# My Partner flipped out today.



## EMTSteve (Oct 1, 2008)

First let me tell you about my partner... he's one of those very loud talkers, whiners, *****er, complainer, and always talking :censored::censored::censored::censored: to me in front of Hospital Staff and Pt's.
But I put up with it because generally he’s knowledgeable from 15 years in the business.

Well today was just going along swimmingly... until I say something.

We are unloading a Pt at his nursing home, and my partner ALWAYS like to be behind pushing the gurney, so I say "I see you running for the back". 
He very loudly says "You need to :censored::censored::censored::censored:ing check your attitude" right in front of the pt and people standing in front of the nursing home!!
I saw the look in the Pt's eyes; it was as if he just lost all confidence in us.
Later on.. inside as we are about to sheet drag the pt to his bed my partner makes some more very unprofessional comments.
We stay very quiet on the ride to our next call, I get out of the ambulance and close the door a little hard and proceed to the rear of the rig where I'm met by my partner, he gets in my face and stats yelling about "If I ever slam his door again". 
I stay calm and tell him he’s being very unprofessional in front of pt and the public. He then looks around and is still yelling at me while he says "who's around NO ONE". There were about 10 people in front of the Dialysis Center watching my partner yelling at me while in my face. 

 Then we get the gurney and go pick up our pt. in the dialysis center. 
I see my pt. on o2 (which she never is) and I began questioning her and the staff as to what happened. My partner steps between me and the pt. and begins questioning her with the same questions I just asked.

Some more stuff happened that day but I’ll skip to the end.

While on our trip to the Station I text our Scheduling lady to tell her to give me a new partner because we weren’t getting along.

We arrive at the station my partner parks the rig and runs into the dispatch center (where our supervisor is) but before he goes in the door I say “I’m not going to rat on you, don’t rat on me. He yells “What??.... What?” and gets in my face again IN THE STATION.

Turns out the Scheduling lady notified our supervisors and I was forced to write a UO (Unusual Occurrence)… basically ratting him out. 

So…. It looks like we both have a new partner tomorrow…. I can’t wait to see what happens.

I believe I handled myself quite well and I’m being 100% truthful.… but there’s always 3 sides to a story. 

I just needed to vent... and this is a "Did That Just Happen?" lol


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## mycrofft (Oct 2, 2008)

*So the engagement's off, eh?*

.........


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## Sasha (Oct 2, 2008)

EMTSteve said:


> First let me tell you about my partner... he's one of those very loud talkers, whiners, *****er, complainer, and always talking :censored::censored::censored::censored: to me in front of Hospital Staff and Pt's.
> But I put up with it because generally he’s knowledgeable from 15 years in the business.
> 
> Well today was just going along swimmingly... until I say something.
> ...




Yikes. A friend of mine has a partner like that, turns out hes coming off of a nicotine addiction, maybe your partner is craving some drugs!  (Or maybe he needs to start some, hot d@mn thats intense!)


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## Flight-LP (Oct 2, 2008)

Either that or he needs to get laid.......................

In any case, it needs to be corrected and immediately. Whether you elect to involve a supervisor, or smack him upside his head, it needs to be identified and stopped. There is no excuse for that innappropriate and unprofessional behavior. Maybe the pt. needs to contact your supervisor and give his feelings towards your asinine partner's behavior.


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## medicp94dao (Oct 2, 2008)

So much for cuddling.......... lol....


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## SmokeyBear (Oct 2, 2008)

I'm glad you posted this. I have a couple weeks left with my current partner before I hopefully get moved to another, if not I will request a new partner. I'm waiting for him to flip out or perhaps even do something weird. He has serious emotional problems which is why he has been through 4 partners in the last couple months. I got stuck with him because everyone calls me "get-along"...I sit and smile let him while he yells about driving, yells about my trip, yells about everything from how I turn on the lights to how I place the patient in the ambulance. He even mentioned--and I quote--"If you dont hate me by the end of the week then Im not doing my job." Everyone at the station is shocked that I haven't slapped this guy on the back of the neck yet. 

