burning hatred for transfers

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Fedekz

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How many of you guys share a burning hatred for transfers? I've been an emt for about a year and a half, and a paramedic for about 8 months. I work for a company who does about 70% bls transfers, and 30% nursing home "emergencies" (maybe 5% 911 roll overs) ... we don't have any 911 contracts in my area, and have just about every hospital contract in the city (a very very large city).

How much experience do most 911 services want to see before considering you?
 
If their hiring process is what it should be, they can sniff out a burning hatred from a mile away. If you've developed a burning hatred in this short amount of time (assuming from your phrasing), I would think they would pass on the opportunity to have a problem EMT in their service.

70% of 911 calls aren't emergencies either, and they happen in environments where there are no witnesses, so you can get away with inappropriately bad attitudes and poor patient treatment, which is the only behavior that stems from a "burning hatred" of anything.

Be bored. Acknowledge it. Then move on with your day and make someone else's day a little better. These are people you are moving here, not slabs of meat.

I would drop the burning hatred and learn to cope with your reality before getting a new job to hate.

Just sayin'.
 
Fedekz said:
How many of you guys share a burning hatred for transfers? I've been an emt for about a year and a half, and a paramedic for about 8 months. I work for a company who does about 70% bls transfers, and 30% nursing home "emergencies" (maybe 5% 911 roll overs) ... we don't have any 911 contracts in my area, and have just about every hospital contract in the city (a very very large city).

How much experience do most 911 services want to see before considering you?
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Then quit.

Patient's deserve to have a EMT/Medic who don't hate their job.

29% of those "emergencies" are actual, devestating illnesses and injuries that will change and possibly end that patient's life.
 
Sasha said:
Then quit.

Patient's deserve to have a EMT/Medic who don't hate their job.

29% of those "emergencies" are actual, devestating illnesses and injuries that will change and possibly end that patient's life.
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nice to see you back more often :)

29% is very generous. The past statistic I heard was <5% I try to split the difference and call it 10% to include stuff that is not considered an emergency in the EMS texts but is in the medical sense.
 
Fedekz said:
How many of you guys share a burning hatred for transfers? I've been an emt for about a year and a half, and a paramedic for about 8 months. I work for a company who does about 70% bls transfers, and 30% nursing home "emergencies" (maybe 5% 911 roll overs) ... we don't have any 911 contracts in my area, and have just about every hospital contract in the city (a very very large city).

How much experience do most 911 services want to see before considering you?
Click to expand...

I know of no 911 service that considers any IFT experience. It is entirely seperate environments. The mixed services should not be overlooked as the variety of the job helps keep it fresh.

After years of working high volume 911, I can tell you it is just as repetative and it doesn't take long to figure out you are not saving lives on every call.

I am not trying to pick on you, but it sounds like you are similar to most new EMS workers and don't really understand what is really is and is about.
 
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I find it very amusing that you seem to think 911 is glamorous or some such crap.
To be honest, you see more sick patients per shift than 90% of 911 medics. I worked IFT for almost a year and actually enjoyed it. But then again I didn't have the 'Oh feel sorry for me cause I don't work 911 and don't get to play with the blinkies and whoo-hoos' attitude. I decided I wanted to learn more about chronic illnesses and anything else I could to make me a better provider than the majority of EMS providers.
Really, if you have this much attitude now, I'd hate to see what would happen when you start running 911 and have a shift of nothing but 32B and 32B. You'll see real quick that there's more BS calls in 911 than there are serious emergencies. And I'm not sure if you'll even recognize some of them as the emergency they are vs BS like most providers tend to lump them into.
 
Alright, maybe burning hatred was a bit strong to explain it haha. I don't compromise patient care, I still sit there on the bench seat for every transfer and talk to them, about their life, grandchildren etc. etc. If they need cardiac monitoring, I don't just ignore that because I dont want to hook them up, if they look dehydrated, I'm not going to just sit there and tell them they need to drink more water, I'll start them up an IV, etc. etc. so I'm not compromising their care at all. So I don't have an unappropriate attitude.

As for the 29% "emergencies" being actual, would you consider a patient who doens't watn to take his lortab tonight, and the nursing home calling us on an "emergency" an "devestating illness that could possibly end that patient's life"? How about if the nursing home doesn't want to deal with an annoying pt right now, and sends them for a "psych consult" ... very seldom do we get chest pains, cva's, etc etc, and it's not like I just sit in the back and say "so you got chest pain huh? man that sucks, well were about 10 minutes from the hospital, all be right here in the seat behind you if you need anything ... what? your in pain? the hospital will give ya something once we get there"
 
Fedekz said:
if they look dehydrated, I'm not going to just sit there and tell them they need to drink more water, I'll start them up an IV, etc. etc. so I'm not compromising their care at all. So I don't have an unappropriate attitude.
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Quick question.

