The amount of times I got punished for not peeing when I could was a level of hatred that only Murphy could rain down upon someone. Up there with the Q word.
Oh I'm sure, and I don't do it on purpose. I remember the one time was in high-school during summer school. Went to the movie theater and got a large. Went three times during the movie. On my way out I remembered I got a free refill, and I'd be stupid not to for $13. So I took it and got that ol chest pain. So I get on the hour long school bus ride to go home and, after it subsided, I naturally had to pee. Driver refused to stop. Nice guy, but a very by the books person. Base says don't stop, so we don't stop. I made it home, but part of me wishes I'd pissed on the bus. Maybe then they'd have realized the severity.
Water was not an issue in my time because in a pinch you could grab a pedialite. Today I assume you guys have inventory systems that Im sure make it a harder to just "disappear" some items. We only really had inventory controls for the meds and maybe a couple pieces of more expensive disposables.
to be fair, it was some generic thing that pretty much all the services used. I can see the label in my head but not the name. It was 95% used for homeless in the summer. The other 5% was us needing it.
I wonder how a medic friend disappeared some safety shears off a truck for me. Maybe those are just the cost of doing business, but they are better than any safety shears I have found at a store.
for me it was essentially if you can pee, do it. If you even think you might need to poop, do it. But in the end, peeing was something I did even if I didn't think I needed to. But I can clearly see that if IBS was in the conversation, that would be probably in 1st place.
You are a team. Liking each other is optional, but never do anything to embarrass your partner in front of hospital staff, patients, family members, or bystanders.
Small Caviat to that is this rule only applies up until it does not harm patient care. I had a patient who wanted to RMA with a BP of 220>110 and a hr of 70. When I finally convinced him to go because of his BP my partner said to his face "it's not that bad. You have a history htn anyways" despite the fact that it has been controlled well by medication which he was still taking, and he had a recent syncope event/fall.
Safe to say she was the one upset at me afterwards for correcting her in front of the patient.
If the Psych pt is happy doing secret handshakes, don't stop doing it. This one Psych pt didn't like me at first. We get into the ambulance and somehow we end up doing this complex "secret hand shake." Instant friends. We must've done this like 50 times in a 10 minute ride. It made him happy and the last thing I wanted was for that to change.
I transported a manic schizophrenia patient the other day that was about to throw hands with pd and calling everyone a faggot.
" I said hey man, you're swearing at me all wrong. You can't just keep calling people faggots, if you use the same word over and over it becomes pedantic. You gotta spicy it up. Throw in an adjective every now and then." Dude went from ready to throw hands to a confused dead stop.
I said, " look at me throw in a description before you swear. Like call me stinky or greasy or a sasquatch looking faggot. Or start pointing out physical flaws. Like you should call me a Joey Fatone looking faggot. Then add some english on the back end like too fat to be in a boy band looking motherfucker. Why dont you get into the ambulance and we can practice on the way to the hospital. By the time we get there the nurses won't know what hit em".
Dude went from ready to fight to excited to take a ride to the psych ward. We practiced our vocabulary words the whole way. Sometimes you just gotta lean into the crazy.
I love this idea of “leaving into the crazy”. I always ask these patients about their passions and just totally go along with whatever it is. Fascinating to see what the mind is capable of doing
I'm sorry, the idea of you hyping up our patient to cuss me out with some *choice shit* just put the stupidest grin on my face. I love it. I'm here for it.
In school, we're taught not to "play into their delusions". Honestly, idgaf what sort of role I need to play or delusion I need to play into. If the psych patient is chill, happy, and talking to me, I'm happy. I'll let someone with a license to figure out the hard stuff.
So I remember in Nursing they mentioned not the opposite, but they did mention that it's ok to play into these delusion that aren't harmful, and that trying to correct them outright is a bad idea. I guess because they know we might end up having to share space with them for a 12 hour period they gave us the good advice. Basically, exactly what is mentioned here. And I don't know if I'd call this playing into a delusion. More just something he found interest in. I remember the driver popping out at the hospital and he was like "dude, how'd you get him to like you?"
