Using in car GPS

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I'm just wondering what you guys think of using an in car GPS.

The place I used to work at had GPS units, but no display in car, so while the dispatchers could give us directions, we'd have to radio every time we needed directions.

I ended up mounting my personal one in the truck and found that it worked wonders. Yeah, there's something to be said about knowing your service area, but this was a private company who's service area was the entire metro area so sometimes I needed some help.

It was especially helpful on after dark emergency runs when it becomes harder to read street signs and you're focusing on traffic. Come up to the intersection, and as you're coming to a full stop, glance at the GPS to see if you want to go right, left or straight, switch the siren over, drive through the intersection, and then drive to the next intersection and repeat.

Some people have been opposed to them though--never figured out why.

 

[marineman]

Our computers have a gps program on them. All of our dispatching is tied into the program as well so once dispatch puts the address in the computer it's already entered in the GPS. It's nice to have but I prefer the old map books so the passenger is the one looking at the map. With a GPS too many drivers get distracted looking at the map and don't focus on driving.

 

[bstone]

It's an excellent idea. The moment management gives you a hard time for using appropriate technology in order to do your job better is the moment you find a new service.

 

[Hockey]

It's an excellent idea. The moment management gives you a hard time for using appropriate technology in order to do your job better is the moment you find a new service.

+10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000




As long as the person(s) using it understand it is electronic, so it can fail and to use common sense also, a GPS works wonders.

Use common sense
Understand it may fail
Understand how it works!
And it will do its job


GPS has saved me when I was out in the middle of no where pouring rain, trying to figure out how to get to the hospital one night.


I like it also because even though I do know how to get to the hospital 99% of the time, it tells me at what time so I can let whoever know how long exactly. Also, with Michigans lovely construction deal, its great if there is a detour and you don't need to sit there fiddling with it


I've had partners that were soley against GPS. To the point that they'd tell me to take it down. And if they drove when I was in the back, they would take it down. Keyword though, had

I may know where a street is, but a map most likely isn't going to show number blocks people

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

The management there never gave me a hard time about it, they actually encouraged it but told us they didn't have the money to put them on every truck, and if they did have it, there were other things that needed money spent on them first.

Hockey--why did your partner not like you having it?

 

[firecoins]

I use the GPS all the time. It is far from perfect but it is very helpful.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Our trucks have mapbooks, but most of us have a GPS. I think it's important to know how to use the mapbook to grid yourself to a spot, but the GPS is a huge help. Today we just had a response to a district outside our area. The dispatcher asked if we needed help with routing. The GPS got us there no problem. (I think the dispatcher was disappointed that we didn't ask for directions!)

The passenger usually "navigates" by watching the GPS screen while the driver concentrates on the road. Or, at least that's how my partner and I do it.
We also have GPS tied into the CAD and MDT, but it's not as precise as my Garmin. Our company doesn't encourage personal GPS devices, but they don't forbid them, either.

 

[Shishkabob]

I use it, as A) Dallas is one darn confusing city, and B ) I don't drive in Dallas much, so I can't learn the roads as fast as people who are full time / live there.

When I drove the PICU truck, the nurses in the back were a bit perturbed when they saw me put my GPS up before heading to the destination. Medics though, it depends. Some have their own. Some are old school and hate them. Oh well, I'm the one driving, deal with it.

Sorry, but with dozens of hospitals in multiple cities that I don't live in, dozens of nursing homes, and hundreds of different routes to each, I'm using a GPS.



Now, if I were to work here in Ft Worth where I live, I wouldn't need it as much.

 

[medic417]

GPS has saved me when I was out in the middle of no where pouring rain,

Why were you pouring rain and how did GPS help?

 

[Shishkabob]

"In 2 miles, turn right and pour your water at the destination"


Jeez, 417, quit showing your age.

 

[Tincanfireman]

It's a good tool to have available, but like any tool, there are limitations. I've had many partners get messed up on street names, ending up with no results because they spelled the street name incorrectly. Spelling counts!~

 

[DHarris52]

PD is ALWAYS first on scene around here, so all we really have to do is get in the general vicinity and look for the flashing lights of the patrol units.

