Cigarettes SAVE LIVES...........................

[AULupstate]

I was doing my Emergency Room rotation for EMT training and was going outside for a smoke break. As I was walking through the ER waiting room I noticed an older female semi slumped over in her chair. I IMMEDIATELY went to her side and began asking the standard questions 'Are you alright?' 'Are you ok?'. Her responses were slightly off and I checked her pulse and pupil dilation...........she was HAVING A STROKE in the waiting room. We rushed her back to the ER Doctors and they went to work on her right away!!!!

On behalf of her family and myself, I would like to thank the fine people at RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. for making such an outstanding product, that my addiction to it, SAVED a womans life.

True story, hand to Jesus.

[locatethis]

Damn, I just quite a month ago!!! I guess no one around me is safe..............

[FailedSafetyAudit]

You should obviously be given a raise for such a tremendous life saving performance of duty.

How are you enjoying your new career, Don? Treating you well? Enjoying it? Everything you thought it would be? How's the money in comparison to locating? Seen anything else ****in' crazy go down?

[AULupstate]

So far Audit I am still in the training phase so pay and all the hasn't come to light for me. From what I have gathered from certain hospitals around me the pay is a WHOLE lot better than locating, NO complaints of overtime, GOOD benefits. The job is pretty simple (respond, stabalize, pack and haul ass to the hospital), NO QOUTAS to meet, NO more with less attitudes, BACK UP immediately.

I haven't seena tremendous amount of craziness but did watch aguy give him a Foley Cath in the triage waiting room in front of about 10 other patients...................pretty messed up right there.

[Enjoythefall]

Lol, that's awesome. Saving america, one puff at a time.


I guess with a stroke, It's petty easy to see if a "Yes" or "No" answer is off... But my prior experience in the field leaves me having to say just one thing: ask open ended questions, keep 'em talking, and keep 'em conscious.

And I hope to god you weren't smoking camel silvers :P

Wides all the way.

P.S. This post was unnecessary.

[FailedSafetyAudit]

Sounds good man, as always. Glad to hear that you are doing well. Hopefully they start paying you what you are worth. I get the impression that the stress of EMT work is less so than locating? No qoutas sounds very sweet for sure.

Which kinds of catheters are easier to work with? The latex or the rubber?

[AULupstate]

Well, like I said.................it's kind of like being on call for locating.................you wait, and when the radio goes off you go................you get the job done and then you go back to waiting for the radio to go off again. ALOT less stressful in that regards. A little more stressful when someone is in your rig and their BP takes a shit and your bagging them and working their chest.....hooking up the AED and that kind of thing but, nothing that isn't managable if you just rely on your ACTUAL training (again, where it is different than locating)

As far as the ctheter question I am not sure.................My training doesn't go that far into it............so I have NO clue. I could ask some nurse friends to find out if your that interested.

[FailedSafetyAudit]

Laugh my ass off at how you can legitimately rely on your REAL and GENUINE training for being an EMT and how that is obviously different than utility locating. LMAO!!

One of my buddies had a friend that used to be an EMT. He told me once his emergencies were particularly slow one evening so he watched an entire season of the soprano's off of a DVD he brought with him while waiting for calls. Got paid the whole time of course. Do you think you'll have any nights like that? I guess that would depend if you worked near a major city.

Hopefully this new venture brings you closer to nirvana than utility locating ever did. Do you use a GPS to find your way around all the time? Do they stick one in your vehicle? Hopefully they don't make you ride with an auditor or any nonsense like that.

[AULupstate]

Pretty much the cab of the rig looks like a Utility Locators truck, GPS (to find where you are going, NOT for them to find out where you are - disclaimer - some rigs DO have them but they are more for DOCUMENTATION if you have something that goes to court because people inherantly suck and like to sue ANYONE and EVERYONE), Maps, lap-tops, empty coffee/soda containers, sandwhich wrappers etc.

No auditors but you HAVE to re-cert ( FOR REAL ) every 3 years (in NY anyway). Most hospitals/companies/corps WANT you to learn more and get higher credentials, they also PAY FOR THAT training if you want to do it.

Yes there are boring nights depending on where your sector is located or what tour you are running for that shift. They change and rotate though for the most part, unless ALL you do is patient transport from facility to facility. That helps to keep it an interesting mix.

[FailedSafetyAudit]

You have to drive yourself to the medical facility you are stationed at in order to then take the company vehicle, right? I had been curious if they let you take the vehicle home. Probably not I am assuming. Damn, can't win them all.

Do you use the GPS with the laptop or is it stand alone? Do you find that you need it alot when you are responding to an emergency? Do you have any legal authority to overtake vehicles or drive faster than the posted speed limits because of the medical necessity of your position? I have always been curious about that.

Do you get any monetary incentive for re-certifying? Do you think having some sort of certification for utility locating is the best way to roll?

The boring nights must be outweighed by the absolutely insane shit you must deal with in some part of major cities, though.