Make my duty belt LIGHTER! (Please)

[akflightmedic]

It is always amazing to me watching these threads grow. The ones that deserve 10-20 pages fizzle out in 2-3; the ones that are senseless at times, stretch out into 15 page monsters. Oh well, I digress and now I jump on the wagon and make this one even longer with my small contribution.

As for the question of what do we carry...that is a good one and I will give 4 different scenarios for my 4 different situations.

1. As a medic, I carried a pair of trauma shears in my boot, 2 pair of gloves on a belt pouch, 2 pens (one for me and one a throw down), and a radio. Everything else is in the bag or in the truck, have never found myself needing anything that was not in either place.

2. As a firemedic, I carried the same things as above but added my personal pocketknife in the mix, cause I liked it and all firemen carry knives (its a rule written somewhere).

3. As a flightmedic, I carried trauma shears in my boot, spare pair of gloves in my pocket, a critical care field guide in my pocket (for more advanced meds and to ease my tension with the ones I was unfamiliar with), a 14 gauge catheter 3.25 inch (cause ground services rarely have this), 2 pens, stethoscope and notepad. Again, there was no need for anythig else that was not in my bag already.

4. As a remote medic, I carry a pair of gloves, pen, and my knife. Everything else is in my bag.

Having said that, I have never run a call in a building with more than 30 floors. I have done rural, urban and remote but none of the cities were NYish (think Orlando or Myrtle Beach).

A lot of the equipment does smack of whackerism but who am I to give you advise on how to lighten your load. You have decided you need this stuff and you will carry it regardless of what anyone says.

My personal opinion is a lot of this "need" just develops from a combination of "what ifs", hearing others bad stories or seeing their bad habits, or just having general insecurities (remember my need to carry the field guide). As for others, it is a display of their self inflated egos and projecting an image of importance to whomever will look or listen.

We all know about the security guard who judges his worth by the number of keys on his belt and his pride when jingling such or displaying these on his belt.

We all wish to feel important in our jobs and self worth is so critical to our happiness, however some have found displaying toys satisfies this need, momentarily anyways.

To be honest, it took me several years to get to my "lightened"state... :D

I thought I needed so much when I first started, I even had a Batman Utility belt. I was prepared for anything and everything. Removing a item at a time was the key to my salvation. I belive someone mentioned this earlier in the thread. I actually would feel panic when I removed an item. So little by little and with more experience and confidence, I realized I did not need a quarter of the crap I was carrying.

It also came down to preplanning and preparing. By ensuring my bag was stocked properly, as well as my unit, I was confident that anything I needed would be there should the occassion arise. There was no need for me to be the hero saving the day by whipping it out of my pocket or off my utility belt. In the event that the rare situation arises where I truly need a flux capacitor and I do not have one on my belt or in my pocket, I will chalk it up to fate and what will be, will be. Until then, I am relaxing and cruising light!!

[brentoli]

I have a radio, wallet, keys, and if im working at night I throw a mini flashlight in my cargo pocket.

Our O2 have a built in reg, so no need for keys. Never had the need for a pocket tool. I check my jump bag every day when I am on duty and make sure that everything I need is in there. Shears are in the jump bag, and I dont get out of the ambulance with out it.

We have boxes of gloves in the truck, if I think I might have a problem I might throw a pair in a cargo pocket getting out.

[JakeEMTP]

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We have boxes of gloves in the truck, if I think I might have a problem I might throw a pair in a cargo pocket getting out.

Have you considered just double gloving? It is much easier just to take a pair off then to try and put a pair on with wet hands.

[akflightmedic]

Thanks for mentioning the wallet Brentoli.

As I have written before on other threads, a wallet is unnecesary baggage as well.

Most men overstuff their wallet to start with which leads to or contributes to several other medical issues, but aside from that, here is my main point reagrding wallets on the job.

You do NOT need them!

Now this may or may not apply in your area so research carefully before implementing.

At the most, I carried my DL and a debit card. These fit nicely in my shirt pocket or the sleeve of my suit.

As far as all the certifications we have to carry, I made photocopies of all of them on one sheet of paper. If the sheet gets damaged, wet, lost, destroyed...whatever, no worries, cause I have 20 more copies to use. I carry it until the paper falls apart. A photocopy met all the requirements of our inspectors on the rare chance that we actually had a certification inspection. I also had copies of my license as well since we had approval to carry such when on duty and driving emergency vehicles only.

[brentoli]

I can agree on that. When my butt is sitting here in dispatch, I need to take the wallet out after a couple of hours. It starts to aggrivate my hips being off center.

If I could get used to a money clip I am sure that would do me just fine!

[akflightmedic]

Wallets are just another example of things we THINK we NEED, when in acutality we don't.

Its our security blanket. I went wallet free around age 16, have never carried one since.

How many old business cards, pieces of scrap paper, every CC you own but hardly ever use are creating bulk and weight in your pocket? You just do not need all that crap in there.

