Screenwriter - authenticity. Unit? Team? What's the correct term?

elliswriter

elliswriter

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I have an ambulance driver, a paramedic (preceptor) and an EMT (in training) who ride in the same ambulance and work together in a scene. Would they be referred to as a "unit" or a "team"? Or is there another word that is more appropriate?

My writing partner has received excellent advice from this forum in the past. I thank you for helping us create more authentic scenarios and characters to be portrayed in the media!
 
Crew is the term you want.
 
Usually there isn't an "ambulance driver"
 
Yes, CREW is the term.

You want authenticity, ditch the "ambulance driver"...no such thing within 99% of the profession.
 
my partner always drives when we go to a certain place and one day th snobby nurse called him the ambulance driver. She got a decent chewing! As everyone says Crew is your word And never refer to them as ambulance driver! even they had to go to EMT school. lol
 
The 'ambulance driver' is likely an EMT-B or above. When we roll dual-medic, we draw straws.
 
Every company is different, so you will get different answers from each of us. They way my company does it is we are dispatched and designated "unit 66" for example. The crew is myself and my partner(s).

Example: "Unit 66 dispatched to XYZ street with ABC fire for chest pain."

Super: "Who is the crew on unit 66?"
dispatch: "Oh that is x and y."
 
+1 on "crew".

My favourite term for us is "Ambulance People". As in, "I just told her hold on mum, just breath and the ambulance people will be here soon".

I love it. It makes us sound like we're some kind of un-dead posse of first aiders that rise from the lakes and corn fields render aid. People speak in whispers of the ambulance people that ride in the dead of night.

Oddly enough, ambulance person or ambulance house (where the ambulance person resides), is used here when we want to describe the typical type of person who calls for ridiculous reasons but we can't use one of the more the more ...colourful terms.
 
Your responses are awesome. I appreciate the correction. My bad. He is not referred to in the written material as an "ambulance driver", only here on this forum, due to ignorance--attempting to describe their roles. In the written material he is described as an EMT, and we see him drive the ambulance. Is that correct?

Thanks!
 
Often I just hear our unit number. For example, if I was unit 276, I'd hear over the radio just "276" and my co-workers would refer to me and my partner as 276 if they are talking about both of us.

Sometimes I hear "unit" (no paramedic, EMTs only) or "medic" (at least one paramedic).
 
They refer to us on the radio by our medic unit number. Either "325" or "Medic 325". Sometimes they drop the first digit and only use the last two.

Members are called a crew like everyone else said and don't call him an ambulance driver :P
 
+1. The team of workers is called the "crew" and on the radio we are called "medic 107" (or whatever unit we are...)
 
Here, what they call us over the radio changes depending on whether our paramedic is on that night. When they are, we're Medic 106 when dispatch calls. When they're off and we just have EMT-Bs on the crew, we become Ambulance 106.
 
We have no prefixes, just "Company Name 20" or whatever number. Paramedic trucks are "Paramedic 4" or something like that. Given the choice I'd like to be "ambulance" since you know, that's what I am.
 
elliswriter said:
Your responses are awesome. I appreciate the correction. My bad. He is not referred to in the written material as an "ambulance driver", only here on this forum, due to ignorance--attempting to describe their roles. In the written material he is described as an EMT, and we see him drive the ambulance. Is that correct?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Only dysfunctional services force the EMT to do the driving.

Basically, anybody on an ambulance can drive and anybody on an ambulance can provide patient care. You switch off being the Primary provider on each call to even out the paperwork. If you're working with a mixed-level crew (e.g. Paramedic and EMT) you still try to divide the workload evenly as best as possible.

And as other folks added, usually we're just acknowledged by our unit numbers (e.g. "EMS 22" or "Leland 5096" or "Medic 61").

A typical dispatch may sound like:
Leland 5096, engine 5071, respond reference Breathing Problems, 6-delta-2. 150 Regent Way cross street Magnolia. 52 year old male having trouble breathing. Patient will be out front. Time out 18:24.
Click to expand...
 
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Melclin said:
+1 on "crew".

My favourite term for us is "Ambulance People". As in, "I just told her hold on mum, just breath and the ambulance people will be here soon".

I love it. It makes us sound like we're some kind of un-dead posse of first aiders that rise from the lakes and corn fields render aid. People speak in whispers of the ambulance people that ride in the dead of night.

Oddly enough, ambulance person or ambulance house (where the ambulance person resides), is used here when we want to describe the typical type of person who calls for ridiculous reasons but we can't use one of the more the more ...colourful terms.
Click to expand...

I have never heard this before, but thanks to your colorful description I agree. I too like to be one of the "Ambulance People." Though I prefer to arrive in a puff of smoke or slowly creeping fog than a corn field.
 
PapaBear434 said:
I have never heard this before, but thanks to your colorful description I agree. I too like to be one of the "Ambulance People." Though I prefer to arrive in a puff of smoke or slowly creeping fog than a corn field.
Click to expand...

How about approaching scenes doing the thriller dance? It could work.
 
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