Ride Time

wxduff

wxduff

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So for my EMT Class I'm supposed to do ride time so last week I signed up to ride in a semi-private ambulance in a different part of my county. I could have rode a much closer city ambulance, but every single one of their calls is typical, and their transport time is less then five minutes. Instead I rode in a rural ambulance that still averages at least 2000 calls a year. They have a 45 mintue or greater transport, and they actually have some call diversity (high then average trauma and younger patient numbers).

I was worried because the day before I had drove 8 hours to go see my schools hockey team blow a 3-1 lead to loose in overtime to the #1 team in the nation, then get to my house to sleep for 4 hours. I woke up and drove 3 hours to my school, dropped off my friends, took a shower, and drove to the Ambulance.

When I got there a few people were there, the ALS crew was out running errands. I got the quick tour of the base, given a few donuts for breakfast and some light discussion. I was told that I picked a good day to come because Saturdays usually get nuts. I was pretty nervous for my first call, and was waiting for tones to drop.

During the day I did things like tape over a borrowed ambulances company name because two out of the three at my ride companies developed problems at the same time, learn how to eat at a ponderosa steak house, watched tv with the crew, and learned about EMS as a profession.

12 hours and 0 calls later, I left at 11 as required by company policy. I get back to school, stop in to my corps base to see whats up. When I told them I had been doing ride time, they asked where, and I told them. I was then told They got two back to back calls, one was a full arrest, one B.S around 11:15.

:(

I'm going back Tuesday for 4 or 5 hours after my EMT class to get a chance at a couple calls.
 
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full arrest? wow, too bad you missed that one. out of curiosity, how many partial arrests did you miss?


i feel bad for them, but i used to love it when white cloud rookies would show up on my truck. nice and easy relaxing day.
 
Why do you feel bad for them? And why are you digging me for using the term full arrest?

What is you definition of a "white cloud rookie", just so I know if I've been insulted or not. I hope I haven't, I'm just curious.
 
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wxduff said:
Why do you feel bad for them?
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because i have a pretty big and bad black cloud. when the rooks arent around, stuff gets a little crazy. they show up, nothing good. i feel bad because they theoretically miss out on some decent calls.
 
You aren't alone.
I tried to to a ride-along with local air ambulance services 3 times.
First time we got no calls for 12 hours, then 5 minutes before the end of the shift we get dispatched, get into the helicopter, start the engines... and get cancelled before taking off.
On my second attempt they had a fixed wing transport (on which they do not allow ride-alongs).
On my third attempt (at a different service) we just had no calls.
Maybe I'm just not meant to fly.
 
With Ride-Alongs there are either NO calls ever or its is a sh*t show, the entire shift... people swear its Karma-- and as soon as the 3rd rider is off, things reverse.
 
wxduff said:
I could have rode a much closer city ambulance, but every single one of their calls is typical, and their transport time is less then five minutes.
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Just curious...what do you consider a "typical" EMS call?

And you might be amazed how much dookie can go down in a five minute transport...
 
The city gets the same thing, either:

A: Grandma Fell down.
B: COPD
C: the nut house.
 
NolaRabbit said:
Just curious...what do you consider a "typical" EMS call?

And you might be amazed how much dookie can go down in a five minute transport...
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Especially if they are feeling nauseated and your partner drives like a madman.

Aspiration :ph34r:
 
wxduff said:
What is you definition of a "white cloud rookie", just so I know if I've been insulted or not. I hope I haven't, I'm just curious.
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white cloud means that you drive away all the good calls and a black cloud means your a poo magnet. I was white cloud at first at my fire department but that quickly changed when my first call was a fatal T/C.
 
hmm, I got lucky during my ride-along.
Had a total of 8 calls that day with 2 cancels on scene.
3 diabetic emergencies, prisoner transport, 2 snf transports, panic attack, and a t/c.
Pretty interesting day, got to ride code 3 during one of the diabetic emergencies.

This girl in my EMT class got to do CPR during her ride-along, that was a cool story to tell.
 
mperkel said:
hmm, I got lucky during my ride-along.
Had a total of 8 calls that day with 2 cancels on scene.
3 diabetic emergencies, prisoner transport, 2 snf transports, panic attack, and a t/c.
Pretty interesting day, got to ride code 3 during one of the diabetic emergencies.

This girl in my EMT class got to do CPR during her ride-along, that was a cool story to tell.
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I got to bag and do CPR on a cardiac arrest patient during one of my 12 hour ER rotations, it was the coolest thing I had ever done, at the time. now that I have had to do it 3 or 4 times it just isn't as exciting.:blush:
 
i only have 8 hours of ride-along hours on an ambulance. I only saw one call and that was a "fall" victim who fell down a flight of three whole stairs and refused to get up. After c-spining and putting her on the back board she realized that it wasn't very comfortable and was okay. From what I hear and see it is definetly a hit or miss with ride alongs. I have about 72 hours now in the ER in town and i've gotten a lot of hands on there. If you're still in school you might need to schedule some hours there anyways(depending on where you live)
 
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I'm a white cloud. My presence in a station guarantees a lot of time in front of the TV.
 
BossyCow said:
I'm a white cloud. My presence in a station guarantees a lot of time in front of the TV.
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Black cloud here <_< ... its nice, as it makes the time go by fast... but it would be nice to just sit at the TV for 3/4 of a shift just once haha
 
My first ride along was with a semi-rural ambulance service. We got:
1 CPR
2 MVAs (one got air lifted out)
1 Diabetic
1 drunk idiot who fell off the roof of his 2nd story apartment (At 0330 ?????:wacko:)
1 canceled run (gunshot. got taken in to the hospital by POV)
1 nursing home transport

All were code except the nursing home!

During my ER rotation we had like 200 PTs come through that night.
We even had a fight in one of the rooms! B) Drug deal gone bad. I guess one guy would not produce the goods. The other guy pistol whipped him, and so the first guy punched his lights out. (busted his jaw) Long story short, another guy showed up claiming to be the bro of the guy who thwaked the first guy with his gun, went into his room, pulled him out of bed and started beating the crap out of him. Good thing cops were still in the ER!

Gotta love the big city hospitals!
 
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I'm a white cloud as well. It's kind of annoying actually, as I've become the butt of my partner's jokes.
 
HA! I did a ridealong after working as an EMT for three years.

Part of nursing school, no exceptions. I was helping lift litters, doing vitals enroute, and riding in the back after the first run, nothing big but steady. As I was leaving the porno videos came out. (I kept leaving). The other nursing students all reported quiet shifts and riding shotgun up front.And no audio-visuals.;)
 
I've got a white cloud. The 2nd day of my shift is now over the hump and still not a single call....lol.-_-
 
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