Recent content by DHarris52

$16.00/hr plus shift differential here in Northern NJ.

A couple buddies of mine and I had these custom patches designed and made up. While admittedly whackerish, they make a pretty cool gag gift or conversation piece. I have some extras left over if anyone is interested. Not looking to get rich off of my fellow brothers and sisters...we paid a...

Don't you think this is kind of a silly logic? Paid EMS personnel are compensated for their time while wearing said uniform.

You are sidestepping the question. So you do or do not expect a volunteer EMT to go out-of-pocket for a uniform should their squad fail to provide one? Like I said, no one volunteers expecting anything in return, but it should not cost them anything either. You are correct about spending...

You are grossly out of touch with the realities of volunteer EMS. Why should a volunteer who already gave countless hours and in some cases, their own dollars towards training, on top of the 20 or so hours a week of duty time, have to go out-of-pocket for a uniform? I see your point, and I...

Very nice. How is that working out for you?

Perhaps "stupid" was a poor choice of wording on my part. While I don't necessarily condone dressing sloppily, it's the nature of the beast in this sport. Especially volly EMS. It all boils down to $$$. It's a heck of alot cheaper to issue a member a t-shirt and tell them to wear it with jeans...

That's a pretty stupid comment coming from someone who claims to be such an advocate for bettering our EMS system.

So if you're laying on the side of the road bleeding to death, you're going to make sure the EMS crew is dressed to your satisfaction before you let them go to work on you? Right.

...Captain Killjoy to the rescue. If someone is seriously sick or injured, the LAST thing they are worried about is how the EMS crew is dressed, believe me.

Not much not much...slow day at work. What's going on?

Huh? Nope, it's not. There's this little thing called "scope of practice".

That'd be great...IF it wasn't illegal for us to ask them to do that.

New Jersey We carry oral glucose but are not permitted to take BGL. Go figure. Usually a family member is present and I give it the old "I'm not allowed to do it, but if you want to take his blood sugar while I run out to the rig to grab something, I can't stop you". Works every time.

PD is ALWAYS first on scene around here, so all we really have to do is get in the general vicinity and look for the flashing lights of the patrol units.