What A Planet Rebooted - Stories from the World of EMS

[Topper]

My kid's high school offers a intro EMT course that graduates can later be hired into The BC Ambulance service at low levels because of the severe shortages of staff.

[Meds]

My kid's high school offers a intro EMT course that graduates can later be hired into The BC Ambulance service at low levels because of the severe shortages of staff.

Our lowest employed level is Driver Only. Class-4 DL plus CPR ticket. We have been hiring people without the class-4 however they can’t even be put on the schedule until they have it.

This province ran its ambulance service into the ground for 45 years through mismanagement, bad staffing models, and a lack of potential for career advancement…..now they can’t figure out why they have no people but think the answer is to hire unqualified individuals. Which is burning out the qualified employees at record setting pace and actually putting more ambulances out of service as well as making it twice as hard to find precepting spots for paramedics who are trying to complete their training programs.

Despite all my negativity, positive change has been happening over the past 5 years, it’s just slow going, and change always has painful transition periods.

[Meds]

My kid's high school offers a intro EMT course that graduates can later be hired into The BC Ambulance service at low levels because of the severe shortages of staff.

On the topic of this career and high school students…..

I personally think that, with very few exceptions, this is a vocation that should absolutely have a minimum age of 22 or 23 before any sort of real-world exposure. While 80% of what we do is fairly routine, the other stuff could put a young mind into a revolving door of PTSD episodes for life.

That “low level” employment, in small communities, will see someone rolling into a Hollywood level mess, could be domestic violence, could be a MCI, could be a labour and delivery going horribly wrong, a shooting, a stabbing, an overdose, a rape, an abused child, hanging (those can be gross)…..anyways, you get it.

In days gone by all emergency services tended to attract your typical alpha personalities. In general a tougher psyche that can handle some of the heavier things were exposed to at a younger age…..the flip side to that of course was that alphas also tend to err on the side of denialism and any issues compound to the point of severe psychic breaks that end up in “unforeseen” events of physical violence or suicide. Your other personalities will either reach out for help sooner, or act out in attention seeking ways that are not as permanent as suicide.

Now, however, the only emergency service left that is largely staffed by that type of person is the Fire Departments. I think in general because they still have the most physically rigorous hiring process, and you do need to have that “take no prisoners” mentality to get through it.

Police has become a mess of DEI hiring. It’s not at all uncommon for me to show up to a scene and have someone there who wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of dealing with the aggressive individual should they escalate to physical violence.

Paramedicine has morphed from being a strictly emergency services tended to an all encompassing mobile arm of the healthcare system. This means that we are now OK hiring the hand-holders and soft-skill experts who will be next to useless on HALO events and more of a liability than an asset in situations where safety is questionable.

Fire is the only one of the emergency services that younger people should be permitted into. Largely I say that because fire crews are heavy on regular training, work in larger teams, and rarely go to HALO events that involve anything other than physical trauma…..think vehicle accidents, structure collapses or fire. Those events are big deals, but you expect trauma at those, so it’s not a surprise, and the ugliness of human nature isn’t as highlighted. But overall, Fire just has better safety and supports built-in to their systems.

[Cousin Strawberry]

hanging (those can be gross)…..

I bet the back story on this is grooooss. Dripping meat bags and shit

[donlever]

Mëds first responders post

Well thought out and stated.

Thanks for posting that.

[Meds]

hanging (those can be gross)…..

I bet the back story on this is grooooss. Dripping meat bags and shit

Lol. No, not quite.

The head and face that is strangled (and not released) is a pretty grotesque looking thing.

[2Fingers]

Thanks Mëds, great insight into what happens in the industry. What I find frustrating is when I read about a specialized group makes it difficult for people to apply their trade when they move province to province. Hopefully with all this talk about breaking down the barriers it happens.

Immigrants with certain education and experience should not be working at McDonald’s if they have the proper credentials from a reputable university or hospital or even engineering background.

Put them through the paces but I have to ASSUME someone coming from USA or England that is a nurse or doctor would be recognized here easier than it seems to be.

