about in that post, in most states and according to the NREMT, paramedics are EMTs also. If we can't even accurately talk about ourselves when talking to the public, how can we expect them to know what to call us?

[firedoc5]

I agree with everything else you posted except this. Yes. One of us has to drive the ambulance. That's a given. But please consider the following:

What do you call the guy who drives the fire engine? Do you call him a fire engine driver?

What do you call the guy who drives the police car? Do you call him a police car driver?

No! You call him/her a firefighter or a police officer.

So why are we "ambulance drivers" and not EMTs or paramedics?

Just food for thought.

-be safe

I like that comparison. =D>

[frontcrawl]

Second, until we become a true profession which requires a college education and move past the 120 hour first aid course known as the EMT-Basic curriculum and the 9 month paramedic curriculum (to, say, a 2 year college degree as a minimum), EMS will never have the respect it deserves inside the medical field to even consider attempting to educate the public, much less yell at them for a simple mistake. We need to clean our own house before we decide to take it to the street. "

How DARE you!!!! I have 137 hours of training. How dare you go dissin somebody of such high stature as myself! Who do you think you are, next thing you know this guy will be disrespecting postal clerks or something!

In short, YOU sir, are a cad and a bounder!

[Lone Star]

As I talked about in that post, in most states and according to the NREMT, paramedics are EMTs also. If we can't even accurately talk about ourselves when talking to the public, how can we expect them to know what to call us?

Since all levels of EMS (EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate, EMT-Paramedic) all contain the common title "Emergency Medical Technician", it's logical to refer to them as EMT's. Only those who are suffering from an over inflated ego MUST be labeled by distinction.

Even your college courses are broken down in this fashion, so it stands to reason that the National Registry will also use the 'lump grouping'.

You don't see doctors going through this 'chest thumping, degree waving' amongst themselves, to make sure that the public is well aware of who the top 'doctor level' is!

Could this be part of the reason that we're not viewed as 'professionals'?

How many times have you seen or heard of a doctor getting bent out of shape because they weren't addressed by some title that reflected their specialty? Podiatrist Smith, Cardiologist Levenstein, Proctologist Green, Orthopedist Thompson, Neurologist Malik, or Proctologist Sharpton? You dont! They have moved on from this petty 'stand out from the crowd' mentality and realized that they're all doctors, just as we are ALL EMT's!

*DISCLAIMER* By putting names and specialties together, I am in no way implying that certain ethnic, racial or gender groups are more predisposed to certain specialties. These were just simply the first name I could think of as well as the first specialties I could think of to illustrate my point!

I personally think that as soon as we stop this 'I'm more important than you are!' mentality, we may have just taken a huge step toward being recognized as the professionals that we are!

Let the fireworks commence!

[JPINFV]

You don't see doctors going through this 'chest thumping, degree waving' amongst themselves, to make sure that the public is well aware of who the top 'doctor level' is!

Oh, apparently you haven't seen the MD vs DO vs Caribbean threads on Student Doctor Network (SDN).

[AnthonyM83]

That's more amongst themselves though...

[VentMedic]

ABC World News Tonight, Charlie Gibson

There are 48 different certifications in the U.S. Charles Gibson also covers international news which includes ambulances in other countries. Cut the guy some slack. Many of our titles don't even transfer across state lines. With, FR, EMT-A, B, C, D, I, P, 1, II, III, IV, EMT-Intubation, EMT-Intravenous (IV) etc, we should hand out a menu or program on each ambulance call to list what services will be provided by whom. We can also make a notation to include, "the part of the ambulance driver will be played by Paramedic whoever".

And after reading the thread about the little volley service in Kansas....???

[Timmy]

Seriously who cares? I find this all very pedantic… I mean what’s the first question the public ask “do you get to drive the ambulance” followed by “That’s so awesome, do you get to speed? Can you turn the lights on” The general public don’t care what were called; they just want someone to fix them up.

In Australia if you said EMT or EMS to a member of general public they would give you a funny look. The equivalent to EMT B has the official title of volunteer first aid. If you said ‘ambo’ everyone knows exactly what you’re on about. Even paramedic is a pretty new term to Australia; sometimes people debate the name because ‘para’ means two… A lot of skin clinics also go by the name of paramedical because in skin talk it has some relevance to something.

Do we not drive the ambulance? Yes, well one would hope anyway. You could debate about the garbage collectors/garbage man/garbos because here there real title is environmental officer, do you see them mopping round about it? I don’t think so, they happily get up at 4am and collect your trash. Or the dog catcher, why don’t we call him animal protection officer?

If I ever become a paramedic I’d happily go by the title of ambulance driver.

[AnthonyM83]

I can see where it matters somewhat. Not so much with new people I meet. I'll actually say I'm an ambulance driver when they ask. But among your peers, family, previous colleagues, it'd be nice to be portrayed as someone who's doing something more with their life than ONLY driving an ambulance. Likewise, it'd be nice if other medical professionals viewed us as more than that and similarly EXPECTED more from us.

[JPINFV]

Who do you think you are, next thing you know this guy will be disrespecting postal clerks or something!

In short, YOU sir, are a cad and a bounder!

Of course I wouldn't go around dissing postal clerks. I live next door to a post office and the last thing I need is to have one of them go postal on me.