He is, like yours, a 20+ yr medic whom I respect AND I have learned alot from (and some other things I will NEVER do) but I think the stress is getting to him. He also works at ANOTHER fire house as well and works about 80+ hours a week. Its called* burnout* and I believe your partner and mine need to realize they have hit that wall.


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## flhtci01 (Oct 2, 2008)

Flight-LP said:


> Either that or he needs to get laid.......................
> 
> In any case, it needs to be corrected and immediately. Whether you elect to involve a supervisor, or smack him upside his head, it needs to be identified and stopped. There is no excuse for that innappropriate and unprofessional behavior. Maybe the pt. needs to contact your supervisor and give his feelings towards your asinine partner's behavior.



Guessing the smack upside the head won't work.  The report is the right thing to do.  The incidences in front of the pt's not only reflect on the crew but also the company.  A customer, either a pt or someone from the facility, could have made a complaint or comment to someone in the company before you said something.

Had a co-worker have something similar happen.  She requested a new partner.  When her partner found out, gave her the silent treatment.  Imagine runs where your partner refuses to talk to you. She finally quit.  She's much happier where she is at now.


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## FF-EMT Diver (Oct 2, 2008)

Sounds like you did good, although I would not have txted the scheduling lady I would have went directly to the supervisor (as this is not just about you this is about public image) and I would have given the whole story and allowed him to give his, trust me a supervisor has usually seen them all and can be a pretty good judge of character right off, Or I would have tried anyway BUT in my face is where I lose MY temper!!!:excl:


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## emt19723 (Oct 2, 2008)

Flight-LP said:


> Either that or he needs to get laid.......................



im going with that one!    lol


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## EMTSteve (Oct 3, 2008)

Well today I was with a different partner who is just about to be our new supervisor.
She said that she talked to my old partner and he feels the same way I do... that this whole thing got blown out of proportion and that he was wayyy in the wrong.

He also said that he really wanted to be scheduled with me today so that we could talk it over... fix what’s wrong and move on still as partners.
I agreed, and called scheduling to tell them to keep us partners. Everyone at the station was happy because it would have completely thrown scheduling out of wack.

I'm all about forgive and forget.
I'll be giving him a talk on Monday... about how he needs to treat me a lot better, one of many reasons is because I Tech ALL the calls... he just drives; and how he need to hold his tounge untill we are alone.
I'll be letting you know what happens.

Just FYI... the pt. was ALOC so its up in the air if he even knew that we gave him a transport.


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## So. IL Medic (Oct 5, 2008)

So the wedding is back on?


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## MMiz (Oct 5, 2008)

I'll have to give my response on this one.

I'm usually the employee that gets along with everyone.  There's always a smile on my face and I'm usually in a great mood.

The problem is that when I have a bad day, which happens every few months, I really have a bad day.  Like EMS, teaching doesn't allow me to crawl into my office or cubicle and shut myself off from the world.  It sounds like your partner was just having a bad day and you had to deal with it.  Hopefully you guys can work things out and life will be good again


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## aussieemt1980 (Oct 5, 2008)

We sometimes cop some **** from other services. As we are a private service, we generally rely on the government ambulance service for transportation of our patients, and we stabilise the patient while the truck is enroute.

I had a 7 yo fem pt with ? concussion after coming off a motorbike and hitting her head. Had her in care, monitoring as she slowly went downhill, so I decided she needed transport and arranged for a bus to turn up. They turn up, about 25 minutes later, assess the patient and one of them gets up me for wasting their time for calling them out to a pt who was sleepy!

Turns out they got activated 15 minutes before shift change (poor buggers, my shift was supposed to finish 45 minutes earlier)...

Jokes on them because 10 minutes after they left, the pt started vomiting. Parents rock up at the local ED (as per my advice) and lo and behold: a diagnosis of concussion!

That and the doctor wanted to know how two "professional" paramedics could misdiagnose a head injury as tiredness....

Being in a private service can be challenging at times. There have been many times when I have handed a patient over to some one else in the government service knowing that I am more qualified...


