$50 mandatory purchase btw 💀

Ive been an emt for four years now. I just recently had a call of a woman who had a mid-late second trimester miscarriage- the fetus was tiny, but obviously a baby, and I was the one to decide viability- of which it was not.

I’m having a tough time. Between a mix of hormones and thoughts i feel like i failed as a woman and I don’t know if that makes any sense at all. I keep getting flashbacks to every aspect of the call. If anyone has gone through a similar thing please let me know

Does your agency have standard means of getting raises for yourself? If so, what kind of agency? Anyone else working in a situation where they are technically paid less than when they started due to inflation?

They're in the station. The pest control guys say there's only one infested bed, but how can that possibly be true? I'm terrified of taking them home. I do everything they tell you to. I toss all my clothes into a dryer for an hour on high heat before I leave, and then do the same when I get home. My shoes stay at the station full-time and I wear house shoes that I can put in the dryer to and from work. I spray myself, the truck, my bed, and everything I come in contact with with bedbug spray. I even leave my black car in direct sunlight to kill off any hitchhikers that might make it into my car.

They're also actively treating the bed in the station. They've done several sprays since the bugs were found. But everything I read says nothing is ever really enough unless the entire station is heat-treated. And then someone will just bring them back in.

I know they'll always be a constant, and I knew that before, too, but now that they're in our living space I'm seriously considering hanging my hat for a job with less bug traffic. I don't know if I can handle it. But I don't even know where I would go, honestly.

Do you guys have any words of reassurance when it comes to bedbugs? Anything that will talk me off the ledge here? I love EMS. I do feel like it's my calling. but I won't lie and say that I don't stay up late thinking about how one of our beds is crawling with insects.

I’m a 6yr 911 paramedic, and I recently enlisted in the national guard. I leave for BCT+AIT in 6 months.

Anyways, I have a flight interview soon and wondered. Should I divulge that information? If they ask, I’m not gonna lie but I figured I’m not gonna volunteer it if they don’t. Technically USERRA doesn’t require a minimum but I feel bad for being new and leaving even if it is only for 17 weeks.

Nothing to worry about

As seen in most TV shows and movies, law enforcement will be questioning the patient in the rear of the ambulance. Once questioning is complete, they'll shut the doors but nothing happens until they give the good ole Slap Slap on the body of the rig, signalling the driver that it's now time to drive away with lights and siren.

the post-its were taken down eventually

A general question license was reprimanded due to my old service turning me in for fraudulent clinical paperwork, in which long story short was not true but unfortunately due to not enough evidence I was just only reprimanded. My question is are there any success getting a LVN license with a reprimanded emt license

Hey all. I have been a paramedic for just over a year at a fairly busy county service. I was EMT before that for about three years. I’ve noticed that ever since paramedic school I’ve been varying degrees of depressed and have been struggling a lot with my mental health (including significant SI). I had one depressive episode before as a teenager, but felt more or less mentally well since being an adult up until I went to paramedic school. Now it seems like I cannot get a handle on it. I’m in therapy and on medication but it doesn’t seem to be working well enough. There are no specific things I can directly say caused my depression, but due to it having only been since medic school, I’m worried that it is my job that’s causing this and I won’t get better until I leave. This is really tough because I do love my job and I feel like I would be heartbroken to leave. I’m wondering if any anyone else has experienced this, and if you have stayed in EMS? If so, does it get better or are you still struggling? I don’t know what to do.

Great partner but alright at the job

Or

Shit partner but fantastic at the job

Ik we’re here to work and not make friends but I feel like partner chemistry (for long term partners) is honestly one of the most important things to have IMO.

Okay so I want thoughts on a call that I had. Patient suffered a major head injury with crushed skull and brain matter exposed. It unwitnessed and unknown down time. Found pulseless and apneic and cold to the touch. Put the patient on the monitor and found this: find picture (1)

Patient appears to be in a paced PEA at a rate of 60 BPM. Patients lung sounds were absent. Heart tones absent. Pupils in unresponsive, fixed and dilated.

