when i was talking to another "Driver" as they call us that person is not even certifeid as an emt or anything no training what so ever so your telling me that i bust my *** getting nationally and state certified when theres ppl out here who can get in the same line of work that i bust my *** to get into without any training!!
Did you ask him how much he was being paid? If he was being paid more (which I highly doubt), than I think you got hired by a crappy company who is taking advantage of you, and you should apply to where he was working. I suspect he is getting paid less... possibly much less.
BTW, your working in IFT doing renal runs, that part of the field hasn't (historically) recruited the best and the brightest. Maybe you should talk to someone who works full time on a 911 truck... It can be an entirely different world.
Also, you should probably work on your spelling and grammar, because based on that first post, you might have missed some of those classes in high school (especially when it comes to run on sentences....)
And i want to add the first day thrown to the wolves...seeing non certified personnel transporting phyc, epileptic and other critical patients.
just for clarification: so you saw two non-EMTs transporting a psych patient in an ambulance? or an epileptic ? or a critical patient? I find that very unlikely.
I even saw two men get out of the front seats of an ambulance while the patient was alone on a stretcher in the patient compartment they were wearing jeans and polos with an ems logo stitched to the sleeve. The rig they were in looked like jeepers creepers transportation...this makes me feel like my career choice isnt as respected as i thought
And you called the number on the side of ambulance and reported what you saw to a supervisor right? and if you didn't like what they said, you contacted the department of health (or whatever regulating body oversees EMS in your state) and told them what you witnessed right? After all, if you witnessed this atrocity and did nothing to resolve it, than you are 1) whining 2) ranting online, yet not actually willing to do anything to correct the problem and 3) and letting their appearance and actions reflect poorly on you.
Private EMS is a business like any other...if they can hire non-certified people as drivers and save money without getting in trouble, they'd be remiss for not doing so.
Which is exactly why NJ requires all paid ambulances (private, public, 911 or IFT) to have 2 EMTs minimum. Private EMS, especially small for profit entities (as a general rule, but there are exceptions), will only put the bare minimum on the truck, because anything above that will cut into their overall profits.
Hate to burst your bubble but it isn't very well respected in the medical community and to be honest for good reason.
Just like nurses in SNFs aren't well respected, and proctologists spend their days dealing with a-holes....
Some individuals are well respected, some agencies are well respected (at least at a regional level), but we still have other healthcare providers who insist on calling us ambulance drivers. And there are a few MDs and nurses that I don't respect, and I am pretty sure they don't lose sleep over it.... So why should I?