Lastly I could never do your job without emptying the contents of my stomach every day. Reminds me that when I was 20-21 I was starting the process of being joining the RCMP, went through the initial interview and was going to proceed further but then I realized I was going to stationed northern Manitoba or Saskatchewan to start so I bailed. My sponsor was preparing me and he talked about the autopsy you need to do as part of your training. He said so may people fainted or puked and I would be one of those.

I’m not cut out for that, I prefer to sit on my ass and work on contracts.

[Meds]

Thanks Mëds, great insight into what happens in the industry. What I find frustrating is when I read about a specialized group makes it difficult for people to apply their trade when they move province to province. Hopefully with all this talk about breaking down the barriers it happens.

The specialized stuff in this case ONLY exists in BC, and it is employer and union driven. It is not a provincial licensing body issue. Adrien Dix's office mandated scope expansion for all levels of license in BC during COVID because of the limitations that the province faced.....limitations that were only in existence because of the things I already mentioned.

Labour mobility for paramedics came into effect in 2009. This happened across Canada. There is an adopted scope of practice that is nationally recognized and expected to be taught to by education institutes. There is a national exam called the COPR that is written in every province except for Ontario (they have their own exam), however licenses are portable with only very minor restrictions between all provinces except for Quebec. The territories employ people to the practice of the provincial licensing body each individual holds.

[Blob Mckenzie]

My kid's high school offers a intro EMT course that graduates can later be hired into The BC Ambulance service at low levels because of the severe shortages of staff.

How far do you have to drive your son to school? Asking for real. There can't be a huge number of his kids his age within a 30 mile radius. Meanwhile other assheads down hear chase their tail and take an extra half hour to drive their house pets 4 km. Fox is a joke of a school. Im sad to say i went there.

[Blob Mckenzie]

hanging (those can be gross)…..

I bet the back story on this is grooooss. Dripping meat bags and shit

Lol. No, not quite.

The head and face that is strangled (and not released) is a pretty grotesque looking thing.

Wasn't there some fat cunt that got hung in the 90's and it blew his dome off? I think it was Washington State. The dude was a slob. They went to needles after that. Its bullshit. Hang the pricks and sing a song after.

[Blob Mckenzie]

Mëds, a good friend of mine who was a battalion chief for VFD said that any person who has a heart attack shits themself. That's kinda yucky. Is he full of shit? Unlike Buddy who had the jammer of course.

[Cousin Strawberry]

My kid's high school offers a intro EMT course that graduates can later be hired into The BC Ambulance service at low levels because of the severe shortages of staff.

How far do you have to drive your son to school? Asking for real. There can't be a huge number of his kids his age within a 30 mile radius. Meanwhile other assheads down hear chase their tail and take an extra half hour to drive their house pets 4 km. Fox is a joke of a school. Im sad to say i went there.

Grand Forks isn’t a village. There must be 5-7k there nowadays

[Meds]

Mëds, a good friend of mine who was a battalion chief for VFD said that any person who has a heart attack shits themself. That's kinda yucky. Is he full of shit? Unlike Buddy who had the jammer of course.

When a body dies muscle tone dies with it. Sphincters are muscles, and whatever contents they are keeping in get a pass. This doesn’t happen immediately and is dependent upon internal pressures and whether or not there’s water in the tank or a torpedo in the tube.

[BCExpat]

My oldest son is a paramedic. He worked for years for a first nations EMS service as well as for AHS in Calgary. He has seen a lot of shit in his career, including some very funny stuff, but also some of the grossest stuff you can imagine. He has since moved onto an air ambulance service which he really likes. It's a tough job and I don't envy anyone who is a paramedic.

[Meds]

My oldest son is a paramedic. He worked for years for a first nations EMS service as well as for AHS in Calgary. He has seen a lot of shit in his career, including some very funny stuff, but also some of the grossest stuff you can imagine. He has since moved onto an air ambulance service which he really likes. It's a tough job and I don't envy anyone who is a paramedic.

Not sure where your son worked, but my friends in Alberta and Saskatchewan who have worked in EMS on the northern reserves have the the most horrifying stories I have ever heard.