My Partner: Socially? He's Great. As an EMT? ARGH!

[Timmy]

Try not to stress to much, were talking about one partner in a long line of partners you’re going to have in your career. If you feel uncomftable you really should speak to your boss as you’ve tried to speak to your partner but it seems it hasn’t done anything for you. Do you have like peer support counselors you could talk to and try find some better ways to deal with this?

I work with these sorts of people all the time, geez most of the people I work with wouldn’t have the first clue on how to work the stretcher or use 02 or even treat a patient… A majority are for a like of better words the ‘scum’ of society who drain the welfare system for all its worth, couldn’t hold down a job if they tried, droped school when they were 12 and volunteer with us mainly cause it gives them a sense of authority in their other wise dull pointless lives…As for having a conversation with them well lets just say I would rather talk to the brick wall.

[chaser]

I've tried...

We both feel like screaming at this point...actually half the time we actually do end our conversations by (in half joking way) just yelling at the top of our lungs to relieve stress (not yelling AT each other, just in the air)...then we go back to social friends. Argh.

(Notice how we never even addressed the gurney problem....

Jeez, I feel like screaming at this point. :roll: I think my ears are bleeding.

Yes, I did notice you never addressed the gurney problem, well sorta addressed but not resolved. Not surprising.

Again, maybe third person might keep you boys on track. Ideally it would not be a supervisor or even anyone from your work. I would suggest a professional mediator, but anyone who can be impartial and keep you two on the topic (s) being discussed. But at the least why not try a meeting? And that doesn't mean while you are cleaning up after a call. You two sit down with a written out agenda of your issues, and talk it out. Who knows, could be beneficial.

Ok, enough said (from me).

Best wishes

[Michael]

Ok, enough said (from me)

Not so fast. I propose chaser as your mediator. :occasion9:

[AnthonyM83]

Man I'd welcome any of you jump in the rig with us to observe...you could be disguised as an EMT student ride-along.

[chaser]

Hey, I'm up for it. :happy11:

Let me get my cheerleader slash new EMT outfit out.

[Michael]

disguised as an EMT student ride-along

Here, I'll hand out the disguises:

[web:ca8bc35522]http://www.hersheys.com/trickortreats/activities/costumes/mummy.jpg[/web:ca8bc35522]

[emsbrian]

Give me a ride to LA and I'm in. Always up for a ride along anywhere. Just as a fact there are set rules for using a stretcher for a reason. We ALWAYS count, I don't care how long you've worked with a partner. This is for patient safety. As a rule the person in the back pushes the person in the front steers. I don't care if the person I'm working with thinks I wanna get to into communication or codes. We count every time "Up on three... One Two Three" People loose there newbie skills (those that newbies have right) such as that. Mainly due to long term habits, but in some cases (and apparently in yours) because they see others not doing them and think they are lame or whatever. As far as codes, if you are hauling ass so fast that you need to stop and end up hitting something your going to fast. At any time ONE medic should be able to stop the stretcher, this is a safety issue. There is a lot more to patient care then medicine. WE ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF COMFORT!!!!!!!! We teach comfort as part of the class. We teach lifting the streacher smooth, rolling smooth. We teach smooth breaking and cornering. Comfort is in fact a major part of my care. Unless we are working a code there is very little to do while ground pounding. I dont know what your Tx times are but here they can run pretty good during rush hour (a actual total of 5 hours out of each day.) During that time in the ambulance comfort is key. (More on comfort in another rant, stopping now).

[Dustdevil]

"Look man, we're an ambulance company. We're not in the comfort business (cliche).

That quite possibly could have been the end of the friendship for me. Chiche is right. I just lost all respect for him. Ask him exactly what business we are in. I submit that we are in the CARE business. And he obviously does not care, so he has no business in our business. Caring isn't a selective duty that you can turn on and off at your personal convenience or whim. You must care totally and at all times.

I'd have fired him on the spot for that statement.

Although, now with his info posted here on this board it may be a little late, EMT City might be good for him. Being surrounded by professionals from all across the spectrum of providers here has been a very positive influence on me and many others. This place forces you to wake up and realise that EMS is a total profession with standards, and is not confined to just what the small bunch of burnout losers you happen to have worked with in that awesome three months of experience happen to do. If that isn't enough to make somebody step-up, then they most likely are not suited to the profession.

[Michael]

Ask him exactly what business we are in. I submit that we are in the CARE business. And he obviously does not care, so he has no business in our business. Caring isn't a selective duty that you can turn on and off at your personal convenience or whim. You must care totally and at all times

I like it! :thumbright:

To the potential comeback that there's a difference between care and comfort, namely that some caring procedures are uncomfortable and even painful, the obvious reply is that pain/discomfort in the service of the patient's long-term well-being differs from pain/discomfort in the service of the agent's convenience. The distinction is that between treating the other as an end in himself or only as a means.

And if Dust's suggestion reaches him so that he does tune in here, only to find discomfort visited, sometimes liberally, upon various participants, occasionally in misguided attempts to correct the target's deficiencies and excesses, the distinction to draw is that unlike a backboarded pt, everyone here is here freely, and that unlike physical insult and injury, emotional and/or spiritual discomfort/pain can be autonomously managed ("No one can make you feel inferior without your consent").

If all that doesn't slow him up, start frowning, mumbling, and hyperventilating while you work your next job together. That will give him a simulated experience of participating in this forum: If he doesn't go to therapy, it comes to him.