Asimurk welcome, our job is physically demanding so you do need to be in great physical shape. We do a lot of lifting and carrying, our equipment can get pretty heavy and patients that ARE heavy, often times VERY heavy! and all too often we are stuck carrying a 200 pound patient down multiple...
I work a one to one, and whenever we have a simple pt (a.k.a. a completely bs call in the first place) that I can handle as an EMT my partner has me tech it while he drives. I don't mind since I enjoy the pt contact.
Nicole, sorry to stick in my nose but as a still fairly new EMT myself I have to say I guess my ride-alongs weren't so bad. In 10 hours I saw enough I guess, on the ambulance we ran a few descent calls - syncopal episode, seizure, MVC, helicopter intersept - and at the ER I saw some stuff too -...
Hey Nicole welcome! One piece of free advice check out this podcast http://www.emsnewbie.com/ start listening from the first episodes that's where they are talking about EMT-B, they answer a lot of common questions that arise as you go through your training, yes some of them may not apply to you...
GR1N53N I completely agree with you, we need a more universal name for us here. Canada has it right in my humble opinion. In the US we are all EMTs - EMT-B, EMT-I, EMT-P. So we can easily stick with that, but than again the paramedics with ego issues wont be so fond of being called ... gulp ...
idk about where you're from but here nurses are kind of anal about us knowing each of their specialties. They expect me to know that they are Psych, ICU, NICU, Peds, CCU, OR, etc. even though at the moment that I'm meeting them they are in the ED. There are only a few different levels of EMS, so...
My partner would say just call us paragods, oh hell just call us god! I agree and it doesn't really bother me when regular people call us ambulance drivers, it only bothers me when it's people who should know better, i.e. doctors, nurses, etc.
Hey ya'll, my name is Rita I am an EMT-Basic also from the left coast (Southern/Central California) and have been for most of my life, although people regularly ask me if I'm from the south, lol. I have been an EMT for almost 3 years.
Another one from the same instructor, we'll call him Fred*. This also happened some 20-odd years ago. He was partnered with our lead instructor, Bob*, that day when they were called to a residence for an unknown medical. No one answered but they could hear a commotion in the backyard so they...
One of my Basic instructors told us a story from back in his early days of EMS some 20 years ago. They are dispatched to a shooting and his partner parked the rig right in front of the address (a run-down, drug infested motel), PD is on scene but the scene is not secure, and shots are still...