Passing time

Sasquatch

Sasquatch

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I'm wondering what everyone thinks is the best way to pass time (in the rig) when it's slow? Do you read, have a DVD player, iPad, etc.?

Thanks!
 
Sleep, Eat while you can because you don't know when you'll be eating again. Go to the bathroom (not in the rig, it'll make a mess Trust me!)
go on facebook, rot on EMTLIFE
 
Read. If you're going to be twiddling your thumbs, might as well be productive and learn something. When I worked IFT, my bag used to be stocked full of books. Well... Still is I guess :P

I would also always see the smart phone with Netflix and tons of games.
 
Achilles said:
Eat while you can because you don't know when you'll be eating again.
Click to expand...

Don't take this too literally... When you constantly see grossly obese EMTs, and also constantly see them stuffing their face when they're posting, it's pretty obvious why obesity is so rampant in EMS. If you bring your food, you can eat whenever you like whether you're busy or not, and not be forced to throw down fast food and chips at every stop.
 
i like to snack on grapes and cheese from Wawa with water or sweet tea.
I'd like to bring a portable dvd player but end up bringing my school books to study (which I never do).
mainly drive around the city and hang out until our next call which is usually three hours in between because our dispatch realllly sucks at scheduling.

Now since I'm starting P-school I have lots of stuff to study, but we'll see how that goes.
 
words with friend, excersie the brain!
 
I was working in the field, and I had some downtime, I used my time to read the protocol manual, read my textbooks, read whatever novels I was following at the time, hang out under a tree, drink coffee, check out the various parks in the area that I was posting in, glance over the map book, and if I was seriously bored I would clean and reorganize the interior of the ambulance.

That last one occasionally came in handy because at times I would find out that we truly were low on some particular obscure supply item. Being that I'm also a ham radio operator, sometimes I would turn on my radio and chat with local hams on the VHF repeaters. Every great once in a while, I would listen to the 800 MHz ALS dispatch channel and note how much activity they had and at times they would specify how many ambulances they had available to the system and sometimes if their numbers would drop below about 4 available ambulances, they would end up soliciting for any available ambulance. That would make my ears perk up so that perhaps we might get a call from the 911 system. During certain times of the year, or certain times of the month, it was not uncommon for me to get 2 or 3 911 calls per day – and we were not primary 911 units.

After a few years, AMR wisened up, added more units, and realized that it was less expensive to have a couple more units on the street and pay all the fines. In practical terms, it meant that I went from running 2 or 3 911 calls per day to maybe 2 or 3 911 calls per month or per quarter.

I guess you could say that when we had some downtime, I found anything to do that kept me busy, because waiting just simply sucked the life out of you.
 
Take an online paramedic or physician assistant course.:ph34r:
 
No online nursing course?:rolleyes:
 
As long as I have signal or wifi, I can pass an unlimited amount of time with my phone. Especially with itunesU and HowStuffWorks.

I read, I facebook, spend quality time here, read on my kindle app. It's amazing, the power available in an iphone.
 
Chase said:
No online nursing course?:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I got that one covered for you.


Though I guess now I will be sitting in a firehouse reading, not an ambulance.
 
abckidsmom said:
Especially a medic rookie. I hate to think. It could only be worse if you were a chick.
Click to expand...

Paramedic has no bearing in the FDNY.

Firefighters are all CFR regardless of whether they possess higher certification or not.
 
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