the 100% directionless thread

[CALEMT]

Fire isnt all bad man. It gets a bad rap and Ive been as guilty as the next guy for bagging on them, but now that I'm part of it, outside of a few 3rd services, cant beat the pay and benefits. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to drive an engine and be a medic

Queue the fire dept bashing posts in 3...2...1...

 

[RocketMedic]

Hopefully at some point kind gestures outweigh the selfishness people in general have been displaying amidst all of the hysteria. That’s it.

I got the last three gallons of distilled water at the local Walmart today, pretty happy with that. We’ve got something like four months of food stocked, meds and necessary items, etc.

 

[Qulevrius]

I’m waiting for the internet outages. That’s when the riots will start [emoji1689]

 

[CALEMT]

Just checked my 457 and I'm glad that I have 24.2 years until my earliest retirement date.

 

[StCEMT]

Fire isnt all bad man. It gets a bad rap and Ive been as guilty as the next guy for bagging on them, but now that I'm part of it, outside of a few 3rd services, cant beat the pay and benefits. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to drive an engine and be a medic

It isn't that I don't think they can be good at EMS. I'm just not interested in it in the slightest aside from beating the **** out of a door once in a blue moon. I don't want to take a spot and be a half assed fire fighter when all I want to be is a medic. Departments around here want everyone cross trained and I just want to stay on the ambulance.

 

[jgmedic]

It isn't that I don't think they can be good at EMS. I'm just not interested in it in the slightest aside from beating the **** out of a door once in a blue moon. I don't want to take a spot and be a half assed fire fighter when all I want to be is a medic. Departments around here want everyone cross trained and I just want to stay on the ambulance.

If you can find a dept that transports, that'd be perfect, you'll be the most popular guy in the station.

 

[VentMonkey]

Queue the fire dept bashing posts in 3...2...1...

Meh, I’m pretty sure I was a FF/PM on an assessment engine for a 3-4 station non-transport beach FD in my past life.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Queue the fire dept bashing posts in 3...2...1...

They just make it so very easy

 

[jgmedic]

Ive noticed a steep decrease in the amount of EMTs and medics, even in the private EMS world who even want go the fire route.

 

[Qulevrius]

Ive noticed a steep decrease in the amount of EMTs and medics, even in the private EMS world who even want go the fire route.

Can thank the FD culture for that. After running with FDs and getting sh@t on, why would anyone want to go that route.

 

[GMCmedic]

Social media right now is worse than Christmas. Everyone feels the need to make "give me recognition for working" posts.

Since nearly our entire state is shut down I imagine a lot of people would love to be working.

 

[PotatoMedic]

My work is talking about canceling all vacations for employees since they are expecting an increase in sick time.

 

[Tigger]

It isn't that I don't think they can be good at EMS. I'm just not interested in it in the slightest aside from beating the **** out of a door once in a blue moon. I don't want to take a spot and be a half assed fire fighter when all I want to be is a medic. Departments around here want everyone cross trained and I just want to stay on the ambulance.

My FD does not require the paramedics to be firefighters and boy is it lovely. It is sometimes a bummer to have to fight for training time when EMS is 80% of what we do, but I can live with that. My crew is awesome on calls, and I'm not gonna complain about the overall vibe and benefits.

 

[RocketMedic]

I have completed most of my hoard. Total cost approximately $750, that’s four months of food for four people and four dogs divided between two homes. I think it’s going to get way worse and fully intend to be as prepared as possible.

 

[StCEMT]

If you can find a dept that transports, that'd be perfect, you'll be the most popular guy in the station.

That's true. And I don't mind being under the same roof, I just don't like the idea of forcing medics to be fire fighters any more than I like the idea of forcing fire fighters to be medics. I'd rather wait it out and go fly or find a different ground role, I've got plenty of time.

Can thank the FD culture for that. After running with FDs and getting sh@t on, why would anyone want to go that route.

Maybe I'm lucky, but I actually run with some good crews. Obviously some are lacking medically, but my last arrest had a damn good crew. Good enough I had the two of them run it amongst themselves while I prepped the ALS stuff. I'm also fortunate enough to have been around long enough to have gotten to know a decent amount of faces and some by name as well. I don't have any issues with getting **** on and I've built enough bridges they're mostly all more than willing to take care of anything I could possibly need.

 

[Qulevrius]

Maybe I'm lucky, but I actually run with some good crews. Obviously some are lacking medically, but my last arrest had a damn good crew. Good enough I had the two of them run it amongst themselves while I prepped the ALS stuff. I'm also fortunate enough to have been around long enough to have gotten to know a decent amount of faces and some by name as well. I don't have any issues with getting **** on and I've built enough bridges they're mostly all more than willing to take care of anything I could possibly need.

I’m guessing that you never had to work for a system where FD had the ultimate say on everything, and used you more or less as a U-Haul driver. Plus, every time you showed initiative, it ended up as an incident report because the beefcake with the medic patch felt like his authority is being threatened. It could well be that I cannot play nice in the sandbox, but if the sandbox requires me to turn into a professional *** kisser - screw it.

 

[CALEMT]

I’m guessing that you never had to work for a system where FD had the ultimate say on everything, and used you more or less as a U-Haul driver. Plus, every time you showed initiative, it ended up as an incident report because the beefcake with the medic patch felt like his authority is being threatened. It could well be that I cannot play nice in the sandbox, but if the sandbox requires me to turn into a professional *** kisser - screw it.

So you're judging the masses by a few bad eggs? Seems unfair. I could just as easily **** on private EMS because of a few turds in the pool, yet I don't.

 

[Qulevrius]

So you're judging the masses by a few bad eggs? Seems unfair. I could just as easily **** on private EMS because of a few turds in the pool, yet I don't.

I don’t know exactly how many bad eggs there are, but I barely seen any good ones. Not saying that I haven’t ran with good crews but these were too scarce to count.

 

[VentMonkey]

Plus, every time you showed initiative, it ended up as an incident report because the beefcake with the medic patch felt like his authority is being threatened.

@Qulevrius has been in the SoCal EMS game as a tech way too long.

And no, LA and OC is not the same SoCal EMS as you filthy animals in the I.E., after all not too long ago most y'allz area was still predominantly BLS. So, yeh, I get where he's coming from. It was (is?) pretty out of control with egos and stereotypes.

That said, I hear a lot of intellectually sound FF/PM's on podcast, teaching CC courses etc. Granted I have yet to hear or see of one from LA or Orange County, respectively. I'd just wonder how well most these guys are heard at their departments.

Then again, I'm sure it depends on the departments culture as a whole, and the training coordinators spearheading their EMS divisions. @FiremanMike I'm looking to guys like you as a positive example.

Nothing like being "kicked out of their city" for doing absolutely nothing wrong (which never went anywhere), but the other Cali systems I've been around have yet to live up to their meatheadedness. Everyone else outside of LA and OC actually do play pretty decent in the proverbial sanbox...even in Cali.

 

[Qulevrius]

Everyone else outside of LA and OC actually do play pretty decent in the proverbial sanbox...even in Cali.

I don’t know what I don’t know [emoji2373] Even Ventura Co had it pretty rough and from what I heard, things are changing for the worst there.