WuLabsWuTecH
Forum Deputy Chief
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I originally was posting this as a reply to another thread, but it was so long that I decided to start a new thread.
I got my Basic card just less than 2 months ago and this describes my summer job experience. My last day was last week, and I will relocate to Missouri for the school year where I will find another (not necessarily EMS related) job. I have told them I will return to work for them in the Winter and Next summer but now I'm not so sure I want to do this. Here's my story.
I applied and received a call back for an interview. The interview went great and they told me to come in monday for training. I was supposed to have 3 days of training, 1 day of policies and procedures, one day of equipment operations (how to work the cot, the AEDs, radios, where everything is suppossed to be, etc.), half day of driving training and getting used to the vehicles, and a half day of final paperwork and answering final questions and targeting training to my weaknesses. Then I was suppossed to have 2 days of ride alongs, one on a BLS truck and One on an ALS truck.
Day one went just as planned. I got a half day in on Day two before the guy training me was shorthanded and had to go out on a run, so he tells me to do a half day of ride time instead of waiting for later. The medic and basic I was with were great! The next day, they were shorthanded again, but this time I went out with my training officer and he drove while I worked the calls. day 4 comes around and now I'm just doing ride times, I missed half a day of equiment training and driving training altogether. The officer tells me he'll get me driving training the next day. Turns out, he screws up some paperwork and has to spend the next day in the office fixing it so I'm once again out riding. He tells me to come in my next shift an hour early and he'll take me out for a crash course in driving training. I come in an hour early and as soon as I clock in, he tells me I have a run and I have to go now, he says, you drive a minivan, just remember these big trucks react more slowly and that was the extent of my driving training.
Driving that day was a trial and error process, I found out how big of a space I could fit in by trying to fit, and if I hit something, I tried a bigger space the next time. I found out long my vehicle was by backing into things, next time i'll stop shorter! (Don't worry too much, I did all of this slowly so there were only minor dents and scratches!) I found out what my turning radius was after turning and hitting things or curbing the back wheels. It was not ideal, but I stopped hitting things after about 4 hours into my shift (what can I say, i'm a quick learner!). On the basic runs when I was in the back, i felt I was prepared well, but it was the driving that killed me. The only other thing that bothered me was that it took me forever to accelerate to highway speeds and at that it wouldn't go past 55 or 60. I just assumed that this was what my boss meant when he said big trucks react more slowly.
I bring the truck back and my boss was sitting on his butt doing absolutely nothing. The assistant CEO (my boss's boss) came over and was furious about all the dings and scratches and damage to the tires on the truck. As he drove it to the mechanics shop down the street (i was banned from further driving) he noticed it was making odd sounds. Turns out, the gear selector indicator on the truck was broken, and putting it in Drive (D) actually put it into second gear, so I had really tore up the transmission. We also later found out I was running people off the road left and right when I changed lanes since I didn't fully understand the blind spots of my vehicle.
Being banned from driving wasn't too bad, I hated driving at this point anyway and I was better with patients in the back, but they eventually took me out for about 1 hour of training on one truck and it was supposed to suffice for all 5 truck types that we have. I also got no lights and sirens training...The first time I had to run hot would have been a disaster if I actually did it, but remembering that personal safety takes precedence of anything else in EMS I did it very carefully. At first I didn't either bother to switch my lights on but dispatch can see if we have L&S on or not and got on the radio and told me to turn them on, so I did. but if my company wants me not to stop at every red light while running hot and waiting for it to turn green, and to drive faster than the posted speed limit, then they will have to train me on it. A dispatcher may be able to tell me what to do with my truck and where to go with it, but he can't tell me how to do it. The BLS rig called to assist us arrived 10 minutes before we did.
Onward to personnel: I actually work with 2 medics both of which are top notch and do this as a second job to support their firefighting careers. They have been absolutely wonderful in showing me the ropes and giving me advice on how to handle this company. I have also worked with an intermediate who is smaller than me, so I end up doing most of the heavy lifting and grunt work, but she too is knowledgeable and has taught me a lot. Of the 3 basics I work with, 1 of them is exceptional who is also a ff. The other is mediocre but she gets the job done. The last partner I cannot stand. I have forcefully taken the keys from him on more than one occassion and have stopped short of telling him what an :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: he is. Yeah people have their quirks and some are more annoying than others, and I can deal with that. Hes' a great basic and connects with patients well. But hes 18, and he WILL GET ME KILLED if i continue to work with him. His driving habits are so poor (texting while driving, driving with his knees, going fast everywhere, not being able to stay on the road (he goes off the road an average of 6 times an hour, and I'm not talking about not staying between the lines, he's off into the shoulder!), talking on his cell phone, playing with the radio and sirens (when we're not even running hot). He states that he's got his ff card and wants to join a volly dept that allowed POVs to have lights just so he can go 100+ down the street.
