In the weekly email to readers I have been asking for news and updates. Reader “Steve” provided this reply. With his permission I am posting it for all Everyday EMS Tips readers. Thanks “Steve.”
Went to my first JEMS conference…
- 7 out of the 10 classes I took taught me nothing new.
- 3 classes were life (and attitude) changing.
- I conversed with some awesome people. Including a responder to Sandy Hook, a Veteran from Iraq who has PTS ( learned not to use the D anymore ) and shared how he deals with it and the help he’s received, and a Vietnam Veteran who was not so lucky.
Speakers kept saying EMS is still in it’s infancy, and I keep wondering why I’ve never seen a 40 year old infant
The Miami FF video…
The poor guy looks old enough to have been around for awhile. Could be burn out, but unfortunately it could be he grew up in the same culture of EMS that I did. One where you were taught not to talk to the press and that they were our enemy. Even these days they are teaching that each department should have a specific person to deal with the press, when in fact they should be teaching classes to all providers how not only to deal with the press but bystanders such as these as well. Everyone knows fires make for better images on the news but hey, a nice shot of a helicopter taking off to save a life could be pretty cool too. ( if we let it )
Penske saves Detroit EMS…
I’d ask if there were any rich folk that would want to step up and do the same for DC, but their problems seem much more than a deteriorating fleet of vehicles.
EMS Cheaters…
I have no time or sympathy for them. They should all have their certs pulled and never be heard from again. Period ! Yes it’s another one of my pet peeves. Con Ed! I don’t re-certify as an EMT until July of 2014 and I already have four times the number of credits needed to do so. And did I tell you I have been working 12 days on, of 12 hour shifts, then 2 days off, then back on, since before I re-certified the last time? So there are no excuses. Nothing gets me boiling more than the person who comes to me at the eleventh hour crying they need more than half their con ed hours by the end of the month to re-cert. I used to help them, now I just tell them- sucks to be you. I actually had a responder ask me if we will still have to re-cert in CPR now that we have Lucas devices on the rigs. Uuuuggh!
Social media assisted suicide…
I believe that a majority of EMS providers ( at least in my neck of the woods) actually loathe and despise the base population of the people they serve. Until we can solve this dilemma in our own ranks we’ll have to be thankful for the likes of Facebook and Twitter doing the job for us.
General…
We were met at the door of a nursing home by an aide/nurse who, while holding the door for us as we brought the litter through with all our bags piled on top of it, told us our patient was on the second floor and asked if we wanted to use the stairs to the right or would we prefer the elevator ???
A 94 year old woman, who looks… maybe 70, whose chest pain was relieved prior to transport, said thank you and told me that what I do is important even though for the most part all I did was hold her hand and listen to the grand story of her life. I should have thanked her.