Paragod: Fact or Fiction?

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All right, phireman, I'll clarify my terminology. When I say "profession", I mean "recognized by the general public as a job that one works at and gets paid for and makes a living at. Ask someone what they do for a living, they might say "carpenter", they may not have a degree in anything, but it is recognized as something that takes skill and dedication to do, and you can make a living doing it. Just put yourself in my shoes for just a minute. Imagine you've been scrimping and saving to go to college, hard cord science courses, application exams, application fees, hours upon hours of sitting and learning and testing, that has taken years, so you can stand proudly and say "I am a paramedic and I am proud of what I do", and then be lumped into the same category as Skippy the 19 year old whacker and Boseevus the unemployed trailer park dweller who can sit around listening for auto wrecks because he doesn't hold a job. It's not a good feeling. Respiratory therapists, paralegals, nurses in many areas, a variety of established jobs use people with associate's degrees.

If some medics make you feel inferior about your knowledge, grow some thicker skin.

Being a paramedic is a legitimate public safety profession, on par with, and of comparable training to, being a police officer or firefighter. We get killed in less spectacular ways, but just because we expect to get paid for it doesn't make us any less dedicated to our jobs or our patients than anybody else. Believe me, no paramedic gets into this line of work for the money.

Ace, I think I was a little hypersensitive to your first comment about the box colors, but its because of the environment I operate in of hostility and ignorance towards Advanced Life Support. Because of the greater number of EMT's than medics in my union, BLS in all its warts and glory is heavily favored, while basically paramedics are regulated to having to beg, threaten, and cajole the BLS crews into letting them treat the patient, so I do get testy when I think someone is spreading false statements about exactly what we know and can do.

[Guest]

Hey there is no need to clarify with me, I simply stated the "paragod" syndrome is real in "some" medics and suddenly I am a raving crazed unemployed EMT Basic who knows nothing and "is looked down upon"!! I have thick skin, just no time for ignorant comments. I support EMT-P's and what they do, and know the "profession" isn't a perfect one and sometimes it is under rated.

But to remain on topic, I think "paragods" exist in all professions, just like in the FD you have some rookies that know it all and the old salts that have fought more fires than they really have!