the 100% directionless thread

I'll give you pics of my partners ***. But he's 50 and shorter than me.
 
Ewwwww.

On other news, I got a new phone. An LG Something HD
 
3a56bdfd_Im-afraid-I-just-blue-myself.jpg

Good guess.

But that's what I do here, I analyze and therapize!
 
Ugh. Poor puppy wants to go for a walk and all I want to do is stay in bed.
 
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Go to sleep. Wake up. Partner is missing...
 
Go to sleep. Wake up. Partner is missing...

Ooo I saw a movie like that. Every time this guy went to sleep people around him disappeared then at the end he figured out it was him.
 
I love our ER. We were bringing a ~280lb patient back to his SNF up the street and the ER asked us if we wanted to borrow one of their slide boards to offload him there!

God I love slide boards.
 
I asked for a slide board yesterday at the nursing home and they gave me a CPR board.

280lbs ain't nothin. We don't bat an eyelash til they break 350.
 
I
280lbs ain't nothin. We don't bat an eyelash til they break 350.

Same.


But we also have toys, such as the HoverMatt, HoverJack, a fully loaded bari truck, and each of our ambulances has a bari tarp with a slippery plastic undersheet.
 
I hate the hover mat. It's a pain to roll the patient on and off and my company tries to use it instead of a lift assist.

Getting them on the stretcher usually isn't the problem. Getting the stretcher up and loaded is usually where we need help.
 
I smell bacon. That means its time to get out of bed
 
Getting them on the stretcher usually isn't the problem. Getting the stretcher up and loaded is usually where we need help.

"Dispatch, please send FD for lift assist"

2 minutes later, FD shows up L&S, patients lifted and off we go. :P
 
In the past four hours I've been to church, mini grocery shopping, made breakfast, started laundry, took the dog for a mile long walk, now I'm watching HGTV. So far, it's been a good Sunday.
 
I'll try not to be bias, but this kind of upset me.

I've been working on a dedicated CCT rig every other week the same nurse, and it's burning me out a little bit. He always jokes around about my partner, in my opinion inappropriately, he gave me a nickname I absolutely hate, and always disagrees with me about anything. I'm just an EMT (only 110 hours of training) and he's a Paramedic/RN (a bizillion hours of education)with many years of experience including in 911 so I feel like I have to respect his wishes, but at times I just feel like it's just a title, that he isn't as good as the title. Maybe he can sense that. When I first started working with him, I'd always kind of give him my thought, but now I stop. I allow him to do things I consider wrong e.g. administer oxygen to patients that don't need it, him not doing his own 12-lead on a STEMI patient, incorrectly perform certain assessments (e.g. most recently a TIA patient that we responded and transported CODE 3 red lights and sirens, when he did the pronator drift, he didn't ask the patient to close their eyes, he didn't have their palm face up), he didn't want me to use a head block when we backboarded a patient, we just taped the patient's head of the patient to the board (and he had me tape their chin too when I was taught not to do that, but I told him, and he told me again to do/not to argue with him), and he fakes the times and respiratory rate (e.g. took a blood pressure at 2204, but he wants me to write down 2345) because he wants it to look good on paper (he got mad at me for writing down the true times and that all the RNs with a lot of experience do this, it's a common mistake new people do). Since he always disagrees with me even if I have evidence of it, and I've given him the impression of "wants to be perfect, deny ever being wrong, it's never my fault" sorta attitude, I stopped saying anything. The things I mentioned are bugging me because I allowed him to do it without me saying a thing now, I looked at his PCR (cause I was copying his vital signs instead of the right time - instead of me writing it down what the actual time and respiratory rate is, I turn my head as if he actually has the right time and respiratory rate) and allowed him to incorrectly spell ecchymosis (he put "echymosis") because I am tired of being labeled as a know it all. When I read that expert vs. know it all post, I related because I felt that I am a know it all for stepping in when not wanted.

Anyhow today we were told to start heading to a certain hospital, we might be upgraded to CODE 3 (red lights and sirens). I have no other information on the call. I opened the window and yell back there "hey, dispatch just informed us to start heading to such and such hospital, they might upgrade us to CODE 3. Just wanted to give up a heads up." I thought he said "So? Why are you so excited?" which in my opinion he just thought I was excited to go CODE 3, I told him "I'm not excited. Don't make it more than what it is." He said "Did you just give me attitude?" I'm not perfect, I joked "Yes" and my partner started laughing and I said "nah, I just wanted to give you a heads up". He didn't saying anything en route there, but I knew from the tone when he said "Did you just give me attitude?", he sounded mad. Later on, I asked him "Is this standby?" because I saw him making a phone call with our nextel which I was assumed to dispatch because we were heading a STEMI center that we usually do standby for STEMI patients (it was explained to me that they were a low level cath lab, and if things didn't go right, we transport them to a higher level cath lab). He said "I don't know" in what sounded like an angry tone to me. I asked dispatch, and it was. They sent us a page with the information when we got to the hospital. I went to the back "Here is my pager" because our pagers have all the information on the call and his wasn't working. He said "I don't need it." I said "Okay." I got the impression he was mad because he didn't want my pager, which he usually wants a heads up on the calls, and usually asks for my pager/I give it to him, so I told him "Hey, I'm sorry if I offended you early. I didn't mean to. I was just trying to give you a heads up and I guess I did sorta snap. I'm sorry." He said "I'm not offended, we'll talk about it after the call."

