White coats increase your ability to pay attention, EMS uniforms though...

[FourLoko]

I wish ours looked more like police gear.

We have terrible, heavy pants from a uniform company. The shirt sleeves are too long, I look like a slob.

 

[medicdan]

I wish ours looked more like police gear.

We have terrible, heavy pants from a uniform company. The shirt sleeves are too long, I look like a slob.

A lot of ambulance services don't want their uniforms to look like police... it makes us a target if we're identified as police when knocking at the door.

 

[hippocratical]

A lot of ambulance services don't want their uniforms to look like police... it makes us a target if we're identified as police when knocking at the door.

That's my thinking too. I don't work urban yet, so haven't had this first hand, but it is a concern for when I do get an inner city placement.

Here's a visual (random Google Image Search images)

Calgary EMS:

Calgary Police:

Main difference aside from the tactical belt? Police get a red stripe down their pants, EMS get a blue stripe. I'm sure the average junkie on PCP will see the blue line and go "Oh you're here to help me..."

Hmmm...

 

[CritterNurse]

I love wearing scrubs. I got permission from the fire chief to get the department logo put on a pair of plain, navy blue scrubs to wear on ambulance calls. He even told me who does the embroidery for the department so that I could get it done there.

 

[bigbaldguy]

+1 on the not wanting to look like a cop. In theory it could make you a target but my concern would be the fact that my patients are much less likely to be open and honest about what's going on. Patient care requires you to gain a persons trust and that can be hard to do with certain people if you look like your LE.

 

[Bullets]

When I'm wearing my LEO uniform, I definitely feel like more of a bad motherSHUTYOURMOUTH! The whole process of putting on the ballistic, the duty belt, blousing the pants over the boots, checking my service weapon, helps to take me from my offduty civilian mentality to on duty enforcement

As an EMT I dont have this same experience, my medical knowledge gives me all the confidence I need to operate effectively, paid or volley. I know that I am one of the most educated providers regardless of my post-nomials because I know the work I do in my own time, reading studies and new science in the field. Some say I come off as cocky, but I have received enough complements from other providers to know that what I am doing to educate myself is making me a better provider.

For EMS, a uniform is more about appearing professional in the initial contact. Then it is based on the manner of patient care and how you provide interventions. The uniform serves a different purpose for EMS then it does for LE, as they are a attempting to impart a different psychological effect on the people they come in contact with

Around here EMS wears navy blue, while the PDs wear light blue, black/tactical gear, grey or french blue,I can't think of a PD that wears navy.

 

[usalsfyre]

When I'm wearing my LEO uniform, I definitely feel like more of a bad motherSHUTYOURMOUTH! The whole process of putting on the ballistic, the duty belt, blousing the pants over the boots, checking my service weapon, helps to take me from my offduty civilian mentality to on duty enforcement

You have just stated one of the bigger problems with law enforcement in the US at the moment.

 

[Bullets]

You have just stated one of the bigger problems with law enforcement in the US at the moment.

Well, based on that single unsubstantiated sentence, we can clearly change how we operate

 

[Chrissy1]

Uniforms

Our uniforms are a t-shirt and our pants. Most of the services around us are similar. You would be surprised at how much more mature we can act when you take us off the street and put us in an ambulance. Especially the language we go from acting like high school students to professionals in less then a second

 

[mycrofft]

On a less serious note (but entirely characteristic), I noticed once that the inmate's clothes were basically scrubs (they accidentally ordered a batch with pants pockets once...) but made much more sturdily. I looked into buying a navy blue set (our inmates wore either orange, or blue with a color-coded t-shirt), but since they cost about three times what I wanted and was accustomed to paying, I called it off.
Before we had scrubs, we wore white, and the inmate workers ("trustees") wore white, so there was a psychological factor there making us even less respected. Finally, we were directed to buy claret-red scrubs from one manufacturer, and through a fluke in the primitive color cameras they use for security the scrubs looked sort of orangey. Couldn't win for losing.

 

[Bullets]

Well, based on that single unsubstantiated sentence, we can clearly change how we operate

Allow me to clarify. Wearing the LEO uniform has a greater psychological effect then an EMS uniform. Besides the vest and sidearm acting as constant reminders of the dangers we may directly face, it makes me think in a more deliberate manner. Go through the steps to clear a house, conduct a mv stop (the most dangerous thing we do) keeping my head on a swivel.

Do I feel proud to wear the badge? Absolutely. Do I think wearing the badge makes me above everyone else? No

I feel that i am better then others, not because of a shirt or a piece of metal, but because of the manner in which I conduct myself. I feel this way in and out of uniform. Not all cops think this way. Some feel that the uniform is enough to demand respect. PA state troopers dont wear a badge, they feel the officers conduct should convince people to respect them, and I agree with them

 

[usalsfyre]

I like that response ALOT better...

 

[Chrissy1]

Scrubs

Patients from detox wear scrubs they are orangish

 

[Chan]

My uniform looks like a cop, and I'm not trying to look like a cop to get shot or jumped.