National Registry EMT Lapse

[AFDNREMR]

I was told by NR I could retake NR Test and skills to get my EMT Basic NR certification back even though I have been lapsed for 14 years after I take a 24 hour refresher course.

anyone ever do this or know someone who has?

My job only requires EMR so I got it a couple of years ago. Only difference as far as I have seen is when I was a Basic I drove and ambulance and had to pay a lot of money to keep my NREMT up and Driving certification. As an NREMR to keep my certification is a lot cheaper and I drive a Fire truck and get there before the ambulance and sometimes have to ride in the ambulance assisting in the back with the Paramedic. 

The EMR was only 60hrs where EMT was double that. 

 

[paramedicmike]

If NR told you a 24 hour refresher plus written and skills testing was all you needed to renew then go with what NR told you.

Despite your concern that EMT class is double what your EMR required that's still less time than many places require for a license to cut hair.  A bad haircut never killed anyone.  Ambulance crashes have killed people.  Poor care, improper care and negligent care have certainly contributed to the death of people.  You sound hesitant about additional training because of the time commitment.  Why?

Why do you feel it necessary to note that you're a fire truck driver getting to scenes before an ambulance?  Why is your service so short sighted and financially irresponsible to roll a $500K piece of equipment when that money could be spent on up to five ambulances thereby saving the suppression pieces for actual suppression work?

[Just Plain Ruff]

I still don't get this mentality that driving a fire truck is somehow more important than driving an ambulance.  Is driving a police car more important as well?  

All of these jobs are important.  

Let's get over ourselves people, we do similar damn jobs, we provide emergency services to the public but in different capacities. 

As soon as the butt hurt over being called ambulance drivers gets done we can get back to the important things.  I don't think I've ever heard of a fire fighter being butt hurt over being called a fire truck driver.  Or a police officer being called a police car driver because they are professional enough to know that at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. 

A dental hygenist I believe also has more schooling than a EMT, a vet tech has more schooling or training as well, and they take care of our animals(which is pathetic if you ask me that we accept that a vet tech needs more training than an EMT does)

If we continue to accept that EMT's who have human lives in their hands can do this job with less hours of training than many other jobs where lives are not in these peoples hands, then we should expect 7.75 per hour, low levels of respect from our health care and emergency services colleagues and the continued AWESOME Sparkly title "Ambulance Driver"

[paramedicmike]

Mike, my point wasn't along the lines of fire truck driver vs ambulance driver vs police car driver.  It wasn't even disparaging as far as being a driver at all.  It was more along the line of the perceived air of superiority demonstrated by the comment implying that driving a fire truck gets OP there first, before the ambulance, therefore somehow that's better.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Yeah,  I understood that point, I was involved in a facebook discussion, no lets say a heated discussion this morning over what I mistakenly should have left on facebook regarding what I wrote.  

I just don't get that how some people are so hell bent on getting so angry about being called an ambulance driver or how their job is more important when in the end, we all serve one group, the public.  

I couldn't get it through the thin skinned facebook group of people who I thought I was a so called valued member of that I finally just said screw it and removed myself from their drama but I made a cardinal mistake of bringing that baggage and crap from that group here.  But I do stand by what I said here though.  

 

And you know what,  to your point of who gets their first, as long as the patient or member of the public gets the help they need, does it matter who get's their first? does it matter if it's a shiny fire truck with a paramedic or an emt(well sometimes it does) or does it matter if it's an ambulance.  Sometimes all that's needed is a splint and a bandage.  sometimes it's a defibrillator.  Sometimes you need 4 trucks and a ambulance.  Sometimes you need 4 ambulances and 2 trucks.  As long as we serve the public.  For many fire departments that runs 10% structure fires and 75% EMS calls and the rest are PR and lift assists and assorted other calls, do you really need more fire trucks than ambulances?  Seems out of balance but the public sees the big shiny trucks and says "wow look at that fire engine, the city really cares about us citizens ya know"  

Do a news search on Fire Union versus City of Grandview Missouri and read the crap the union is putting out about how many citizens are going to die if the city doesn't put a sales tax on the ballot this year.  More of the same gloom and doom from the fire union "the city will burn, people will die and firefighters will perish if the citizens don't approve this sales tax"