Was I wrong???

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Emtpbill

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So this morning I come in at 6am and start my checkout of my truck for the next 24 hrs. Anyway while checking out the truck there was a used Syringe sitting in the IV tray we keep on the bench seat, there was no needle attached but there was 1cc of fluid of the 10cc syringe.

Anyways I bring it to the attention of the medic I was relieving, told him we found a used syringe.

His response.......

" So ".

Not , hey sorry about, it should have gone in to the sharps box.

It bothered me so much that I wrote an incident report. Was I wrong in doing so????

If he would have given me some type of answer " hey got slammed, sorry about that". then I would have just let it go.


So, what's your opinion?
 
Why would a used syringe without a needle go into a sharps container instead of a bio bag?
 
My opinion? You were wrong for making a big deal out of it. It's just a syringe with no needle. Throw it away.

Or if it makes you feel better waste the liquid onto the ground and trash TW syringe.


Sent from my electronic overbearing life controller
 
Probably not worth writing up. You brought it up to the medic and he blew you off. Would you have written it up if he had apologized? I agree he should have said "my bad I forgot to toss it" or something along those lines but this happens all the time. If you write every little thing like this up you run the risk of losing your credibility if you ever need to bring up something major.
 
I'd say you were wrong. Sounds like a prefilled flush got left on the bench - happens. Should it happen in a perfect world? No. But not worth trying to get someone in trouble for.
 
I think you overreacted. Sure, it wasn't a great response by the medic, however, would it have been so hard to just waste the fluid and toss it in a bio bag? Honestly, writing an incident report for such a minor incident seems petty.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
the joys of being new...
 
Under the letter of the rules, you're probably right. However:

1. It's not going to win you friends or influence anyone.

2. When it comes to something like this, my time and cortisol levels aren't worth the effort needed to even track the other provider and ask over a syringe of saline without a needle. I'd just chuck it and be done with it not out of some misplaced loyalty to the proletariat, but simply because it isn't worth -my- effort and time over this.
 
wooden ships and iron men

Back when I worked on a truck, in every agency I ever worked, we had a "gentleman's agreement."

If there was a late call and the off going shift was passed turnover, the oncoming shift would clean the rig.

Additionally if there was an arrest or other call that ended with the squad trashed a few minutes before shift change, the oncoming crew put the rig back in service so the offgoing crew could finish on time or as close as possible.

Doing a little bit of work to help your coworkers pays big dividends in your career.
 
"So?"

"So what would you like done with it?".
 
It's a syringe, not a needle. Not a big deal. Not even a small deal. Throw is in the trash and move on.
 
You were wrong with writing an incident report.

It was simply a syringe with water in it. So what's the major deal? No, it shouldn't have been left where you found it but as the other Medic said, so what. I'm sure he didn't intentionally leave it there.

I can guarantee at some point you will do the same exact thing or something similar and the person coming in behind you will make sure your made aware of it. And now, since you wrote someone else up, they will do the same thing to you even when normally they wouldn't. No one is perfect and we all forget things. THAT IS WHY WE DO UNIT CHECKS. BECAUSE WE'RE NOT PERFECT. Over time, if I wrote other Medics up every time the LifePak was left in disarray, stretcher not made, etc, etc, I would have written 5,000 incident reports. It's much simpler, quicker, and less stressful just to fix it and move on.

Just a bit of advice, do not ever write up your co-workers unless it is a very serious infraction. It's not your job to police or enforce rules with your co-workers. Let them be responsible for their actions and stay out of the middle of it.

Just my .02.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Linuss said:
It's a syringe, not a needle. Not a big deal. Not even a small deal. Throw is in the trash and move on.
Click to expand...
While normally I would agree, and I partially do, I'm also curious what the response would have been if it had been a needle or if he left the back of the truck a disaster. would he have said "so?", or would he have said "sorry" or something like that.

A simple syringe? probably no big deal. worth a write up for a simple thing like that? no, I have better things to do with my time. and unless it's a chronic issue, I wouldn't want someone writing me up for something minor as leaving a piece of garbage in the truck.
 
