So, after 30 hours of “training”, I’m being turned loose as a crew member at IFT Ambulance. Of course, I still don’t have my county EMT cert, so I’m relegated to the role of “BLS Driver” until my card shows up. I mentioned in a previous post that I would be able to really get a good read on the company once I got on the road. I was right. Here’s what I found. Training is minimal, morale sucks and with some big exceptions by some outstanding crew members, the overall team level of professionalism is almost non existent.
Over the last three days I was the third rider with an FTO and a different partner every day. The FTO is a really nice guy, about 16 years younger than me, and he’s been working at IFT for a little over a year. His goal is to become a fire fighter and it’s all he can think about. He was recently accepted to Fire Academy and his every waking minute is consumed with studying the IFSTA book to make sure he does well. I remember when I went to fire school to become a FF-I … Gear and hoses and friction coefficients and spanners and SCBA… Wow. It seems like it was a million years ago. He asked me if I ever missed the fire department. I thought about it for a second and said, “Nope.”
See, I look at it like this. I don’t want to be a firefighter; I want to be a paramedic. I really have no interest in learning (or, relearning) the science behind applying wet stuff to hot stuff, and I never did. To me, forcing a paramedic to also become a firefighter is akin to asking an airline pilot to train as a carpenter. Why do we continue to insist that EMS must be a branch of Fire?
Anyway, over the past three days we ran about 5 calls. Some dialysis drops and returns and a hospital discharge. The rest of the time we spent driving and posting. I got to know the local hospitals, dialysis centers and SNFs. On Sunday, I spent almost the entire day in the back of the rig, getting car sick as the driver whipped the truck around like it was a NASCAR qualifier. (You really learn a lot when you ride in the back of the rig and the crew up front ignores you.) On the plus side, I also learned where to find free internet, good coffee and quiet spots to post. As a matter of fact, yesterday we posted in the area of my house and had a zero call day. I studied my anatomy text, the FTO buried his nose in the IFSTA book and our third read sci-fi. We drank coffee and just hung out. Around 4 we radioed to dispatch and asked about anything that might be pending. She had nothing on the docket for us and said, “You guys can just clear and prep for OD (going off duty)”.
Well, alrighty then. 3 days, 30 hours, some practice with the Stryker gurney, an online driving check off and a quick “here’s how to do the paperwork” lecture and I’m free to go. I guess it’s a good thing that I have past EMS experience and I kind of know what I’m doing, otherwise it would have been a Charlie Foxtrot. It seems like there’s no standardized training plan for new hires that actually cover all of the stuff one needs to know. Rather, it was the “oh yeah, you should know that… glad you reminded me” kind of training. Of course, my FTO just turned in his letter of resignation, so he had a few other things on his mind. He’s going to work for another company on a CCT rig and I think he’ll be happier. More pay, more experience, closer to home and as he put it, “I can drive code!”
Being a 38 year old surrounded by a crew of 22 year old EMTs is certainly an enlightening experience. The lack of professionalism and displays of inappropriate behavior are just amazing. I’m no prude, but I do know what’s right and what’s wrong and a lot of the stuff that’s going on at IFT when there’s no sup around is really wrong. Well, I’ll just keep my nose clean and make sure I do the best I can to keep the patients safe. I don’t know if the managers know what’s going on and turn a blind eye or they’re just oblivious. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough.
