Today I was reading a Facebook post, and it was titled: TRUTH REGUARDING PARAMEDICS/EMTs. Most the time I skim through anything related to EMS and say to myself yup this is true. But this post was spot on and really just so true.
Theres so many times where first responders are belittled, and everyone likes to say you know what you signed up for when took the job. While this is partly true its also not true at all. When you start school or training the first thing they tell you is; you are going to save lives! You will also get to drive lights and sirens so everyone will have to move out of your way. Now I just laugh at this because this is so false.
Depending on your company and what type of truck you work on will depend on what kind of calls you will get. Most private ambulance companies run transfers only. This means you will take grandma or grandpa from the hospital to home or nursing home. You will run dialysis call; these patients are too weak to get up and move on their own. Another thing you will do is what we call psych transfers. This is where you take someone who is having a mental episode and take them from the hospital to a mental facility/hospital. Lastly if you are on a transfer ambulance you will take someone from one hospital to another hospital so they can receive higher level of care.
Are we saving lives on a transfer ambulance? Technically yes because without the ambulance some of these people could result in further harm.
Now moving on to an emergency 911 ambulance. You would think when someone calls 911 it must be serious; right? Well not always. Here you are ready to save lives and your first call is someone who stubbed their big toe on their left foot. Cool! Let’s get you to the hospital where they will tell you to put some ice on it. But because you called 911 and an ambulance is taking you doesn’t mean it will get you seen faster. We will take you out to the waiting room and put you in a chair where you will wait to be seen. Except now you have a $1000 ambulance bill to be your uber. Sometimes we will get called 911 because someone wants us to take them to the hospital because they are hungry. It’s true! They will want to know the menu of each local hospital so they can pick which hospital they will eat at.
Don’t get me wrong we do get a lot of true emergencies that we have to do some interventions in the back of the ambulance to make sure you get to the hospital alive. Some of the stuff we do you could never imagine doing and that’s where this Facebook post hit me. The post is about EMS and first responders making just over minimum wage. The public thinks of us as ambulance drivers, some nurses think of us as their personal taxi to take people they need gone out of the hospital and brought back home.
Here is the Facebook post that is true. While reading this I want you to put yourself in those shoes!
*If you have never zipped up a body bag on shift, you shouldn’t be deciding how much paramedics/EMTs make.
*If you have never watched a person suffocate to death from their own blood or sputum, you shouldn’t be deciding how much paramedics/EMTs make.
*If you never been punched and kicked for trying to assess your patient, you shouldn’t be deciding how much paramedics/EMTs make.
*If you never had to look into a loved one’s eyes or hold them while they crumble when you tell them the death of their child, mother, father, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparent… you shouldn’t be deciding how much paramedics/EMTs make.
*If you never told your family your shift was “fine” to spare them from what you saw that day, you shouldn’t be deciding how much paramedics/EMTs make.
*If you never felt ribs breaking from doing CPR on someone’s family member, you shouldn’t be deciding how much paramedics/EMTs make.
*If you never missed the holidays with your family, your kids first steps, ballgames, etc. you shouldn’t be deciding how much paramedics/EMTs make.
*For years Medics & EMTs have been underpaid and undervalued and no one seemed to care
*Now the healthcare is on the bank of collapse, everyone is concerned.
*Paramedics & EMTs are leaving the profession at rapid rates.
*Perhaps its from the years of getting 1% or no raises, working numerous jobs and barely being able to pay bills. Maybe it’s because paramedics & EMTs are asked to do more and more with less. Maybe it’s from the terrible staffing ratios. The reasons are honestly endless.
*Let’s start caring about paramedics & EMTs retention, training, fair wages, safe staffing, & taking care of our EMS when they become physically & mentally broken from all the years of working.
*Let’s not get to the point where you need a medic/EMT and there isn’t one to spare.
While this post is true in so many ways its heart breaking to know this is true! I wouldn’t dare tell my mother some of the things I see or do. While yes, we could just get into another field but if we all did that there would be no one to help you during your emergency. The company that I work for mottos: Taking care of the people that take care of us.
Sometimes the way the public treats us you wouldn’t believe it. Every time we have the lights and sirens on someone will try to beat us, flip us off, or scream at us. I am so sorry I am such an inconvenience to you because someone is having a medical emergency and is dying. But then when its their emergency they wonder why we didn’t come faster. Well sir there was some guy cutting us off and wouldn’t let me pass and then traffic at the crossroads decided not to stop and then I had another lady brake checking me, but we got here as fast as we could with the circumstances I was delt with.
EMS pet peeve – never call us ambulance drivers!
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