non-fire emt in philly?

[paramedicmike]

Did you bother to read the OP? The question was whether or not an EMT would also have to be a FF. If you work for Philly fire, if you want to be little more than an EMT, then the answer is an unequivocal yes. You have to be a FF to be an EMT (or be an EMT to be a FF). You said it yourself. Go through the fire academy and you spend the first six weeks in EMT class.

If you want to be a Philly Fire Medic you still go through fire training in the academy. Your primary role may be EMS but there is always an off chance that you may be called upon to fight fire.

If you just want to do transports you don't have to be a FF. Those are private companies.

In the counties surrounding the City you don't have to be a FF to run 911.

If she's really an RN then why waste time going through to paramedic when she can do the PHRN program and run as an ALS provider outside the city?

And "your" city is a dump. I said I'm glad I didn't have to live there. I never said I'd never lived there before.

[tamaith]

dust " here" has a lot to do with it. i have no idea where you are from or where you were a cop. but i am gathering it wasn't a big city like the size of phila. pa. i could be wrong like i said i don't know where you were a police officer. i lived in a very small town for a few years where there was about 10 cops where the most they have seen was a bar fight or car accident. but the most of my time here on earth i have and currently live in the city of phila, pa. where cops are dying left and right. where they are being assaulted, shot at, having to physical fight the suspect who is high on God knows what and out weights the p.o by 75 100 lbs. trying to get the cops gun to kill him/her. yes firefighters do have to carry a lot of weight from equipment but to say philly cops don't have hard work mentally, emotionally and physically is nuts. you can not say all cops nationwide don't do hard work. you still didn't answer my question i asked earlier have you ever lived in philadelphia and seen what the cops here go through on a daily basis? and yes i have seen firefighters close to 300 lbs.

yes mike i did read the opening post thats why i responded. and no you are not a firefighter just because you do 6 wks. you are a medic within the firedept. they are two differnt unions. a firefighter is an emt b , but a medic is not a firefighter

[Dustdevil]

Whatever. You clearly do not have the slightest idea of what you are talking about on any level relevant to this discussion. Suspects are suspects, no matter where you go. There are alot of really fat, overweight, out of shape guys doing the job in Philly, as well as some pretty tiny females. Some do the job better than others. But if you are tryin to make the pont that anyone who claims to have ever at one time been a Philly cop is hardcore, then you are incredibly naive, and have never watched an episode of COPS.

[tamaith]

first of all, this discussion is about working for philly fire rescue. which i do know about. secondly i am not trying to say that all philly cops are " hardcore" as you put it. i do on the other hand believe that a police officer in a large city is going to have more experience and deal with more " drama" than somebody in a small town or suburb. as far as the tv show cops i really don't watch the program. i am not saying that there are no overweight cops here.and also i am not going to say that there are not any overweight firefighters. how many philly cops and f.f. have you met and discussed their calls. i live in the city and work in the city i see alot. some of my friends/ are on the p.p.d. and some are on the p.f.d. so i listen to their stories and tell them what i have seen as well.

so until you live here or talk to those men and woman on the job, which i do on a regular basis you have no right saying they they don't do a lot of work or put up with some bull. i am not trying to take away from your prior career, but like i said before i lived in a small town for a few years and they honestly did not put up with even 2% of what the ppd puts up with.

as far as a suspect being a suspect, is true to some degree if you are referring to treating every call the same no matter where you are, from what i have been told by cops. it depends on the location and degree of crime. what i am referring to is, lets say cops come to a house in a bad area for disturbance call. 95 %of the time they are going to have their guns out. where if cops get the same call in a decent/ upper class area they are less likely. again this is what i have been told.

so you are saying that what you have watched on the tv show cops is how you judge the ppd.? i think the last time they filmed an episode here was in the early 90s haha. times change and not for the good. plus there is a lot of editing going on.haha you're funny. do you have any idea how many kids are carring guns now . and it not even just the kids. right now there is an opperation going on here where the ppd team up with 17 different federal and state agencies and go out to certain areas and do bust. so you can't judge something today what you seen on cops years ago.

[ERDoc]

I've known one (1) 300 pound fireman in my entire life.

You've obviously never hung out with the volly FFs from LI or MI.

[EMS49393]

People looking for tylenol for their headache or similar. It is not uncommon to hear on the local news that someone, who might have lived in any other city in the country, has died because they had to wait 40 minutes or more for an ambulance to become available.

