Me=EMT-P with a license, EMT-B is a certification.
Alot of good points on this thread. It would definately help to clarify what kind of system you are in. I will be honest in saying that everytime I have had a negative call involving a EMT-B it has been a volunteer. There are also MANY MANY times I have had exceptional calls with volunteer EMT-B's and I 100% of the time to make it a point and commend them on a job well done.
I look at it like this. Me=EMT-P with a license, EMT-B is a certification. The amount of training involved does not give me the "I am god complex" but I did work very hard and endure almost 1700hrs more of education. This is also my CAREER, full-time, what I do to make a living. Someone who does this day in and day out is going to be much stronger then someone who volunteers and does it one night a week or less.
I have met and worked with great medics and emt's as well as really crappy emt's and medics. I think alot depends on what kind of arena you are working in.
With all of that being said I had a call this past shift that is a prime example of how my system works. Dispatched for breathing problems severe distress, volunteer EMT-B provider jumps on the career (me and my partner) paramedic unit as we are going out the door. We are a paid crew in a volunteer house so they can ride with us whenever they feel and aren't even required to tell us if they are riding. So we are going down the rode. I didn't even know this girls name so i asked her, and also asked if she was a EMT or a student. Get to the call, dude is sick, CPAP him etc etc and in the process drained out portable O2 tank. So we are transporting to the hospital and I am getting IV access and consulting and I asked if she knew how to change the O2 bottle. She said yes, long story short she had no clue and I had to do it after the rest of the things I was doing. Prime example of how I was counting on someone to deliver a basic skill and they couldn't accomplish that for me. If I would have known I most likely would have spent an extra minute or two on the scene and changed it myself. Once we came back I made it a point to go over the proper way to change the tank and told her if she doesn't know how to do something to tell someone before just saying yes and screwing the pooch.
Hang their asses out to dry when they do screw up. Document the hell out of it and hand it over to the medical director when the time comes.How do you and your squad deal with medics who think they are flawless and nothing BLS does is good enough?
Me=EMT-P with a license, EMT-B is a certification.
This is also my CAREER, full-time, what I do to make a living. Someone who does this day in and day out is going to be much stronger then someone who volunteers and does it one night a week or less.
How do you and your squad deal with medics who think they are flawless and nothing BLS does is good enough?
Are there medics with attitudes? Hell yes. Hate them.
But even still, it IS my patient, and it IS my call. If I piss a "lower" provider off because they don't agree with me while I provide competent medical care, oh well, tough noogies, deal with it.