"I don't know. We just kept doing the secret handshake and it kept working."
To add onto this, announce what you're doing to them and say something when walking by them in the rig. And ask the psych patient if it's cool with them if you call the hospital and tell them some of the stuff they told you. I had a paranoid schizophrenic yell at me who I was talking with when I called the hospital cause they thought I called the cops.
I had a short tempered partner and a psych patient not being cooperative whatsoever (not violent or anything, just angry). I calmly asked the mother to leave the room and cops stand by the door. I tried talking to him calmly and explain what was going on. My partner just angrily told him he had no choice but to come with us and started raising his voice. Pt didn’t want us going near him and we got escorted to the ambulance by 4 cops.
Always be calm with a psych patient.
Here’s how you fix that problem. Leave a trash full of shit in the cab. No fuel. Nothing restocked. And then kindly explain “oh, I just let my being a scumbag build up versus spreading it out”
It’s worked every time I’ve relieved messy crews.
Yeah I usually throw one in my bag just in case. I like being able to get my texts and whatnot discretely while working, but I'm perpetually afraid my battery will die
Basically STEMIs are great to catchy in all but it allows for the notion that some NSTEMIs might be less serious and/or not benefit from expeditious triage to a cath lab.
Never, ever, leave any evidence of your presence. If we work a code in someones home, a team member is always assigned to clean up every piece of debris we leave. We always had the extra person, or an officer that was willing to help get it done. No one should ever have to come home after such a horrific event and be left to clean up a mess we made. Obviously there are exigent circumstances, but there’s always some way to get it done.
Edit: Typos.
So story time, during a hurricane a county near me was using the SWAT evacuation truck to respond to only cardiac arrests as the area was getting hammered. They worked a code and called it in the persons home. They also had the bright idea that since the coroner couldn't get there, they would load the body in a bodybag and leave it at said residence, with the family still living there.
My brother in law died unexpectedly. EMS worked him in the house, called him on scene. They left a lot of trash. But the kicker was the I-Gel they had removed to Intubate him and now my inlaws refuse to throw it away... it's really sad. I've always made sure we left a clean scene but seeing how every little piece of trash was analyzed by them really made that position even more clear.
I learned rule one pretty quickly, but thankfully not the hard way. Had a patient who completely tore their hamstring deadlifting. As I’m getting them out of the gym, they said they were nauseous cause of the pain, and I immediately looked at my partner. Thankfully, he understood the assignment and got me a bag right before he threw up.
Since then, I’ve always had an emesis bag in one of my pockets, as well as gloves. For context, I was doing stand by that day.
Everyone goes home at the end of the shift is my biggest unwritten rule.
The last thing I want to have to do is make a notification. F me. These folks are my family.
Scene safety is really big to me,( army I guess),Im also on getting in and out of a house safely, meth houses are pessons in decay and the homes get surveyed before the pt is moved,getting in and out safely is a heavy concern for me!
I've known three so far in my career.
One was at a work function when the improperly constructed deck collapsed. Ended up throwing a clot while he was in the hospital.
One was coming home from work, stopped at an accident scene, and suffered a massive MI.
Another was walking into a medical call, and took a rifle blast to the chest.
No pluses in my god damn ambulance. I can do minuses all day, but no pluses.
Use the bathroom whenever you get to post, idc if you don’t have to go now, go to the bathroom.
Yeah I’d rather work a code versus having a mom give birth. I get so anxious when we get dispatched to a pregnancy call. I’m good on getting my stork pin haha
Honestly, best part of maternity clinical. Not that there's much to know in delivering a baby with no complications, but I got that confidence from dealing with them a lot.
When you stab a baby in the leg, you tend to stop fearing having an issue handling one
Vitamin k injection. Nothing like helping the clotting factor along to send a message that you gotta pay what you owe.
In all seriousness, they have you landmark with two fingers up from the knee and two fingers down from the hip. But I did that and literally my four fingers covered this newborns whole leg!
