Personal equipment/your "uniform"

[d2600]

ReD started a thread awhile back on "What do you carry in your pockets?" in equipment and I'm wondering what some one in a rural setting volunteering for their fire dept has to say with equipment and just the "uniform" or lack of it.

I'm moving to a smallish city coming from a fairly rural place. I never actually got the chance to meet a EMT from where I'm from but after college i plan on being in another rural area.

Just a guy thinking to far in advanced looking for a little advice lol

Thanks

[EMT9903]

Well, you do the best you can with what you have. Some departments are lucky enough to get enough funding to supply a jump kit to its EMTs and possibly have an account at a near by uniform store to supply them with at least emt pants. if not, it is up to you to buy them yourself, the good news it that it is tax deductible.

[ReD]

well if they dont have uniforms, a fund raiser wouldent hurt. silk screened t-shirts arent expensive and you could make 2 runs, one for the members and make something else to sell to the public. it would raise money, and increase awareness at the same time.

[bandaidpatrol]

We have the same things you'd find in the city... Rural America isn't a third world country. We wear the same bunker gear, rescue suits and carry the same supplies as any other ambulance service or fire department. A lot of NYC firefighters retired to our quaint mountain resort here. We're as small as they come, but they all say our equipment is 20 years ahead of NYC. Maybe because we have more control over our own budgets? We certainly don't go on as many runs, but we raise our own money, and only buy the best quality equipment that will last as long as we require it to. That is something you'll find in most rural areas.

Our uniforms for ambulance runs are royal blue coveralls w/ the FD Patch, EMT Patch and our name on the right front. As far as Jump Kits, we provide every EMT member with an O2 To go Pro Bag - purchased equipped from "http://www.buyemp.com". First responders get a stocked "Mini Medic Bag" from Galls. Then some of us buy our own. Three members live more than 15 miles out, in areas that we cover, so their POV is equipped with an AED w/ a 5 year battery, a manual suction device, and an "E" Cylinder.

[Redneck4_life]

At my department whenyou join you go on 90 days probahtion. The 90 days is for training and to make sure your going to stick around. After the 90 days you get a radio bunker gear (if you want it) traffic vest, a number, a dress shirt (its ahrdly ever worn) a t-shirt if we ahve ur size in, um if you have and ems cerification they offer u the choice to buy and emt bag which they will keep stocked for you, um you get a map of the district and a plastic clipboard to keep run reports and rosters in.

At my department if its something we want we save up our money and apply for grants. If it needs fixing we look within the dpepartment to see if anyone knows how to fix it right and if they can we rembers them the money they spend on whatever it is and if no one can fix it we send it out or buy a new if we can afford it.

Most of the bunker gear we ahve the the volly peole get is close to ten years old, but we bought it to last and its hasnt let us down yet. lol

Jenn

it aint over till the 10-22, and then theres clean-up

[winyan]

We get one teeshirt, (if there are any left,) BSI jacket, turnout gear for fire calls (we support our firepersons), err and I think that's it. We also get a small check at the end of the year for replacing clothing damaged while on call.

I would definitely prefer if there were some kind of 'uniform' since we usually go into the ER looking like a ragtag motley crew. Some of the tee shirts worn by the drivers and others (usually the guys that help w/lifting) aren't always approporiate.

Ah well, it is ALL volunteer.

win

[pyroknight]

The best "uniform" I've ever observed was when I was on a private ALS 911 ambulance in Arizona. We responded to an area West of Tucson and one of the female volunteers showed up wearing a "51% sweetheart, 49% bitch, don't push your luck" T-shirt. She interacted well with the family and I took her report like I would any other member of the patient care team, but my partner and I did have a laugh about her wardrobe selection after the call!

[UMSTUDENT]

I've found that more rural departments tend to have the nicest things in turn of hardware depending on the style of service being implemented. For instance, in my area we have volunteer organizations running top of the line, totally customized ambulances from a variety of different manufactures. We're talking large medium-duty "mini squad" ambulances with little expense spared. Some of them also maintain, and operate, half-a-million dollar rescue squads. They also tend to have decent equipment in their units. I've also been impressed with the quality of provider that rural systems hire and maintain.

Rural EMS, depending on your area, really depend on the quality of their providers because of the extended transport times to certain facilities. If they're third service oriented they also tend to attract people specifically interested in EMS, which in my opinion, is a huge plus.

The only thing you might not find in some rural, volunteer services is a lack of respect for basic professional commodities. For instance, some stations may not provide uniforms of which can become extremely expensive. Turn-out gear can also be hard to come by if you're interested in pursuing a career in firefighting (cross-training is sometimes highly sought after due to the volunteer status of the community). Basically, simple things that are common place in a professional department may not be found in some rural areas because of a lack of fundling.

I've found the experience to be wonderful, although sometimes stressful. Different issues for different places.

[rat115]

The service here gives one good uniform. These are required to be worn when we do transports into the city. The rest of the time they are strongly encouraged. The EMS director is also very honest that he's willing to supply more than one uniform for those who actually make sure that they hava them on when they're on call. I've now got 4 pairs of ems trousers and 2 good uniform shirts, 1 casual polo and one VERY oversized t-shirt (I got this one when I was still a student. It's a XL & I wear a M )

As for equipment, the director makes sure we have a pair of shears. Everything else for work on the ambulance is provided there. Anything that we want for our POV we buy, but we can refill anything that is used for pt care from the shed.

[Rezq304]

Here, we're given probably 2-3 new screen printed T-shirts or long sleeve T-Shirts a year. Everything else is up to us. Personally, I have a jump suit. much easier to put on than to "gear" up in the pants and shirt.