For the female EMS'ers out there

[spenac]

Maybe men are better than women at least in CPR: http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=191746#191746

[Richard B the EMT]

Way back in 1974, one of the EMTs working with my VAC was a petite 4 foot 11 and a half inch tall brunette woman. She was working with a 6 foot 2 man on one shift, at a time when there were Motor Vehicle Operators in the VAC who were not yet required to have any CPR or First Aid training.

The two of them responded with the ambulance to a person struck by a car. Pat, the EMT, got out of the ambulance to check out the patient, and Ray, the MVO, went to the back of the ambulance to get the equipment Pat had requested he grab.

Suddenly, Ray heard a commotion, stuck his head around the corner of the ambulance, and found the "beat cop" physically picking Pat up, putting her onto the sidewalk, and telling her, despite her protestations,

Please stay on the sidewalk, and don't get in the way of the ambulance crew, kid.

Ray had the requested equipment, moved it to alongside the patient, and got the cop's attention. The cop, per the story within the VAC, stood about 5 foot 6 inches tall, turned to find Ray towering over him. Ray asked the startled cop,

Could I have my EMT back, now?

I have to admit, I was not there, so I don't know if it was a sexist cop, or just one reacting to her small physical size.

Don't get me wrong, under the listing of big surprises in small packages, Pat was in a bar, on her own time, when a six foot guy made some inappropriate suggestions to the "little girl", who promptly decked him with one punch!

As for the lifting of patients into the ambulance, I had one woman partner, in a private, non 9-1-1 provider ambulance service, who never learned how to lift. She had started her ambulance work in a college based service, and by her own admission, the "football jocks" who were the rest of her crews there did all the lifting.

When the majority of the guys at that company, EMTs and ambulette drivers, and even some of the women EMTs, tried not to work with her, as they were ending up with hurting backs, I ended up doing a lot of work with her. It finally got to the point that I pulled her aside, and had to tell her, despite how good she was as a diagnostician and treatment EMT, due to nobody wanting to work with her with her inability to lift, that she should resign and seek other EMS or related medical employment.

Eventually, she left, and I understand she now is a doctor somewhere.

[Richard B the EMT]

Maybe men are better than women at least in CPR

I think that was referring to those who get the CPR done to them, not those who DO the CPR.

Perhaps the rescuers felt uncomfortable putting their hands on a woman's chest? Just thinking out loud, there...

[Doczilla]

My female colleagues complain of a certain amount of prejudgement from patients based on their gender. All of them have been repeatedly called "Nurse". They are rarely seen as the attending physician, usually the resident, intern, or student. The ones who are actually seen as the senior attending physician are not far from retirement age. "Scrubs" has addressed this as a recurrent topic.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that we are essentially one generation into a massive paradigm shift with gender roles. Thirty years ago, women were a very small minority in medical school classes, and the generations of patients we are seeing now grew up during that time. Now, women make up 50% of medical school classes, so I think as my generation ages, we'll see a lot less of those preconceived notions regarding women in careers that have, up until fairly recently, been filled almost entirely by men. Just in the last 10 years, we have seen the growth of women in combat roles with the military. One of my SWAT teams just got its first female entry team member. These ideas that we have of who fills these roles will not change overnight, but will change with the generations. I think my generation is seeing the biggest changes along those lines (although the previous 2 generations heralded the growth of women in the workforce, partly as a matter of necessity during WWII, and the one before that, voting rights. You could argue that I'm wrong.). Old ideas die hard, and some of these notions will be passed from one generation to another in spite of ample evidence to the contrary (racism continues to thrive along similar lines, and I think it is dying away, but more slowly). The idea of a two income household was controversial 50 years ago; now it's so common we don't even bat an eye.

There are women that I prefer not to work with, just as there are men I would prefer not to work with. There are plenty of my female colleagues that I am glad to have around when things are going to shit and I need help, or when I have a complex patient and need advice. I have been fortunate to have very knowledgeable preceptors who happened to be female, and that's as a medic and as a physician. I recognize competence, work ethic, and compassion, and I don't care what you look like. Pretty much everyone I've worked with seems to feel the same way. So when a patient verbalizes their outdated notions of what they think their doctor should look like, we don't say a thing. We don't have to.

'zilla

[Richard B the EMT]

Doc, don't forget men who become nurses, so reminded to me by retired World War 2 US Women's Army Corps P.F.C. Sara B, my mom (coincidentally, the first female County Commander of Queens County New York Council of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, NOT the JWV Auxiliary).

[tniuqs]

Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end..

That said I have worked with 2 types of the non male homo sapien.

1- I can be just as good as any male EMT/Paramedic. meh.

2- I want to be the best Paramedic,/EMT/RN/MD as I can be.

Oh one additional comment, I have done some of my best work while being supervised and working under Women.

cheers

[Riblett]

Like I said in my OP, I very rarely encounter any problems. The closest thing to sexism I have experienced is the occasional tendency for some of my patients to talk past me to my male partner or the fire department while I am trying to interview them and trying to ask my male counterparts questions instead of me. I provided this example to get the discussion moving and it seemed to work pretty well. Personally, I hit the gym several times a week and can lift on the ambulance w/o any problems for all but the most obese patients (thanks to convalescent in my first year with just me and my partner). Sometimes if I am on one of the higher trucks (chest level for me) it is hard for me to lift a larger patient into the truck.

As far as my paper is concerned, I am addressing Nurses, MD's, and EMS. I did an interview with a male ER nurse at our local ED, and a female doc I know. By the way, does anyone know how to properly cite postings on an EMS forum?

[Dustdevil]

...Jewish War Veterans of the United States

Ooooh! I bet they know how to party! How do I join?

[Eydawn]

MLA or APA? Visit the Purdue OWL site.. their online writing lab. It'll walk you through both there.

Just google Purdue OWL.

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[ccmedoc]

As far as my paper is concerned, ...does anyone know how to properly cite postings on an EMS forum?

Son of citationmachine

If you must... :shock: