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We're the same to some extent. All departmental drills (fire and EMS) have a drill sheet filled out which lists the topic, instructor, hours and attendees. This is then entered into Firehouse by one of our Captains. For EMS, our training provider (UCLA) also maintains a seperate roster, and...

In a true MCI situation, our ambulance personnel would probably end up coordinating medical communications with dispatch for additional units from neighboring departments (we only have two ambulances) and the MAC (Medical Alert Center, a County EMS function), which would coordinate the...

On my VFD, members are assigned to one of three crews which rotate the weekend duty. Essentially, every third weekend, you have to be in town and respond to all calls from 6 PM Friday to 6 AM Monday. For weeknights, we have a monthly sign-up that's posted at least one or two months in advance...

2 ambulances (both Type II) 4 engines (3 our own plus 1 from the CA Office of Emergency Services) 1 utility 1 water tender 1 Battalion Chief command vehicle (Suburban) 2 staff cars (Caprice for the Chief and Taurus for the Fire Marshal) 1 US&R trailer (towed by the utility) We do also have a...

Here's the common fire service EMS unit terminology used around here: RA - Rescue Ambulance, a (usually) ALS unit staffed by two FF/PMs, but can be BLS. Squad - Non-transport ALS unit on a pickup chassis with utility box (a la Squad 51) staffed by two FF/PMs. Still used by LA County Fire and...

I took it a couple years ago. Its basically an overview of everything trauma, so in that sense, its pretty much stuff you should already know. It does go into a bit more detail on linking MOI with expected injuries than I remember from my basic training, and there's a specific assessment...

In California, you have to have a minimum of 6 months experience as an EMT before you can even apply to Paramedic school per state law. Many programs, however, require a full year, and if there's a waiting list give precedence to those with the longest experience.

Well, the way our department works is that there's three crews that rotate the weekend duty and a monthly signup for weeknights. You're required to respond on your duty weekend (6 PM Friday to 6 AM Monday) and on the nights you sign up for (or get assigned if you don't sign up) unless you get...

This is getting to be a pretty common practice with any vehicle fleet. Actually, some have been using similar systems for a long time with GPS just being the latest technology. At one of my previous jobs (a newspaper), all of our delivery trucks were equipped with a "black box" system that...

By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 16, 9:33 PM ET MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - The U.S. Army said goodbye to its last MASH Thursday, handing over the green tents, emergency room and surgical tables to Pakistani doctors and nurses who had never seen the hit TV show that made...

Got probably one of the weirder OD calls I've heard of last night. Pager goes off "OD, such and such address, PD enroute." Wasn't on-duty, but figured I'd respond even though it was on the other side of town. Text pager goes off as I'm walking out the door stating "Male Age 50 Abdominal Pain...

The best one I saw (and still kick myself for not bidding on) was an old Chevy Nomad ambulance a couple of years ago. Red paint, single red gumball and crosses etched into the rear side windows. I've always loved the Nomad, and this one was bee-u-ti-ful.

We had a 3 year old with his finger stuck in the barrel of a toy gun about a week ago. The crew was able to disassemble the gun and get his finger out. Best one though was before my time. Ambulance got toned for a "miscellaneous medical" on a guy who was known as being somewhat odd. Female EMT...

FF/EMT here with a VFD. I actually got started in EMS (in an industrial capacity) a couple of years before I got into the fire service. Growing up in Southern California, the two have always been more or less the same in my mind. The FDs have been the primary EMS responders since the 70s here...

I actually just saw this same discussion in another board, and it got me thinking. Temperature is not something we normally check, and all we carry to do so are TempaDots, which I happen to think are next to worthless (I've never been able to really read one). I checked our Basic Scope in the...

We use the Sager on our rigs, but I train on the Hare when I do ARC classes, so I'm good with both. One tip that we were hammered on when I was in my EMT class was "Anchor, Anchor". In other words, make sure the two extreme ends are secured prior to securing the middle straps. Also, of course...

Blood doesn't bother me. Other fluids don't even bother me too much. Odors, however, are another matter. I can deal with them, and I don't think I'm gonna ever be the one to puke myself, but I don't like 'em. I dread the day I end up on a decomp call (I've been lucky so far...we've had 'em, but...

We're spoiled out here...you're never gonna end up on an EMS call with less than 5 or 6 people (2 person ALS unit plus an 3 or 4 person engine). On our department (volunteer), we're guaranteed 4 on an EMS call (ambulance EMT, utility FF, duty engineer and duty EMT) but frequently get more like...

Welcome from the other end of the state. :D

Both our ambulances are Type IIs. Being a foothill community, we have a couple of areas of town where it would be very difficult to operate a Type III, and those are areas that we tend to go into on EMS calls fairly frequently. Most of the FDs around here operate Type IIIs, but a few do have...