Originally posted by Margaritaville@Oct 20 2005, 08:40 PM
Ok Hotshot - I won't be cheesey, and I say the word "honey" because of my southern roots. No offense to that, please.
My turn - Great article! And now I am truly confused between fact and fiction.
Are you a volunteer paramedic, or paid, or what. The tone of your article made me believe that you are a volunteer. Sorry about the medical comp. deal. I assume you are fairly young, and it sucks to get injured.
Be safe.
I -was- a paid paramedic, I was also a state park ranger. Sometimes, I drove a transport rig on cross country runs.. as an NREMT-B, since I do not have a National Registry of Paramedics, just a Commonwealth of PA certification.
I rolled a lawn tractor over myself, so I can't do anything until I am cleared to return to work, as a 'Career' Paramedic.
Occasionally, I do volunteer as an EMT-B, on a few local ambulances. However, the time required to actually make money in EMS as a career, limits my time to do much in my free time. To make up my time lost on the volunteer ranks, I offer my time every winter to help instruct their EMT classes, for free. So they keep sending me a free t-shirt every summer, and I respond to a call when I can.
Fireman's Relief is great, if they have it, keep in mind not every volunteer station is "in the know". I'm willing to bet some stations aren't aware of the benefits, or do not have it available to them. I can think of a few that could use it. I know the station I was a volunteer with in the days during and after high school and college was up to date. Their relief owned most of the company, and even paid rent to use their own firehouse. Now that is creative planning!
The only thing that will one day save the fire service, not money, but Youth. Many places have dropped what got me into the fire dept. Explorer Posts, Junior and Cadet programs are what small towns need. Train them young, and "weed" out the ones who have been at it for 50 some years. It sounds bad, but you can't put 80 y/o men into a burning building with out thinking twice or three times, am I correct to say that? Not saying kick them out, but eventually, you have to say no. I read an article on a 90 y/o EMT from Northern PA, they had to ask him to quit, but of course they had to find seven more EMT's to replace the service he gave them every day.
I can't type anymore, I'm about to become very sleepy from my benadryl dose.
