Civilian EMS?

[FiremanMike]

I’m not subscribing to the anti-fire medic trope. A good medic is a good medic is a good medic. Regardless of system or service. End of story.

@FiremanMike it was never about bragging about being the only ALS provider to me. What it was about was being able to think critically on that level (mostly) alone, which in turn, i always felt made a stronger clinician.

Delegation got better, critical thinking skills got better, and I’d best be willing to remain on par with said responsibilities and deliver that level of care.

Also, earning the respect of everyone on scene through command presence whether they were advanced or “basic” level providers was also a real thing.

All this to say, now I mostly show up do some fist bumps and thank yous, but that was years-worth of earned regard. Never assumed.

I was admittedly flippant with my post and I apologize. Theres something to be said about building confidence and skill by knowing the buck absolutely stops with you.

That said, the longer I do this job, the more I realize I’m not as smart as I think I am. I do occasionally miss things or move down the wrong pathway and I feel its invaluable to have more brains in the room trained to the ALS level (or at the RN level when I’m at the ED) to catch something I didn’t see.

A good EMT may see something, just like in the ED I’ve had good LPNs catch things, but at the end of the day they just don’t have the same education and understanding that medic vs EMT or RN vs LPN does.

I’ve mentioned this before, but at my former department we were blessed with run volume, a strong protocol, an extremely engaged medical director, and a robust training program. Our A medics would be super stars at a lot of places, and even our C players were probably B players at a lot of departments. On runs with 9 paramedics, there were no monkeys and no footballs, just a solid group of strong medics doing good things and working together. Critical runs were a beeeze… hey guys we need to get an IV, get some fluid going and let’s prep some push dose epi.. let’s start thinking about RSI in case it gets to that point - and there was no shuffling people around “hey I can’t get the drugs ready I’m doing the IV”, everyone can do everything and it just gets done.

 

[VentMonkey]

I was admittedly flippant with my post and I apologize. Theres something to be said about building confidence and skill by knowing the buck absolutely stops with you.

That said, the longer I do this job, the more I realize I’m not as smart as I think I am. I do occasionally miss things or move down the wrong pathway and I feel its invaluable to have more brains in the room trained to the ALS level (or at the RN level when I’m at the ED) to catch something I didn’t see.

A good EMT may see something, just like in the ED I’ve had good LPNs catch things, but at the end of the day they just don’t have the same education and understanding that medic vs EMT or RN vs LPN does.

I’ve mentioned this before, but at my former department we were blessed with run volume, a strong protocol, an extremely engaged medical director, and a robust training program. Our A medics would be super stars at a lot of places, and even our C players were probably B players at a lot of departments. On runs with 9 paramedics, there were no monkeys and no footballs, just a solid group of strong medics doing good things and working together.
.

Haha, we’re good bro.

The handful of medics I learned the most from worked different systems. Some fire-based (LACOFD fire-based) with limited “toys”, some who had more in the kit.

The one thing that they shared in common (I now know all these years later) that I saw as badass was their verbal skills, aka, “verbal judo”.

They could talk their way in and out of any situation. That transcended protocols, mechanically inclined skills, and service models.

These dudes taught me so much more than I learned in P School or through protocols and guidelines. Not just killing with kindness, but talking to people regardless of the corner of life that they were found in like they were people.

A medics most invaluable tool. Again, to me, just me, what I judged their badassery off of.

Alright, I’ll GTFO off of my soapbox…

 

[CCCSD]

That’s an absurdly inane statement.

A good medic is better than a bad EMT.
A good LPN is better than a bad RN.
A good doctor is better than a bad NP.
A good dental hygienist is better than a bad dentist.

You can take that argument and plug anything into x and y and it will always be true.

I want A players, I don’t particularly care about your cert level, but in my own corner of the world, A players don’t stay emt basic for long.

Again, you have no idea who you are talking to.

If you talk to your workers they way you come off here, I’m betting you are:
A. Making up most of your tales.
B. Sitting in front of your boss explaining how you screwed up.
C. A complete PITA at work.
D. Always apologizing.

I’m opting for A through D.

I’ve known more EMTs that can run circles around “paramedics” in trauma and out of the box situations. Your ALS “skills” are just a version of do A, the do B, then do C, using GTS and your laptop.

9 medics on a call. What a complete waste of resources. And you’re proud of that. That tells me you all are uncomfortable making decisions and need a whole bunch of players chiming in to make yourselves feel good. If you don’t have the confidence and skill to run a call on your own, you’re not that good.

Your posts show the utter contempt you have for everyone who isn’t a Plug. Get over yourself. You aren’t The Hero you think you are.

 

[FiremanMike]

Again, you have no idea who you are talking to.

If you talk to your workers they way you come off here, I’m betting you are:
A. Making up most of your tales.
B. Sitting in front of your boss explaining how you screwed up.
C. A complete PITA at work.
D. Always apologizing.

I’m opting for A through D.

I’ve known more EMTs that can run circles around “paramedics” in trauma and out of the box situations. Your ALS “skills” are just a version of do A, the do B, then do C, using GTS and your laptop.

9 medics on a call. What a complete waste of resources. And you’re proud of that. That tells me you all are uncomfortable making decisions and need a whole bunch of players chiming in to make yourselves feel good. If you don’t have the confidence and skill to run a call on your own, you’re not that good.

Your posts show the utter contempt you have for everyone who isn’t a Plug. Get over yourself. You aren’t The Hero you think you are.

Aw.

Neat.

I’m past the age and experience level to make it past the very first and very last sentence of your post. The rest of it is pure fluff.

 

[FiremanMike]

@CCCSD your posts are the epitome of “my opinion is the only one that matters” and “I need to be the ‘smartest guy in the room’”.

Hopefully you allow yourself to be humbled at some point before you kill someone with your arrogant pride. Based on your self reported tenure in this business, I’d guess your past the point of giving a **** what anyone else in the room thinks and will continue doing whatever you think is right.

 

[mgr22]

Delegation got better, critical thinking skills got better, and I’d best be willing to remain on par with said responsibilities and deliver that level of care.

That's when it started to be fun.