If you think you do, there is nothing wrong with a stylish man purse, bag , pouch...lol

[KMAC]

last night, i had a full blown MCI. A volunteer firehouse near the ewing/trenton boarder has a big reception hall. Im not sure what type of event was there, but there were 300 something people in it. Around 2230 or so i overheard someone screaming on TAC 2 (ewing fire ops channel) for PD to the firehouse, i heard nothing but a giant uproar of people in the background. 2 minutes later we (ewing EMS) got dispatched to the firehouse along with 3 other BLS units for a riot. PD from ewing, trenton, state police, county sheriffs, hopewell police, as well and the mercer county gang task force all responded as well. Well we were first on scene, we staged in an adjacent parking lot. My other BLS units arrived shortly after, then we saw a line of 30 or so police cars from trenton and the gang unit flying up the road. A short while later we were cleared to the scene. I assumed EMS command and we began the triage. 24 BLS, 2 ALS (not to bad) my trucks were staged on the apron (about 150-200 yards from where I and the scene was, due to limited space to menouver vehicles) we had everything imaginable out of the trucks because we had no idea what we were dealing with. now the parking lot stretched about 300 yards further, and basicly the lot, the building, the street and another adjacent parking lot had pt's. I am damn happy i had my duty belt. period. I used everything i had (and i mean everything) flashlight, shears, mulittool (YES...multitool, i had an o2 cyliner that wasnt in a jump bag and it didnt have a key attached to it because i took the reg. off an empty bottle, also, without a key on it...GO FIGURE) about a half box of gloves, my pocket guide, my duty gloves...get the picture? I also stuffed my pockets with a bunch of 4x4s, a roll of 4" tape (to stick vitals and other info on pt's) a few rolls of 2" gauze and i think thats it...before i left the ambulance so i didnt have to haul the jump bag around with me, i grabbed the "02 sleeve" with nothing but a jumbo D tank, basic airway supplies and a few other choice items in it. anyway everyone got triaged and transported, ended up transporting 16 BLS and 2 ALS. Ill say it again, thankfully i had everything i had on my person because the last thing i would have wanted to do was find out i didnt have something and jump over a fence and jog alll the way back to the truck and the command post (i transferred command to the TC before anyone starts the "you were command you should have stayed in 1 spot" lecture) to get something i needed..like..i dunno..an 02 key or a flashlight..because we thought the scene was contained to the reception hall untill police started finding people everywhere else. So...i personally am thankful i didnt walk into that scene with a penlight in my pocket and my super 300lb. jump bag with everything else including a ring cutter in it like some other people carry. didnt want to be running around with a 300 lb. weight attached to my shoulder.

[KMAC]

Wallets are just another example of things we THINK we NEED, when in acutality we don't.

Its our security blanket. I went wallet free around age 16, have never carried one since.

How many old business cards, pieces of scrap paper, every CC you own but hardly ever use are creating bulk and weight in your pocket? You just do not need all that crap in there.

If you think you do, there is nothing wrong with a stylish man purse, bag , pouch...lol

sorry just to adress the wallet thing real quick, i carry it because i feel lost without it. You know how if you wear a watch everyday then 1 day you forget it and keep looking at your wrist and realize its not there, yeah same way. i never leave the house without wallet, keys, sunglasses and watch.

[Dustdevil]

So... six years in the field and you finally needed the stuff on your belt? Wow. Sure is a good thing you carried it all these years. I'm sure the whole MCI would have fallen apart without that second oxygen wrench on your belt. Dozens would have died, without a doubt. I sure hope the Governor personally presents you with a medal for your heroic foresight. All the rest of us losers should take a lesson!

So you don’t like what I carry, :roll:

Perhaps you have forgotten after 8 pages, but it was YOU who said you didn't like what you were carrying.

WHAT DOES EVERYONE ELSE CARRY?

Huh, Ya all talk big, but I bet you treat your patients with something…

I bet I carry more weight on my Bat Belt than any of you, yet there are two big differences. First, I don't complain about what I carry. And second, NOTHING on my belt is something that isn't just as well left in my jump bag. Two walkie talkies (Uncle Sam, in his infinite wisdom, decided we needed two different radio systems on the same camp :roll: ), a large pouch with all my injectable narcotics, and a camera. Can't leave those in the bag. Scissors, O[sub:d0cf92509f]2[/sub:d0cf92509f] wrenches, stethoscope, gloves, flux capacitors (hehe, I love it!)... all in the bag. If I have a patient, I have the bag, so there is no need to pack my pockets or belt with redundancy.

[brentoli]

I have a headache now. Paragraphs and correct grammar please. I am not jumping your balls, but seriously it helps your point get across.

Why did the regulator not have a key attached? Someone didn't do a good job on their truck check.

Why did you have half a box of gloves on your belt?

What is a "duty glove" are we talking about leather gloves? Why? Was it cold outside?

What did you use the pocket guide for? I like the idea of a pocket guide. If I am enroute to an OB call, I can refresh my memory real quick. I don't like the idea of "hold on while I look at this nifty book!"

Maybe I am completely out of line here, but I can not think of any situation where I would need a bat belt.

Cargo pants are even pushing it, I lose stuff in them.

I wish people felt as strongly about continuing education as they do their "2 inch wide I want you to think I am a policeman so you will respect me more and be in awe of my authority and think that I am really saving the world even though your 17 year old daughter in biology II knows more about how epi works in the human body than I do and I still think I should be able to give it on my own duty belts."