Is it me or are most of FDNY EMT/Medics miserable?

[NYC_EMT326]

Tskstorm, sorry if I confused you. I didn't mean volunteer at all. Haha

[CBEMT]

Don't forget Hatzalah....

Every time I'm in NYC, I've seen their units on runs. They seem pretty busy.

[croaker260]

So let me get this straight, both EMS and fire fall under FDNY, but FF have better retirement than EMS??Am I wrong but isnt 19/hour crappy pay for NYC??

Another reason for well qualified medics to come out to boise. At least we have good retirement and as good or better benies here as at the fire departments.

www.adaparamedics.org

[NYC_EMT326]

Unfortantly yeah thats true. FDNY EMS is second rate citizens in a first class system with 3rd world pay. Privates will start you off from 25 to 30 depending on your experience. I could have 20 years experience as a medic and go to FDNY and only get 19/hr forget that.

[FormerEMSLT297]

NYC_EMT,, tha answer to your question about why you may get the cold shoulder from FDNY-EMS is as follows:

When I worked for the city, pre and post merger, there was no transcare metro care doing 9-1-1.. Voluntary Hospitals hired their own people, almost all of them were former or current FDNY or NYC-EMS members, they knew the system, the protocols, SOP's, OGP,s etc.

Now as for Metro Care. Even though you are all EMT's, and or Medics, and you hold the same certifications as municipal units, you are not the same. NYC has an academy that all new hires go thru.. even if you were a Medic for 20 years in another system. This can not be said about the Privates. The other thing is the vehicles you drive. I dunno what they are like know, but i remember being at a local ER in Manhattan when a NYS-DOH inspector rolled in and he put multiple private operators out of service for lack of equipment, CO in the patient compartment, lights not working, sirens not working, etc.

Not to mention the fact that they go out of service for long periods of time, "get lost" literally and figurativelly, as well as just a lack of overall control, what is FDNY going to do if they screw up???

So, I think the reason is that in their minds the Privates are providing sub standard care. And when a scandal breaks, the POST writes about EMS, not the private, and they FDNY personnel get lumped in with metrocare.

When a municipal unit backs you up, you know what you are going to get, not so for a private 9-1-1 contact ambulance,, you don't know if the person is familiar with the SOP, OGP, or REMAC protocols, Hell you don't even know if this is their first day working, whatever.. So you can say what you want but the standards are not the same.

This is my personal opinion about why they shun you.

My thoughts are my own and do not represnet my agency, dept, or company.

I speak from over 10 years exp in NYC-EMS/FDNY as an EMT, Disp, Medic, and LT, any other questions feel free to ask.

[FormerEMSLT297]

Unfortantly yeah thats true. FDNY EMS is second rate citizens in a first class system with 3rd world pay. Privates will start you off from 25 to 30 depending on your experience. I could have 20 years experience as a medic and go to FDNY and only get 19/hr forget that.

Yeah thats true,,, but there are a lot of promotional opportunities,,, like when I got bored with the streets, I went to Comm, then back to street, then to Medic school all paid for,,, and within 6 years made LT... so theres a lot of movement...

Not so in the private sector.

[Asysin2leads]

Unfortantly yeah thats true. FDNY EMS is second rate citizens in a first class system with 3rd world pay. Privates will start you off from 25 to 30 depending on your experience. I could have 20 years experience as a medic and go to FDNY and only get 19/hr forget that.

2nd rate citizens? Then how come everytime I hear someone acting like an f--ing moron on the radio, its a vollie? Would you like my Lieutenant to come down and give you his laundry list of vollie shenanigans? Not being 89, not having proper equipment on standbys, but what can the lieutenant do? Nothing. There is very little oversight of the voluntary system, and the lack of discipline and standards in it is an ongoing problem.

Yes, you do get better pay with the vollies. Then again, you also have to kiss up to your supervisor, can be fired on a whim, and if you get injured, well, workman's comp is your friend. Me, I'll take LODI and sit at home making full salary recovering. But I guess if you're just in it for the money and don't really care about your future, you can roll the dice with the vollies and make some bling.

Yes, FDNY EMS has its problems. But the vollies are like Russian Roulette. Depending on where you are you might get some first class medics and EMT's, or you might get someone who's sole purpose is to drag you back to their rinky dink ER in a desperate attempt to keep their hospital open.

Giuliani really f---ed over NYC EMS by letting Zakheim and the rest of the scum into the system. In that vein, I'd like any of you buff/whacker types out there who get misty eyed over the "9/11 Mayor" to listen to me and listen to me good. If you at all value the system you work in, or if you value EMS as anything more than a means to bilk Medicare, you will NOT vote for Giuliani in the 2008 election. If you do, don't come crying to me when Transcare or AMR or whatever mega-transport-pick-em-pack-em-bill-em corporation pushes you out of your area.

[NYC_EMT326]

To answer your question about the buses now, they are much better because our company doesnt want to lose their contracts. Though I have had problem with FDNY EMT's not knowing where there equipment was on their own bus. We got a job for a peds seizure in the bronx, FDNY gets there has the pt in the back of their rig. Pt stops breathing...so I am looking for a peds BVM, the EMT hands me a f---ing Adult BVM and tells me he doesnt know where his is, so we grab ours out of kit. Pt starts breathing again we are now looking for a peds nrb which we cant find so we had to take one out of the ALS kit. I searched that rig up and down for a mask and bag and couldnt find either one. Thank god conditions wasn't there and no didnt turn him..but made sure that he had a stocked bus and knew where it was.