Onto management (don't worry all of this background info is getting somewhere soon!): the bosses are medics themselves, but they are idealists and romantics in how things should eb run and like going by the text book. That's fine with me, but they also want to make as much money as possible that causes policies to be in place that goes against the textbook. They then get mad when we're not textbook perfect. Just one case out of many: Truck checks and disinfection: they want a full truck check to be done everyday and of us to visually see each piece of equipment we have and sign off on each piece of equipment individually. Wonderful idea! With two people doing it, we can have it done in about 30 minutes. They also want full disinfection and cleaning of everything on the truck everyday. Also a great idea, with 2 people on it, that will take about 45 minutes at the end of the day. Unfortunately, he doesn't want us to do it on company time. If my shift starts at 7am, I walk in at 6:55 (we're not allowed to be more than 5 minutes early clocking in) and have a 7am run scheduled that is 10 minutes away. We then run continuously throughout the day not even getting enough time to write our run reports at times. Truck checks dont get done (I found out once that I didn't have any O2, but that was irrelevant since I didn't have any cannulas or non-rebreathers) and everything's a mess. Coming home, we only have about 30 minutes after fueling up to clean up but we usually have to write our reports since we didn't get to do them during the day. Out bosses hate paying us for overtime, so I clock out disinfecting very little if at all. We'll usually spray down the exterior of the truck but not have enough time to soap it up and scrub off. Bosses complain that we're not doing a good job of cleaning.
Now to the point. From what I hear, most private services are like this and this is why i have decided I will return to this service. It pays well (one of the best in the city), which attracts the best in the city, but the best don't stay for long since it isn't ideal working conditions and the benefits are more or less non-existent. They try to hire only the best but they are understaffed and have 3-4 trucks sitting empty on some days. They want to still hire the best and are ok with empty trucks, but when they found me, they ended up hiring the next guy that walked in even though he WILL get me killed just so they could get another truck in service and out making money.
With some modifications: clocking in 5 minutes early and disinfecting the cab area and always wearing gloves in the back no matter what I touch since god knows when the last time the truck was disinfected, bringing my own safety goggles since our company has no idea where theirs are, and not driving hot ever unless a cranky dispatcher orders me to, its really not that bad! The only circumstance I would not return to this company is if the idiot i had to work with the last few days (remember the guy from above who wants his name legally changed to Speedy?) becomes my partner and I have to deal with him again. My job isn't worth that much to me (yes I have told the bosses about it, yes they have written him up, and yes, Speedy knows their bottom line is too important to them to fire him and leave only a half manned truck).
Am i making the right call? It seems since other private companies are just as bad (or worse) there's no reason to change to any of the other offer I received, especially since they pay less!
I got my Basic card just less than 2 months ago and this describes my summer job experience. My last day was last week, and I will relocate to Missouri for the school year where I will find another (not necessarily EMS related) job. I have told them I will return to work for them in the Winter and Next summer but now I'm not so sure I want to do this. Here's my story.
I applied and received a call back for an interview. The interview went great and they told me to come in monday for training. I was supposed to have 3 days of training, 1 day of policies and procedures, one day of equipment operations (how to work the cot, the AEDs, radios, where everything is suppossed to be, etc.), half day of driving training and getting used to the vehicles, and a half day of final paperwork and answering final questions and targeting training to my weaknesses. Then I was suppossed to have 2 days of ride alongs, one on a BLS truck and One on an ALS truck.
Day one went just as planned. I got a half day in on Day two before the guy training me was shorthanded and had to go out on a run, so he tells me to do a half day of ride time instead of waiting for later. The medic and basic I was with were great! The next day, they were shorthanded again, but this time I went out with my training officer and he drove while I worked the calls. day 4 comes around and now I'm just doing ride times, I missed half a day of equiment training and driving training altogether. The officer tells me he'll get me driving training the next day. Turns out, he screws up some paperwork and has to spend the next day in the office fixing it so I'm once again out riding. He tells me to come in my next shift an hour early and he'll take me out for a crash course in driving training. I come in an hour early and as soon as I clock in, he tells me I have a run and I have to go now, he says, you drive a minivan, just remember these big trucks react more slowly and that was the extent of my driving training.
Driving that day was a trial and error process, I found out how big of a space I could fit in by trying to fit, and if I hit something, I tried a bigger space the next time. I found out long my vehicle was by backing into things, next time i'll stop shorter! (Don't worry too much, I did all of this slowly so there were only minor dents and scratches!) I found out what my turning radius was after turning and hitting things or curbing the back wheels. It was not ideal, but I stopped hitting things after about 4 hours into my shift (what can I say, i'm a quick learner!). On the basic runs when I was in the back, i felt I was prepared well, but it was the driving that killed me. The only other thing that bothered me was that it took me forever to accelerate to highway speeds and at that it wouldn't go past 55 or 60. I just assumed that this was what my boss meant when he said big trucks react more slowly.
