To train or not to train...

You would think this would be a simple and straight forward answer, but it really isn't. I am an EMT-IV Tech, one step above being EMT-Basic, and I am the training officer for our department. You may be thinking 'Yeah? So what?' as I am, but there are others on my department that are having a fit over it. See, I am not the highest level of care on our department. We have one in class for I-99, two paramedics and one RN/EMT-P. The thought is that these people have more to offer as a training officer than I. While I don't dispute the fact that they do in fact have more knowledge and training than I, I don't think it disqualifies me for the position I hold. There is nothing that says that I can't call in other resources to do a training that is beyond my skill/knowledge level and trust me I intend to do just that.

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to get at here so please feel free to chime in and either school my sorry behind or jump on the bandwagon. I'll even scootch over a bit to make room for ya.

Happy Holidays

Seeing as it has been a few weeks since anyone has posted, just thought I'd wish everyone Happy Holidays and a safe New Year.

Lessons learned...

Some people love to train rookies, others hate to do it. My station decided to make me training officer since I always seemed to inherit the rookies so I spend a lot of my rotations training new members or members that just got their EMT certification. Last week's lesson was that even experienced people can make mistakes. Actually it was a two part lesson, the second part is titled "THIS is why I always yell at you to wear your seat belt!" While responding to a call in one of our response cars we had a little mishap that was almost a big mishap and would have turned our crew into our very own mass casualty incident. Everyone was okay and there was no major damage but it really showed them that mistakes happen and the best thing you can do is learn from them and move on. And always wear your seat belt! I joked with the member who was at the station and witnessed the incident that I had planned it all out as a training exercise...for some reason he didn't believe me.

The kicker is this incident happened a few days before the 4Th anniversary of our heavy rescue being involved in an accident while responding to a call. The driver, who is my brother, and the passenger were both injured but thankfully survived. One witness of the accident ran up to help and said "oh my God, you ARE alive. I don't know how." I'm sure that was very comforting for the crew to hear but then again, you don't expect to see a fire truck rolling down the interstate. No charges were pressed as it was caused by black ice but that was a heck of a reminder to our local departments that while we're here to help others we have to remember that we aren't invincible. That's the reason for my post today, we all get complacent and sometimes just have to be reminded that our safety comes first.

Only A Matter Of Time

Answered a first aid call a little while ago, and people just amaze me. Here's a woman that abuses the 9-1-1 system. I've had her as a patient twice in the past week. The first time, she wasn't too bad. But this time.. she was a different person. Bitching and complaining the ENTIRE length of the call. Didn't want to sit on the stair chair, didn't want to climb one small step, didn't want to do this.. Christ. It's challenging trying to be polite and kind to someone who is being nothing but disrespectful and ungrateful, but luckily I managed. It's sad when you go to give report to the RN and she looks at the report and recognizes the name. Long story short, she's at the hospital getting help for whatever her complaint is this time. Probably only a matter of time before she picks up the phone and dials 9-1-1 again though.