I may be leaving the EMS field in October

fortsmithman

fortsmithman

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I may be leaving EMS in October. This is because my town is holding municipal elections in the fall. I am strongly considering running for town council. If I do run and hopefully get elected I will try to do my best to get our town ambulance service to go from paid on call to paid full time. I and a growing number of our services members are hoping that we may be able to serve our community on a full time basis instead of paid on call. In the past there have been volly bashing but what about those vollies who hope to to go paid full time with their services. So if I do run and get elected i hope within 1 to 2 years it will be full time. Also one of my goals is to increase municipal funding for training purposes by getting all members to be qualified at the EMT/PCP level.
 
Should I leave to rn for office to change my towns EMS from paid on call to paid full time. Or should I remain in EMS going for my EMR, EMT then Paramedic I don't know what I should do. I have till October to decide.
 
That ultimately has to be your decision. What is best for you and your family?

I commend your wishes to have your EMS department run full time, however if elected to this post you may realize there maybe a reasons it is set up that way. If you are running for office with a private agenda you may not be able to see the whole picture.

If you are elected I am sure you will have the best interest of your community in mind, if that means a full time EMS system, more teachers or infrastructure.

Good luck, its easy to comment from the sidelines, I applaud you for getting involved.
 
What kind of population and demographic are we talking about? What other political ambitions do you have regarding your towns development and maintenance?
 
fortsmithman said:
Should I leave to rn for office to change my towns EMS from paid on call to paid full time. Or should I remain in EMS going for my EMR, EMT then Paramedic I don't know what I should do. I have till October to decide.
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Off-topic, I know, but... You don't have your EMR yet?:glare:
 
nomofica said:
Off-topic, I know, but... You don't have your EMR yet?:glare:
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I know but here in the NWT we don't need any training whatsoever to work in an ambulance the NWT has no legislation at all covering EMS and the NWT Motor Vehicles Act makes no mention of ambulance it does mention police and fire rescue vehicles. The only training I have is ST John Ambulance standard first aid and CPR lvl C. I also have a NRP provider certification from the Canadian Paediatric Society. My duties with the service is to lift pt's and aid the EMR's and EMT's in whatever they need and to provide scene security as and when needed. The security portion I have no problem doing since i've been involved in the security field on and off since Nov 1985. I notice under your avatar that you also don't have your EMR as it says EMR student. So far this year my service has had 77 calls and I have been on 60 of them dealing with live pt's. That might not seem like much to some but last year my service only did 212 calls. The year before we did 250.
 
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vquintessence said:
What kind of population and demographic are we talking about? What other political ambitions do you have regarding your towns development and maintenance?
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As well I would look into more activities for the youth in town.
 
I would stay even if you run for election. EMS has so little influence in political decision making, that we need all the voices we can. People in communities need to be informed as to what we do, why we do it and how we do it. Funding will always be an issue, but going from part-paid to full time ambulance service has been done many, many times - most with great success. If you're going to promote this, HAVE A PLAN! Write it just like a business plan. If you need help, get it. Do it right. It will make you and your idea credible when people can see it black and white. It takes away most arguments against it and, if nothing else, gets people thinking. As mentioned earlier, hopefully EMS is not the only reason you're running.
 
go ahead and run
 
fortsmithman said:
I know but here in the NWT we don't need any training whatsoever to work in an ambulance the NWT has no legislation at all covering EMS and the NWT Motor Vehicles Act makes no mention of ambulance it does mention police and fire rescue vehicles. The only training I have is ST John Ambulance standard first aid and CPR lvl C. I also have a NRP provider certification from the Canadian Paediatric Society. My duties with the service is to lift pt's and aid the EMR's and EMT's in whatever they need and to provide scene security as and when needed. The security portion I have no problem doing since i've been involved in the security field on and off since Nov 1985. I notice under your avatar that you also don't have your EMR as it says EMR student. So far this year my service has had 77 calls and I have been on 60 of them dealing with live pt's. That might not seem like much to some but last year my service only did 212 calls. The year before we did 250.
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Weird, I didn't know the NWT didn't legislate anything EMS. But I guess that also makes it easier for Joe Blow to get on an ambulance due to the lower populations and fewer calls when compared to cities like mine. And you're right, I don't have my EMR -yet-. I'm in class (only 15 more classes to go :D ). I was just surprised because I thought you'd need more training to be in the service.

Just a little FYI: I'm going to be one of the youngest EMRs in my city; schools don't normally offer 18-year-olds EMR training due to "maturity issues". So stoked about that.


Anyways, If at all possible try and do both? Every EMS voice counts.
 
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