the 100% directionless thread

DragonClaw said:
Do fight crews have to file a fight plan if it's an emergency? Same if it is not?
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Forgot to add in, we don’t really treat it like an emergency, at least for where I am at. We get a request from our dispatch and then we look at the weather and all talk about it. If we all agree to take it then we fill out a risk assessment that our agency provides. Once that gets approved then we get our gear and walk out to the helicopter. Our normal lift time from the time we accept the flight to the time we are wheels/skids up is around 11 minutes for my base.
 
Ah, we are back to talking about helicopters again. I still really want to do it, but I don't feel like I qualify. I only got 4 years of fake paramedic experience, no ATLS (or advance trauma training other than I do have ITLS), no FP-C, and no NPR. Flight paramedic is a pay cut for me (I am paid slightly above $40/hour, I think flight paramedics make just a little bit above $20/hour all the places I've looked). The closest opening is really far away from me (I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was looking at SkyLife in Fresno). I worry about quitting my full time fake paramedic gig, losing experience eating appreciation meals and using 7-11 bathrooms, and only getting like 1 call a day at best (friend works at CalStar Gilroy, not hiring right now, he told me its really slow and he ended up quitting to come back here because it was too much of a pay cut and boring). He told me it was just a different type of vehicle and that the glory of it wore off, but that's really it. We were talking to someone who was a flight paramedic outside of California, they had lots of calls, could do rapid sequence induction, and that sounds like it would be worth it to quit are BLS+ (that we call ALS) ambulance job for. I love EMS, I want to do more medicine, but it's also a job, and I am not really willing to risk leaving California and lose pay over it.
 
Aprz said:
Ah, we are back to talking about helicopters again. I still really want to do it, but I don't feel like I qualify. I only got 4 years of fake paramedic experience, no ATLS (or advance trauma training other than I do have ITLS), no FP-C, and no NPR. Flight paramedic is a pay cut for me (I am paid slightly above $40/hour, I think flight paramedics make just a little bit above $20/hour all the places I've looked). The closest opening is really far away from me (I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was looking at SkyLife in Fresno). I worry about quitting my full time fake paramedic gig, losing experience eating appreciation meals and using 7-11 bathrooms, and only getting like 1 call a day at best (friend works at CalStar Gilroy, not hiring right now, he told me its really slow and he ended up quitting to come back here because it was too much of a pay cut and boring). He told me it was just a different type of vehicle and that the glory of it wore off, but that's really it. We were talking to someone who was a flight paramedic outside of California, they had lots of calls, could do rapid sequence induction, and that sounds like it would be worth it to quit are BLS+ (that we call ALS) ambulance job for. I love EMS, I want to do more medicine, but it's also a job, and I am not really willing to risk leaving California and lose pay over it.
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????

🤨😟
 
DesertMedic66 said:
Forgot to add in, we don’t really treat it like an emergency, at least for where I am at. We get a request from our dispatch and then we look at the weather and all talk about it. If we all agree to take it then we fill out a risk assessment that our agency provides. We'll also brew a pot of coffee, eat lunch/ dinner (because you never know how long the call will take), and binge watch our favorite Netflix show (gotta keep up on episodes). Once that gets approved then we get our gear and walk out to the helicopter. Our normal lift time from the time we accept the flight to the time we are wheels/skids up is around 11 minutes for my base.
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Meanwhile I'm on the ground, sweating my *** off because it's so hot it's not hell but I can see it wondering where in the hell is the helicopter.
 
Aprz said:
Ah, we are back to talking about helicopters again. I still really want to do it, but I don't feel like I qualify. I only got 4 years of fake paramedic experience, no ATLS (or advance trauma training other than I do have ITLS), no FP-C, and no NPR. Flight paramedic is a pay cut for me (I am paid slightly above $40/hour, I think flight paramedics make just a little bit above $20/hour all the places I've looked). The closest opening is really far away from me (I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was looking at SkyLife in Fresno). I worry about quitting my full time fake paramedic gig, losing experience eating appreciation meals and using 7-11 bathrooms, and only getting like 1 call a day at best (friend works at CalStar Gilroy, not hiring right now, he told me its really slow and he ended up quitting to come back here because it was too much of a pay cut and boring). He told me it was just a different type of vehicle and that the glory of it wore off, but that's really it. We were talking to someone who was a flight paramedic outside of California, they had lots of calls, could do rapid sequence induction, and that sounds like it would be worth it to quit are BLS+ (that we call ALS) ambulance job for. I love EMS, I want to do more medicine, but it's also a job, and I am not really willing to risk leaving California and lose pay over it.
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For right now in CA there is a huge divide between counties as far as flight medics go. Some counties have an expanded scope for flight paramedics to include RSI, ventilator management, IV Drip management, pediatric intubation, and other skills. These are standard things that our nurses can do in the flight setting so there is always the ability to get them done however depending on your company and county you may only be able to act as an assistant for the skills.

I can’t speak for every company in specific however at SkyLife they have standing orders for needle cric, surgical cric, chest tube placement, RSI, pediatric intubation, escharotomy, all your standard ALS skills/treatments, and some others. SkyLife has their medics and nurses all attend the same exact training and are all expected to be able to do all skills and treatments.

