For the more seasoned EMTs, what does a new EMTB do that bothers you?

DragonClaw

DragonClaw

Emergency Medical Texan
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What are some bad habits or assumptions that EMTBs have that are more than just personal choice that you think should be avoided? What makes someone bad to work with/be your partner? What mistakes to new EMTS make that are life-threatening (I hope these aren't common)?
 
Roots around in my ALS gear without asking.
 
Asking about your gnarliest call or “best” call. GTFO with that.
 
  1. not knowing where equipment is in the truck
  2. not knowing how to use BLS equipment in the truck.
    1. If you don't know how to use something, such as a different stairchair, or some other unique item that we carry on the truck, the time to ask is at the beginning of the shift, not when you need to use it on a call
  3. not cleaning up a truck (soap and water on the outside when it's dirty, blood and body fluids on the side). And yes, we will wash the outside together.
  4. not bothering to learn their primary area, but still insisting on driving
  5. If I have a new EMT on my truck (meaning, I'm full time on the truck, and always work this city or area, and they are either training, part time, or on OT), learn how the city operates, how we operate, before telling me what to do.
  6. If you're a guest on my truck, don't tell me everything i do is wrong, because it's not how you do something
 
Wearing sunglasses on calls and asking for a Light Unit because it’s getting dark working this accident...(I leaned over and ripped them off her face).
 
Complaining about aspects of the job in general for things you knew you were getting into when you were in EMT Class.

Faking Vitals. :rolleyes:
 
Being disinterested in patients. Making rude, snide, jaded comments. Telling war stories. Selfies. Playing on your phone or watching movies when you haven't studied protocols, learned about the district, completed training assignments, and so on.
 
Call for a medic for everything; when I got there and asked things like vital sounds and the ones they have were from the ECF, not theirs. or worse get called for respiratory distress and I would ask what breath sounds were like and they don't know.
If you are going to call for a medic, really need one. When the hospital is across the street and the medic is 5 miles away, don't call for a medic
 
johnrsemt said:
Call for a medic for everything; when I got there and asked things like vital sounds and the ones they have were from the ECF, not theirs. or worse get called for respiratory distress and I would ask what breath sounds were like and they don't know.
If you are going to call for a medic, really need one. When the hospital is across the street and the medic is 5 miles away, don't call for a medic
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I don't know what an ECF is, but If you look at the current EMT training, very often one of the first steps is call for additional resources, which often means paramedics. The thinking is better to have then and not need them, when the reality is exactly what you said, know why you need ALS, have a decent idea as to what you want ALS to do, and if the ER is closer than the medic, just take them to the ER.
 
Extended Care Facility (Nursing Home).
Private service I used to work at some nights medic and 1 BLS crew would be posted downtown and other BLS crews would be posted E, W, N & S all about 5-7 miles from Downtown.
The BLS crew on one side of town would get a dispatch in their area, and mark enroute: They would get to a scene and call for a medic. It would hit the point that they would get dispatched and we would start that way. We would walk in 5-10 minutes after they marked on scene and ask them what was up with the patient, and be told "we are still getting paperwork and report from the staff we haven't seen the patient yet". So how do you know you need us; we would go to the room with their cot, find the patient sitting up, talking coherently, with better VS than the BLS, load the patient, roll them out to the BLS and give them a pt report. and leave.
Tried to do training with crews for a few minutes every shift, some would listen and learn some wouldn't. Sometimes it took a 911 medic yelling at them for wasting their time when the night medic for their company was on a real run, and couldn't come hold their hand
 
that's not a training thing... that's a lazy crew, and either needs an operational correction from a supervisor (stop wasting medic resources before you have even seen the patient or we are going to fire you) or a clinical correction from the medical director or clinical coordinator (if you can't do your job, which includes assessing the patient before you call for a medic, than your clinical competency is in question, and we are going to have to let you go).

it's one thing to call for a medic when you need help, and the medic doesn't have the ability to help the patient; it's a different thing to call for a medic just because.
 
There’s a lot but, most of it is from their training or lack of.

Being a know it all without knowing it all, using gps to get to the hospitals, interrupting a report, not asking how to do something, and asking how to do something and not listening and learning.
 
One of the biggest things I hate with new their brain on vital signs. I know many new EMTs that rush into a call, and grab a blood pressure, or stick a pulse ox on before evening communicating or talking with your patient. While assessing vitals is good, life threats need to be addressed first. I need to address the respiratory arrest before the blood pressure.

Additionally with vital signs, why do all new EMTs, as well as seasoned, forget about lung sounds? You walk into a respiratory emergency, that scope needs to touch the patient.

I also hate the new EMTs that come in and pretend that they have 100 years of experience and know it all. The ones that don't want to learn and just think they are right because they graduated EMT school five days ago. Most of them, couldn't wipe their butt on their own.
 
VCEMT said:
There’s a lot but, most of it is from their training or lack of.

Being a know it all without knowing it all, using gps to get to the hospitals, interrupting a report, not asking how to do something, and asking how to do something and not listening and learning.
Click to expand...

Using GPS to get to the hospital? Hell, I still do that.
 
chriscemt said:
When I was new, it stunned me how often I had to have conversations about the potential for faking vitals.
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What's even more stunning is how often paramedics will scold or talk down to providers (in front of patients no less!!) when BLS doesn't have vitals before they arrive. Or experience difficulty obtaining vitals.

Every new EMT wants to be proficient at their job, and when they are unable to get a basic skill (which results in the all knowing and all powerful medics looking down on them as a result), I can totally understand why they do it. I'm not saying it's right, but I can see why it happens.

It's even more embarrassing that the paramedic doesn't do what the EMT does, but rather they put the patient on the pulse ox or monitor (now they have the pulse rate), and the autocuff from the lifepak (BP), and they just make up the RR that is more often than not 16. But we don't need to talk about that stuff, do we? :rolleyes:
 
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