NYTimes on Fire based EMS

[CBEMT]

In the vast majority of cities, townships and fire districts across Ohio it is almost impossible to get a full-time fire job without already being a Medic. If you are able to get job with out being a Paramedic you are required to become one with in 2 years.

Speaking of wrong reasons for being in EMS....

Edited September 20, 2009 by CBEMT

[aussiephil]

Speaking of wrong reasons for being in EMS....

Well said.

I will start this by saying that I am full-time paramedic for a private ambulance service and I am also a full-time Firefighter/Paramedic for a union fire dept. In the vast majority of cities, townships and fire districts across Ohio it is almost impossible to get a full-time fire job without already being a Medic. If you are able to get job with out being a Paramedic you are required to become one with in 2 years. For the departments I belong to there is no animosity between fire and ems because we do both and it works great for us. I understand that it isn't this way for other parts of the country and it is unfortunate. Fire and EMS can work together flawlessly. And to those who are complaining about the fire department taking all the glory and credit from EMS you are doing the job for the WRONG REASONS!

I will start by saying I am Full - time EMS. I have no need to go to fire. I am a professional. Firefighting is a seperate profession.

I do not want glory or credit. Conversely, Fire need glory & credit to perpetuate their facade of pretending to work hard & need the media to perpetuate the lies.

Oh look, I said this in an earlier post...

Anyone with EMS training knows this, however, what do people see on TV? A Big Red Truck, or a MVA surrounded by FF's. Then the FF's take the credit. We have even had situations here where we have had major road ttrauma, fire have agknowledged every other service but EMS, but stated the patient went to hospital.

We aim to minimise scene time, for patient benefit, they look to maximise scene time for their own publicity & perpetuation of the lies that they are the real hero's.

Now we can again watch fire try to justify itself

[irish medic]

Over here things are different. The only city which works a combined fire/ems agency would be Dublin. In Dublin, Dublin City Fire & Rescue provide 11 ambulances under contract to the HSE but they only run 999 (American 911) calls. They don't do Dr's calls or Patient Transport Service (Clinic runs). The rest of the country of Ireland is covered by the HSE National Ambulance Service which we cover all calls. Fire & Rescue around the rest of the country are just that. It bugs me that even here you'll see pictures of MVC's in the papers with a load of fire fighters around the vehicles involved & during media questioning they state what the've done to treat the pt. Not one word said about the ambulance service. Lo & behold in the paper you'll see the statement "patient was taken to hospital".

What about all the treatment we done prior to & during transport. I think that we as in EMS are our own worst enemies as in we do not have the PR machine that F&R have. We don't have managers/officers educated enough to deal with the media. It can be off putting when you & your partner arrive at a scene to be met by 16 FF with the gungho attitude but if every service treated each other with respect then maybe this might stop.

I do not nor have any interest in training as a FF. I joined EMS as a profession. We take care of the medical side of things with pt's simple as that. F&R are trained in a total different profession to me, I respect them for that, the least I expect in return is that when I arrive at a scene & F&R are there before me, that they in turn respect my training.

I do believe in what Aussiephil has stated though & that is EMS needs to be a standalone profession.

[Richard B the EMT]

When you figure that the first organized Fire Department was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by United States "Founding Father" Ben Franklin, fire departments have been around from probably earlier than 1776. Police departments were originally fire "rattle watches" patrolling even earlier.

EMS AS EMS has only been around from roughly 1970. Everyone else has an established Public Relations area, as most know the FD "puts the wet stuff on the red stuff", and the cops shoot at the bad guys, to stop the bad guys from hurting the good guys. In the eyes of the public, we might still be viewed as the teams of guys (and now gals) carrying an old style 2 pole stretcher.

However, if being a publicity hound is all you want, instead of the publicity as the occasional pat on the back, as stated numerous times on the site, as well as just this string, you're in the wrong job.

[HERBIE1]

When you figure that the first organized Fire Department was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by United States "Founding Father" Ben Franklin, fire departments have been around from probably earlier than 1776. Police departments were originally fire "rattle watches" patrolling even earlier.

EMS AS EMS has only been around from roughly 1970. Everyone else has an established Public Relations area, as most know the FD "puts the wet stuff on the red stuff", and the cops shoot at the bad guys, to stop the bad guys from hurting the good guys. In the eyes of the public, we might still be viewed as the teams of guys (and now gals) carrying an old style 2 pole stretcher.

However, if being a publicity hound is all you want, instead of the publicity as the occasional pat on the back, as stated numerous times on the site, as well as just this string, you're in the wrong job.

YOu have a point about job duties, Richard. I am amused when people actually see what we are capable of doing, the type of equipment we carry, etc- generally when they have had no prior experience with EMS.

We had a call in a doctor's office for a hypotensive and bradycardic cardiac patient who we proceeded to evaluate and eventually pace.

The doctor: I had no idea you guys were capable of doing this".

Of course, you still get the occasional old school doc who simply wants a taxi ride for his patient having a massive MI, but thankfully those guys are far fewer these days.