Volunteers – Your Job?

[Nicholas0312]

I work for the town I live in and am also a member of the volunteer fire dept. and the EMS squad. As volunteers we are dispatched out along with the paid ambulance crews mostly because there is a good possibility that we will get there first and can help the pt while the ambulance is en route. I don't see how that in anyway takes away from the paid crews job. Its about the pts isn't it? If its all about the money perhaps you are in the wrong profession. You can do a lot less for a lot more elsewhere...

[JakeEMTP]

I work for the town I live in and am also a member of the volunteer fire dept. and the EMS squad. As volunteers we are dispatched out along with the paid ambulance crews mostly because there is a good possibility that we will get there first and can help the pt while the ambulance is en route. I don't see how that in anyway takes away from the paid crews job. Its about the pts isn't it? If its all about the money perhaps you are in the wrong profession. You can do a lot less for a lot more elsewhere...

Welcome to EMT City.

You're volunteer crew responding with the paid crew takes away from those of us trying to make a living in EMS because, your volly crew should be a paid crew. There could and should be paid professional EMS personnel on that ambulance. If you are constantly the first on scene, perhaps you need a paid crew to respond from your station. Thus freeing up the other crew coming to intercept with you.

I can assure you, very few of us are here for the money, so that's not it. Perhaps, as you stated, it is about patient care. If the patient had definitive pt care from the beginning of patient contact, isn't THAT better for the patient?

[CharliesBucket]

Right On Dust :cheers:

Yes, thank you so so much Dust, thank you, thank you, thank you...

Thank you, for teaching me how to avoid becoming an asshole. Right on, man, yeah!

[Happiness]

Well don't some of us have our hackels up. I do get paid for my job as a paramedic. When our station first started they were completely volenteer and I commend them for the time that they took out of thier lives to make my community alittle safer. I personally would do this job without pay but that is not the way it is. Sometimes a station that starts our volly will eventually become a paid crew. Thats what happened with us. Just so you know I don't believe you guys get such crappy pay because of the vollys its because your union (if you have them) haven't been doing their job to make sure you are paid appropriatly and that you are recieving the proper benifits that you deserve, so maybe you should start with them not the ones who take the time to serve thier commuity.

[whit72]

So what makes everyone so sure that if the volunteers stopped showing up that would force their town to have paid providers? I have seen this before and they don't pay anyone, they just call mutual aid from another paid community.

I agree if you have given it away for years, no ones going to want to pay for it. That does hurt the professional EMS provider.

But you cant just stop showing up, that dose not benefit anyone.

Just another issue to put on the list of things that need to be fixed in EMS. Pretty sad that in a profession that has been around for a while now that things that need to be fixed list is still infinitely larger then the things that work.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Uhhh... you do realise that YOU are the reason that an EMT cannot make a living wage, right? :?

You just said that you give it away for free. So why exactly would anybody think that is worth paying for?

Do the math. :wink:

Methinks Wolf should rethink going into accounting.

[letmesleep]

"Just so you know I don't believe you guys get such crappy pay because of the vollys its because your union (if you have them) haven't been doing their job to make sure you are paid appropriatly and that you are recieving the proper benifits that you deserve, so maybe you should start with them not the ones who take the time to serve thier commuity."

a fine statement and we should all stand up and take note that it is all my UNION'S fault that I don't make a 6 figure salary, or maybe just maybe it could be the Board members that regulate MY district that have been there (as VOLUNTEERS) since the inception of the district. They actually made the statement during contract negotiations that "you guys already make good money, hell I remember when I did it for free"

great, but that was 25 to 30 years ago before ambulance drivers became educated and stepped up to being Paramedics and yes even the RN here and there. Being that these Board members "represent" the public, I'd say that attitude surely hurts the EMS professionals in this area as far as pay is concerned, although I'm sure it is just MY opinion and maybe I should blame MY union.

question: since I am a unionized Paramedic, does this mean that I don't serve my community? or is it because I chose to get paid for my services in order to support and raise my family? hmmmmm......I'll have to think about my career choice it seems.........

[mrmeaner]

So what makes everyone so sure that if the volunteers stopped showing up that would force their town to have paid providers? I have seen this before and they don't pay anyone, they just call mutual aid from another paid community.

But you cant just stop showing up, that dose not benefit anyone.

Yeah, only AMR union employees are allowed to do that!

[Happiness]

It has nothing to do with that vollys serve thier community more that you. It is the fact that this is career choice that you have made for yourself and you family. Vollys usally start to see if they like the career, or they see a need for thier service and can help out the community. I work with volenteer firemen and they are my best asset and I tell them that on every call I have. So if you think I was making the vollys better than paid in a community then you miss read what I was trying to say. Also the other point is that the vollys are not the problem in this, it is the representatives you that you have in your unions.

[Just Plain Ruff]

happiness do you write patient care reports?