Why I left pre-hospital medicine

I've worked in a variety of EMS settings. From urban high rise housing projects of Chicago, to the deserts of Arizona, the fields of OKC.

I've been in EMS for 8 years but I've always referred to myself as a lifelong student. I worked in a busy Chicago ED while attending Paramedic school. I am currently studying to be an RN. I love caring for patients & I love being around people. My 2 years in the ED as a tech was amazing & I loved the atmosphere.

Why did I leave EMS?

I was sick of the attitudes.

It's frustrating.

It's frustrating to see how others who are supposed to provide compassion & care don't provide compassion to others.

It's frustrating to see time & time again EMS staff abuse alcoholics & drug mis-users.

I have seen firefighters & paramedics punch and kick patients.

I am sick of seeing Paramedics administer narcan, at a rapid rate, to try to induce vomiting. They do it to "teach a lesson", as I was told.

I often wonder if the bad attitudes is due to the fact that many employees in EMS are alcoholics. This is a huge problem in this field.

I was sick of seeing fellow co-workers treat patients like ****.

I was sick of hearing fellow co-workers complain about calls.

I was sick of hearing fellow co-workers give other employees **** for studying & trying to improve in this field.

I was sick of fellow co-workers talk **** about an employee's mistake yet they offered no help when an employee asked for help on how to prevent the mistake in the future.

I was sick of hearing fellow co-workers insist that methods used 15 years ago are still valid in this field.

I was sick of seeing Paramedics judge a patient & not give any pain meds. It happens more often than not.

My former medical director told my academy class to "Be nice" and threaten to fire us if we get too many complaints from patients. It's pathetic that the medical director of a large city has to resort to tell people to "Be nice".

Every field has problems. Show me a field without problems & I'll call you a dumb bullshitter.

Being an RN will have its frustrations. However, I enjoyed working 2 years in the ED.

As an RN, at least I can ensure my patient will receive a warm blanket & pillow without hearing "They don't need that".

I'll see just as much frustrations working as an RN but at least I can ensure my patient is treated with respect.

I'm sorry to hear that you've worked in such deplorable systems. I'm glad, myself, to have never worked in a system where it was that systemic and widespread. Where I am now, if we did most of what you said even once, there'd be no second chances and we'd be out on our asses. There are good places to work prehospital medicine. And I'm glad that I found one of them. Good luck to you in nursing school.

Ditto what TJ said. There are excellent services, and clinicians out there, but good luck, and hopefully you find some happiness, and are content with nursing, cheers.

Wow. I'll just echo the above. there are some awful providers, but I've never seen anything that bad... Hope you find happiness.

I am glad as a RN you will always make sure that your patient will have a warm blanket and a pillow. but when I was in medic school at an ED clinical I was written up by a nurse for spending time finding a warm blanket for a patient who was cold. Had nurses there that had no idea they had blanket warmers; and never stocked them

You got a case of the EMSA, didn't you?

RocketMedic said:

You got a case of the EMSA, didn't you?

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I once had a case of "The AMR's". I moved, cures what ails ya

It's odd how certain places tend to cultivate that attitude. AMR, EMSA (AMR), Acadian....whereas places like Hall and Pafford, although not without their flaws, don't.

RocketMedic said:

It's odd how certain places tend to cultivate that attitude. AMR, EMSA (AMR), Acadian....whereas places like Hall and Pafford, although not without their flaws, don't.

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And even some AMR ops didn't cultivate that attitude. I think a lot boils down to regional or operation management.

TransportJockey said:

And even some AMR ops didn't cultivate that attitude. I think a lot boils down to regional or operation management.

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This is true. It seems to me most of their half way decent ops are, or were like that to begin with, and most of the management either remains, or does their best to see that it's kept the way it was before being absorbed.

Mellowdnb said:

Being an RN will have its frustrations. However, I enjoyed working 2 years in the ED.

As an RN, at least I can ensure my patient will receive a warm blanket & pillow without hearing "They don't need that".

I'll see just as much frustrations working as an RN but at least I can ensure my patient is treated with respect.