If you have a person who is capable of drinkiing water, do you think starting an IV better care?

Why?

Fedekz said:
what? your in pain? the hospital will give ya something once we get there"
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How is not treating pain good patient care?

I think you may benefit from a deeper look at what medical care is.
 
I am trying to help him.

Getting a 911 job isn't going to solve his problems, it will just move them.

BUt I think that discovering what medicine is nomatter what title or role a person plays is a journey. We could shout the answers to him all day, but it would make little difference until the "eureka" moment.
 
Yes yes, im back. With a vengeance. :)

What about the uti, elevated white counts, abnormal labs, hip fx, refusal of meds and food? Sounds like all youre looking for is the cool crap when real medical problems are staring you in the face.

911 is different but certainly not all the emergencies you envision.
 
To be fair, I believe the "what? you're in pain?" section of his post was still part of his "it's not like I..." statement, and thus reflects what he believes to be poor patient care. As he should.

I actually enjoy IFTs. When I was an EMT, I absolutely hated them until I realized that they gave me an opportunity to learn more about chronic illnesses (as already stated). Now that I am a paramedic, the knowledge I gained from the IFT job has made my new found role as an ALS provider that much easier a transition. Nowadays, if I take an IFT, odds are it's somebody who legitimately has something wrong with them.

Also, think of it from a financial standpoint. IFTs pay the bills. Those IFTs you're doing, for which you have a burning hatred, allow the company you work for to pay your salary.

If you can't come to terms with this, I would start looking for a new job. I'm sure Wal-Mart is hiring.
 
I don't mind transfers at all. Most of our 911 calls aren't critical either, and besides, some of my most complicated calls and most critical patients have been transfers.
 
Sasha said:
Patient's deserve to have a EMT/Medic who don't hate their job.
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Nothing wrong with hating transfers and/or being pissed with a "They called for this?" so long as you don't let it affect your job or show to your patient. Everyone has a bad day... or many.

I hated working at my last job doing transfers. BS waste of EMS resources most of the time, the company really didn't care much for their employees, and cared even less for their patients. Yet I did my job, did it well, and treated all my patients fine.




Now, while yes, the majority of 911 are still BS, there are 2 redeeming qualities. One is you get to treat it as an emergency until you deem it otherwise, you get to do your own assessment, and implement your own treatment plan based off ONLY your knowledge-- not so with a "Take granny home". Two is you still get to tangibly help people much more of the time.


I like the calls where I actually get to do something to help a patient... and that happens a helluva lot more in 911 than IFT. Not a day goes by where I don't give fent for pain, Zofran for nausea, or something else, no matter how trivial, that helps a patient in need at that moment.
 
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I help patients everyday on ift. Not cool life saving theatrical stuff, but by holding my scared patients hand while taking her to the rehab, reassuring a scared dementia patient or taking care to keep someones mom comfortable on her way to home hospice or hospice ipu.

We provide a much needed service and touch lives and help people everyday on ift. It is not a bs job.

My company frustrates me but i love my job and my patients.
 
Ps i call shenanigans on using zofran and fent everyday. You either work for the busiest most accident pronr system ever, or youre drug happy.
 
But IFT discharge IS a bs job, with most calls being an utter waste to the healthcare system. The vast majority of the patients we take on IFTs need not be in an ambulance, let alone with someone trained in emergencies, and not transfers, in the back with them.


Keep in mind, I don't count the contracturwed immobile, psych, demented, or ALS as 'bs' IFTs... just the ones that can go by some other means just as easily, which is most of them.
 
Sasha said:
Ps i call shenanigans on using zofran and fent everyday. You either work for the busiest most accident pronr system ever, or youre drug happy.
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Not Zofran AND Fent... but being in a rural setting I get my fair bit of traumatic injuries or nauseous people who don't do so well riding backwards in an ambulance for a long time.


Hell, in the past 3 shifts, I've given Fent 5 times. 2 abd pain, back injury, flank pain and a hip fracture... and withheld it from one MVC patient due to a head injury I wanted to keep an eye on.





But, fine, not "every" day, as there was 1 shift last week where not a single ambulance in the county had a call for the entire 24 hours.
 
Youre trained in emergencies? Hot damn i was educated in medical care.
 
And i still call shenanigans
 
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