Females

DrParasite said:
and as sad as this sounds, somewhere, some woman will have said yes to him. otherwise, men wouldn't do it.
Click to expand...

True. And I guarantee some women have said something similar to men
 
* Some medic tried to randomly kiss her
* Some PATIENT tried to randomly kiss her
* Triage nurse asked if she was single (she was not) and then proceeded to give her a lecture on being a heart-breaker
* EMT she did NOT give her number made a midnight booty call

I mean, it never ends.
 
Brandon Oto said:
* Some medic tried to randomly kiss her
* Some PATIENT tried to randomly kiss her
* Triage nurse asked if she was single (she was not) and then proceeded to give her a lecture on being a heart-breaker
* EMT she did NOT give her number made a midnight booty call

I mean, it never ends.
Click to expand...

And this is precisely why I was rarely able to try and talk to nurses/medics I might have been interested in...

(that said, I did meet my ex-wife at work)
 
Brandon Oto said:
I have an attractive female partner who's new to EMS, and I am blown away how many times she gets propositioned, touched, or otherwise sexually harassed in a regular day. Do women really deal with this kind of :censored::censored::censored::censored: all the time?
Click to expand...

Yes.

That, coupled with being underestimated all of the time can make life annoying. :glare:

On no less than 4 separate occasions I have had fire men grab my bicep and say something to the effect of "wow, you're strong" while in the middle of lifting the gurney into the back of the ambulance.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I work with a female medic partner at my job, and we've never had an issue. She can lift and carry and all that good stuff. Also, she is totally the boss and I just do what she tells me.
Actually, I think we once had a "woman driver" joke, and once we had another male EMT ride in the back with her for a combative overdose, but that was less about gender and more about her being small and the patient being jacked.
To be fair, we work in the sleepy upper income suburbs, so I don't know how different it is in urban areas.
 
The jokes, comments and sexual advances are not uncommon, I have never personally had any but I know a few stories.
 
Heard a story regarding this same topic over the weekend. The paramedic I was working with was paired with another female earlier in the week and the hospital called the base to ask for help in moving a patient and when the women got the room the nurse said out loud in front of every body with in ear shot oh 2 girls we were expecting the guys.
 
I've had the same thing happen to me and one of my previous partners, but it was with the FD. The kicker was that the pt was less than 350lbs and I was able to lift him into the ambulance by myself.
 
Clare said:
It greatly intrigues me, and irks me just a little, that in the three decades since then that the general public have not accepted females as being just as capable as a male Officer. On watch by-and-large the guys are outnumbered by girls yet there is no difference except which bits are down below.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it is just a quirk of the area I work, but I am just as likely to work with a female as I am a male. It probably isn't exactly 50-50, but it is pretty close.
 
I haven't read all of the replies but need to add my 2 cents. I am female, 5'1" I weigh about 140 lbs. I know my limits and if I think the patient is too heavy for me to handle the head I will ask my partner to take the head and to load the patient if my partner is a male. If I am paired with another female their have been occasions where we didn't have to ask for help the first responders offered it and we accept. Better to remember our safety first. If someone is too heavy for 2 people to lift safely there is nothing wrong with asking for help. Many EMS end up with back problems from trying to lift more then they can and not asking for help.
 
AGill01 said:
I haven't read all of the replies but need to add my 2 cents. I am female, 5'1" I weigh about 140 lbs. I know my limits and if I think the patient is too heavy for me to handle the head I will ask my partner to take the head and to load the patient if my partner is a male. If I am paired with another female their have been occasions where we didn't have to ask for help the first responders offered it and we accept. Better to remember our safety first. If someone is too heavy for 2 people to lift safely there is nothing wrong with asking for help. Many EMS end up with back problems from trying to lift more then they can and not asking for help.
Click to expand...

All of this is well and good, but there still has to be a minimum standard that all providers need to meet. Where I work, every crew has to be able to take a 300 pound patient (or so), doesn't matter if it's our two tiniest females.

Yes you have to remember your own safety, but you have to be able to do the job to the standard as well.

I will never be more embarrassed than when my partner was too weak to carry a 200 pound man up 12 stairs to his front door. I called for an assist and was given an ETA of an hour (and a tongue lashing for not being to get it done). I told the patient that and he said he was willing to work with us so I ended up dragging the stairchair up the stairs like a dolly with my partner "softening the bumps" by lifting a little a bit from the foot.

