Recent content by StarOfLife

You are certainly ignorant. You obviously have NO experience with volunteer departments. Ours (and every one in our county) trains twice monthly - we do ice rescue, snowmobile rescue, near-drowning rescue, powerpoint presentations on a myriad of medical issues, radiological training...

Well stated.

His response to the OP was unwarranted if you re-read it. He never adddressed the points you made so I stand by my contention that HE was ignorant. As well, you make many assumptions. I am nowhere near a metro area. We do not have one in New Hampshire. The nearest metro area is Boston...

They don't do that. Besides, why when it would take them much longer to get on scene. They have four ambulances and they service 6 towns. They are very busy.

In our town, volunteer EMTs respond to every call - no "crisis". It is just that there are few calls and no reason to man the station. We have nine members that have all levels of skill. We have a paramedic who responds to a majority of calls, we have a couple of intermediates who do as well...

You are ignorant, IMO. This demonstrates that there are some in EMS who would rather give no care than give volunteer care (towns with 200 calls per year should be staffed full-time?). Why shouldn't someone (perceived eccentricities aside) give care at his/her level of training if it could...

My squad strongly suggests we use them. We live in a rural community with state roads that have a decent amount of through traffic. It can easily take me 15 minutes to get to a call across town. I'm not defending the OP's setup - his state laws and town's by-laws are something with which I...

I understand your concern, but there is an exam that is standardized. I'm not saying it is perfect, but it measures every EMT candidate the same and if you know the material the NR deems to be necessary to practice as an EMT, then you are not necessarily worse off than your peers that have more...

Dispatch only uses 10 codes around here for communicating delicate issues such as a DV or for responding to a suicide, etc. The vast majority of communication is plain English. A good thing to remember when speaking into your radio - many have a slight delay and your first word or two may be...

The school I attended in that 28-day program has an 88% first time pass success rate with the NREMT basic exam. It can be done well, it simply depends on the quality of the school.

Everyone's level of ambition and ability to absorb material effectively is different. I took a 28-day WEMT immersion course through SOLO. It was M-F, 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 - 5:00 p.m. and until 7:00 on Tues and Thurs evenings after breaking for dinner. They have a campus and most of the...

By the way: This is a great debate thread. I really have enjoyed everyone's responses - even if I don't entirely agree with all of them. :)

Agreed. However, I believe that we should all pay for the level of care WE require personally. It varies between individuals and my lifestyle is less likely (not always but usually) to create high health care bills than that of a less active person. JMHO.

That is correct.

Actually, it is supposed to be paid in through payroll taxes. It is part of the FICA deduction. However, our inept government keeps bankrupting these systems. So, I cannot imagine why one would think they are capable of running the healthcare industry when they cannot run the VA and they have...