Fear mongering

sweetpete said:
There seems to be ALOT of animosity in this forum. I'm an IAFF fire medic and couldn't be happier. Make plenty of medical calls and I love it. Money is really good, great retirement and excellent benefits. And I thank my union for that. I respect the other medics I work with on the ambulance too. When we work a CPR, we get a lot of people involved. More the merrier.
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Yeah, but you work for Houston Fire. Good luck with that pension...
 
sweetpete said:
There seems to be ALOT of animosity in this forum. I'm an IAFF fire medic and couldn't be happier. Make plenty of medical calls and I love it. Money is really good, great retirement and excellent benefits. And I thank my union for that. I respect the other medics I work with on the ambulance too. When we work a CPR, we get a lot of people involved. More the merrier.
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The problem is that many of us who are strictly EMS see problems with fire running EMS. A large portion of it is that FF don't view themselves as EMS first. They're FF first and EMS takes a back seat. Where I work private services run 911 and fire first responds with rescue units and sometimes the BRT. I can't count the number of FF I know who openly admit the reason they got medic was to help with promotions. I've had plenty of times where I've had to deal with someone trying to bump egos. Also the more the merrier isn't always true. Excessive ALS providers tend to muddy the waters and too many means that a lot of the guys don't get enough practice to keep up critical skills running from assessment to psychomotor skills such as intubations.
And an important question is that if you took EMS out of the relm of fire services, how many times over the course of a shift would many companies actually leave the station?
 
sweetpete said:
There seems to be ALOT of animosity in this forum. I'm an IAFF fire medic and couldn't be happier. Make plenty of medical calls and I love it. Money is really good, great retirement and excellent benefits. And I thank my union for that. I respect the other medics I work with on the ambulance too. When we work a CPR, we get a lot of people involved. More the merrier.
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Can you honestly look at that "informational flyer" and say that there is no exaggeration occurring? Do you think that many paramedics are needed? If you were a taxpayer would you want to fund that many paramedics and their associated cost?
 
Let me flip the view and ask this. Would it make sense for EMS personal, regardless of whether the are private or municipal, to go into the business of fire services but still have their primary focus on EMS? That sounds absolutely insane to me but makes as much sense to me as fire service operating EMS as a secondary role.
 
MS Medic said:
Let me flip the view and ask this. Would it make sense for EMS personal, regardless of whether the are private or municipal, to go into the business of fire services but still have their primary focus on EMS? That sounds absolutely insane to me but makes as much sense to me as fire service operating EMS as a secondary role.
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Boca Raton Fire Rescue considers themselves an EMS based fired department...but that mentality exists only because like minded leaders who truly believe that are at the top. That kind of change only occurs from top down...

I tried to join them many years ago as they are one of the highest paid services, excellent schedule 24/72, and have all the latest toys, technology and advanced protocols. They are extremely pro-EMS as they know that is where their bread is buttered. Excellent medical training, EMS is promoted as a good thing, and they do not lack in anything medical.
 
Nothing wrong with that. I wasn't saying fire shouldn't be in EMS as some sort of absolute. I mainly was answering the statement about the animosity and why it is there. Any and all complaints I have about fire involved in EMS is about the approach that it is a secondary thing. If Boca Raton doesn't operate like that, then problem solved.
 
Most guys don't want to be on the box and use it to gain the 15% raise or to climb the ladder. I've primarily seen the worse patient care with fireman even on my own family and have as well been treated like crapp when ive had a genuine emergency involving myself.
 
MS Medic said:
Let me flip the view and ask this. Would it make sense for EMS personal, regardless of whether the are private or municipal, to go into the business of fire services but still have their primary focus on EMS? That sounds absolutely insane to me but makes as much sense to me as fire service operating EMS as a secondary role.
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The actual purpose of this statement was an attempt to show sweetpete the perspective we view this issue from.
 
I got it....my purpose was to show it can be done and should be done. :)
 
akflightmedic said:
I got it....my purpose was to show it can be done and should be done. :)
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I will agree that it should be done sometimes, but I unfortunately feel that many of us have anecdotal evidence that would give credence to the idea that Boca Raton Fire is more of exception rather than the rule itself.

But with that said if EMS is done by fire from the same perspective that pure EMS professional view it from, then I agree with you.
 
akflightmedic said:
I got it....my purpose was to show it can be done and should be done. :)
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But, find another area that has the money Boca has! They have always thrown money at public services. Most areas will not do that.

Miami-Dade was one of the first in the country and does a great job at it. But, the staff still want to be on the engine, for the most part.
 
RocketMedic said:
Yeah, but you work for Houston Fire. Good luck with that pension...
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Actually, I work for a suburb of Houston, not Houston itself. We're TMRS so I'm way happier with that than whatever HFD is throwing money into these days. But retirement is an elusive creature at best anyways. Lol! So I'm not holding my breath.
 
sweetpete said:
Actually, I work for a suburb of Houston, not Houston itself. We're TMRS so I'm way happier with that than whatever HFD is throwing money into these days. But retirement is an elusive creature at best anyways. Lol! So I'm not holding my breath.
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I know that feeling lol. We have county retirement where I'm at along with a 401... something... that we have the option of paying into. I have more hope for mine than hfd does. Although that reminds me, i need to see if i can roll my tmrs money into the county plan.
 
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