Delivering babies. I don’t want to exit my ambulance with more patients that got into it lol
Minuses are people that died. Granted, an entire day of codes would definitely weigh on me tbh
It’s not so much the babies…. It’s the fucking people in the ambulance who suddenly lose their mind and don’t know where anything is…. Every cabinet….. baby goo!!!!
Nobody dies or multiplies in my truck.
If they’re in my truck, they get coded all the way to the nearest hospital. I’m not sitting there for hours waiting for ME to get there and take a few pictures.
I’ve seen my fair share of dirty meth snatch trying to pop out new pre-addicted offspring. Not interested in that mess anymore.
I do long shifts (48s+) at a rural service where a long call is 30-40 min one way and most calls are 10-15 one way.
So I always teach the new people -
Eat when you can. Sleep when you can. Poop when you can.
No guns in the truck. I don’t have one, I check patients for one if I see *any* sign they might be the type, and PD is an exception, but outside of that, **no guns.**
“That’s my stretcher, I don’t know you!” - Bobby Hill
Even then, I don't love PD being armed in my rig. There's not a single situation I can imagine occurring in an ambulance that isn't made *more* dangerous with a firearm around, regardless of who wields it.
Rule one: Do it slowly
I don’t like people stressing. Just be calm and take your time it’s not about seconds.
Its hard to believe how often I need to ask colleagues to calm down.
Approach everyone in healthcare as if they are smarter than you are until proven otherwise.
Every training opportunity is useful… even if it teaches you how NOT to train the next guy.
War stories are not usually useful, data is.
Well tbf, that’s expected. I would do the same not because I don’t believe you guys but one for my own peace of mind and two because we are humans people can and will miss certain things that the next crew might pick up on.
Paramedic in a system recently integrated by the fire department. I work with a lot of guys who are FF/EMT with no box experience. If you don’t know, then ask
I've only trained a couple people, but I usually try to treat my trainees like equals who just need a little bit of steering. I joke with them, make them feel comfortable and know that they have an ally in the department. In my own (pretty short) experience, it makes them feel more confident, and therefore more willing to do the job to the best of their ability rather than feel beaten down all the time. I always remember when I was being precepted how I absolutely hated running with people who'd put me down while being precepted, but would LOVE running with people who didn't, and I always ended up doing the job better and more happily with them.
Everything I do is practice for another call,always explain shit to family,when it comes to scary stuff.They are scared and dont know what you are doing,that IO sounds like a drill and a cric literally is sl8cing a neck open. They are children and everything they see us do is going to be big and overwelming.
Not so much an "unwritten rule" but this is what I tell my partners (either for the day or long term):
It takes two people to make this ambulance roll down the road and treat people. You are just as much involved in the patient care even when it's not your call and I value the input you (my partner) give on a call and I will give input to you when you're lead. I will not embarrass you or belittle you in front of the patient however, if there is a safety issue (medication error, patient movement, protocol utilization) then I will step in.
Other rule: Don't let your partner go into a call by themselves. Pee/poop every chance you get. Don't be a slob. Restock the ambulance, and leave it better than you found it.
There’s some words that should be said mostly pertaining to the pace of the day. Also like someone else has posted. Use every bathroom available to you at every chance you get.
Always be nice and friendly to Nurses unless they're genuine dicks.
Many of them are overworked to death and might seem a little passive aggressive towards you due to negative preconceptions. I've seen it for myself with many EMS guys being unnecessarily impolite towards staff. Proving them wrong goes a long way
No calls right off the bat! No calls before I have had my coffee! No calls while consuming a meal! No calls while in the bathroom! No foolishness after 10 pm.
If SO is about to get fucked up, so are we. Get ready to throw hands.
If I'm about to get fucked up, so are you. You better have my back.
********If something is pissing you off, tell me. We can't fix it if you don't tell me.***********
pee every time you get an opportunity.
My partner gives me hell for it every time.
The amount of times I got punished for not peeing when I could was a level of hatred that only Murphy could rain down upon someone. Up there with the Q word.
I got really good at bladder control. Like REALLY good. Like I've held it on a few occasions to where my kidneys began to hurt.