Keeping in mind that I am only hearing half the story, I would not say that you were outright wrong.

When you told your co worker about the syringe, whether he feels like you are nit picking or not, the appropriate action would be to take responsibility and either apologize or rectify the problem. He did neither, and from what you say, he gave an indifferent response and didn't acknowledge that there was anything wrong with what happened.

The only misgiving I have about what you did was that it feels like you wrote him up more out of anger/irritation that he brushed you off, rather than for the purposes of making your co worker better. Not to get all touchy feely here or anything, but when we begin to use the chain of discipline as a system to take our negative feelings out on co workers, nothing irritates a manager/supervisor more.

The last word I will say about writing co workers up is that generally if you plan on going that route, it is good form to tell them you intend to do so. They may change their attitude, or open communication back up in order to resolve the issue before it moves up the chain. The best resolution is to take care of these matters at the peer to peer level, and not get management involved in small day to day operational matters that should not require their intervention.

The bottom line is we are all accountable. While on the surface, what your co worker did is not uncommon, and happens to the best of us after a long shift (or for any number of other reasons) the fact that you gave him an opportunity to take responsibility, he did not.

You have a reasonable expectation to come to work with a rig that is in good working order, that theoretically you should be able to take on a call the minute you are on duty. If the shift prior was not able to leave the rig in good working order, cleaned, stocked, and ready to roll, then they need to inform you of that. It isn't a sin to leave a rig in less than ready condition, as long as you have good hand off communication and the oncoming shift is aware of what needs to be taken care of.
 
Also, there was about 4ccs of a of fluid, which looks like he hooked up an extension port and pulled back on the syringe and then flushed the port. The fluid on the syringe looked like he had drawn back initially on then flushed causing blood to be mixed the the NSS.
I basically was looking for him to just acknowledge my concern. I wasnt looking for him to him to apologize profusely, but just recognize that he wouldn't like it I left something like that.
I guess you had to be there to appreciate my point of view and listen and see his reaction.
This is the first time in 14 years I have ever wrote someone. If I had done that I would have just said, my fault , I didn't mean to have left that that way.
 
mycrofft said:
"So what would you like done with it?".
Click to expand...

Fair play, and I think that the OP had a legitimate concern. There is no telling what fluid was in the syringe.... for all the OP knew, it could have been a couple of leftover mcg's of Fentanyl that wasn't wasted properly. The OP may not have necessarily been looking for an apology as much as some professional courtesy. Depending on what was in the syringe, the medic taking off could have had a heck of a headache to deal with...

At my agency, I always try to touch base with the oncoming medic taking my rig to let them know of any deficiencies or concerns with the gear.
 
I must be missing something here.

I don't see anything at all wrong with leaving a flush around. I wouldn't do it on purpose, mostly because I like to "reset" things for my own benefit, but stuff like this happens all the time to everyone. Honestly, in your 14 years have you never combined 'grumpy' with 'mistake'? I call that "night shift".

To me this is like leaving the toilet seat up. I never do it on purpose per se but anyone who wants to be enough of a wanker to go to the effort of taking issue with the fact that I might have done it once is instantly added to my :censored::censored::censored::censored: list.

But as I say, I must be missing something. What is the issue with leaving it out. Its a flush with ? a bit of blood on it. What did it cost you to chuck it?

If nothing else its a dumb move in terms of work place relations. Being "that guy" doesn't help anyone, least of all you.
 
EMSrush said:
Fair play, and I think that the OP had a legitimate concern. There is no telling what fluid was in the syringe.... for all the OP knew, it could have been a couple of leftover mcg's of Fentanyl that wasn't wasted properly. The OP may not have necessarily been looking for an apology as much as some professional courtesy. Depending on what was in the syringe, the medic taking off could have had a heck of a headache to deal with...

At my agency, I always try to touch base with the oncoming medic taking my rig to let them know of any deficiencies or concerns with the gear.
Click to expand...

This.
 
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