ALS Intercept Required.

This is a continuation of my previous post, No ALS Needed. I will likely stumble and rant myself into a corner, in which case EE or one of my classmates will come in and school me like the little girl that I am(only on the inside, as I am neither little, nor girly). Yes, I drive a Beetle, but that is a different discussion for a different day. See, I’m off topic already.

In our line of work we constantly battle a thousand different things so that we simply do our jobs. We have to wade through paperwork, protocol(well, sort of), supervisors, and all while covering our asses.

Yup. While I’m treating your grandmother who has Congestive Heart Failure, Diabetes, pneumonia, bronchitis, pink eye, and TB I am thinking of everything I can do to not end up getting sued, losing my job, losing my license, or all of the above. Thats the way it works these days. Ask your Doctor–they’ve got it worse yet. It isn’t good enough that my service has insurance to cover my ass–I’ve got to have my OWN insurance to cover my ass just in case my service’s insurance provider decides that I was acting against our “protocols” or as an individual not affiliated with my service(which, in a small county I could easily come to an accident prior to getting paged out. Should I pass it and get the ambulance, or stay and wait for my partner to bring the ambulance?). Sounds like fun, huh?

So, we’re supposed to be taking care of a patient, all while making sure we get the appropriate signatures, duplicate forms, copies of insurance cards, and documenting all events of the call, PLUS we get to cover our asses so we can make a measily 6 bucks an hour(not exactly) so that I can feed my wife, dogs, and my future child–but can I pay the rest of the bills? Sometimes. On this I am preaching to the choir as EMS in general is overworked, underpaid, and much abused. 

We are the ugly red-headed-step-child of Public Service. Everyone thinks Law Enforcement Officers are macho, gung ho, and tough. Lots of people don’t like them, but everyone knows who they are and what they are supposed to do. Firefighters are all glory. In the campaigns I worked on, the most valuable thing we could do was to get firefighters to say they loved us. Who in the world can look at a firefighter and say they are full of shit(unless you actually know some… like all people, firefighters are capable of being full of shit)? Who ever thinks that a firefighter gets paid too much, or a LEO gets too much credit? But where does EMS–the Ambulance fall into this?

Well, for one, I am a Paramedic. I am not an Ambulance driver. Despite AD’s glorification of his title, I HATE it. I did spend a decent amount of time in school to get my certification. I then passed it all on the first try and work my ass off now to keep that title. 

Number 2–LEO’s piss on us like it is there job. They make us take their drunks, and “psych” cases(read: patients that might think about saying they would kill themselves if you were to ask them over, and over, and over, and over–maybe if you left them alone you could just arrest them peacefully). I’m not saying all cops are bad. I need them to like me. But they need us every now and again too. God forbid I’m in a pinch I need them there. And God forbid, they are injured, they need us too. Give us some damn respect. 

Firefighters look at us like we’re slow, fat, and don’t care(just because I didn’t RUN into the house, and didn’t instantly throw the patient to the ambulance so we could fly off with lights and sirens, does not mean we don’t care. It just means we’re going to not rush things and screw up–and rarely does a patient justify me risking life and limb to get them to the hospital 3 minutes faster). I might be fat, but I am not slow and I do care. End of discussion.

When it comes down to budgets, we are always the last to get noticed(I know, I work for a county, I shouldn’t complain–private services have it tougher). The fire departments in my county got a 4% increase for FY2009 budget. The ambulance, however, got an 11% decrease. Yup. Somehow we are supposed to do everything we do now for cheaper next year. They have also decided to NOT put money into the capital fund for a new ambulance that will likely be needed in 1-2 years to replace our 8 year old backup rig(or our brand new piece of crap).

So where do we fit in? I’m not looking for glory and fame. If I was I would have stayed in politics kissing the asses of increadibly rich people all day long. I do this because I care, because I like helping people, and frankly I get a bit of a rush out of it. It also gives me a little bit of baggage, but that again is a different topic. I do this work because I WANT to. When there comes a time when I don’t want to go to work anymore, I will find a new line of work–Likely with the Golden Arches. 

I guess the point of all of this is simple: Realize that the more we overcomplicate this crap, the less we are treating our patients. Rather than focusing on how much of our job sucks, focus on the good parts. Focus on the times where what you did actually did matter. Even if it was only a little. Focus on treating your PATIENTS, and if you are doing your job right, you won’t have to worry about covering your ass. You might still have to worry a bit about doing paperwork right–as it is, and will always be a pain in our collective health care ass. 

And, if when you wake up in the morning and dread going to work–get a new job, Dumb Ass.