We ended up not getting the call so it was probably successful, but we did get another call immediately after that was canceled, literally they canceled us and told us about the other call at the same time.

After we finished that call, he slept the entire time. We didn't talk.

When we got back to station, another crew needed to start checking out our ambulance, all our paperwork and everything was done, I clocked out, and left.

He called me when I got home, he told me that he meant to get to me before I left, but this is the best he can do. He wanted to let me know that he wasn't mad, he wasn't offended, but he is frustrated with me, and that it is an ongoing issue, he doesn't know what's going on. Every time he talks to me, I cut him off or don't understand him even though he is speaking plain English to me. He said he only wanted information about the call "Where are we going? What's wrong with the patient?" He thought it was ironic I asked him if it was standby because he wanted to know information earlier on, but that I snapped back so he didn't have any information. He has decided that the best solution is that when we talk, it will be strictly business and professional, we will keep conversations limited. He doesn't want things to escalate. Next time an issue happens, me, him, my (EMT) supervisor, and his (RN) supervisor will sit down and talk. In the future, he will try to not be on the same unit as me.

^^By the way, that paraphrase is closely matching what he said to me like the "you don't understand me even though I'm speaking in plain English to you".

I told him I was really sorry, yeh, I'll try to keep it professional and business only. Sorry. I understand.

He said "great, well, I guess... when is the next time I see you?"

"Not next week, but the week after that."

"Well, see you then."

"Bye"

I texted my partner right away telling him the same deal, but now I am pretty upset. I almost want to be like "No, f that. That's a toxic environment. Maybe one of us should get off the unit now." I am not a believer in sitting down and resolving things. At my previous fast food company, we did that, the people kept doing the problem anyhow, and I ended up getting fired eventually, and then they kept me, and then I had a gun pointed at my face even though technically I was fired several weeks before. I feel like that kinda BS will just repeat if we sit down and talk.

I kind of have that anger in me right now just wanna call him back and say "f that", but at the same time, I am holding myself back.

I was talking to my partner about this how it's complicated for me because I've learned a lot of things, but I am just an EMT so my credibility is not so good, but then at the same time, credibility doesn't make your right or wrong, it just makes you more credible, but then I always think about what Usalfyre said about the Dunning-Kruger effect and how maybe I don't even realize that what I am saying is completely stupid.

I do also feel like there is a problem with me.

Maybe it's just time for us to be on different units. I did try making it work for both of us too. With me and my partner, I decided that if I wanted the real time to happen for vital signs, we gotta be quicker when we get the first set (that's our RN problem, he thinks that it's bad if it doesn't look like we got our own set of vital signs <5 minutes after get on scene) so I talked to my partner about choreographing what we do on scene ( got the idea from choreograph CPR) so... while he gets a report from the other RN, I'll ask AO questions, determine how we move the patient over, my partner should be writing down what the hospital VS are on their monitor, then we'll move the patient over, I take the heavy side, she takes the light side (she's not strong). Once he is on, I'll take the right side of the patient, she'll take the left (cause the monitor wires are on the left), I have them all wrapped up so we can take everything out, put it on the patient, I'll get the blood pressure and pulse ox on, she'll get the electrodes on. Prior to even walking into the room, the monitor I have is already on, I already prefilled it with all the patient's information (full name, gender, and age) and set to take vital signs every 15 minutes, once the BP cuff is on, have it start getting a blood pressure immediately, and write that down and hopefully it will be less than 5 minutes since our OS time. (we've only tried this for 2 days now, I think with more practice, we will be quicker).

I'm just mad. I think this is bull:censored::censored::censored::censored:.

To me, it's sort of a **** move too cause he's acting like the professional one "I'm not mad. We are gonna be professional" sorta deal. This to me screams "I'm mad" without actually screaming.
 
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And I've heard somewhere that if you feel the world is against you, maybe you are the one doing something wrong. I always think about that. This wouldn't be my first incident. I didn't get along well with my previous partner, I kicked out of helping at the EMT program I used to help at, and nobody seems to listen to me in real life. I like to believe that I just sound a lot better on the Internet than in real life.