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You want to hear something even sadder? I have heard stories of hospital staff calling EMS management and filing complaints because the ambulance crew took too many blankets to stock their truck during the winter time. And finding pillows in the ER was often unheard of.

I wish you the best of luck as an RN, the pay raise alone combined with the lack of need to work 60 hour weeks on a regular basis will go along way to maintaining your sanity.

Mellowdnb said:

I was sick of seeing fellow co-workers treat patients like ****.

I was sick of hearing fellow co-workers complain about calls.

I was sick of hearing fellow co-workers give other employees **** for studying & trying to improve in this field.

I was sick of fellow co-workers talk **** about an employee's mistake yet they offered no help when an employee asked for help on how to prevent the mistake in the future.

I was sick of hearing fellow co-workers insist that methods used 15 years ago are still valid in this field.

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I feel you. Used to work in a system like that, burnt me out & nearly made me allergic to anything pre-hospital. Am glad that I've spent the last few months with a good company, had great field management & a terrific partner; the difference was stark.

Qulevrius said:

the difference was stark.

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One can only imagine....

...

The hospitals get charged for each blanket they use. Some store them in "vending machines", which weighs the blanket & sheet.

The hospital I worked at threatened to not give RNs their year end bonus if they kept using all the blankets.

The hospital paid a fee for the laundry service they used to decon the sheets.

I found it amusing that the CEO and hospital big wigs can have 2 cars, 2 homes but they will ***** & moan about giving out blankets because it "Costs the hospital too much" X D

I've never worked somewhere that I was pressured about linens.

I have been told that if your facility starts worrying about linens, it is a sign they are about to go under.

Mellowdnb said:

I found it amusing that the CEO and hospital big wigs can have 2 cars, 2 homes but they will ***** & moan about giving out blankets because it "Costs the hospital too much" X D

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You are confusing two issues....What the CEO saves the hospital may or may not be related to his compensation, but to lump in his two cars and two homes is poor logic.

Said CEO could simply make normal CEO salary and through this job or even past jobs and investments he is able to treat himself to two cars and two homes. It is not fair to say "why do you have two homes yet complain about linen use?" They are unrelated...

One may argue he gets more compensation by saving the hospital money and that may be true...but you cannot hold his personal homes and cars against his professional actions.

Summit said:

I've never worked somewhere that I was pressured about linens.

I have been told that if your facility starts worrying about linens, it is a sign they are about to go under.

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I've never been "pressured" about linen use, but every place I've been they simply don't stock as much as we need. Apparently it is a really major cost.

Most of our local hospitals participate in the "Linen Exchange" program (where since we have a bazillion hospitals right next to each other we can run multiple calls and not go to the same hospital twice so when we pick up linens from one hospital, put it on our gurney, then drop off the next patient at whatever hospital, they all use a third service to collect up the soiled EMS linens, launder them, then send them back to their original hospital so theoretically no one hospital actually loses linens....theoretically, and that's my somewhat limited understanding of the system).

Most of the hospitals are just fine you restocking what you used (take what you brought in, i.e. don't grab 5 flat sheets, 3 blankets and a handful of towels if you only used one flatsheet on the call....) Other hospitals have the designated EMS Linens cart and couldn't care less if you grabbed half the stock lol. Those are the real lifesavers because we have one or two hospitals in our area (one of them I go to regularly) that refuses to provide EMS linens so you have to use what you have onboard the ambulance to redress the gurney after each call.....if I go to that hospital 5 times in a row (also easily possible) I can run out of clean linens on the rig, so when we get to go to one of the "Don't care" hospitals I CAN restock by grabbing 5 flats sheets, 2 blankets, a handful of towels....

Double post

Mellowdnb said:

I'll see just as much frustrations working as an RN but at least I can ensure my patient is treated with respect.

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I fail to see how this would be not be true of you as an EMS provider?

It isn't like patient abuse is somehow only endemic to EMS. I will be the first to admit that EMS has more than its fair share of flaws, but it isn't like we're the only part of healthcare that has this issue.