VFlutter
Flight Nurse
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The "What happens on the truck stays on the truck" mentality
What Burns you out at times on EMS?
- Thread starter Brandon275
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Joe
Forum Captain
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Take your anti what happens on the truck and shove it. Partners who are sell outs can find a different place to work. If you cant trust your partner then who can you trust? Andthing short of death amd extreme destruction should be handled in the truck.
VFlutter
Flight Nurse
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Yet another reason why EMS will never become a profession or taken seriously in the medical community. Do you see this in any other profession? What happens when a nurse makes a mistake, do they keep quite and cover it up? No, they report the issues and create an incident report. This is not to get people in trouble it is just the responsible thing to do and allows for the analysis of events. Incident reports are the reason many drug companies change labels or hospitals improve policy.
Posts like this make me wonder why I even bother
ExpatMedic0
MS, NRP
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Well Joe I am just curious where your going with this? Say you catch your partner who is an I or P keeping the left over narcs instead of "wasting them" or what if they push the wrong medication and kill a patient? You going to cover there rear? What if they assault a patient, or steal something, Where do you draw the line?
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You need to find a new profession. Something that doesn't involve responsibility and people's well-being. Mature a little and join us in the grown-up world. If you make a mistake, own up to it. If you're partner makes a mistake, tough :censored::censored::censored::censored:. He needs to own up to it on his own. I'm not saying go look for any little mistake and immediately go crying to your supervisor. But your attitude is incredibly immature and potentially harmful.
RocketMedic
Californian, Lost in Texas
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JDub
Forum Lieutenant
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I agree with your point.
With that said though, I feel nursing isn't a great example. I worked in a hospital and this was an issue there also. The only difference is that it was completely based on cliques there. If a nurse made a mistake, all the people she was friends with would cover it up. If someone that didn't like her found out then it was reported and it just caused a while mess.
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I think that the culture of EMS probably accounts for why there are more "cover ups" (screw up, get fired not re-educated) than other areas of healthcare. That said I have no doubt that it happens more than infrequently in other areas of healthcare too.
It would be a bit oblivious to say that nurses never cover stuff up, they just generate incident reports.
bill williams
Forum Crew Member
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Taking the same patient every other day to dialysis as soon as we walk in the door at 6am. It wouldnt be so bad, except she is over 300lbs and we have to carry her down 20 steps in a stair chair that was made in the 1930's.
Getting chewed out by the boss because the nurse didnt fill out the transport paper correctly.
Getting out an hour late everyday, only to see everyone else waiting around to clock out.
Explaining to dispatch that we do not have enough supplies to run another call, this is followed by "cant you run one more call?, its BLS"
Seeing all the fat unhealthy people that I work with complaining about bariatric patients, when they themselves are larger than the patient.
Co-workers that respond lights and sirens to pick up a patient going back to a nursing home. WE ARE NOT A 911 PROVIDER!!!!!!!!!!! SO TAKE THOSE IV's OUT OF YOUR POCKETS, AND THE TRAUMA SHEARS, AND ALL THE OTHER POINTLESS CRAP YOU CARRY IN YOUR POCKETS THAT SERVE NO PUROPSE WHATSOEVER.
Partners who call med control on every single call, discharges, to taking someone to a dr's appt.
Working 20 hours of OT, and not even clearing 1,000 dollars on my paycheck.
Being yelled at by dispatch because our paraplegic patient cannot sit in a wheelchair for their Dr. Appt. So now we have to wait until the appointment is finished. Instead of clearing to run more discharges.
I need a beer or 10.
Getting chewed out by the boss because the nurse didnt fill out the transport paper correctly.
Getting out an hour late everyday, only to see everyone else waiting around to clock out.
Explaining to dispatch that we do not have enough supplies to run another call, this is followed by "cant you run one more call?, its BLS"
Seeing all the fat unhealthy people that I work with complaining about bariatric patients, when they themselves are larger than the patient.
Co-workers that respond lights and sirens to pick up a patient going back to a nursing home. WE ARE NOT A 911 PROVIDER!!!!!!!!!!! SO TAKE THOSE IV's OUT OF YOUR POCKETS, AND THE TRAUMA SHEARS, AND ALL THE OTHER POINTLESS CRAP YOU CARRY IN YOUR POCKETS THAT SERVE NO PUROPSE WHATSOEVER.
Partners who call med control on every single call, discharges, to taking someone to a dr's appt.
Working 20 hours of OT, and not even clearing 1,000 dollars on my paycheck.
Being yelled at by dispatch because our paraplegic patient cannot sit in a wheelchair for their Dr. Appt. So now we have to wait until the appointment is finished. Instead of clearing to run more discharges.
I need a beer or 10.
