An ambulance is NOT a bus...

[Dustdevil]

I know I'm old but when I call for assistance I say bus. I guess thats what I always called them since i became a medic. To me its second nature and in my area it pretty common.

I hope this is a joke? :?

Dude, you're 23. Have you been a medic long enough to have even re-certified yet? If your "second nature" is beyond change after a grand total of four years in the profession, you're destined to a career of mediocrity.

[tiedyedbeth]

I grew up with my dad calling his ambulance a rig so that's what I called it. I just started volunteering at my local rescue squad, and they call it a truck so that's what I'm learning to say.

But I can see the point. It doesn't sound as professional.

[spenac]

I grew up with my dad calling his ambulance a rig so that's what I called it. I just started volunteering at my local rescue squad, and they call it a truck so that's what I'm learning to say.

But I can see the point. It doesn't sound as professional.

So you have a great opportunity to at least help your volly service sound more professional. All it takes is one person to get the ball rolling.

[tiedyedbeth]

That's a good point. One person here, and another there, and things could change.

[spenac]

That's a good point. One person here, and another there, and things could change.

An example of how one person can cause change. Years ago bought a house in an older kind of run down area. I cleaned mine up. Then the people on each side cleaned theirs up. Before a year we had a very desirable area with much better resale value.

Same can happen at our EMS station. Kindly apply a little pressure but more importantly set the right example.

[AnthonyM83]

Eh, we call them rigs among yourselves. Always ambulance when talking to the public. I honestly think that when we're talking to each other the public just filters out a lot of terms like PSI, rig, PMS, c-spine. I mean good thing to consider that I hadn't thought about before but don't think it'd change public's perception even .5%...but I guess .5% is better than nothing. I'd concentrate on problems like competency, behavior on-scene, etc first...

[Richard B the EMT]

The article by Mr. Becker says

A bus picks up a group of people and takes them to a location by following a pre-designated route. The vehicle configuration, the level of service and the fact you can only sit -- not lay down -- doesn't compare to an ambulance.

However, in the verbal history of the first organized ambulance service, from over 100 years ago, out of Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, New York, that is exactly what the first ambulances did. If the non-medically trained crew, or the intern that sometimes rode along, felt a patient was of an emergent nature, they'd leave the route and proceed directly to the ED.

I was told, by a colleague (again, from before the EMS/FDNY merger), that his ambulance was called directly over an NYPD radio, to "get the 'bus' to" where someone had been shot. My friend, who is, if you can believe it, a bigger joke-maker than myself, responded back, "I'm going to be delayed en route, because I have to stop at the transit depot to pick up a bus: I'm drivin' a ambulance!"

[Dustdevil]

However, in the verbal history of the first organized ambulance service, from over 100 years ago, out of Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, New York, that is exactly what the first ambulances did. If the non-medically trained crew, or the intern that sometimes rode along, felt a patient was of an emergent nature, they'd leave the route and proceed directly to the ED.

That's an interesting and relevant piece of history! Thanks!

[mediccjh]

The article by Mr. Becker says

However, in the verbal history of the first organized ambulance service, from over 100 years ago, out of Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, New York, that is exactly what the first ambulances did. If the non-medically trained crew, or the intern that sometimes rode along, felt a patient was of an emergent nature, they'd leave the route and proceed directly to the ED.

I was told, by a colleague (again, from before the EMS/FDNY merger), that his ambulance was called directly over an NYPD radio, to "get the 'bus' to" where someone had been shot. My friend, who is, if you can believe it, a bigger joke-maker than myself, responded back, "I'm going to be delayed en route, because I have to stop at the transit depot to pick up a bus: I'm drivin' a ambulance!"

Rich, you beat me to it!!

That is why I will always call it a bus. Since 1994 when I started in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

[Dustdevil]

Yeah, I can't say I will ever be fond of the term, or the implications it has on our profession, but I have to admit that this story certainly gives me a whole new way of looking at it. I always thought it was more of a self-depreciating term used by New Yorkers, that I really didn't like. But now, with the historical perspective on it, that's actually pretty cool. Unfortunately, all the newbies never hear that story and don't know the history, which leaves a derogatory feel to the term. That's too bad.

As for the rest of the country, where we don't share that history, I don't think it's appropriate, and most of the people in EMS that use it do so only to imitate what they saw on "Turd Watch".