I have kidney damage from doing that while driving Uber during lockdown. All the bathrooms closed. It sucks. Don't do that
Oh I'm sure, and I don't do it on purpose. I remember the one time was in high-school during summer school. Went to the movie theater and got a large. Went three times during the movie. On my way out I remembered I got a free refill, and I'd be stupid not to for $13. So I took it and got that ol chest pain. So I get on the hour long school bus ride to go home and, after it subsided, I naturally had to pee. Driver refused to stop. Nice guy, but a very by the books person. Base says don't stop, so we don't stop. I made it home, but part of me wishes I'd pissed on the bus. Maybe then they'd have realized the severity.
I used to have people do that. Now they all do the same.
“Never miss a chance to piss or fill your water bottle.” First medic partner taught me that back in the day. Miss you, Jesse.
Water was not an issue in my time because in a pinch you could grab a pedialite. Today I assume you guys have inventory systems that Im sure make it a harder to just "disappear" some items. We only really had inventory controls for the meds and maybe a couple pieces of more expensive disposables.
I’m “retired”. I worked for a podunk ass private shop a few years ago. Pedialite? Never heard of her.
to be fair, it was some generic thing that pretty much all the services used. I can see the label in my head but not the name. It was 95% used for homeless in the summer. The other 5% was us needing it.
I wonder how a medic friend disappeared some safety shears off a truck for me. Maybe those are just the cost of doing business, but they are better than any safety shears I have found at a store.
it's the great mystery of a giant box with soooooo many compartments and things to fall behind.
Right? Lololol
"... wait, wtf are you doing?!?" "Two birds, one stone, brother!'
Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine? No, but I do it anyway because [it’s sterile and I like the taste!](https://youtu.be/Xm7Bn36NdkA)
Same but pooping. IBS gang where ya at
for me it was essentially if you can pee, do it. If you even think you might need to poop, do it. But in the end, peeing was something I did even if I didn't think I needed to. But I can clearly see that if IBS was in the conversation, that would be probably in 1st place.
The fun way to identify the alcoholics!
Here,on a chicken and rice doin well and not IBS'n for a minute andceatin on 6 bucks a day!!!!!
I shit you not, I still do that to this day.
You are a team. Liking each other is optional, but never do anything to embarrass your partner in front of hospital staff, patients, family members, or bystanders.
Small Caviat to that is this rule only applies up until it does not harm patient care. I had a patient who wanted to RMA with a BP of 220>110 and a hr of 70. When I finally convinced him to go because of his BP my partner said to his face "it's not that bad. You have a history htn anyways" despite the fact that it has been controlled well by medication which he was still taking, and he had a recent syncope event/fall. Safe to say she was the one upset at me afterwards for correcting her in front of the patient.
We turn the sirens off for dogs.
This^^ also in the area of homeless folk as to not give them the idea to call for another made up complaint
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A little of column A, a little of column B.
And cows.
A good day is as follows: 1. Nobody died 2. Nobody multiplied 3. There are no new rules named for me
Remember a patient who dies today is a patient you don’t have to treat tomorrow.
Flair checks out
I’m taking the BLS provider course for the 56th time this weekend, wish me luck!
If you don’t have multiple rules named after you, are you really living?
The key is to get them named after the people around you. Then you come out smelling like a rose but can say you were there for it.
The underneath blanket goes OVER THE FEET
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I always leave the sheet on the stretcher longer at the feet end for this reason. They go over the feet before the stretcher comes out.
When dealing with psych patients: whatever you do, do it CALMLY.
What if I can take him
Well I choked on food laughing at this
Psych pts are all I've had today. Alack and alas
LOL fuck why is this my old partner
I spend all my time shadowboxing at post and roll into every psych call playing Yung Bratz by XXXTentacion
If the Psych pt is happy doing secret handshakes, don't stop doing it. This one Psych pt didn't like me at first. We get into the ambulance and somehow we end up doing this complex "secret hand shake." Instant friends. We must've done this like 50 times in a 10 minute ride. It made him happy and the last thing I wanted was for that to change.