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Sounds like it......
DrParasite
The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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that's the difference. if a nurse screws up, she gets reeducated, often on the clock, and an analysis is done to see if the person did indeed screw up, or if the system helped cause the screw up.
If the same mistake happens in EMS, you can expect suspension, termination, or a formal reprimand which can end your career.
notice how different jobs treat mistakes? think maybe that can be a contributing factor to burnout?
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Shishkabob
Forum Chief
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To be honest, stations are over-rated in many urban systems. Let's get serious here, if you're anywhere near busy on a regular basis, you'll hardly make it back to the station (especially a far off one) let alone spend much time there.
DrParasite
The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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Throwing the BS flag here. why do you think urban firehouses exist?
Yes you will be busy, but more often than not, you will get some downtime. even if it's just a safe place to rest your eyes, eat a meal, use the bathroom, catch up on charts, etc. Maybe you get time between 2am and 6am.... maybe it's between 7am and 10am.
Having a station that you never see is much better than being stuck in an ambulance for 12 hours when you don't have one. busy or not, I still like the ability to sit down on a couch, even if its just for 5 minutes to relax.
and if you are running for 12 hours straight, maybe your agency needs more ambulances to cover the volume?
Alright Joe I think I see what you are trying to say. I see this not so much as a play on the "lets cover everything up" mentality like a lot of people have been ranting about but more along the lines of the "loyalty" and "lets use the chain of command and handle things at the lowest level possible." Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm seeing a great deal of fire house mentality coming from this statement. I work both a fire job and an ambulance job and my fire job is much more regimented as I work with a crew of 4 for a 72/96. I have a strong bond with my crew members and we handle a lot of business "in house" that never reaches the Chief's or even at times the captain's ears. That kind of loyalty is often missed in ambulance work as we usually don't work with the same partners and there are only two people working together at a time. That loyalty and chain of command still exists but there's often a grey area when there isn't that second or third co worker constantly there to witness/discuss possible concerning scenarios. An ambulance worker must indeed have loyalty towards his/her co worker but must also know when to discuss things with supervisors as they may sometimes be your only other direct line of contact. This type of loyalty is unique for the medical field as you often don't find nurses or doctors who have worked fire or similar close knit professions and been part of this lifestyle so they don't have that constant feeling of trying to be true to your family. They handle their problems the way they've been trained and we handle ours the way we were trained. Both are sometimes similar and often they are very different.
As far as that remark someone made about EMS never being considered a profession or taken seriously, I find that very insulting. This has been my dream profession since I was a small child and I take much pride in what I do regardless of what the "medical community" thinks about EMS. For the record: our local hospital works very close with our ambulance and we assist them quite a bit in the ER. The doctors and nurses trust our opinions and will often ask the medics their thoughts on the appropriate action for treatments, transfers, etc. based on what they saw in the field. I don't know what everyone's experiences are, but around here there is much love and respect in all fields of medicine. Stepping down off my soap box I will finish with this to remain in step with the thread topic: what burns me out the most with this profession is how quick people are to draw away from the pride and respect that it really has. We have been entrusted to care for people in their time of need and we again and again enter people's homes and other private places to bring them to a safe place for what ever help they might need; b/s or not. We are in the business of helping others which has a certain nobility to it. Let's try not to lose track of that. Everyone can be just as professional whether you're a doctor, nurse, super medic, EMT, volunteer firefighter, whatever. Were all on the same team. Lets act like it.
mycrofft
Still crazy but elsewhere
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That's how nurses with a union get treated. Without one, or say working convalescent, you can be gone so fast.
mycrofft
Still crazy but elsewhere
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Joe, expand on "trust". It's driving the thread bonkers.
Joe
Forum Captain
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I guess i got worked up with all the crap this forum has had lately. You however hit the nail with a better hammer then i did. I hold my partner to an extreme degree of professional demeanour. We polish boots every morning and try our best to not let anything get to us. If he messes up and its not a life threatening mistake i let him know that it doesnt fly. He does the same for me. We have never had a complaint from rn or pts.i attribute that to our ability to not be a little peach and cry to supe at every turn.
Do not ever think i would cover up anything illegal your dumb. Were professionals. We have fun because without it i will turn into another burnout that frequents the forum to stand on my soap box.
Trust is huge with us. I always know my partner has my back. If one of us is in trouble we both own up. Were a team. Like the quote says some things never reach brass desk and frankly thats how it should be.
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That's my thought, if you're so busy to never see your station, then more ambulances are in order. Yes we are paid to run calls, but to expect excellent patient care while running crews into the ground is simply not realistic.
Even if you run a lot at night, I still want a locked door to sleep behind to keep eager urban outdoorsmen from sneaking up on me.