So a little background, I am a new medic working at a small private ems company on 24 hour shifts. This is also my first EMS job.
Since starting ive had nothing but problems with the company. Right now the 24 hour crew mainly posts at hospitals and tries to get transports from them. The EMT's and Medics are also required to market for the company and attempt to obtain contracts, although none of us has been trained to do so. This is a problem because i just found out that if we dont get a call during the 24 hour shift they will dock our pay. The problem is that we dont have contracts with any company, so calls are not garaunteed. Yesterday we only had one call the whole shift...
Other things are that they want me to be running ALS, but i dont have all the equipment to be doing so legally, so i have refused to do so. They seem to be getting pretty annoyed by me doing this as well. Some of it is simple, like protocol books, other stuff is actual equipment, like saline and drugs. Either way, i am not going to be running any ALS call without the required stuff, its not worth losing my cert over for some BS call, which is most of what we get.
Lastly i just found out that the 24 hour crew will be locked out of the station starting today. They are making us post at a hospital the entire 24 and expect us to sleep in the truck, keep in mind our boxes are all broken down right now, so its a van we are going to be sleeping in. Not only is it cramped in there, but there is no way in hell im laying my head on any part of an ambulance. Finally, the biggest thing is that we will have no way to restock the ambulance after calls. Granted most of what we do is b.s., but you never know when you might get that one call and i actually have to do something...
I'm really hoping this isnt normal for EMS companies. Working here has been pretty disheartening and made me re-think if this is for me or not...
Since starting ive had nothing but problems with the company. Right now the 24 hour crew mainly posts at hospitals and tries to get transports from them. The EMT's and Medics are also required to market for the company and attempt to obtain contracts, although none of us has been trained to do so. This is a problem because i just found out that if we dont get a call during the 24 hour shift they will dock our pay. The problem is that we dont have contracts with any company, so calls are not garaunteed. Yesterday we only had one call the whole shift...
Other things are that they want me to be running ALS, but i dont have all the equipment to be doing so legally, so i have refused to do so. They seem to be getting pretty annoyed by me doing this as well. Some of it is simple, like protocol books, other stuff is actual equipment, like saline and drugs. Either way, i am not going to be running any ALS call without the required stuff, its not worth losing my cert over for some BS call, which is most of what we get.
Lastly i just found out that the 24 hour crew will be locked out of the station starting today. They are making us post at a hospital the entire 24 and expect us to sleep in the truck, keep in mind our boxes are all broken down right now, so its a van we are going to be sleeping in. Not only is it cramped in there, but there is no way in hell im laying my head on any part of an ambulance. Finally, the biggest thing is that we will have no way to restock the ambulance after calls. Granted most of what we do is b.s., but you never know when you might get that one call and i actually have to do something...
I'm really hoping this isnt normal for EMS companies. Working here has been pretty disheartening and made me re-think if this is for me or not...