It happened again and a rival ambulance company was nice enough to come help us, but after that she was taken off the road until she could pass the lift test, which she somehow got out of taking before being hired.

I have worked with guys that were weak as well, and that didn't make me happy either. I have also worked with women that could outlift me no problem.
 
I have found this thread to be very entertaining.

Time and time again I hear about "lifting" and being able to "do the job."

Without passing judgement, I would like to offer some perspective for entertainment?

If lifting and carrying heavy loads is absolutely requiredfor the job, or at least desirable, why is it not part of original requirements for entry into the educational programs?

Why do employers not have 3 man units (like many FDs) or dedicated equipment for dealing with stairs, uneven terrain, etc?

If you look at jobs requiring lifting and carrying, like airline baggage handlers, there is a limit on the weight permitted, or additional fees for the risk to the worker.

Imagine telling the 300LBer they have to pay extra because of their weight.

Lifting and moving patients is absolutely required in nursing. Why are nurses not given a lift test?

How about physical therapists?

In order to embrace professionalism over vocation, the knowledge base has to be more important than the physical aspects of the job.

The reality is if it takes 2 baggage handlers to safely hoist a 75lb suitcase on and off of a conveyor belt, how many EMTs should it take to safely lift a 200lb patient?

Do not be taken in with "what it takes to do the job" as a sadomasocistic excuse for your employer putting your health and safety at risk for the most minimal amount of compensation.

Just some things to think about.
 
Tigger said:
All of this is well and good, but there still has to be a minimum standard that all providers need to meet. Where I work, every crew has to be able to take a 300 pound patient (or so), doesn't matter if it's our two tiniest females.

Yes you have to remember your own safety, but you have to be able to do the job to the standard as well.

I will never be more embarrassed than when my partner was too weak to carry a 200 pound man up 12 stairs to his front door. I called for an assist and was given an ETA of an hour (and a tongue lashing for not being to get it done). I told the patient that and he said he was willing to work with us so I ended up dragging the stairchair up the stairs like a dolly with my partner "softening the bumps" by lifting a little a bit from the foot.

It happened again and a rival ambulance company was nice enough to come help us, but after that she was taken off the road until she could pass the lift test, which she somehow got out of taking before being hired.

I have worked with guys that were weak as well, and that didn't make me happy either. I have also worked with women that could outlift me no problem.
Click to expand...

We do 125 lbs single-person lift at one department (unpowered stretchers) and 50 lbs to above your shoulder at another (powered stretchers).

The days of needing to brute strength heft 300 lbs+ are gone or at least should be.

Call for more resources, use smarter techniques, drag them on a tarp if need be. I'd rather have a sharp clinician who needs help with 250lbs+ than picking my medics based on if they can carry obese people...
 
Veneficus said:
Why are nurses not given a lift test?
Click to expand...

Because nursing is a profession and not a trade.

We :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: about not getting the clinical respect then complain when our partners aren't competent truck drivers, taxi drivers, or moving van employees all at the same time :)
 
Christopher said:
Because nursing is a profession and not a trade.

We :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: about not getting the clinical respect then complain when our partners aren't competent truck drivers, taxi drivers, or moving van employees all at the same time :)
Click to expand...

My point exactly.
 
Some of the local facilities here have more or less banned nurses from any lifting because they don't want to pay their worker's comp. There are Hoyers in every room, etc.

This is not, unfortunately, an option for us. The fact remains that (at least in certain areas) it's not possible for EMS. No matter how safe you try to be, there will come a time when you either have to go to extreme lengths to minimize lifting (wait an extended time for assistance with a critical patient, etc), or it more or less can't be done (big patient, tight winding staircase, no room for more than a couple people to lift anyway).

Being better at lifting is not more important than being a competent clinician or caring person, but all other things being equal, it IS a relevant and valuable skill that you can bring to the table. I don't think that it's beyond the reach of 99.9% of people, however, if they're willing to put some work in. (My little partner started deadlifting at my request.)

For what it's worth, I think this is one of those things where opinions differ because regions differ. In California I think I used a stairchair once. Out here it's many times a day.
 
Brandon Oto said:
Some of the local facilities here have more or less banned nurses from any lifting because they don't want to pay their worker's comp. There are Hoyers in every room, etc.