I bring the truck back and my boss was sitting on his butt doing absolutely nothing. The assistant CEO (my boss's boss) came over and was furious about all the dings and scratches and damage to the tires on the truck. As he drove it to the mechanics shop down the street (i was banned from further driving) he noticed it was making odd sounds. Turns out, the gear selector indicator on the truck was broken, and putting it in Drive (D) actually put it into second gear, so I had really tore up the transmission. We also later found out I was running people off the road left and right when I changed lanes since I didn't fully understand the blind spots of my vehicle.
Being banned from driving wasn't too bad, I hated driving at this point anyway and I was better with patients in the back, but they eventually took me out for about 1 hour of training on one truck and it was supposed to suffice for all 5 truck types that we have. I also got no lights and sirens training...The first time I had to run hot would have been a disaster if I actually did it, but remembering that personal safety takes precedence of anything else in EMS I did it very carefully. At first I didn't either bother to switch my lights on but dispatch can see if we have L&S on or not and got on the radio and told me to turn them on, so I did. but if my company wants me not to stop at every red light while running hot and waiting for it to turn green, and to drive faster than the posted speed limit, then they will have to train me on it. A dispatcher may be able to tell me what to do with my truck and where to go with it, but he can't tell me how to do it. The BLS rig called to assist us arrived 10 minutes before we did.
Onward to personnel: I actually work with 2 medics both of which are top notch and do this as a second job to support their firefighting careers. They have been absolutely wonderful in showing me the ropes and giving me advice on how to handle this company. I have also worked with an intermediate who is smaller than me, so I end up doing most of the heavy lifting and grunt work, but she too is knowledgeable and has taught me a lot. Of the 3 basics I work with, 1 of them is exceptional who is also a ff. The other is mediocre but she gets the job done. The last partner I cannot stand. I have forcefully taken the keys from him on more than one occassion and have stopped short of telling him what an :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: he is. Yeah people have their quirks and some are more annoying than others, and I can deal with that. Hes' a great basic and connects with patients well. But hes 18, and he WILL GET ME KILLED if i continue to work with him. His driving habits are so poor (texting while driving, driving with his knees, going fast everywhere, not being able to stay on the road (he goes off the road an average of 6 times an hour, and I'm not talking about not staying between the lines, he's off into the shoulder!), talking on his cell phone, playing with the radio and sirens (when we're not even running hot). He states that he's got his ff card and wants to join a volly dept that allowed POVs to have lights just so he can go 100+ down the street.
Onto management (don't worry all of this background info is getting somewhere soon!): the bosses are medics themselves, but they are idealists and romantics in how things should eb run and like going by the text book. That's fine with me, but they also want to make as much money as possible that causes policies to be in place that goes against the textbook. They then get mad when we're not textbook perfect. Just one case out of many: Truck checks and disinfection: they want a full truck check to be done everyday and of us to visually see each piece of equipment we have and sign off on each piece of equipment individually. Wonderful idea! With two people doing it, we can have it done in about 30 minutes. They also want full disinfection and cleaning of everything on the truck everyday. Also a great idea, with 2 people on it, that will take about 45 minutes at the end of the day. Unfortunately, he doesn't want us to do it on company time. If my shift starts at 7am, I walk in at 6:55 (we're not allowed to be more than 5 minutes early clocking in) and have a 7am run scheduled that is 10 minutes away. We then run continuously throughout the day not even getting enough time to write our run reports at times. Truck checks dont get done (I found out once that I didn't have any O2, but that was irrelevant since I didn't have any cannulas or non-rebreathers) and everything's a mess. Coming home, we only have about 30 minutes after fueling up to clean up but we usually have to write our reports since we didn't get to do them during the day. Out bosses hate paying us for overtime, so I clock out disinfecting very little if at all. We'll usually spray down the exterior of the truck but not have enough time to soap it up and scrub off. Bosses complain that we're not doing a good job of cleaning.
Now to the point. From what I hear, most private services are like this and this is why i have decided I will return to this service. It pays well (one of the best in the city), which attracts the best in the city, but the best don't stay for long since it isn't ideal working conditions and the benefits are more or less non-existent. They try to hire only the best but they are understaffed and have 3-4 trucks sitting empty on some days. They want to still hire the best and are ok with empty trucks, but when they found me, they ended up hiring the next guy that walked in even though he WILL get me killed just so they could get another truck in service and out making money.
With some modifications: clocking in 5 minutes early and disinfecting the cab area and always wearing gloves in the back no matter what I touch since god knows when the last time the truck was disinfected, bringing my own safety goggles since our company has no idea where theirs are, and not driving hot ever unless a cranky dispatcher orders me to, its really not that bad! The only circumstance I would not return to this company is if the idiot i had to work with the last few days (remember the guy from above who wants his name legally changed to Speedy?) becomes my partner and I have to deal with him again. My job isn't worth that much to me (yes I have told the bosses about it, yes they have written him up, and yes, Speedy knows their bottom line is too important to them to fire him and leave only a half manned truck).
Am i making the right call? It seems since other private companies are just as bad (or worse) there's no reason to change to any of the other offer I received, especially since they pay less!
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... joking sort of.... 