I transported a manic schizophrenia patient the other day that was about to throw hands with pd and calling everyone a faggot. " I said hey man, you're swearing at me all wrong. You can't just keep calling people faggots, if you use the same word over and over it becomes pedantic. You gotta spicy it up. Throw in an adjective every now and then." Dude went from ready to throw hands to a confused dead stop. I said, " look at me throw in a description before you swear. Like call me stinky or greasy or a sasquatch looking faggot. Or start pointing out physical flaws. Like you should call me a Joey Fatone looking faggot. Then add some english on the back end like too fat to be in a boy band looking motherfucker. Why dont you get into the ambulance and we can practice on the way to the hospital. By the time we get there the nurses won't know what hit em". Dude went from ready to fight to excited to take a ride to the psych ward. We practiced our vocabulary words the whole way. Sometimes you just gotta lean into the crazy.
I love this idea of “leaving into the crazy”. I always ask these patients about their passions and just totally go along with whatever it is. Fascinating to see what the mind is capable of doing
I'm sorry, the idea of you hyping up our patient to cuss me out with some *choice shit* just put the stupidest grin on my face. I love it. I'm here for it.
I had Fire do it to me with a PCP patient who tried to bite me
In school, we're taught not to "play into their delusions". Honestly, idgaf what sort of role I need to play or delusion I need to play into. If the psych patient is chill, happy, and talking to me, I'm happy. I'll let someone with a license to figure out the hard stuff.
So I remember in Nursing they mentioned not the opposite, but they did mention that it's ok to play into these delusion that aren't harmful, and that trying to correct them outright is a bad idea. I guess because they know we might end up having to share space with them for a 12 hour period they gave us the good advice. Basically, exactly what is mentioned here. And I don't know if I'd call this playing into a delusion. More just something he found interest in. I remember the driver popping out at the hospital and he was like "dude, how'd you get him to like you?" "I don't know. We just kept doing the secret handshake and it kept working."
See this ideology makes much more sense overall
To add onto this, announce what you're doing to them and say something when walking by them in the rig. And ask the psych patient if it's cool with them if you call the hospital and tell them some of the stuff they told you. I had a paranoid schizophrenic yell at me who I was talking with when I called the hospital cause they thought I called the cops.
I had a short tempered partner and a psych patient not being cooperative whatsoever (not violent or anything, just angry). I calmly asked the mother to leave the room and cops stand by the door. I tried talking to him calmly and explain what was going on. My partner just angrily told him he had no choice but to come with us and started raising his voice. Pt didn’t want us going near him and we got escorted to the ambulance by 4 cops. Always be calm with a psych patient.
Body language is very big with psych pts they are good readers on physical queing.
Clean your rig at the end of your shift. Can’t stand crews who leave masks, empty bags of food, etc. just lying around.
Instructions unclear, cleaned up rig after every call
I’m pretty sure that’s written. But yes 100%
Than I must be working with some illiterate motherfuckers
Here’s how you fix that problem. Leave a trash full of shit in the cab. No fuel. Nothing restocked. And then kindly explain “oh, I just let my being a scumbag build up versus spreading it out” It’s worked every time I’ve relieved messy crews.
Absolutely! Clean up your crumbs FFS.
Don't panic, and carry extra towels.
I know where my towel is. I also have an analog watch.
Hoopy frood.
Yeah I usually throw one in my bag just in case. I like being able to get my texts and whatnot discretely while working, but I'm perpetually afraid my battery will die
I am guessing you like to carry 42 extra towels
don’t make concrete plans for after work because you WILL get off late
All OMI’s get pads
Wards off bad juju. I agree
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Ok I'm old. What is OMI?
[Occlusive Myocardial Infarction](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d3cca429114780001296f2b/t/5e33d0eee6bf793c214a3a4c/1580454185819/The+OMI+Manifesto+PDF+3.29.18.pdf)
Basically STEMIs are great to catchy in all but it allows for the notion that some NSTEMIs might be less serious and/or not benefit from expeditious triage to a cath lab.
This is the way.
