Friday, June 26, 2009

Losing faith

Whenever someone asks if I enjoy my job, my usual response is either "most of the time" or "it has it's moments, like any job".

I am, however, quickly reaching the point of being fed up with my current situation.

I finally got a meeting yesterday with 3 chiefs in my immediate chain of command. I managed to bite my tongue when needed, and I truly believe I kept my foot out of my mouth for once.

I walked out of the meeting knowing damn good and well that not a single thing will happen.

I thanked them for the opportunity to have worked with the K9 team, and told them I wanted to become proficient as a relief driver and soon, acting officer, but that I needed their help. I won't gain the experience needed at my station, and need to be somewhere where I can.


My station is slow, as in each of the units normally runs 2-5 calls per shift. I don't understand why I'm even at this station, since I only have 5 years in. I WANT to be in a busy house and run the calls, so why not put me in a busy house and let some stereotypical lazy-ass be in the slow house?



I'm so damn frustrated over this. It's been stressing me out for nearly 9 months now. I'm sick and tired of this but I don't know what else to do. I'm rapidly running out of options.

It's tempting to do like some folks have done and write a transfer request every shift.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Rookie rant

I've been sitting here for the past couple hours reading through some older posts on a lot of different paramedic/firemedic blogs.

I've noticed a bit of a trend. It scares me to be able to say that not only have I noticed it, but I've been sorely affected by it.

A lot of EMT's, especially the FNG, flat-out suck.

The reason this is so scary, is that with just over 5 years in, I know I'm still a rookie.

Even since I was hired, I've noticed a sharp decline in the quality of people making it through the academy. I'm not talking about the folks that are just hard to get along with, or that don't wanna play the whole "rookie gets the shit jobs" routine. I'm talking about the knuckle-dragging idiots that I'm surprised passed the tests, have a driver's license, or even managed to dress themselves this morning.

A few examples:

Rookie #1: Has been shown many times over how to read a map book. They constantly get lost on the main drags in their own territory. I've run a few calls with them, and seen first-hand how bad it is. Rookie strangely disappears whenever we need to lift the stretcher, carry jump bags, etc. I've also watched this person take a good 5 minutes to park their POV at the station. I don't even want to remember the horror that nearly occurred when they tried to share the bay with the ladder on accident.

Rookie #2: Is rarely visible once trucks are checked and station has been cleaned. They prefer to go sit on their laptop or cell phone. This person also was condescending to a 10+ year firemedic on a fire scene, doing stupid things like calling him rookie.

Rookie #3: Is at a station with 2 other rookies, so plenty of rotation for units and sendoffs. They pitched a damn fit when it was their turn to be sent off to another station. Granted, this rookie has some experience elsewhere, but that doesn't mean a damn thing in this department. All that matters is your hire date.

Even though I'm not currently a paramedic, I like to think of myself as a pretty decent EMT. I know my truck well and can set up/start IV's, 3-leads, 12-leads, mark drugs given on the monitor, set up for ETT, etc. I know enough about reading the monitor to make a pretty good guess at what's going on, relay a decent report to the hospital, and whatever else my partner asks me to do (if I'm not already on it).

For a long time, the ambulance I rode every shift was staffed with just 2 EMTs. It wasn't easy and I felt burn-out quite often, but I pressed on knowing it was one of the busiest trucks and couldn't really get any worse as long as I had a decent partner.

One of the things I stuck to was going call-for-call. There were a couple occasions where that didn't happen, but it was made up for. Like the time it was my partner's turn to tech and we had an 80-something y/o man who had an open ankle fracture. He was new to the idea of actually using his EMT certs and was stuck in the deer-in-headlights mode, so I asked if he needed help and wanted me to take it. He nodded and gave a pretty smooth ride to the ER. I almost waited onscene for ALS for pain meds, but decided we could have the patient at the hospital by the time ALS arrived to the scene. He was tolerating pain extremely well and vitals were stable.

Then there are the 2-20 firemen. Rookies with 2 years in, that act like old jakes with 20 years experience.

We ran a call, and the type of call has no real bearing on the story. I went out to the truck to grab the stretcher. Our trucks are large, and should kneel when the rear doors are opened. I noticed the truck wasn't in high idle and didn't kneel. When I went to the kick the e-brake thinking my partner forgot to, I was both pissed and a little bit horrified. The truck wasn't in park!