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## Lone Star (Feb 4, 2009)

I'm afraid that if my partner ever got up in my face like yours did, I'd have to give him one warning before I removed him from my 'space'!

I've had partners like that, and I tried the 'talking things out'.  The way I see it, it's not for one person to do all the attending, while the other does nothing more than drive.

We're supposed to be 'partners', two people working on the same truck.  This means sharing the 'good parts' and the 'bad parts' of the job EQUALLY!

If I have to write up a partner, trust me....I will use as many details as I possibly can (without resorting to embellishing).  Supervision is there for a reason, and this is a pretty damn good one!


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## GonnaBeEMT (Feb 5, 2009)

From the outside looking in .... from your post.  Seems like there might be a power struggle between you and your partner......  Are you the highest certification in your ambulance?  Obviously both of you can't be at the patients head while pushing/pulling the gurney, and both can't receive report from the nurse.  Sounds to me like there is a total lack of communication on your crew, and someone needs to "know his role".  But if that is not the case your partner is looney.  Either way.... get a new partner.


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## EMTSteve (Feb 5, 2009)

GonnaBeEMT said:


> From the outside looking in .... from your post.  Seems like there might be a power struggle between you and your partner......  Are you the highest certification in your ambulance?  Obviously both of you can't be at the patients head while pushing/pulling the gurney, and both can't receive report from the nurse.  Sounds to me like there is a total lack of communication on your crew, and someone needs to "know his role".  But if that is not the case your partner is looney.  Either way.... get a new partner.




If I didn't know better, I would say that you were my partner. He always said "Know your role". It always made me laugh.

If you read the update, then you would know that we kissed and made up.

Funny thing, he was the best partner I ever had! We were back to permanent partners a few days later.

Then about 5 months later, work decided permanent partners was a bad idea and broke up everyone. Meaning... everyone got stuck with a "moron" instead of partnering the morons together and the competent people together.
Every partner I had filed a complaint against me.. except the one I got in a fight with.  (f'in rats)(petty crap like saying "Shi*" when a call came in)

I have since resigned from the company... a few days later... my "partner" quit.

"Friends Forever" lmao!!!


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## downunderwunda (Feb 8, 2009)

aussieemt1980 said:


> "I am cuious though, when you say
> Quote:
> I dont misdiagnose as I dont diagnose in the first place
> how do you know which of the
> ...




No you stated you do not diagnose, i have asked you, but you obviously have trouble understanding, how do you treat within your scope of practice, using your guidelines, to provide your treatment, without forming a diagnosis?


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## OzAmbo (Feb 8, 2009)

downunderwunda said:


> No you stated you do not diagnose, i have asked you, but you obviously have trouble understanding, how do you treat within your scope of practice, using your guidelines, to provide your treatment, without forming a diagnosis?


Word...

IF we were to use purely a protocol approach to everything there would be no need for critical thinking and everything would be 1+2=3. Especially in cases of atypical presentation, the information gained from a thorough assessment allows me to apply supportive care through our guidelines by making a provisional diagnosis. Without the ability to make that decision, i would only ever be able to apply CPG's when the patient has the most typical presentations.

Provisional diagnosis allows for the implementation of appropriate supportive care until those higher in the food chain can make the Difinitive Diagnosis and provide difinitive care


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## RESQ_5_1 (Feb 8, 2009)

I use to subscribe to the "I don't daignose" school of thought.

As we are part of a Regional Health Authority, our medical director has regional rounds every Tuesday. We review PCRs of specific calls (ie: CVA, cardiac chest pain, overdose, etc.) We recently went over chest pain calls. The last PCR was an example of a chest pain call that came across. Our dispatch (for whatever reason) has the option to advise the caller to give/take 160 mg of ASA for chest pain. Without even seeing the pt and based on an algorithm of questions. 

Turns out, when the crew got on scene, the pt had ALOC develop between the initial call and the arrival of the crew. The pt was actually having a Hemmorrhagic CVA. Further compounded by having ASA administered (since it thins the blood). Had the crew not made at least a working dignosis, the pt could have been much worse off since it was dispatched as a Chest Pain call.

