Guardian - In my area, the whole doing "EMS" rather than social work is alive and well, however, there is a certain amount of social work/transport work involved with any 911 system. Last night I was hanging out at the squad and a woman crossed the street from the ER and told us she just got kicked out of the ER but is homeless. We called the County and got her into a shelter for the night (the ER told her the shelters were closed and she was out of luck - this was 11pm)... the shelter sent a taxi for her. If they didn't, we were totally prepared to give her a lift. No, it's not exactly in our job description - but she had a need, and we are there to help. None of us could just let this 60 year old woman spend the night sleeping on the corner when she came to us asking for help.
That's the nature of what we do. If you don't have compassion for everyone that needs your help, whether because they were in an MVA or because they don't have anyone else to care for them, then you probably don't belong. The best technical provider is worth nothing if he forgets that he is caring for people, with feelings, fears, and needs.
I don't know why I even respond to this type of post but here goes...I'm a pt advocate. I'm an advocate for the man who is going to have a heart attack but doesn't know it yet. I'm his advocate because I want to reserve my resources so that I can properly respond to his emergency and not be dealing with some bs at the time.