EMT-B calling himself a 'Medic' in Indiana

[Kiwiology]

Ah thank you

Well my Doctor is a Consultant Physician so there!

Edited April 16, 2012 by Kiwiology

[Arctickat]

Ohhh THAT DNP, sorry Kiwi, I thought you were asking about something else.

[craig]

Ah thank you Well my Doctor is a Consultant Physician so there!

I thought that they were call VETS............

just joking kiwi.....when you coming across the dutch to learn how to work?

[Steve Whitehead]

Heh...maybe, but probably not. What gets me is this, why aren't many basics humiliated to use a term that, to 90% of the TV watching world, doesn't apply to them? Why are they not embarrassed to allow people to believe them to be something that they're not? That they've achieved more than they have and have more responsibility than they do?

Dwayne

I think Dwayne really got to the heart of the issue right here. My concern isn't about who calls who what round-these-parts. And it isn't about what the public understands or concerns themselves with. And it isn't about what my teacher calls us in our class. It's about your wilingness to be acurate (and comfortable) with who you are.

It's a question of authenticity.

When I was an EMT basic I called myself an EMT because that's who I was. It didn't matter if the person I was speaking to understood or not. If they didn't understand and wanted to know more, I explained it to them. If you're an EMT be proud of that. It's a great acomplishment. Everyone in the world that chose a boring job will admire and respect the interesting work that you do. Look them in the eye when you say it and be proud of what you do. Don't ever use words like "only" to qualify your role in EMS.

When you use words or terms that describe you or represent who you are or what you do inacurately you're not only being inacurate and inauthentic, your sending yourself a silent message that who you really are and what you really do isn't enough. (That goes for your teacher who tells people that you are paramedics as well. He may think he's "building you up" and that's nice. But he's not. He's silently telling you that you aren't enough. He's wrong. He should say exactly what you are being trained to do. And he should say it with pride.)

If something within you really wants to use the word "medic" or "paramedic" to describe yourself, I would take it as a sign that you are meant to progress in this field. Instead of investing your energy in drawn out rationalizations for why you should use an inacurate term right now, invest your energy in becoming what you want to be. When you achieve that goal you can pridefully tell people, "I just became a paramedic!" and they'll know that you've achieved something important. You won't be able to celebrate that victory if you fake it now.

Steve

[ERDoc]

Awesome post Steve. I was never ashamed to call myself an EMT. Then again, I was a huge buff so I always made sure people knew I was an EMT. Even now, I am never ashamed to say I was an EMT. I love swapping stories with the EMS guys that come in.

[Kiwiology]

The generic term here is "Ambulance Officer" and while I do not like it per-se it is far better than buffing up the volunteers and calling them "Paramedic" (their practice level is called Emergency Medical Technician; nb the "Technician" part of the verbiage)

[miscusi]

I think using the term MEDIC to describe yourself is proper along as it is proper with the group you are in. think Military, u ever seen a movie where they scream out MEDICCCC !!

think dictionary, what is medic ?

think about locality ? here in NY, a paramedic is an EMT. a "medic" is not an offical anything.

so most people, a medic is anyone who works in medicine.. "MEDIC" "INE"... no ?

in some industries everyone is referred to as a medic, that includes EMT (any level), Nurse or Doctor...

so it all depends.

My suggestion for safest choice, is "EMT" as it most accurately describes they type of work it is. but it does not describle the certification level which is Basic, Advanced, or Paramedic..

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'm a paramedic, you can call me joe, you can call me moe, you can call me Henry, but don't you dare call me late for dinner.

As long as you don't get in my way of taking care of my patient while on scene, I'm good with you calling me whatever the hell you want to call me. I know what I am, I know I'm a "Paramedic" Not a doctor, not a nurse, not a CNA, not a glorified doc in the box, I'm a paremedic.

So just let me do my job, I'll let the morons on the side of the road figure out what an emt is versus a emt I versus a emt-p or any of the other dozen's of other alphabet soup variety "medics" there are out there.

Just let me and my patient alone and we will get along just fine.

[DwayneEMTP]

The problem with that attitude Mike is that that is the reason the public is still confused about the difference between a paramedic, a basic, a fire truck and an ambulance.

It's fine to say, "I am who I am", of course you are, as are we all. But we don't pay the bills, nor make the staffing decisions where EMS is concerned.

The general public needs to know the difference, they need to know where they want to spend their tax dollars. Right now they, for the most part, make those decisions based on the latest TV dramas, and that's not only bad, but it's unfair to those that EMS is meant to serve.

It's all well and good to 'just be what I am' if I want things to continually stay the same. For change to happen education will have to happen first. Perhaps this is a small thing, but it's still a 'thing' that's easily changeable, and when we see a need, even a small one, we should lobby on behalf of evolution instead of stagnation?

Just leave me alone and I'll leave you alone is the reasoning that's kept prehospital EMS's development retarded for the last 25 years.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Fair enough Dwayne, but that's how I want to be treated when I'm working.

That's not to say that when I'm out in the public and some person comes up to me and says "hey, what does a medic do that an EMT cannot?" or something to that effect, then I'm going to give that person a pretty good education.

But when I'm working on a sick patient I'm not really caring what the general public at that particular period of time thinks of what I can and cannot do. My concern when working is not to shatter the myths of what medics are able to do versus what emt's can do. During patient care activities is not when public education should be focused on unless you can spare an educator but maybe after the fact.

What we can do is focus at maybe the grade school level to spend some time with students educating them as to what we do. Rural areas can't be that difficult to do this but in the urban areas there is where the challenge might lie.

I don't have all the answers but my thoughts are that when I'm doing my job duties it is not the time for me to worry about the publics misconception of the differences between a medic and an emt. AS long as I can explain what I'm going to do for the patient and the patient understands who I am and what I'm able to do for them then I think that I'm performing my job well. Maybe that attitude and thought process is the wrong one but it's worked without issues for the last 18 years without problems and I find no impetus to change something that works very well at this stage of the game.