Dispatch is not allowed to deviate from their algorithm once they start down a specific path. If they were, they could have probably avoided suggesting ASA. In my opinion, they shouldn't be advising any medication over the phone without actually seeing the pt. Especially since all but 2 or 3 of them have any medical training at all.


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## emtfarva (Feb 8, 2009)

RESQ_5_1 said:


> I use to subscribe to the "I don't daignose" school of thought.
> 
> As we are part of a Regional Health Authority, our medical director has regional rounds every Tuesday. We review PCRs of specific calls (ie: CVA, cardiac chest pain, overdose, etc.) We recently went over chest pain calls. The last PCR was an example of a chest pain call that came across. Our dispatch (for whatever reason) has the option to advise the caller to give/take 160 mg of ASA for chest pain. Without even seeing the pt and based on an algorithm of questions.
> 
> ...



ASA doesn't thin the blood. It helps the blood not to clot. It keeps the fiber things in the plasma from making a net to trap palatlets. (Ok I know it is the two y/o version, but I can't spell to well and I forgot the name for the fiber thing-a-migig. Sue me.)


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## ffemt8978 (Feb 8, 2009)

Okay, now that that's been cleaned up...

Let's stay on topic.


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## QSMITH89 (Feb 25, 2009)

Your partner really needs to chill out, but what a good way of handling it though.


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## NEMed2 (Mar 5, 2009)

I used to have a partner that I worked with out of respect & scheduling ease.  I learned a ton from her but she would always complain about my driving, second guess me on things, refusing to downgrade even the simple nose bleed type calls.  (ie, possible hypothermic patient that I'm evaluating while she gets more information & I report a bp of 180/120 and she asks me if I'm sure... No, I'm making it up.) What happened to the old rule that if you don't trust your partner's findings, its time to get a new partner? Here nor there, I finally got so frustrated that I rather the hassle of scheduling nightmares over working with her.  It's nice to work with other people that actually know you're worth in the back.

I'm glad that you kissed & made up with your partner, but I'm not sure working with someone that treats you without any respect is ever the way to go.


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## Dominion (Mar 10, 2009)

I've had partners like this, the worst though was actually an FTO.  I was riding with him for about 3 weeks and he is into a bunch of side things.  He's very spiritual and has a business (kinda like a pyramid scheme thing) that he does on the side.  So he was always peddling this business on to me, we had just one day where everything boiled over, we always kept it out of sight of patients.  But if I did something he didn't approve of he would shoot me this look, it was always subtle and was directed when no one (or when he thought no one would look).

Well this particular day it was as if everything just exploded, on multiple occasions I have told him that I am not religious and to not include me with his prayer, he would listen to a christian talk station while driving, no biggie I usually read when I'm not driving.  That day though, he broke all the rules we had set out regarding pestering me about his business, his prayer, and other things that we agreed were not the best thigns to talk about.  We got into a huge fight about it in the truck on the way to a stand-by.  We actually diverted back to station so he could speak to the supervisors face to face without me there.  I was worried because he was my FTO and i thought "welp there I go, time to look for a new job"

turns out he released me so 'he wouldn't have to deal with my :censored::censored::censored::censored: anymore".....Was just a very uncomfortable situation, as we had dealt with what our boundries were then he just breaks them all.


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## DavethetrainWreck (Apr 9, 2009)

EMTSteve said:


> First let me tell you about my partner... he's one of those very loud talkers, whiners, *****er, complainer, and always talking :censored::censored::censored::censored: to me in front of Hospital Staff and Pt's.
> But I put up with it because generally he’s knowledgeable from 15 years in the business.
> 
> Well today was just going along swimmingly... until I say something.
> ...



sounds like your partner is burnt out and needs a career change.