Your patients are only looking for Tylenol? My patients demand Dilaudid.

[djmedic]

hello everyone

i need some help

i was at the docs in philly and a nurse who was a philly cop wanted to know if she wanted to be a philly emt did she have to be a fire fighter too? i told her i had no clue but look into it for her. im from nj (hold the laughs) so i have no clue how philly works but i thought id get some help here.

shes a nurse in a docs office was a philly cop now wants to be an emt. so if anyone can help me help her thank you!!!

everyone have a great weekend (not before you help me of course hahha)

be careful and enjoy!

2wheelie

phili fire handles ems for the city...

if anyone else handles 911 for Philli I would interested in knowing whom as well

[paramedicmike]

Philly Fire handles all 911 EMS responses for the city. There is no other agency that contributes to 911 coverage in the city. It's not like NYC where there are a multitude of private ambulance companies to supplement the FD.

The surrounding counties, however, have a variety of squads that provide 911 services to their respective communities.

I wouldn't recommend Philly Fire, either. First, their system is broken (just as bad, if not worse, than NJ). Second, they're not currently hiring (as far as I know). Third, the city just lost a lawsuit regarding unpaid overtime and it sounds like FD administration is trying to screw with the EMS providers in terms of schedule changes and more. I don't have a lot of details on this last point yet. I'll post more as I find out more.

If you're still looking because your wife insists on moving down that way, consider looking in the counties surrounding Philly (on the PA side of the river). It may be a bit of a drive. But if you can convince her to move a little closer to Philly (instead of being so close to whatever amusement park you previously mentioned), it may be worth your while. It would certainly be more worth it than getting involved in anything in NJ.

-be safe

[stcommodore]

Sorry to go off topic but I have to correct some comments made here.

Phila FD Paramedics or Fire Service Paramedics receive as stated some "Fire Orientation" when we attend the Academy but in no way are qualified as or are expected to serve in any "supression" activities. To expand on that the Fire Sevice Paramedics recently won a class action law suit against the city in regards to this topic. The city said that the FSP's were not elligible to recieve ovetime when they work over fourty hours a week because they are execpt from FSLA just as firefighters are. In the end the FSP's won because the jobs are totally seperate, paramedics do no supression activities and are not exempt from FSLA. In addtion to that the way the pay and rank structure works it is considered a pay cut and demotion when a FSP "crosses over" to the role of Firefighter.

To continue to correct comments made here, while there are not any well circulated plans to "run" another Fire Cadet class, the 28th Fire Service Paramedic class recently graduated and weeks ago finished there precepting and recieved there offical unit assignments. There are also well circulated rumors that the next Paramedic class will be hired and attend the Academy very soon. There are only approx 15 vacent paramedic slots at this point, and the system is on the up swing. It is busy, but with volume comes expierence. Talk to some of the people that work around here and ask how many codes they had in May, or how many Intubations they have for 09 and I bet I have them beat.

[paramedicmike]

Phila FD Paramedics or Fire Service Paramedics receive as stated some "Fire Orientation" when we attend the Academy but in no way are qualified as or are expected to serve in any "supression" activities.

Then several of your coworkers were seriously mislead, misinformed, and outright lied to by those who run the academy. Who'd would've guessed that coming from the FD?

In addtion to that the way the pay and rank structure works it is considered a pay cut and demotion when a FSP "crosses over" to the role of Firefighter.

Sure, they may take an initial reduction in pay when moving from EMS to suppression. But that disparity in pay is corrected fairly quickly. Further, when they cross over to suppression they are then taken seriously by the other FFs in the house and not looked down on or ridiculed like they were as medics on the ambulance.

There are also well circulated rumors that the next Paramedic class will be hired and attend the Academy very soon.

Rumors mean nothing. There are always rumors about something.

There are only approx 15 vacent paramedic slots at this point, and the system is on the up swing.

Says who? And that 15 open spots is from what day of last month? With the changes administration is going to enforce as retribution for the recent lawsuit there's going to be a bunch of guys leaving. I know several who've already jumped ship and they're just the beginning.

Oh! And please define "on the upswing".

It is busy, but with volume comes expierence. Talk to some of the people that work around here and ask how many codes they had in May, or how many Intubations they have for 09 and I bet I have them beat.

It's not about skills. It's not about how many tubes you have. It's not about how many codes you've run. Experience is not gained when you have a 10 minute BLS run to the ER.

Glad you enjoy working there. But it's tough to see how broken it is from the inside.

-be safe