What's new in Medic-land?

Hi to both of my blog readers. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about you. I’ve just been busy wrapping up the last few weeks of school this quarter and working a ton of shifts at IFT. And, as you can see, I made a few design changes to the Medic 7 blog.

I haven’t posted anything recently, but not because I haven’t wanted to. This blog, while out there on the web for anyone to read, is primarily my place to vent. On this blog I can write things that I can’t (or wouldn’t) say to my co-workers or family. However, after reading the last few posts, my writing makes me out to be a pretty unhappy guy, and that’s not really who I am. So, I promise that I’ll be searching diligently for those positive nuggets to write about as well as continue to blog about the shitshow that is IFT Ambulance.

OK, so here’s what’s new.

1. I applied for an EMT job with “The Borg”. (Ya know, the large nationwide Ambulance company with Red & White rigs.) They start hiring again in April. Fingers and toes crossed.
2. I was accepted into the EMT-I course that I wanted. Even though this backward-ass county doesn’t recognize the EMT-I cert, we’ll eventually move to a state that does.
3. I decided to NOT apply to medic school this year, instead I’ll wait to see if we’re still living in this part of the country next year. If on the off chance we are, I’ll apply.
4. The SIP I wrote about in previous posts was promoted to FTO at IFT. Apparently a positive criminal background check is not an automatic disqualifier. Go figure.
5. I’ve been working strange hours at IFT. Last night I was on from 1700 to 0300. We did one call. A 300 lb woman for dialysis and her return. She’s a super nice lady, it was a shame to see her in such a bad condition.
6. I found a nasty-gram about me and a partner laying on the counter in the crew office. It was a note to the Rig Chief claiming that we had left the rig in a state of disarray last weekend. This nasty note, copied to the Ops Manager, claims all of the O2 bottles were left on, the rig wasn’t properly stocked… blah, blah, blah. “There were no paper towels. Boo Hoo”. I pulled my rig checklist from that shift and threw up the “Bullshit” flag. Ok, so maybe we didn’t wash the rig at the end of the shift, but that was because there was no car wash soap! Other than that it was all just a bunch of waahh waahhh. Get over it. That’s why we check the rigs at the start of each shift… to make sure we have the right stuff. Like full O2 bottles.
7. Over 50% of the crew at IFT are new EMTs. The turnover is amazing. But, what do you expect for $9.50/hour. Oh yeah, none of them can tech calls, as we’re all still waiting for our State certs. Any day now!
8. I saw a supervisor from another ambulance company last week while I was at a local hospital. He just looked at my uniform, shook his head and said, ‘Really? IFT? Really?” I was embarassed and ashamed that I work for a company with such a shitty reputation.
9. (Here’s something positive!) It snowed last night. Leaving the Hospital last night at 0230 in the midst of a snow squall was amazing. I love snow.