How to buff calls in NYC?

[NPO]

At the end of the day, buffing is cheating and cheating is wrong. You are going around the system for your companies profit. How do you not realize that.

 

[Akulahawk]

Take it from someone who grew up in the same system you are in. You will learn far more about real medicine and caring for pts on your paid bus than you ever will as a volley. Read the discharge summaries on every pt you transport. Go home and read about the pathology. Make a note of a disease one of your SNF pts has that you don't know much about and read about it. Become a provider not a technician. You will never learn anything from running 911 calls other than how to drive fast and dangerous.

That, right there, is exactly why I really like doing IFT work. Sure, 911 is fun/flashy and all... but those IFT calls are great (even the discharges) because you get to read those discharge summaries (and sometimes more) and can start really getting into the pathology of your patients. Many times those patients you take to a SNF will be more sick than many people you'll encounter on the street, even though those D/C patients will be quite stable. As you begin to understand what's going on, you'll start seeing things in your "emergency" patients that you never noticed before precisely because you've seen it in your d/c patients, only now the problem is acute. You should also start taking note of medications your patients are taking and look them up so that you have an idea why those meds are being taken. You'll start seeing patterns and you'll start asking questions when your patient says "I have no medical problems" but they've got a list of meds usually used for CHF, COPD, HTN... and so on.

 

[ffemt8978]

I learned more in 6 months of IFT than I did in 10 years 911 response by doing pretty much what Akulahawk described.

 

[46Young]

No lie I've been getting frustrated at the whole buffing thing myself. Just did a 4-hr volly tour with no calls. If all the vollies would rally together and demand to be part of 911 I would be all about that. Until then I am doing what I can to experience what I want to experience via:

- Joining a busier volly that is in service more often and gets more calls
- Doing ridelaongs with FDNY EMS more often, even if I'm the *****-*** observer helping to carry bags.
- Aggressively job hunting 911 hospitals in approximately 2 months when my 6mos experience is down.
- Taking the FDNY EMS civil service test this year and hopefully start academy next year.

Not a bad plan.

The only way it would be appropriate to have the vollies become part of the 911 system would be for each operational member to successfully complete a FDNY Top Class, just like every FDNY EMT on the street today. That is the best way to ensure a uniform competency standard. At my current department, we have a small volunteer component, where they are part of the 911 system. The EMT's had to pass the academy's standards, the medics had to complete an internship just like our probies, and the firefighters also had to do the fire academy at night and on weekends.

 

[Bullets]

Actually, in NYC, its not a shift, it's a tour. The truck is a bus. A call is a job. The guy is a volly-whacker, but the terminology is NYC appropriate.

Im my area, if you call for a bus youre getting one of these babys (pic related)

EMS is probably not a good place for an "adrenaline junkie"....

Dunno where you work, but most of the EMTs and MEdics i work with all engage in some sort of adrenaline junkie behavior off duty....skydiving, scuba diving, jetskis skiing/snowboarding all seem like popular hobbies

 

[Scott33]

Dunno where you work, but most of the EMTs and MEdics i work with all engage in some sort of adrenaline junkie behavior off duty....skydiving, scuba diving, jetskis skiing/snowboarding all seem like popular hobbies

And 'eating'.

 

[COmedic17]

I feel like you are trying to compensate for something by obtaining "street cred" and being some type of backyard hero.

"Buffing" calls is not going to help your preDickament.

 

[adamNYC]

"The only way it would be appropriate to have the vollies become part of the 911 system would be for each operational member to successfully complete a FDNY Top Class, just like every FDNY EMT on the street today. That is the best way to ensure a uniform competency standard"

What do voluntary hospital units go through for their 911 training?

 

[Carlos Danger]

Dunno where you work, but most of the EMTs and MEdics i work with all engage in some sort of adrenaline junkie behavior off duty....skydiving, scuba diving, jetskis skiing/snowboarding all seem like popular hobbies

Anyone who goes into EMS in order to feed their "need for speed" is wrong.

 

[46Young]

Most have some sort of field internship, but it varies by agencies. That is why NYC protocols are so restrictive. It should just be one provider. FDNY EMS has the Top class, but the hospitals may have better equipment. For example, FDNY didn't have CPAP (maybe still don't have)?

What does the field internship at your volunteer company look like, and what is the minimal requirement for ride time every week?

 

[Mufasa556]

I remember the hours I've spent sleeping at punishment post after my sadist dispatcher decided we did not meet one of his stringent imaginary criteria. Those were real adrenalin filled, nail biting kind of nights.

The call buffing described here used to be standard practice here in Los Angeles. If you haven't seen Mother, Juggs and Speed I highly recommend it. During the time period, companies used the standard LA Sheriff 10 codes. To thwart other companies from jumping their calls and to keep the competition in dark as to their operations, companies implemented their own versions of the common 10 codes. Eventually LAEMS outlawed the practice of call jumping. Schaefer still uses their jacked up version 10 codes. In this day an age when FEMA recommends plain English, you have a company that's still using 10 codes. Not even commonly known 10 codes. Just gibberish they made up.

I really recommend you not call jumping. Aside from the legal complications of running unauthorized L&S and getting into an accident. EMS is a real small world. You don't want to step on toes and get the reputation as "that guy" with the local paid departments.

 

[Mufasa556]

From West coast to East coast, it appears the field is all the same. It blows my mind.

 

[adamNYC]

Ems is a small world but NYC is a big city.

 

[ffemt8978]

Ems is a small world but NYC is a big city.

So? Do you really want to be known as "that guy", identifiable by pretty much anybody in EMS in NYC?

 

[Chewy20]

Ems is a small world but NYC is a big city.

Do yourself a favor and stop talking. You have literally not said one thing that makes sense.

 

[Mufasa556]

Ems is a small world but NYC is a big city.

Well played.

 

[Akulahawk]

Ems is a small world but NYC is a big city.

I used to work with someone that was "that guy" and everyone around him knew it too. He moved on to another company after about a year or so and about 2 years after that, his LEMSA revoked his EMT cert. While I didn't track him after he left the company I worked for at the time, I'm sure that he kept his antics up. Ultimately he earned himself a prohibiting conviction and my not ever practice in medicine again.

Yes, it's a very small world as I'm sure his reputation very much preceded him. I know he worked for at least 2-3 other companies after he left the place I worked.

 

[adamNYC]

"Do yourself a favor and stop talking. You have literally not said one thing that makes sense."

I am merely one of hundreds of volly members who buff on the regular in NYC. All I wanted was how to do it better plain and simple. Once I'm in 911, I'm out of the whole volly gig. It feels like **** to be 2nd on scene knowing that technically I dont really belong there.

 

[Flying]

What are you accomplishing by buffing/jumping calls? Is this early exposure to 911 really that important to you?

Others, namely ERDoc and Akulahawk, have given you really good advice. To excel at the Tx job and learn about your patients beyond what your peers care to know and make yourself stand out in that respect.

Doesn't it seem strange to you that you are alone in thinking that gaining "experience" for a hospital or FDNY at the expense of the public is all right?

 

[Chewy20]

It feels like **** to be 2nd on scene knowing that technically I dont really belong there.

You don't belong there, so don't do it. Go find a hobby.