Verified EMT/Paramedic

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daedalus

daedalus

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What does everyone think of admin assigned verifications. Copy and upload your drivers license with a copy of your cert card to become a verified member (only the admin sees it and than destroys his copy). head on over to the police forums, they do that over there.
 
How would that change/improve the site?
 
I honestly don't like the idea. Let this be a free OPEN online forum, whether or not you're a verified EMT/Paramedic.

I understand the cops do it (their forums), but I feel there is more to their field of work more often than not than ours that needs open information (freely at least). The 'robber' posing on the cop forums to find how to break into the Louvre to get the Mona Lisa is more of a threat than knowing when my ambulance is parked next to the dunkin' doughnuts.
----if that made any sense ;)
 
It's two totally separate balls of wax. I'm willing to bet most police forums would turn into police bashing forums if anyone was allowed to join.
 
It would not be a requirement to join the site. Im asking for pros and cons, I see a lot of cons but it could enhance the credibility of the board.
 
It would be nice to know that the person who says they're an EMT or paramedic or what not actually is certified, but I would think if a paramedic imposter, for example, stuck around for any period of time it would likely become obvious that they were a fraud.

Who knows though. It's a good idea but I don't know if the work of executing it would be worth the benefits.
 
its not hard to spot the people who arent what they say they are in any setting.

fake vietnam will never tell you what unit they served with becuase it always "classified".

fake emts and medics cant give you any outside the box answer, just a copied and slightly reworded version of what wikipedia or webmd has to say on the matter.

it boils down to you cant really talk the talk unless youve actually walked the walk.
 
Another thought on this would be what would happen to all of us EMT students who don't have cert cards. Or those who are interested in EMS but want to know the truth about what they're getting into.

A modified suggestion would be (and this is extreme hypothetical) for the level of training on the avatar, if we were to institute a cert check for those who want to label themselves as whatever level they are.
 
Forums that are closed to the public are available to other healthcare professions and some in EMS if they belong to special interest groups or organizations. These sites disclose your name to all the members each time you post. Some individual EMS agencies also have their own forums.

Other groups (Yahoo, MSN etc) have members screened by the moderator. Rarely is much personal information required but enough information is provided as to why you might want access to the site.

Open forums allow a little more freedom to express one's thoughts with anonymity. And yes, some of the things said could be held against a person if one's identity is known in some situations if it presented less than professional toward another professional or organization.

In the electronic age, everything you post can be tracked to you if you are not careful. When you apply for a job and a credit/reference check is done on you, employers now have the option to check the "Include the Internet" box to see if you have an electronic history that might be controversial.

Few things are secure when it comes to computers. If too much personal information is given out too readily on the internet, your identity may not always have the guarantee of being stored securely and even then a breech can occur.

This site attracts a lot of people just seeking information of getting into the profession. It can also be viewed by many non-medical people including past and future patients. The moderators do an excellent job of keeping things civil here. There are open EMS forums that do not have much oversight. They become a free for all bash and trash mess which becomes an embarrassing statement for EMS if viewed by the general public or anybody with professional values.
 
Here's my take on this, and please note that I AM NOT SPEAKING FOR THE COMMUNITY LEADERS here.

This would be a bad idea for this forum for several reasons.

First (and most importantly to me :P) it would dramatically increase the workload for the Community Leaders.

Secondly (and most importantly to others), in todays age of identity theft, do you really want to send any personal information to an unknown person? Having worked as a 911 dispatcher in the past, I can tell you it's amazing what I can find out about a person with just a name and a date of birth, much less a DL number.

Third, as has already been pointed out, this is an open forum about EMS but is not restricted to those in EMS. We want the public, and patients, to join here and give their input. After all, they are our customers.

Fourth, as MMiz asked, what would the benefit be? We've had our share of "posers" in the past, and they were quickly identified by their own posts.
 
I would be against it. However, if someone wanted to verify it I can reference them to a state licensing site and they could verify it if they really wanted to verify it.
 
Cert.'s and license are easy to duplicate and give erroneous information. So technically it would be worthless.. (Want to see my Gynecologist license?)

Sure, knowing id one is really what they say is nice, but I usually can detect that in a few posts, just by what they offer or better yet not offer. As well, I can usually determine their level of education and type of EMS program they attended. Unfortunately, it is very obvious as well, all of this just by reading their posts.

R/r 911
 
Ridryder911 said:
Cert.'s and license are easy to duplicate and give erroneous information. So technically it would be worthless.. (Want to see my Gynecologist license?)

R/r 911
Click to expand...

R/r, I'm gonna call you on that one :P

Let's see it!
 
just to add, there are alot of other grades out there other that an american EMT or paramedic.


ETA, EFR EMFR, REC 5, FR, ECA, MFR, ETA(different to first), EMT in different areas, like EMT-A,I, I99, different countries EMTS, Different levels of paramedics, Advanced paramedics and so on, to compile a list that is anyway comprehensive would be nigh on impossible.

If i said i was an EMFR with EMT-I IV cert and can thromobolise, With REC 5 and WEMT, and have 63 different drugs i can admin, short of sounding like a plonker you can't really check it.


You would have more success in looking at the quality of their posts.
 
If the site required that type of ID or verification they would instantly lose me as a poster (good thing or bad thing :P) I have had my credit info stolen and am really paranoid about my personal information on the internet.

I think most of us can tell a phoney, and the few who sneak under the radar just end up looking silly by their posts. Also I recall a few posts from family, patients, etc who were looking for information, not to mention the dozens of
I wannabe an EMT folks who come in here.
 
I'd be out unless you accept a thirty year old EMT card!

(Heck yeah I still have it!).Any RN can claim to be in EMS but my coworkers prove otherwise. Many think they are and others think nurses are by merit of passing their school and their boards, but it's not true. (Ask anyone, I almost prove that here on a nightly basis!).;)
 
mycrofft said:
(Heck yeah I still have it!).Any RN can claim to be in EMS but my coworkers prove otherwise. Many think they are and others think nurses are by merit of passing their school and their boards, but it's not true. (Ask anyone, I almost prove that here on a nightly basis!).;)
Click to expand...

Does one forget that EMS is actually a big system? Paramedics and EMTs are just part of it. RNs, MDs and RRTs, as well as many others, also are a part of it. There are many RNs and even several RRTs that are active in scene response HEMS. There are also many behind the scenes people such as dispatchers and office workers who are part of the system. The staff at Trauma centers are also part of the system that provides EMS. Often the tax bills on the ballots will read as such to include as many of the players as possible.
 
Thanks, I truly appreciate that!

(My crack about my co-workers is founded upon their collective lack of discipline due to lack of experience or training, temperment, and absent oversight. I'm ready to have the lot of them hold hands and run a defib through the whole chorus line and see 'em kick. .....Ah, much better!).

I've been placed in situations where I had to demurr because they assumed that, since I was a nurse, I was an ER/Flight/Intensivist specialist/generalist. On the other hand, I taught my nursing instructors about small O2 cylinders and spinal precautions.

I guess EMTlifers do fill a lot of different niches.
 
Here's my thought on the matter:

Anyone who would join this forum is either an EMT, a Paramedic, an EMT-B, I or EMT-P in school and use this for help getting through class such as myself, another emergency servicemen (Fire, PD), or a 15 year old kid who is interested in being an EMT and afraid to come off like a little know nothing.

At what point should we become and feel so "elite", that it closes its doors to any good natured person willing to speak their mind, ask a question or learn more?

Quite frankly, everybody here obeys the HIPAA law which is the biggest thing anyone here should be worried about the public reading.

Validity.. what a joke.
 
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