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## nomofica (Apr 9, 2009)

Dominion said:


> I've had partners like this, the worst though was actually an FTO.  I was riding with him for about 3 weeks and he is into a bunch of side things.  He's very spiritual and has a business (kinda like a pyramid scheme thing) that he does on the side.  So he was always peddling this business on to me, we had just one day where everything boiled over, we always kept it out of sight of patients.  But if I did something he didn't approve of he would shoot me this look, it was always subtle and was directed when no one (or when he thought no one would look).
> 
> Well this particular day it was as if everything just exploded, on multiple occasions I have told him that I am not religious and to not include me with his prayer, he would listen to a christian talk station while driving, no biggie I usually read when I'm not driving.  That day though, he broke all the rules we had set out regarding pestering me about his business, his prayer, and other things that we agreed were not the best thigns to talk about.  We got into a huge fight about it in the truck on the way to a stand-by.  We actually diverted back to station so he could speak to the supervisors face to face without me there.  I was worried because he was my FTO and i thought "welp there I go, time to look for a new job"
> 
> turns out he released me so 'he wouldn't have to deal with my :censored::censored::censored::censored: anymore".....Was just a very uncomfortable situation, as we had dealt with what our boundries were then he just breaks them all.



It's always the overly religious ones who try to convert you no matter what...


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## DavethetrainWreck (Apr 9, 2009)

Dominion said:


> I've had partners like this, the worst though was actually an FTO.  I was riding with him for about 3 weeks and he is into a bunch of side things.  He's very spiritual and has a business (kinda like a pyramid scheme thing) that he does on the side.  So he was always peddling this business on to me, we had just one day where everything boiled over, we always kept it out of sight of patients.  But if I did something he didn't approve of he would shoot me this look, it was always subtle and was directed when no one (or when he thought no one would look).
> 
> Well this particular day it was as if everything just exploded, on multiple occasions I have told him that I am not religious and to not include me with his prayer, he would listen to a christian talk station while driving, no biggie I usually read when I'm not driving.  That day though, he broke all the rules we had set out regarding pestering me about his business, his prayer, and other things that we agreed were not the best thigns to talk about.  We got into a huge fight about it in the truck on the way to a stand-by.  We actually diverted back to station so he could speak to the supervisors face to face without me there.  I was worried because he was my FTO and i thought "welp there I go, time to look for a new job"
> 
> turns out he released me so 'he wouldn't have to deal with my :censored::censored::censored::censored: anymore".....Was just a very uncomfortable situation, as we had dealt with what our boundries were then he just breaks them all.



I had a bunch of partners like that.


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## bensley101 (Apr 9, 2009)

I can't take people in my face like that. This is where I wonder how 10 years of dealing with things on a construction site will affect me. I can recognize a chain of command, and respect it. But things are just handled a little different in the construction field. I'm sure some of you know.

I think you did well. But I would have opted for a good old fashioned knuckle sandwich when we got back to the station. If I was wrong, I deserve to be chewed out. But DO NOT embarrass me in public. Like others said, it paints a very unprofessional image in the public's eye.

best of luck Monday!


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## whizkid1 (Apr 9, 2009)

I would have reported the person also,nobody should have to work with somebody like that.


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## EMTSteve (Apr 10, 2009)

DavethetrainWreck said:


> sounds like your partner is burnt out and needs a career change.



Maybe, but we became really good friends afterwards. I learned a lot from him.

Many months later I resigned from the company for personal reasons... about a week later he resigned as well. I do hope to go back once I get sh** straightened out.


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## ChargerGirl (Apr 11, 2009)

god its so interesting that kind of people you come across in your working enviroment! you just have to chew him out in front of co workers and not patients. and reiterate the importance of patient's trust. i've had a boss try and feel me up in front of his wife! of course that was in the restaraunt business where there is no Human Resource Department. i have a friend who works in a hospital where her manager/ guy who is training her confronted her about why it was hard for her to learn from him by asking her " god you act like your one of those women who was like sexually abused as a kid and is scared of a man's opinion" "you dont take criticism well...were you abused?" she just stared at him like did he really just say that? after that day she has started documenting everything he says out of line and tries to be in a room with him only when other people are present....how do you go to HR and prove what a sicko your manager is? people are crazy!


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