I've been an emt for almost 2 years now. I have worked 911 a bit with orange county fire, Laguna Beach fire and with low Angeles county fire. And so far, I have yet to drop an opa, npa, bag, or use suction on a 911 call. Every once in a while I splint, or backboard or wrap a wound. But seems like I get to use my skills more on critical care transports (where I bagged, deep suctioned, etc) than in the 911 side. Maybe it's cause fire beats us to the scene majority of the time or we arrive at same time. Also I realized majority of 911 calls don't require an ambulance, or any intervention really at all. Anyways, how often do you get to use your skills where you work???
How often do you get to use your skills???
- Thread starter Jn1232th
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I think this is entirely dependent on system. I work for a rural service that is often the only paid agency on scene and we run many more calls than each of the six fire districts we respond with. As such, the ambulance crews (EMT and Paramedic) do most of the care, which includes the interventions. We are comfortable with what we do, and the same cannot always be said of the other responders (which is fine and to be expected).
When I work in a city with ALS fire who is usually there first, I mostly carry things. Occasionally the fire crew will be incredibly condesciding and offer the ambulance crew the "opportunity" to start an IV or place a 12 lead as if it is some sort of magical awesomeness. Or we have to do all that enroute because they didn't bother. And sometimes they've got it all done and are awesome to run with and we do nothing and that's fine.
wtferick
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I have been working LA county fire Zone 2. Have used almost all of the skills except traction splints up here.
2...that's Like norwalk, Whittier, east LA area correct???
LACoGurneyjockey
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If you're tired of carrying bags and pushing gurneys, search for some threads on kern county ems. As an EMT I placed a traction splint, placed plenty of OPAs, bagged more times than I can count, dropped a king tube, suctioned more nastiness than I wanted to, all as an EMT on an ALS ambulance.
wtferick
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Whittier, la Mirada, la Habra, pico, Montebello and springs.
First on scene to most and actually get to interact with the patient. OC is another story. They legit have us wait outside till it's ready to transport..
Mufasa556
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It's the areas you've worked. OCFA...ugh...if I wrote out all the things I've seen over the years, you guys would never stop vomiting. Laguna is just a lot of taxing the homeless. LA county is dependent on what area/squad you're working with.
You need to work somewhere that does 1-1 ALS. Kern County, Riverside, or San Bernardino are the places to be. Branching out farther you have Desert, Morongo Basin, and Liberty Ridgecret.
SoCal EMS is the worst, but there are options if you're willing to do some commuting.
You need to work somewhere that does 1-1 ALS. Kern County, Riverside, or San Bernardino are the places to be. Branching out farther you have Desert, Morongo Basin, and Liberty Ridgecret.
SoCal EMS is the worst, but there are options if you're willing to do some commuting.
Im definitely going to check this threads out
I'm willing to do a drive. I'll like to work in a rural area such as high desert or up in the mountains.
Jim37F
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Yeah all depends on your area. When I worked Glendale it was almost all medicals. Got to help set up CPAP more than a few times, broke out the BVM a time or two and so on but not a whole lot of traumas where most of the EMT-B skills lie.
Whereas in my current first in in Willowbrook/West Compton just in the last week I've been first on scene to a two victim GSW, a full arrest where we used our AED, heck last night alone we were first for two separate febrile seizures.....although anecdotally it seems the trade off for those "cool guy war story" calls is a large chuck of the remaining calls being "diarrhea for 2 weeks" type calls lol
So yes, there's definitely places even in LA you can use your skills. My experience with County Fire is that if you simply wait next to the gurney and wait for them to have you load the patient to go, they won't hold it against you, but it'll be the engine FF/EMT doing the skills....whereas if you slide yourself into the scene, make yourself useful, grab the splints/bandages if that's what the patient needs, be ready to apply the 12 lead, etc and you'll be the one getting to do those mad skillz ..Case in point not to long ago we responded for a reported leg injury, squad was already on scene so I just grabbed the gurney while my partner went ahead and grabbed our splinting supplies, so guess who splinted the patients leg while I was getting vitals?
Whereas in my current first in in Willowbrook/West Compton just in the last week I've been first on scene to a two victim GSW, a full arrest where we used our AED, heck last night alone we were first for two separate febrile seizures.....although anecdotally it seems the trade off for those "cool guy war story" calls is a large chuck of the remaining calls being "diarrhea for 2 weeks" type calls lol
So yes, there's definitely places even in LA you can use your skills. My experience with County Fire is that if you simply wait next to the gurney and wait for them to have you load the patient to go, they won't hold it against you, but it'll be the engine FF/EMT doing the skills....whereas if you slide yourself into the scene, make yourself useful, grab the splints/bandages if that's what the patient needs, be ready to apply the 12 lead, etc and you'll be the one getting to do those mad skillz ..Case in point not to long ago we responded for a reported leg injury, squad was already on scene so I just grabbed the gurney while my partner went ahead and grabbed our splinting supplies, so guess who splinted the patients leg while I was getting vitals?
Jim37F
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Yeah actually it was
Haha nice, I saw it on onscenevideo.tv
NPO
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The problem is where you work. Realize that you're a BLS ambulance, with a paramedic firefighter. I worked CCT for 2 years in LA for the same reason, you actually do and learn more.
Move to a better system (if being in actual EMS is what you want) and you can use skills daily. You're right, not every call needs emergency treatment, but I use my skills daily because I work in a good system.
Come to Kern County.
SpecialK
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It depends on what kind of skills you are talking about.
I get to use my diagnostic reasoning and clinical judgement on every single patient to determine what is wrong with them, and what the best method of meeting their healthcare needs are. That is, in my view anyway, far more useful and fulfilling than counting how many times I have inserted an oral airway.
As for physical skills well, inserting an oral airway or LMA or something is done less often, but there's always physical skills of obtaining vital signs, performing physical examinations, lifting and carrying, again, some, or all, of those are done on every single patient.
I get to use my diagnostic reasoning and clinical judgement on every single patient to determine what is wrong with them, and what the best method of meeting their healthcare needs are. That is, in my view anyway, far more useful and fulfilling than counting how many times I have inserted an oral airway.
As for physical skills well, inserting an oral airway or LMA or something is done less often, but there's always physical skills of obtaining vital signs, performing physical examinations, lifting and carrying, again, some, or all, of those are done on every single patient.
NPO
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It's entirely possible, that even assessment skills beyond initial impression won't be used in some parts of LA and OC depending on how friendly the local Fire Medic is.
That is true. I been on calls in south oc where we were told to wait outside while fire assessed. One time the medics even told the patient we were just ambulance drivers 0_0 when I was working in LA (San Gabriel area) fire was way chiller but majority of calls I still didn't get to do much other than apply the monitor and spike a bag.
Martyn
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Never...
SandpitMedic
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That's surprising. Not even BLS interventions in LA?
I'm dropping NPAs routinely.
Are you sure you're just not identifying patients that require intervention beyond load and go? Or are you on an ALS unit that takes anyone requiring intervention beyond a taxi ride?
I'm dropping NPAs routinely.
Are you sure you're just not identifying patients that require intervention beyond load and go? Or are you on an ALS unit that takes anyone requiring intervention beyond a taxi ride?