As for my comment about 2nd rate citizens...I didnt mean you guys really were 2nd rate, because I don't believe that. I feel you do get treated like 2nd rate citizens compared to the firefighters. The whole money thing? Is me trying to make a means for living in the city. I believe in universal health care and billing a pt is the last thing on my mind when I am on a job. I have been doing my job since I was 16 as a CFR...when I was 18 I took my EMT course...i am 21 now. This has been my life's work. I understand that my position in Transcare is expendible...but I make sure I do my job so I am not expendible, you guys are lucky enough to have a union to back you up. I wish it was a universal union for anyone that gets into an ambulance and does their job. I know it wont be that way. For the radio shit, thats not me. I understand there are morons both FDNY and Vollies. I make sure I am 89 when i am suppose to.

As for conditions, most of them respect me because I give them respect. They can come and put my bus out of service if they something wrong with it such as not being stocked, lightbar not working, ect but I dont have those issues. I make sure my bus is stocked overstocked cleaned and perfect before I go out on the road. I respect you guys for what you do and what you deal with. I have to know my protocols like the back of my hand before I was cleared for 911. My choice in my employer was because of my friends Uncle..who is a A/C in FDNY. My plans arent to say with EMS, I plan on becoming a firefighter in FDNY because thats what I started out as upstate. I just wish there was the same brotherhood there was for EMS in the city like there is with the Firefighters and Cops because we all deal with the same shit and go the same jobs. We back you guys up and you back us up. Thats why when you see somebody with an EMT or medic patch on their uniform dont give us the cold shoulder because we are all brothers in this job. Thats why I brought this up in the first place.

[Asysin2leads]

Look, EMS is never going to be a brotherhood. We're never going to be on par with the firemen, because they've been around longer than us, when they actually have to do their jobs (it happens now and again), its far more dramatic and exciting than ours, and they die more than us, and sympathy is a powerful thing. That's because we don't require a team to get the job done. We have individual competitiveness that's a hold over from medical practice, and we are trained to think for ourselves. That's why we have problems with the whole team thing. On the the other hand, EMS does its job well because it can be fractured, chewed up, spit out, and still pull off its job. After 9/11 hit, EMS was first to regroup, count heads, and get back to work, and somehow we got through it with out sleeping with anybody's widows or smacking each other with folding chairs or driving drunk.

To get back to yoru original question, well, you've already answered it. The reason some FDNY EMT's and paramedics give the cold shoulder to others is because of the perception of them as being 2nd class citizens. When NYC EMS was around, there was a sense of pride, of individuality, of being part of something. Being a paramedic WAS a career in and unto itself, something to be proud of, to identify yourself with. Now, its just a job, and worse, what's very worse, a stopping off place on to being an exalted and worshipped fireman. Yes, when you are proud of working for EMS, it gets a little annoying when someone comes along, working for a company that likes to decimate all you hold dear in terms of morals and values for a buck, so they too can be a great big hero macho fireman person.

As for me, my pride in the work I do comes first. Take my FD patch off and I'm still a paramedic. Take my paramedic patch off and I'm still an EMT. Take my EMT patch off and I still know CPR, and if you take away my CPR card, I'm still a darn good guy. That's why I don't get upset when the firemen get all mushy about their brothers and how I'm not one of them, or why I don't get upset when my sorry excuses for chiefs make more boneheaded decisions, because for every person with a white shirt and gold on their collar who has given me a hard time, I have someone with "MD" after their name who has given me a slap on the back and a hearty handshake.

I generally don't give the vollies a hard time, because honestly, I don't care. People need to grow up and do their damn jobs, that goes fore EMS, police, and especially Fire. Get over yourself, do some good, get your paycheck and go home.

[Rescue0ne]

As for me, my pride in the work I do comes first. Take my FD patch off and I'm still a paramedic. Take my paramedic patch off and I'm still an EMT. Take my EMT patch off and I still know CPR, and if you take away my CPR card, I'm still a darn good guy. That's why I don't get upset when the firemen get all mushy about their brothers and how I'm not one of them, or why I don't get upset when my sorry excuses for chiefs make more boneheaded decisions, because for every person with a white shirt and gold on their collar who has given me a hard time, I have someone with "MD" after their name who has given me a slap on the back and a hearty handshake.

I love that. I'd make it (the blue part) my signature if it wasn't so long.

It's been my experience that alot "white shirts" are all about "CYA". Granted, I have known those that put the job, & their people first. I like to think I'm one of them, and I try my damndest to make sure I am.

I've kept abreast of the FDNY EMS "problem" since it's inception. I agree with Asys. Guliani effed up big time with the merger, dragging NYC*EMS screaming & kicking into the FDNY. While I was in NYC, I spoke to many EMT's & Medics about this issue, and they said the same thing. Noone cares about EMS in NYC. Everyone loves to see the firefighters & police in action, right? It's sooooo exciting. So many TV shows have come and gone. True Blue, NYPD Blue, Rescue Me, 3rd Watch. So much BS. If they're going to do it, do it right. If not, don't do it at all. Anyway...

Brotherhood? He's right about that. Not so much in Career EMS. You do see it in volly alot. Firefighters have to depend on eachother, as a team like he said. In EMS, you depend on your partner. Granted, the two of you might bond closely if you're partnered regularly.

In rural EMS, it's been my experience that there does become a group bond. Most of us see eachother daily. Often times, we're partnered up with different people weekly, if necessary. During mutiple casualty incidents, we all work together as a team...thus needing to depend on eachother. Overall, though...it's not the "brotherhood" of the firemonkey. I'd like to see it become so, though. One day.