This is not, unfortunately, an option for us. The fact remains that (at least in certain areas) it's not possible for EMS. No matter how safe you try to be, there will come a time when you either have to go to extreme lengths to minimize lifting (wait an extended time for assistance with a critical patient, etc), or it more or less can't be done (big patient, tight winding staircase, no room for more than a couple people to lift anyway).

Being better at lifting is not more important than being a competent clinician or caring person, but all other things being equal, it IS a relevant and valuable skill that you can bring to the table. I don't think that it's beyond the reach of 99.9% of people, however, if they're willing to put some work in. (My little partner started deadlifting at my request.)

For what it's worth, I think this is one of those things where opinions differ because regions differ. In California I think I used a stairchair once. Out here it's many times a day.
Click to expand...

I see your point, but I am not sure I agree.

What is the value of safety?

There is considerable resources devoted to fire departments for various forms of technical rescue.

There is both training and specialized equipment. Enough to require not only dedicated teams, but also dual axel rescue trucks to haul it all around in.

I have the experience of pulling medical pts. out of some of the tightest spaces imaginable. When I was with the FD, we considered it a rescue for all intents and purposes and treated it as such.

When with EMS, it was just considered "part of the job" as you stated.

But is it?

DT4EMS has done a remarkable job of bringing both awareness and solutions to OTJ assaults of healthcare professionals. Being assaulted by a pt. in many places is still considered "part of the job."Obviously that is not true.

What makes the safety of lifting/transporting/rescuing patients any different?

Look at some of the European ambulances. Lift a patient into the back? never, at worst push it up the ramp. When I started lifting the patient meant a 2 man lift from the sides of the stretcher, none of this load the wheels, push it in stuff. A lot of guys and girls got hurt. Permanatly. Especially on uneven ground, snow, and ice.

Many of us didn't get hurt simply because of luck. That is not smart or dependable.

Not one organization I have ever worked or volunteered for would cover the cost of living at the standard I had aquired if I was injured. You basically had Social Security disability aand in the better organizations (certainly not all), disability insurance.

Why would you take such risk to your health and your future?

So your employer doesn't have to buy equipment or send extra crews?

There was a time in the industrial aged world where losing a limb on the job was an occupational risk. Those days are long gone.

Performing a rescue without training or equipment is simply a gamble.

We agree that transporting a code doesn't do anything but put people at risk.

The same with any IFT etc. In a MVA entrapment you can expect a minimum of 8-12 rescuers in most civilized places.

They would cut, pry, or whatever it took to free people. Why is that same standard not embraced for other patients?

One would be tempted to say because of the financial burdon to the pt. but that would exclude the money medicare pays for dwelling modification for the disabled, the disabilities act, and why we put people in care facilities who cannot live at home.

Most people would rather die at home, I don't dispute that. But ask those same people if they would rather disable somebody else in order to do it?

EMS providers accept the risk as part of a culture. A culture of self sacrifice and labor.

A culture of permitting a better profit margin to their employer and accepting the gamble of personally losing.

Of EMS services providing the minimum in trucking company operations and not preemptively addressing what is both a health need of the patient and a safety concern for employees.

As I said, to mak a few extra $.

Are you willing to risk your health and prosperity for it?

I was, but I get smarter as time goes by. Product of being lucky enough to live through it.

I am sure you have heard the joke of the young bull and the old bull?

The G version:

Young bull talking to an old bull standing on top of a hill: "let's run down there and love a couple of those cows."

old bull: "let's walk down and love them all."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You're not wrong, and it's clearly the case that neither providers nor employers tend to prioritize injury prevention in the US (certainly not to the extent of spending money on it). However, unless someone comes up with some magical techniques or technologies that are quite unimaginable to me, there is always going to be this physical component to doing this job well (i.e. while providing optimal care) You used the example of firefighters -- no matter how skill- or knowledge-intensive that job may be, everyone would probably agree that a line firefighter needs to have some physical fitness.

I also don't think that's necessarily an unreasonable requirement, as long as it's clearly understood. Nor does it invalidate the cognitive aspects of the work. It simply means that this is a job with numerous facets, something we all realize already.

A classic scenario is: patient needs to go ASAP, there are two flights of stairs and he's 350. Not everybody can carry him out, but the time it will take more resources to arrive may significantly affect the outcome. Can you carry him or not? You might be Florence Nightingale and your partner Dr. House, but if you can move this patient quickly and safely, you're doing better for him than a crew that couldn't. Simple enough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top