Many of our trucks seem to get "stuck" in park. All you have to do is mash the brake to the floor, push the shifter back, up and then drop the gears like normal. My partner apparently decided in his infinite wisdom to leave the truck in neutral and just hit the e-brake.

As soon as we cleared the call, I was on him. If the truck gets stuck in park, it gets stuck in park and we'll just call another unit for the transport, but you have to put the truck in park. Diesels WILL jump out of gear. His response only fueled my rage. He didn't want to listen because we're both firefighter II's, so I wasn't his boss.

Bad move on his part.

Not only was I hired before he was, I made rank before he did, AND was listed as riding seat that day. 3 strikes against him. At something crazy like 10 or 11pm, I called the station captain on the nextel and told him what happened, and my partner's reasoning for things. He met us on the front apron back at the station. Guess who got an ass-chewing that night?

The last thing I want is to be that bitch, but I'm not gonna let some lazy, knuckle-dragging, fatass, mouth breathing idiot get me in trouble if I can help it. I do a good enough job of that on my own, TYVM.


And then there's the guys with over 20 years in, that just flat out scare you with what they know is right, no matter how wrong it actually is. I'll save that one for another day though.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I seem to be getting more and more readers lately, and thanks for visiting my lil world folks.

A lot of cop blogs do this already, so I can't claim the idea, but I'll be happy to field any Fire or EMS related questions.

Send your questions to the email address listed to the right and I'll do my best to answer.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Class = massive boredom

I know, I know. I'm in class the majority of this week, along with working my shifts, so don't expect too much from me.

So far, we've covered time sheets, incident reports, PCR reviewing, and more. It hasn't really been any new news to me other than the PCR reviewing. I've been hurt at work so I've done the incident reports, and filled out my own time sheet while on light duty.

The worst part of going through this class for me is the way it's been drug out. 3 days, wait a month, 3 more days, another month's wait, then 4 days. I'd rather just get it all over with.


Of course, as we're on break today, a small city PD officer asked what class we're attending and made other small talk in the hallway. We were cutting up a bit and I made the comment about how *some* of the LT's talk a lot of smack about pulling over people, but have yet to do so, even when that person passes through constantly in their POV. He asked who, of course, and the LT standing beside him had a huge grin on his face and said I was talking about him.

A couple weeks ago, I responded to a MVC in a major intersection. There weren't any injuries- just soreness, I had already thrown out zipzorb on the spilled oil, the wrecker was loaded, and we'd reopened 2 of the 3 northbound lanes. After the LT explained the cites to the at-fault driver and got his signatures, we were cutting up a little bit before everyone onscene went their own ways.

LT and I had fun ribbing each other about everything from the cameras in his car, to me living so close and never being stopped by him or his guys.

He threatened to come by the station and stake out my car so he could catch me on my way home one morning. Being the smartass I am, I told him to bring it on.

We got our giggles and soon parted ways. He still hasn't caught me (not that I'd give him a reason to).

Back to today's conversation... I again told him to bring it on, and that I'm still waiting.

As we were going back into our respective classrooms, he said he's gonna get me, he'll let me go, but he's gonna get me.

Bring it on my friend, bring it on.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Flirting not welcomed

For the second time, I've been creeped the fuck out by someone trying to flirt with me while onduty. You can read about the first time here- http://i-am-911-archive.blogspot.com/2005/04/flirty-old-guy.html


We were sent to a call where the person fell. As we're dealing with our patient, getting information for our report, etc, this Creepy Old Guy walks up behind me.

COG: I think I might be feeling faint and need some CPR.

Awesome Medic (my partner): You're gonna have to get in line.

COG: No, I want her to do it **motioning towards me**

Ummm, what?! Ok, not only is your attention not wanted or welcomed, I'm dealing with a patient! You're interfering with my scene you old perv!

I know I had a look of fear, confusion, irritation, and more on my face. The patient and her friend seemed to sympathize judging by the looks they gave me. I was able to bite my tongue and thankfully, the guy wandered off immediately.

As we were returning to our truck to leave, I asked AM if he saw COG's shirt. Sadly, he didn't.