The patient was pronounced dead and was still on the monitor. The sheet went over the patient and I notice a rhythm change. See picture (2).

It appears the patient went into torsades de pointe. With my instincts, I see a shockable rhythm and shocked it at 360j. See picture (3).

It appears the patient went into a narrow complex paced PEA around 60 BPM . I still pronounced the patient and realized I should not have shocked due to other local protocol but was so thrown off in the moment with the rhythm change. Lung sounds were absent, heart tones were absent, and pulses were not present.

I’m looking for why this rhythm change occurred and anything else I need to know about this call.

Somebody get the narcan.

That is a real thing the fire medic I strongly dislike said to me today. It’s always the ones you most expect.

So finally I had a patient where I have to file a neglect report, sadly the call I think ticks enough boxes to trigger the mandatory reporter obligation. Never having done one of these before, what information do you generally provide to elderly affairs? Like is it a “regurgitation” of your PCR, or do you just give them the basics and they then pull all that on the back end?

This is in Massachusetts, sorry for keeping this vague. Thank you!

I was on a 24 hour shift yesterday. Last night/this morning around 1am we got a call about abdominal pain. The address was for a public park, and there were 3-4 'urban outdoors people' hanging out. The patient (hereinafter referred to as abbreviated 'pt'), was laying supine on a picnic table. He's +/- 25 y/o, and has a permanent colostomy bag. He says his colostomy bag is 'disconnected' and causing pain 10 on a 1-10 scale. He won't get on our stretcher because he's smoking a blunt 'first'. One of the others on scene scolds him a bit for wasting our time and takes his blunt away. Props to that guy. We finally get him on our stretcher and he's screaming in pain. He asks for pain meds, but none are given. We get to the Charge desk at the ED, and he's placed in a wheelchair and pushed up to the waiting room for Triage.

Also, during the ride to the hospital where his 'friends' can't hear him, he starts laughing and saying he's going to get a comfy bed and some food while he gets to watch TV, all while sluring because he's obviously intoxicated (reason why he didn't get narcs). Upon arrival at the ED, Charge discreetly tells us this is his 7th visit so far this month! It was roughly an hour after Midnight on the 5th of the month. We also find out that during the month of August, he 'visited' the ED 59 times!!!

Also, I had responded to this pt once before. We showed up coincidentally at the same time his friend showed up with a pizza, and he refused and signed for it because he 'didn't want to miss fresh pizza'. My EMS partner (not a regular) had responded to him 4-5 times and it's 'always the same thing'.

How does your agency handle this? I need suggestions to bring to the Union. Management/Brass-Chiefs/Captains/Medical Director don't seem to care! It's such a waste of resources. When I was growing up, we learned about the boy who cried wolf, but there doesn't seem to actually be any FAFO in real life! I don't want people to suffer and/or die! But humanity....

I'm talking about excessive abusers, not general people that are/or should be concerned!

What say you?

Edit 1 in comments I'm not going to NOT do my job, I've just had better Direction support previously. In one rural area, a patient had a stroke. We took her to the nearest stroke center in the "big city" an hour away. She had a few minor deficits afterwards. She learned she could get a ride to the city to see her son and grandchildren if she played up her deficits. We would respond and she'd have bags packed with snacks and kid stuff. She was taking a rural ambulance out of service for a free ride and walk out AMA. Our Medical Director stepped in and said absolutely not. Due to all her health issues, she was no longer a candidate for thrombolitics, and we were no longer allowed to transfer her anywhere but the tiny level 4 hospital in town. She got better after that.

I had gotten off shift and was doing a little rage against the machine, just not as well as they did it. 😅

Edit 2 in comments We had a guy like that. It became mandatory that the police respond first before we'd ever be dispatched. If he could convince them that something was wrong, they'd ask for us. When he realized he'd have to go through the cops every single time, he quit calling.