Whacker

nomofica said:
Only thing I can think of is making it easier for identifying you if you happen upon an MVC or some other trauma/med scene that requires obvious immediate medical intervention.

Other than that, makes your whole dep sound like a whacker home.
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I think, since our department is made up from eleven different independent but cooperative stations within the same system, it's a way to foster a little... Comradeship, I guess? That, and since we often fill in at other stations unfamiliar to each other, it's a good way to not get your car towed out of their parking lot while you are working a night shift at their station.

Lame excuses, both, but hey.

Oh, and also, since the city only pays a handful of medics (about 50 total) to ensure ALS coverage for the whole city, the rest of us work as a professional volunteer service. Meaning, of course, we don't get paid for anything but our schooling. The rescue plates, I'm told, will get you free parking when going to the beach front and downtown (where, in Virginia Beach, you can be expected to pay $10 an hour during tourist season) and other discounts and perks around the city. A compensation, of sorts.

Though I know a few guys that got it in order to hopefully get out of tickets when pulled over, which I don't approve of personally.
 
Hey, now, I love my wacker plate TYMV. Haha. But I also live in an area where it still means something to belong to your local volly FD. In fact, a lot of the local commercial techs also belong to their local FDs. Which forever ensures that the argument about paid vs volly being better/worse.
 
Never heard it here myself. Mentioned it to dad one time and he said its a pretty old term (even here in AUS) for anyone in general (not just in EMS) who exaggerates their importance without justification via means obvious to everyone (BVM hip holster...man I want one).

The term wannabee or try hard is pretty common for the same thing over here these days...again not specific to EMS...the term wanka tends to be unfairly attached to some MICA paramedics who keep Littmans Master Cardiologies.
 
IN pa we have volunteer fire fighter and run Blue lights and Red lights for fire chiefs and assistant chiefs. We refer to the term whacker when a person has alot of lights on there car/truck and/or has there Minitor(pager) in the open/scan position so that everyone can hear all the calls from the county that that minitor is programed for.

IE: if johnny has his pager open and goes off in the middle of a meeting or group talk we say what a whacker.
 
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