Recent content by GayEMTNJ

Working in the Zoo I can't really comment too much on this because the service for which I work is different and being a volunteer means that I don't run day-in day-out like paid personnel do. However, I had a colleague that worked in a high-stress paid environment in a very urban, dangerous...

R/r 911 I certainly agree with what you posted. ERs in many places are getting busier and they are being used like clinics. But there also seems to be something else driving it. The reason that I say that is the ERs to which I'm transporting are typically not that busy. I grew up in an...

I agree that while the story is news, we shouldn't take any joy in seeing one of own get dragged down. As much as what he did was wrong, I often wonder in these cases if anyone noticed his addiction but never took steps to help him. Sometimes people are beyond help (a lesson EMS teaches...

I'm one of those black cloud people. I always used to tell my partners that I'm never riding with them because we're always busy. After a while I realized it wasn't my partners but it was me. More importantly, I'm known to have the most bizarre calls. If someone comes to the station and...

There was a group of us that had taken a road trip together. The one guy we were traveling with was almost impossible to wake up. *Nothing* worked and we did get creative. One morning I had a brainstorm. We had tried for ten minutes to get him to move. I told everyone to be quiet, I stood...

I wish I knew because it seems to be plaguing more and more hospitals in my area. I think some of it is overwork and I think a lot has to do with reduction in staff as well as ancilliary staff. This pushes more work back onto the nursing staff. In the past few months, I've even seen nurses...

Hey thanks for posting Brassguy! We're a third service so I don't have much day-to-day interaction with the fire department. Back in the day we used to share the same station. My experience was be straightforward and then get to back to work. One the firefighters was joking about...

I didn't realize that Creedmore is still open! I did a thesis in college in sociology of medicine on the issues surrounding institutionalization and the failure of the mental health system. Creedmore was one of the facilities that I discussed quite a bit. I had thought that Creedmore had gone...

We had a job where a parakeet had gotten a little too much smoke and was a little lethargic. The crew put a plastic bag over the cage and fed oxygen supply tubing into the cage under the bag. Essentially, they built a little oxygen tent for the bird. The little guy then got transported in the...

Similar situation happened to me I was waiting to transfer a patient (so essentially out of service for 25 minutes given the lightning speed of the care transfer process in our area) in an ER and something similar happened to me. A lady came running into the ER up to the triage window and said...

Working with the new guys I think two thing can help. We do a new member orientation and during that we tell some war stories but the war stories are not geared around "there was this awesome job" but more about the types of things that you see on calls. I've shown some pics from nasty jobs...

I'm sorry I guess I never explained myself very well. I'm not concerned about how people will treat me on the forums. Obviously, that's the beauty of the internet. I was looking more for people I could talk to offline a bit about their experiences and get some feedback. Like a few weeks a...

MRSA Links Here are few links that I used in a recent training email to our department. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/us/27infect.html?ex=1343275200&en=abd8b0ac7885ad90&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink http://www.emsresponder.com/features/article.jsp?siteSection=5&id=5711...

Jeeper Here I first had a Toyota Corolla. I laughed because I was told that I never get anywhere in the snow in that. I told them they didn't grow in the city. The city uses a concept called "solar plowing" and so I got very adept at driving anything in the snow. One of my friends used to...

Reasons why I can understand why you would see it that way. However, there are lots of reasons why I think it does matter. I think it promotes trust and honesty. I have worked with some closeted guys over the years and they usually get branded as loners because they tend to avoid the...