It really depends on the person if they will like it or not. There are some days where I have no calls and others where I have 4 calls. I enjoy it because the clinical training of far superior to what I was receiving on the ground and my patient population is also much more sick. I also enjoy being treated better by our fellow healthcare providers and first responders. I also enjoy being able to directly call one of our company medical directors for assistance on patients instead of talking to a MICN at the hospital who is just going to read me my protocols.
 
DesertMedic66 said:
For right now in CA there is a huge divide between counties as far as flight medics go. Some counties have an expanded scope for flight paramedics to include RSI, ventilator management, IV Drip management, pediatric intubation, and other skills. These are standard things that our nurses can do in the flight setting so there is always the ability to get them done however depending on your company and county you may only be able to act as an assistant for the skills.

I can’t speak for every company in specific however at SkyLife they have standing orders for needle cric, surgical cric, chest tube placement, RSI, pediatric intubation, escharotomy, all your standard ALS skills/treatments, and some others. SkyLife has their medics and nurses all attend the same exact training and are all expected to be able to do all skills and treatments.

It really depends on the person if they will like it or not. There are some days where I have no calls and others where I have 4 calls. I enjoy it because the clinical training of far superior to what I was receiving on the ground and my patient population is also much more sick. I also enjoy being treated better by our fellow healthcare providers and first responders. I also enjoy being able to directly call one of our company medical directors for assistance on patients instead of talking to a MICN at the hospital who is just going to read me my protocols.
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Interesting. The guy that came from CalStar Gilroy said he was pretty much a paramedic with ventilator and IV pump. Couldn't RSI. He said it was slow and pay was low. I had assumed it was the same for other flight companies in California since California is just that way. That makes me more interested in Skylife. I'd be willing to commute for that, haha! I just wonder if I would be wasting people time applying. I hate applying for jobs that I don't qualify for yet. Why haven't any of the local guys, like the guys from American Ambulance, not gone over yet? I would think they would be jumping at a chance for that.
 
Aprz said:
Why haven't any of the local guys, like the guys from American Ambulance, not gone over yet? I would think they would be jumping at a chance for that.
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Excellent question. I don’t know of any American Ambulance guys on here who could answer that directly.

SkyLife has 3(?) helicopters. H-1 and H-2 out of Fresno, and H-3 out of Visalia. They also have a FW in Fresno.

Last I was told from a work over pilot that came from there, they were trying to transition their tenured med crews from switching between the RW and FW for flights that could not be done RW into solely RW crews (gotta love that Tule Fog).

They’ve since hired some nurses and paramedics for their FWto augment said change.

I know the Visalia base does their fair share of scene stuff, but Tulare’s launch request system leaves much to be desired IMHO.
Other than that they seem like a solid program.

The only reason @DesertMedic66 or I have any requisite knowledge is because of the Air Methods buy out.

Directionlessly?...the sheltering in place continues to channel my inner childhood.
Last night it was a double feature~ Short Circuit 2 followed by Commando. Lol.
 
Aprz said:
Ah, we are back to talking about helicopters again. I still really want to do it, but I don't feel like I qualify. I only got 4 years of fake paramedic experience, no ATLS (or advance trauma training other than I do have ITLS), no FP-C, and no NPR. Flight paramedic is a pay cut for me (I am paid slightly above $40/hour, I think flight paramedics make just a little bit above $20/hour all the places I've looked). The closest opening is really far away from me (I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was looking at SkyLife in Fresno). I worry about quitting my full time fake paramedic gig, losing experience eating appreciation meals and using 7-11 bathrooms, and only getting like 1 call a day at best (friend works at CalStar Gilroy, not hiring right now, he told me its really slow and he ended up quitting to come back here because it was too much of a pay cut and boring). He told me it was just a different type of vehicle and that the glory of it wore off, but that's really it. We were talking to someone who was a flight paramedic outside of California, they had lots of calls, could do rapid sequence induction, and that sounds like it would be worth it to quit are BLS+ (that we call ALS) ambulance job for. I love EMS, I want to do more medicine, but it's also a job, and I am not really willing to risk leaving California and lose pay over it.
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$20 an hour goes a long way in other states. Last year I made 73k flying in Indiana, which goes a long way toward a comfortable life and plenty of spending money. You'd lose money on paper, but actually be making more in some states.

We have a base or two out in California, Modesto, susanville, sonora, and a co-op in redding. I have no insight on their scope of practice other than I know Modesto carries blood and plasma, I would assume susanville and sonora do also.
 
Of course the day I don't go to bed till like 0230 is the one day of my 4 day I get called in for OT lol
(I wasn't even doing anything particular... just stayed up heh)

VentMonkey said:
Directionlessly?...the sheltering in place continues to channel my inner childhood.
Last night it was a double feature~ Short Circuit 2 followed by Commando. Lol.
Click to expand...
I binge watched the entirety of Clone Wars Season 7 on Star Wars Day (then watched Episode III, Solo, and started the Rebels animated show lol)
Also been binging Buffy, Supernatural, and I may or may not have shared a clip from the OG 1993 Power Rangers of them dealing with these new Murder Hornets 😂😂

Speaking of:
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Randomly got assigned an abnormal shift. I couldn't check the roster to see who I was on with, site has an issue or something.

I get to work and it's a partner in cool with. That's the partner I was with when our last pt died.

Second call of the day. You guessed it. But she was dead in her bed. We never got her on the gurnery.

I read the call info and I had a feeling. Didn't want to say it aloud though.

(I'm not beside myself. Just wondering what the odds are of this.)
 
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