Best NYC hoods for FDNY ride along?

[adamNYC]

I can pick any 2 EMS stations to ride along with. If you've worked in any of these hoods and can let me know which are the best 2 as far as seeing alot of action, traumas, etc. please let me know. Manhattan or Brooklyn only since I'm closer to those areas. Day shifts only unfortunately. No night allowed.

EMS Division 1 - Manhattan[edit]
StationName
4 (11)Lower East Side
7West Side
8 (13)Kips Bay
10 (15)Yorkville
13Washington Heights
16 (18)Harlem

EMS Division 3 - Brooklyn[edit]
StationName
31 (36)Cumberland
32Carroll Gardens
35Williamsburg
38Wingate
39 (34)Pennsylvania
44Brownsville
57 (37)Bedford Stuyvesant
58 (33)Canarsie

 

[Tigger]

Do you think EMS agencies refer to the areas they cover as hoods?

 

[LACoGurneyjockey]

Do you think EMS agencies refer to the areas they cover as hoods?

Wait, you guys don't do that? Must be a Cali thing... I feel like "Hood 73" might need to happen over the air today.
Look for a high concentration of 7-11s, AM/PMs, moderately hipster coffee shops, and Chinese food. The makings for a great shift...
Having no knowledge of the area, Harlem sounds nice. Then you get to watch those nifty basketball games in your free time right?

 

[Handsome Robb]

Pretty sure anywhere you ride along in NYC you're going to see "action" seeing as in FY2012 they ran 1.43 million EMS calls and it's just been increasing.
Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/pdf/publications/annual_reports/2012_annual_report.pdf

While trauma calls are cool when you're in school it's better to get a good mix of calls because realistically trauma is not what we mainly deal with and to be honest, is not difficult whatsoever in the EMS realm of things. Medical calls are our bread and butter, it'd be pretty sad to run all "crazy" or "cool" calls on your ridealongs to go out into the field as an employee and find out that you cannot stand what the job really is.

If you're dead set on finding the trauma search around on the net for violent crime levels in the areas you're looking at. The more violent crime the more trauma you'll see.

 

[Crackcicle]

39, 44 and 57 are a good bet

 

[adamNYC]

39, 44 and 57 are a good bet

What can I expect in brownsville, bed-stuy, & pennsylvania?

 

[Crackcicle]

You can expect to be busy for a full tour. What you get is unpredictable but the units that come out of those stations aren't known for having much downtime.

 

[adamNYC]

So Sunset Park and Lower East Side were a little bit of a let down. Mostly medical calls and the only trauma was a minor laceration on a kid's head. I'm going to see if they'll let me do 2 more tours. Bedstuy + East New York?

 

[LACoGurneyjockey]

While trauma calls are cool when you're in school it's better to get a good mix of calls because realistically trauma is not what we mainly deal with and to be honest, is not difficult whatsoever in the EMS realm of things. Medical calls are our bread and butter, it'd be pretty sad to run all "crazy" or "cool" calls on your ridealongs to go out into the field as an employee and find out that you cannot stand what the job really is.

So basically this. Trauma is not what we do on a regular basis. And it's airway management, bleeding control, IV fluids, transport, pretty straight forward. After some time in EMS, I've come to enjoy the complex medical calls much more than the rollover with ejection. It's cool and all, definitely exciting, but the real challenge is elsewhere.
If all you want to do is trauma, you're going to get really sick and tired of 90% of EMS real quick.

 

[Tigger]

So Sunset Park and Lower East Side were a little bit of a let down. Mostly medical calls and the only trauma was a minor laceration on a kid's head. I'm going to see if they'll let me do 2 more tours. Bedstuy + East New York?

If this is a letdown you may want to look for a different career path.

 

[WildlandEMT89]

EMS has very little trauma involved in the big picture, I haven't run a legit trauma in several weeks.
What you will see if more critically/ chronically ill patients and those who call 911 but could easy use another means of.transport to the hospital.
Dont look to run tours on these houses that have reputations for turning and burning the whole shift, look for shifts with preceptors that know what they are talking about and have a reputation for being quality providers or you won't get a good grasp of what it's actually waiting for you once you hit the field.

 

[adamNYC]

Not just traumas. Cardiac arrests too would be nice. I would say although it's a letdown it has shown me the reality of what EMS is really like. It has not changed my decision one bit. If anything, I wouldn't mind the non-trauma non-critical calls and downtime. If it was crazy traumas and cardiac arrests all day everyday I can see how stressful and overbearing it could be.

The main reason I want to see arrests and traumas is because I have a limited amount of ride alongs with FDNY and I was hoping to see a good mix of everything.

 

[Tigger]

Not just traumas. Cardiac arrests too would be nice. I would say although it's a letdown it has shown me the reality of what EMS is really like. It has not changed my decision one bit. If anything, I wouldn't mind the non-trauma non-critical calls and downtime. If it was crazy traumas and cardiac arrests all day everyday I can see how stressful and overbearing it could be.

The main reason I want to see arrests and traumas is because I have a limited amount of ride alongs with FDNY and I was hoping to see a good mix of everything.

But that's the thing, you are seeing a good mix of everything. Serious trauma calls and arrests (that are workable) are not part of your usual mix of calls. They're interesting, but the majority of most everyone's days are spent dealing with often times minor medical calls, especially in urban areas. Working in a rural area I see more high acuity calls per capita than the likely average, but it's still a small percentage to go along with the downtime.

 

[46Young]

I can pick any 2 EMS stations to ride along with. If you've worked in any of these hoods and can let me know which are the best 2 as far as seeing alot of action, traumas, etc. please let me know. Manhattan or Brooklyn only since I'm closer to those areas. Day shifts only unfortunately. No night allowed.

EMS Division 1 - Manhattan[edit]
StationName
4 (11)Lower East Side
7West Side
8 (13)Kips Bay
10 (15)Yorkville
13Washington Heights
16 (18)Harlem

EMS Division 3 - Brooklyn[edit]
StationName
31 (36)Cumberland
32Carroll Gardens
35Williamsburg
38Wingate
39 (34)Pennsylvania
44Brownsville
57 (37)Bedford Stuyvesant
58 (33)Canarsie

I would go with Brownsville and Bed-Stuy. I did some tours on 44 X-Ray when I worked per diem for Brookdale/Flushing/Jamaica. You'll gets lots of action.

I used to work on 46 Young in Corona Queens, and we saw our share of good stuff, but that's in Queens.