This is a long one.. First: Dumbing down of EMS
Second: Our Fire Service
Offended? :lol: Only people who are victims of the dumbing down of EMS should be offended, because it's their fault that ANYONE can get a card.
The way PA has dumbed down EMS in the past five years, you have a better chance at getting an EMT card than a frickin Library Card!
I was just creating conversation.
What would I have to be offended about? I'm not a paragod, I know I'm a good provider, a good EMT, and a damn good Paramedic, I just don't brag about it... The reason we have so many stupid providers is because they dumbed the course down, anyone can pass EVOC, anyone can Pass EMT, so... People who feel they can't so anything else get this free pass from the State Health Secretary and they get to a EMT Class that is equal to a Special Education Class. Not to offend those who actually have special needs.
I've been an EMT for 12 years, a paramedic for 7, I've graduated High School, I've gone to college, I've passed all of my classes. I've worked my *** off to get where I am, and I did it because this was my first choice as a career. It's the people who cannot accomplish anything else in life, and feel EMS is an easy way out that have the "free cards". They continue to dumb down the EMT classes so anyone and everyone can pass it. I am a certified instructor, and my father is also, we both share a view on "The dumbing down of EMS". I had a student in a class that never gave up, that is he took the class five years in a row and never passed. He never even came close to the necessary pass grade of 70. Now, the pass grade is down to 60. Until the state allowed him to use his text book for the test, and allowed him five extra minutes plus notes for the practical. Why, I asked my supervisor, I am empathetic to people with special needs, but that is in Public Schools. Not an EMT class, victims are going to depend on these people to save their lives. They can't stop next to someone who is about to die, and look it up in a text book. What are we trying to solve? It's not a lack of volunteers, I know hundreds of volunteer EMT's that are better than career EMT's. It's our economy. You can make more at McDonalds than driving a life support vehicle. It's simple to make money, you have to get a job, they pay you, and you have made a solution to your problem.
But to make money in EMS, you have to do a lot of training, and unless you are lucky, you aren't getting paid to train. You have to start somewhere. At then people can't make it with their initial plan on life, and they look at us. Wow, it would be so cool to drive an ambulance, and wear that uniform; the star of life, it stands for so much. But you can't just wear your pretty little uniform and drive an ambulance, you have to gain skills; maintain them, and be able to use them. When you can't do that, all you have is a piece of paper. Since they don't require testing to renew the EMT cards, you just have to sit and listen to 24 hours of someone like me talking about our job. So they get their new card, and continue to have absolutely no clue what that card is for... Brings a whole new meaning to "Meat Wagon". I can't help but think how many people were destined for McDonalds, but didn't quite make it to the door b/c we had a bus parked out front.
In conclusion..
NEVER park in front of a fast food joint...
Sorry to hijack the thread..
No offense to anyone who got a free card, this is just another one of my heartfelt, sarcastic ramblings.
They are probably attracted to all the money they dish out in Maryland. You would be surprised at how rural PA really is, we're not a suburb of Philly. Some entire counties have no water systems, tankers were our life line back home, that and dry hydrants. There was no money for fire companies before all these grants came about, our town was lucky to be able to buy what we needed. Some of the places we provided mutual aid to had 60 to 80 y/o fire apparatus. This was the mid-90's. They preached paid fire services for decades, yeah, that would be great they said, but how can you buy something with nothing. No tax funding, poor residents, low budgets. With in ten miles of my home, we had four separate fire stations. One had 7 modern apparatus, all new equipment, because they had planned their future since the 1850's. Another had a tanker and a pumper from a 1950's civil defense gift. One had a chief, a hoseman, and two drivers - their 1925 pumper worked occasionally, and finally the last was trying ever so hard to survive. They had a 1950's Jeep that towed a chemical extinguisher that was supposed to be hand drawn, and a 1940 pumper from WWII surplus. The rich ones had bad turn out gear, and old MSA SCBA's. They were the only company in our county that had turnout gear and SCBA equipment. But they all worked through it with pride, turned out to parades and marched proudly with their equipment that was 50 years beyond it's work life. This was 1995, and it was a modern world, every state around PA was advancing, and we were sitting still. Why? They had no money, at all. The communities in most of the state are too small to support a tax base that would fund modern, career fire stations. It's not that the volunteers are under trained, every county has a training program. They have three nationally recognized fire schools that travel all around the state and do training. But until the USFA and HS grants came about, Pennsylvania was, in a way, shut off from the world around it. Since those grants came out, back home the big company has new gear and new SCBA, and more have trained and purchased SCBA. Every station has gear, and not on single apparatus in service is more than 20 years old. We have always had the largest and strongest population of Volunteers in the Comm. of PA, but the service has aged, and if anything we have gotten stronger. Sure, we have weaknesses, but doesn't every aspect of Emergency Services? There are alot of good dept.'s that are getting better, that nobody ever hears about. We do have our whackers, but we look at MD as the whacker capitol of the US anyway. maybe we look poor to 'ya'll' down there b/c when there is money left over, we don't waste it. No offence, but I've been to the expositions, they display what people buy with the Gov't grants. I must say, a lot of stations that didn't need the money, sure are wasting it. What some of the FD's spend on just paint for their apparatus, would save the budget of several of the smallest VFD's in PA that were not given grants for less important things, like bunker gear. What ever happened to just red, and the town's name? Why waste grant money on a 20,000.00 cartoon character to brag about how good your three firemen and your EONE engine is from the next station with three firemen with the same training and the same exact engine.. Every station is different, it's like EMS, some are big, most are small; and then some have big dreams.
