What should the Basic-Medic Partnership look like?

[NREMT-Basic]

As someone who once made the same sort of post about spell checking and professionalism in posts...

I know I will take ribbing for what I am about to say and well I should. When I went to my first shift as a EMT, I spent a good part of the evening before actually pressing my tac pants and uniform shirt, making sure all my buttons were sewn on tight, that my boot toes and heels were like a mirror. A process carried out with two uniforms. Next day at 0700 I showed up bright as a penny in the well water and about 0730 went on my first run with my paramedic partner. It was for uknown elderly down in her home. One of her neighbors called when they couldnt get her to come to the door. As we walked up to the screen door, the smell of vomit and fetid blood hit me like a train. the heavy screen door was locked, and when the pd arrive we were given permission to gain access by cutting the screen. As the new guy I got to to crawl in through the cut screen. About two feet inside the door i slipt and fell in the single hugest pool of bloody barf I am ever likely to see. My entire uniform was covered in it and it was in my boots, in my hair....we finished up and back to quarters where I changed uniforms and took a shower only to go out with an ALS crew around 0900 to a shooting. When we got there, a first respnder who was holding pressure on an arterial bleed decided he should let go of it since we were there. My uniform got covered in bright red blood. Baptism by body fluids. What does this have to do with postings and the professonalism thereof? It would be wonderful if the public could have an image of all of us as clean, pressed, unflappable and perfectly well written and spoken. The fact is that the work we do is messy, sloppy and ugly. Many of the people that post here and chat here on a regular basis are so tired from working for two different shifts with two different services in the same day and then being on call around the clock, its amazing that they can type at all, let alone spell everything perfectly and yet they take the time to post, answer questions, ask questions and share information that is important to us all in the EMS community whereever we are and in whatever capacity we work. This is NOT a pretty occupation. We are silly to think that it can be anything like a pretty occupation no matter how many music videos dedicated to the "EMS Angels" youtube.com broadcasts. We are lucky to get home with our arses and bellybuttons in the same place that they were when we started our tours, 12, 24, 48, 72 hours ago. So let the public see us for what we are, human beings doing often unthinkable jobs under hellish conditions without the right equipment and sometimes we lose more than one patient on a shift. It would be great if we could all respond to Code 3 ALS tones in our class As, but we cant because most of the time we are just holding it together for little or no money because we are dedicated to serving our communities. So if the Non-EMS public cant come in here and see that, see the utter professionalism reflected in the knowledge and compassion of so many posts, well then let them watch the EMS recruiting videos on youtube. If you want to read perfect posts, read Dustdevils. He has gained the composure over the years to be able to do the job he does in a place that got three stars from the International HellHole Society. And his posts are usually spell checked, well written and informative. And thats with mortars and RPGs flying over his head. You want perfection...read the Oxford English Dictionary. This post of mine is to the person or persons who says that its important that the public know we can all spell. We can. IV, AED, MI, MCI, vfib, vtach and on and on. That is all.

Side note....this post has not been spell checked as form of thumbing my nose electronically at the Martha Stewart, dont ever let em see ya sweat noobs amongst us.

[BushyFromOz]

The Air Force just says, "Dude!"

[NREMT-Basic]

PS- sorry for hijacking the post. Im down with a case of rising gorge.

[BushyFromOz]

Your not sorry, or otherwise you would not have posted it.

I cant believe i wasted my time reading that rant, it had a meagre little point buried in a self idolising war story :?

[NREMT-Basic]

Bushy-

who put the burr in your sattle blanket. I have lost parts of my life I will never get back reading some of your posts which are nothing but one long punch line. Pardon me for trying to say that this is a post for professionals and if they dont like what they read here, they can go back to readers digest. I dont know whats with you lately but I recommend a high colonic and five mile hike carry a full jump kit.

[JPINFV]

I read it and have three thoughts about it.

1. Use paragraphs. If you break that chunk of text into smaller parts it will be a lot easier to read. This is the problem that a lot of people just don't seem to get. More people will read, understand, and respect an opinion when it is easy to read. Run on sentences, really poor spelling, and paragraphs that never end makes people not want to read a post. If no one wants to read it then you just wasted 3 minutes of your life typeing it out.

2. I've never understood why people don't make at least an attempt at writing correctly. I'm not asking for footnotes, overly complex sentences, or even not using slang and contractions like you should in academic writing, but just using correct spelling and sentence structure. It really doesn't take that much longer to type and once you start typing like that then you end up not having to think about typing correctly, you just do.

3. I've never gotten people's obsession in this job with looking perfect. We face being covered in fluids, scuffing our boots, and half a dozen other things every day we work. I've given up shining my boots (which, to be honest, never were that shiney in the first place) and will never iron my uniform. As long as my partner has bathed, brushed their hair, shaved their face (if a guy), and has a clean uniform on, what else matters? I doubt that the one thing that strikes onlookers at a scene is how well pressed the responder's pants are.

[EMS49393]

Always excuses. You know who has to ask me for permission to do anything? A partner that I know constantly makes excuses for all their short-comings. How am I to trust a person like that? I see a lot of excuses here. Two hundred and forty-five reasons why a person can't go to paramedic school. Twenty-five reasons why my uniform is dirty, and the fact that the public shouldn't care. After all, if it weren't for the public, my uniform would be clean. More excuses then I can count on why it is perfectly acceptable to post as though you have only two neurons working correctly inside your cranium.

Turn the energy for making excuses into something productive and see how far you soar.

[p3medic]

Hooha only sounds gay when its being thrown around by a bunch of REMFs in the chowhall after you've been out humping for the past few weeks.....just my opinion

[NREMT-Basic]

In the process of reading so many posts, I have found a common thread. People being criticized by other people who dont even know them. I am guilty of it myself. But maybe in the new year, it could become a practice that you dont get to criticize or bash someone until you have gotten to know them. We dont know who works for what service alot of the time, if they get paid or not, what their life circumstances are. This is part of the luxury of posting as your avatar and never having to re-visit the effects that your post might have on the person you chose to blast.

Just a thought as the new year approaches.

[KSEMT122]

I doubt that the one thing that strikes onlookers at a scene is how well pressed the responder's pants are.

All the replies to this post at this point are getting way off topic, but I"ll endulge in a little controversy. I take exception with that comment I quoted above. Although I too, never ironed my pants, I did, and was required by policy to iron my uniform shirts. I never polished my boots either, except touch up work on the toes and heels. EMS is about image. My department was BIG on image as well as patient care. One of the first things I was taught in EMT school is that image is a big part of what we do so that people feel comfortable with us. The better someone looks, the more competent you will "think" they are. That is just human. That is why we wash the trucks EVERY morning. I'm sure someone will argue patient care is more important... I would submit Image is part of patient care. Something to ponder. Thanks folks, I'll be here all week!