Sunday, July 4, 2010

Outrage

I saw this, and I just had to comment on it. Read EMS1.com and their article on the Mass. EMT's who are upset that they got suspended.

Kim is a state emergency technician. She's been suspended for nine months for allegedly falsifying certification class attendance. She says if she broke the law, she should be punished. "But a nine-month suspension? I've lost my job and my health insurance. I don't now what I am going to do," said Kim

Are you serious?!

You should've thought about that BEFORE you lied about your recerts and possibly paid off someone to get the job done! You should've thought about that when you put patients' lives in jeopardy by not taking your recert classes. What would've happened if in your recert class, they stated that Atropine is now seen to work better if given in a 3mg dose over ten minutes, versus 1mg over 3-5 minutes. Now you go ahead and kill someone because you have no clue what you're doing. What would you say for yourself? Oh wait, you already did that for me!

Quote: She said the harsh punishment of EMTs is unfair, especially because she believes the refresher courses they're required to take have no bearing on competence and knowledge.

"The refresher course just repeats everything. We didn't put you at harm," Kim said.


You don't know if it's "all the same stuff."! Then, a part time Paramedic, who should be watching his ass even closer came in with:

Quote: Terry Urekew is a part-time paramedic who was not on the penalty list, but she believes the state has done an injustice to her colleagues.

"So if it's fraud, slap them. Give everyone a $100 fine and community service," said Urekew. "Don't take someone's livelihood away from something that has no impact on whether or not we are better EMTs," she said.


This moron is why they want to take tubes away from us! Refresher Classes don't have an impact on whether or not you're a better EMT?! I'm guessing the Queen of England came to you and while using the Gilded #4 Macintosh Blade, knighted you and made you God! You must know everything about EMS. Yes, CPR involves you pushing on someones' chest and breathing for them, but without your refresher, you wouldn't know that the compression rate changed from 15:2 to 30:2! Without your ALS refresher, you wouldn't know the new drug dosages, or if the drug had a new delivery system or not.

Both of you, Terry and Kim, need to be ashamed of yourselves! You call yourselves professionals! You call yourselves devoted to your craft, and what do you go and do? You screw the pooch so bad its' still squeeling! Did you not stop and think about what your actions could do and would do? Then you try and say that the heads of your EMS system are forcing your co-workers to work longer hours. No, YOU are the one who has forced them to do it!

"Do you want me working on your mother who is having a heart attack in hour 87 of my 90 hour week?" said Urekew. "Do you want that? That's what you are going to get. There are not enough people to fill the gaps," she said.

I'd rather you be doing it that way because you've worked your balls off all week, attended your correct classes, and had to do it this way, not well rested but as dumb as a box of fly shit.

If it were up to me, all 200 of you would be fired. Not suspended, fired! You both deserve to lose your jobs and your certs and never be allowed to play EMT/Paramedic anywhere in the world again. They should fire the whole lot of you. Doctors who forge paperwork lose their licenses, the same should happen to you.

If the whole system ends up changing for the worst, boys and girls, you know exactly who to thank.

6 comments:

  1. As long as the firefighters (who have only been on for 20 hours) are not told to stop pumping on my chest, I don't care how long those medics have been up for! What good is a paramedic in ACS anyways? Safe, expeditious transport to the appropriate facility :)

    I'm with you, pull the cards for the lot of them...

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  2. I am now taking the Paramedic for the first time (Hopefully :) the only time!)and although I want to be angry with my instructors for being so nitpicky I know they are that way for good reason. If these people are not willing to follow the regulations and take the training they were supposed to they don't deserve to be Paramedics or EMT's. I have no sympathy for any of them! I just found your blog and thanks for writing it MedicTrommashere !

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  3. Ms. Trommashere, keep writing! You're young, you're enthusiastic, you're smart. You are the future of EMS. Not just you, but other young people who want to move the profession forward.

    Keep it up.

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  4. Thank you thank you thank you!! TOTWTYTR, I'm glad you enjoy it. Thank you for your compliments, same goes to you Lizzie and Mark. Honestly, this blog wouldn't be possible without people coming in and reading it. I'd have no reason to show off my charming self!

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  5. I too just found your blog. Great Stuff!I also agree that all 200 of these people should have been fired period. I am the person people come to in the 11th hour to tell me they need x amount of hours to recert. It drives me Craaaazzzzy. Before I actually help them, I must (to keep some portion of my sanity) say to them "Reeealy, 24 hours in 3 years, you couldn't do that? 8 hours a year Reeeeally? And don't get me started on how people are allowed the "extra time" to make it up should the clock have already struck 12.

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  6. As an ACLS and PALS instructor, I know all too well about the, "can you just give me a card, please?!" I can honestly say I have never handed out a card or written someones' name down on a roster just because I was teaching a class and I knew they needed one. My rule has been and always will be: You want a card? Come to my class and earn it like everyone else.

    24 hours in three years sounds awesome! 18 hours a year for my former state, then the 72+ for the NR. Worst part was, most of my con-ed classes weren't recognized by the NR, so I had to do a lot of scrambling trying to find the more expensive NR classes, but I did it.

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