"Annoying the world one person at a time"

More like 5 at a time.

I can't make this shit up, folks.

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Later in the shift, we'd responded to a call where a very nice older gentleman accidentally flipped his scooter and more than likely broke his hip. We moved him to a backboard as gently as we could and tried to pad under his knees to keep him comfortable.

As we cleared the call, I realized it was getting late and I was ready for dinner. Seeing as A.M. had already eaten, I figured on hitting Subway. 10 minutes before closing, they were locked up tight. I was really looking forward to a meatball marinara too.

Being in a nicer part of town and so close to a major mall, there aren't a lot of food options under $10, McD's here I come.

As I'm walking towards the Walmart entrance (McD's is just inside), an older gentleman who had stopped his car to let an older woman get in, called me over. He reached out to shake my hand and said "Thanks for doing what you do and God bless."

I'd noticed his FBI hat as I'd exited my truck moments earlier, but that doesn't really matter. It was a small gesture of thanks, and it made my day.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Calls and an upcoming class

It doesn't seem like anything really interesting has happened lately, but as I wrote this, more things came to mind and I guess it *is* interesting after all.

A couple weeks ago we went to a fatality MVC on the expressway. The sedan had stopped for whatever reason in the middle of the road at about 5am. The 18-wheeler hit the car hard enough to rip the roof and driver's side off the car, and sent the vehicle over 100 yards by the looks of the debris field. The 18-wheeler left tire marks for at least another 100 yards beyond where the car stopped, as he locked his brakes to stop. Thank god his tanker full of fuel didn't have any damage.

As we looked around, I didn't even realize where the driver was at first. I was sent to the truck to grab our TIC (thermal imaging camera) and look around for any ejected victims. As I was walking back towards the car, I saw the hot spot on the ground under the doors/roof that were ripped from the car (it was still attached, just barely). A closer look with a flashlight showed that was indeed the driver. I never did find anything with the TIC, and we left shortly after. The wreck occurred outside my department's territory, and the sedan came to rest not even 50 feet from the county line.

Due to it being a fatality, there's no pictures to show of the vehicle. Sorry folks. I try to get pictures as much as I can, but I'm not risking taking a picture and having a body in it. I value my job too much, and it's morally wrong to do that anyways.

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I'm hesitant to go into details about another call. I'll simply say a gentleman barricaded himself into a room and hung himself. His family had no idea why nor did they suspect anything wrong. He didn't leave a note.

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Recently, one of our engines was on the expressway working a MVC. I don't know if their truck was parked correctly or anything else, but the engine was hit by a passing 18-wheeler. Our crew was outside the truck and all were fine, the driver of the rig had some injuries though. I was listening to the radio traffic and the media got a pretty good aerial shot of the scene. The engine sustained quite a bit of damage. It's a real shame too, that was one of our newer trucks and it's going to take a long time to repair, if they don't just total it out.

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In other news, I'll be working a 48 hour shift this weekend, so pray for my sanity. Then I'll be attending acting officer class next week. I've been trying to attend the class for over 2 years, and have always been screwed out of it (for some asinine reason or another).

The only reason I'm even able to go this time is by swapping shifts with someone. We're too short on people and it's considered an onduty class, but my chief said he'd allow me to go if I could find someone to cover for me. 20 phone calls and a lot of stress later, I found someone to cover.

Honestly, I'm very hesitant about the class. There's not really any prerequisites for it, but I wish I had more experience. If I could at least ride an engine that runs a bunch of calls, I could watch and learn, and try to absorb. Where I'm assigned just flat out lacks the call volume. Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly enjoyed eating warm meals and (usually) sleeping all night, but break-time has been over for a while and I'm more than ready to get back into the action.

I'm still extremely sore about having been transferred and the lack of reasoning for it. I constantly try to "get over it", but it always comes back and I tend to dwell on it.

I've got a meeting with my shift commander and the chief of operations in a week and I'm really, really hoping to achieve closure and move on, both mentally, and physically. My initial meeting request was kicked back and they wanted to know why I wanted the meeting. My response was an outline of the things I'm expected to learn and become proficient at, and the reasons I can't. NOT excuses, but reasons. IE, I'm unable to progress as a relief driver because there's no engine at my current assignment.


I just hope it goes well.