 

[exodus]

I always use GPS, it's much easier than mapping. But whenever I'm in the passenger seat, I still map things out though, while my partner uses my GPS so I can have practice mapping, and we have a back up on the correct page already. :]

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Why were you pouring rain and how did GPS help?

Oh man! That just about made my day!

We use GPS in all our rigs, but we are "requried" to learn how to find anything in the county (at least the northern half) using just the mapbooks while we are in training. I have been with my service for over a year now and usually know where to go when I hear the page out. It is kind of funny, but because I live out of town, I use the GPS in town more often than when we are out in the sticks. It is great when my partner is from in town, they know where to go on the in town runs and I know on the out of town runs. (Usually :blush

 

[Sasha]

Oh man, if we couldn't use GPS I would never find anything. I'm terrible at using a map book.

 

[PapaBear434]

I'm not from around here, so a GPS is a huge advantage to me.

Sure, we have the map books. They work. And it's officially the only way sanctioned by our system to navigate. But they work best when you have some idea of where the cross streets are and how to get there. Sure, the mapbook tells me that I need to go to the cross street of Witchduck and Virginia Beach Blvd., then turn left on Jackson to get into the neighborhood. The problem is, I am on the other side of the city, and since I'm not from the area I am a little foggy on how to get there.

So, the GPS gets me to the 2 mile square area the mapbook shows. If the GPS fails me from there, like not having every road in the neighborhood, then I have the mapbook and the map page that gets dispatched along with the call on our computer. Turn right to it and find it just fine.

But I've seen a lot of old timers that hate them and have actually yelled at me for using it. And it's always goobers that have lived here all their lives, or at least the last 30+ years of it. I mean, I'm a military spouse. I do my best, but by the time I learn the area I'm moving again. And God knows I've never been blessed with a sense of direction.

 

[mikeN]

I refuse to get a GPS. I LIVE by my mapbook. I did chair car for 4+ years off and on. I was in a van by myself. In 2003 no one thought of buying GPS's, so I had to use my mapbook all the time when I first started. I would get lost which helped a lot. All calls were non-emergent so it wasn't life or death situations. When I moved to BLS at my company I didn't have to worry getting around or navigating hospitals. Don't get me wrong, GPS's are awesome for long calls or a call to a priority call to a residence. My dispatches are good about notifying you about the approx. location of side the address. Like, water street runs off the this street and this street.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

Some people have been opposed to them though--never figured out why.

For some members of the Old Boys Club, knowing the service area is one of the few things they still have going for them. If you have a GPS, you can get to scenes just as easily as they can, which makes you equals in terms of that. If you're better at providing medical care and more knowledgeable, then surprise! You are officially making the Good Ole Boys look bad.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

I, for one, take my personal GPS to work with me every day. Not only does it provide me with near 100% knowledge of the coverage area, but it also provides me with a near 100% accurate ETA... both of which are extremely useful when we go to some of the more rural areas of our coverage area to rendezvous with a volunteer BLS unit.

 

[PapaBear434]

For some members of the Old Boys Club, knowing the service area is one of the few things they still have going for them. If you have a GPS, you can get to scenes just as easily as they can, which makes you equals in terms of that. If you're better at providing medical care and more knowledgeable, then surprise! You are officially making the Good Ole Boys look bad.

My captain rode me the other day to "Stop following the GPS and learn your city!" Thing was, it wasn't our service area, it was another station's first due we were covering. Not to mention, I'm not from the area. I mean, sure, driving around the city on my days off will teach me the city, but it costs a lot of money in gas to do so, a lot of time wasted, and I have two kids I am the primary caregiver for and can only bore them so long with drives through the more ghetto-like areas of the city before they are sick of it.

Plus, he told me this after I made a turn at that took me to the express way onramp, when he wanted me to stay on the road we were on to get to ANOTHER onramp. It was the same distance either way, and the GPS didn't even tell me to turn there. I actually KNEW that way, and prefered that onramp because it's usually less busy and less bumpy for the patient we were transporting.

Of all the times to yell at me for the GPS, he chose the one time I was using my knowledge of the city.