At the moment my mind is trending towards calling a supervisor at work and really having that sit down, make my complaints, or call a supervisor to switch units so I don't have to work with him. I've tried being reasonable with supervisors for other things though, and I have been unsuccessful. If I switch units, I'd likely not work CCT. At the same time, I feel like it's wrong for me to just abandon ship, but I can already speculate that nothing will be resolved between me and him.

Like the supervisor deal, we are told we aren't allow to go CODE 3 on freeways unless there is traffic that is slowing us down significantly. First they told me to drive CODE 3 speed without lights and sirens, I told them no. They said fine. Then they changed their minds to yes, drive CODE 3. They changed their mind and said drive speed limit +5. I told them I am not going to go over the speed limit, that's illegal. They told me that if a cop pulls me over, they are a douche. That's just not cool. I am on the same boat as other people, we don't need CODE 3 for everything, but for time sensitive emergencies like STEMI (our CODE 3 calls are usually STEMI and stroke patients), I believe every second counts. Today I had a CODE 3 call, I went CODE 3 about a block, got on the freeway and drove about 60 miles before I got off the freeway and drove about 6 blocks to the hospital they needed to go to. The family that was driving got there at the same time as me. That's ridiculous. For things like that, I feel like telling them it's pointless to go CODE 3 (risk vs. benefit, I am literally saving no time). Two supervisors told me no CODE 3, one said yes. I am still not doing it until everyone is on the same page. I told my supervisor who asked me if there was anything wrong with the company, I told them "it's directionless, nobody is on the same page".

Then rig checkouts, they give us only 15 minutes. 15 minutes is good if everything is tagged, but not everything is tagged. I have to check the oil, transmission, belts, etc too. Then we aren't required to do this, but I clean up the ambulance too. People leave garbage, boot marks on the wall from people sleeping, and people don't switch gloves when they touch things so they cross contaminate things all the time. It takes me about 45 minutes to do what I believe is the bare minimum. I've worked with a bunch of people at the company so far and seen a lot (I was working 94 hours/week on average my last paycheck said, I didn't spend a day off). People walk in, grab the keys, get the starting numbers (takes <3 minutes to do), and go. When I get on a rig, I often find 10-15 things missing. My supervisor was saying that other people can do it in less than 15 minutes, why can't I? I kept pointing out people aren't doing the bare minimum though, 15 minutes is unrealistic. He didn't understand. I come in about an hour early now because I still believe in doing the bare minimum even though I'm not getting paid. What I find most ironic is last night I saw one of the paperwork in the ambulance was incorrect, when I told the same supervisor, he went to go check, he couldn't even find it, it clearly showed to me that he even didn't know where things are at/don't check. I ended up having to show him where it was at and point it out to him.

Rant, rant, rant.
 
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Do something that's outta the box maybe, but not really that far outta the box. That RN wants to keep things business and professional. Maybe just call him up, say I'd like to talk about work, get coffee, resolve some things without escalating it to both of our supervisors. Tell him I am sorry, let him know my concerns, what I am trying to do to resolve it, I'd love to still work with him on CCT and I think we can do better. Let's not make this a toxic work environment. I do believe the choreographic thing will improve our on scene time to get the number he wants, let me get the vital signs with him, I'll give him the respiratory rate. Point out errors I notice previously, bring documentation that this is the way it is done or spelled, or whatever, and try to say that in the future, I will speak my concern only once, I won't argue with him, I won't put him down in front of the patient (previously I mentioned something in front of the patient, but I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, and we didn't argue on scene, I just did it, he didn't like I said it in front of the patient because it could make them doubt him, the next couple of times things happened, I did pull him to the side and he still shot me down) but try to build up some credibility that if I do see a mistake, at least consider what I am saying (he's shot down everything I've said so far). In a sense, that could be too much to bring over just coffee... he could feel like I am setting him up just going there with printed stuff of what I notice he did wrong and what is right.

I know there is one thing he trusts me on is what I report to him when I assess. We had one call where the patient pupils were unreactive (not a big deal), he was like "let me check", I was right, he was shocked that I caught that though, he said that the paperwork that they gave him said it was reactive even when we got there. After that, he has had me do some limited assessments he'll ask before he gets a report from a nurse, and he seems to appreciate what I report, which is the one thing I like about working with him (other nurses don't want me doing anything with the patient except hooking them up to the monitor and getting them on the gurney).
 
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Aprz...welcome to CCT and working with nurses. The majority of providers are hard working and willing to educate. The rest of them are passive aggressive a-holes with a chip on their shoulder who think they deserve reverence because they're "special".

(Caution: Wholly anecdotal opinion here)
Nursing has a serious issue with conflict resolution. The whole darn profession is passive aggressive. Ever heard "nurses eat their young"? This is it.

Bail. Change units. Your unlikely to win this fight, he's more experienced in fighting these battles and more valuable to the company.
 
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