Your husband's situation is different than others. Your own situation is also different in that as a volunteer, if a paid FD took over the volunteer EMS in your area, you would not be out of a paid job and have to relocate or change careers. Do you honestly think those 50 year old Paramedics in Florida, Calfornia or Pennsylvania are looking forward to the Fire academy? Do you think they want to change careers totally?
That's a cop out to say that my situation is different. If you are making global statements about fire and EMS you can't qualify it by saying that oh.. your situation is different. Its precisely these types of differences that make your global statements of Fire and EMS incompatibility inaccurate. Changes happen in workplaces. Job conditions change. If I work for a private ambulance service and a big chain takes it over, my working conditions will change. This happens outside of EMS and it happens within it. There is obviously some reason why the government in your area sees an advantage to changing the way EMS is handled. Yes, when services are consolidated, people will lose their jobs. If you want to whine about it, you can get in line behind all the .com workers/consultants who lost their jobs in the 90's, the automotive workers who are losing their jobs now and the rest of America. If you are going to feed at the public trough, you better be prepared for the aftermath.
Dual degrees? You mean like Paramedic and RRT or RN? they are both medical.
No, I mean like degrees in nursing and public administration or a degree in business or healthcare admin.. To say that a medical professional has to be strictly medical isn't accurate. Look at your department heads.. how many of them have non-medical degrees in combination with their healthcare licence or cert. You did not answer my question about the relevancy of paper pushing, budget, finance, personnel, to a medical degree.
So you too believe that the Paramedic is little more than a trained and skilled advanced first-aider who requires no education unless they want to push paper?
Don't believe I have ever said anything even remotely like that. I think that paramedicine is a highly skilled, highly technical field. I believe that the training that those who take it seriously get is an ongoing committment and not merely getting their ticket punched so they can sit on their *** as a firefighter for the next 30 years. Most of the paramedics I know are deeply committed to their work and the education that supports it. My disagreement with your posts is that you seem to assume that fire and ems are mutually exclusive. I do not. I belieive that its possible to have both. You for some reason do not.
That is exactly the point FDs have been making all along and why medical professionals are not in agreement with it. I suppose those on this forum that bothered to get an education along with the training and skills wasted their time if they want to be just a paramedic especially with the FDs.
If a particular FD is saying that their medics do not need to be skilled, that is an issue with that particular department and an issue as I have repeatedly stated of expected levels of performance not an issue of Fire vs EMS. If the level of skill and training is set at a high mark, the employees will meet that level. If the budgetary constraints of your area do not allow for maintaining two separate 24/7 emergency response systems, one for fire and a second for ems, then your area will either have to reallocate funds or raise more money or accept that the elected officials have made a financial decision based on what they believe to be in the best interests of their constituents.
To make sweeping statements about fire service is inaccurate. Even if other 'healthcare professionals' are willing to jump on the Hammer The Firefighters Bandwagon. Other systems have made it work, that means that your's can too.
You yourself stated your job as Park Ranger and not EMT - medical professional.[/QUOTE]