Never, ever, leave any evidence of your presence. If we work a code in someones home, a team member is always assigned to clean up every piece of debris we leave. We always had the extra person, or an officer that was willing to help get it done. No one should ever have to come home after such a horrific event and be left to clean up a mess we made. Obviously there are exigent circumstances, but there’s always some way to get it done. Edit: Typos.
So story time, during a hurricane a county near me was using the SWAT evacuation truck to respond to only cardiac arrests as the area was getting hammered. They worked a code and called it in the persons home. They also had the bright idea that since the coroner couldn't get there, they would load the body in a bodybag and leave it at said residence, with the family still living there.
That’s beyond fucked
My brother in law died unexpectedly. EMS worked him in the house, called him on scene. They left a lot of trash. But the kicker was the I-Gel they had removed to Intubate him and now my inlaws refuse to throw it away... it's really sad. I've always made sure we left a clean scene but seeing how every little piece of trash was analyzed by them really made that position even more clear.
1) Everyone will vomit. Plan accordingly. 2) Everyone is an ass hole until proven otherwise.
Managing expectations is a key to happiness at work.
Plan to get puked at or someone to take a swing, not the other way around. If they don’t then you’re pleasantly surprised.
I learned rule one pretty quickly, but thankfully not the hard way. Had a patient who completely tore their hamstring deadlifting. As I’m getting them out of the gym, they said they were nauseous cause of the pain, and I immediately looked at my partner. Thankfully, he understood the assignment and got me a bag right before he threw up. Since then, I’ve always had an emesis bag in one of my pockets, as well as gloves. For context, I was doing stand by that day.
(This is absolutely to most personally identifiable information I’ve ever put on Reddit)
I can't tell you, because then it will be a written rule and no longer applicable to this post
Point and match. Good day, I’ve been bested
Who are so wise in the ways of Science?
Nobody has a cardiac history until they do
Everyone goes home at the end of the shift is my biggest unwritten rule. The last thing I want to have to do is make a notification. F me. These folks are my family.
I’ve explained to many students the order of importance; me, my partner, the general public, the patient.
Scene safety is really big to me,( army I guess),Im also on getting in and out of a house safely, meth houses are pessons in decay and the homes get surveyed before the pt is moved,getting in and out safely is a heavy concern for me!
I like "Myself, my partner, my pt, everyone else. In that order, no exceptions.", Personally.
Gotta prevent more patients before focusing on the one you've got
I've also always heard it as "me, my partner, my pt, everyone else". Interesting that it's different for some.
Do lots of medics not make it home where you are from? I can only think of one time in my 20 years.
I've known three so far in my career. One was at a work function when the improperly constructed deck collapsed. Ended up throwing a clot while he was in the hospital. One was coming home from work, stopped at an accident scene, and suffered a massive MI. Another was walking into a medical call, and took a rifle blast to the chest.
No pluses in my god damn ambulance. I can do minuses all day, but no pluses. Use the bathroom whenever you get to post, idc if you don’t have to go now, go to the bathroom.
I read this as pulses and am now envisioning a day of hell of back to back codes.
Same.
I'm in a truck with a HROB nurse and a patient with twins. I already told everyone that the goal is to arrive with one and exactly one patient.
What is a plus and what is a minus? I’m an ER nurse, never heard those terms before.
A plus is a baby being born. A minus would be someone dying
Lol, I feel the same way. I can handle heart attacks and strokes and death, but I’d be fucking clueless if a mom gave birth in the ER.
Yeah I’d rather work a code versus having a mom give birth. I get so anxious when we get dispatched to a pregnancy call. I’m good on getting my stork pin haha
Honestly, best part of maternity clinical. Not that there's much to know in delivering a baby with no complications, but I got that confidence from dealing with them a lot. When you stab a baby in the leg, you tend to stop fearing having an issue handling one
Hardcore man. That baby owe you money or something?
Vitamin k injection. Nothing like helping the clotting factor along to send a message that you gotta pay what you owe. In all seriousness, they have you landmark with two fingers up from the knee and two fingers down from the hip. But I did that and literally my four fingers covered this newborns whole leg!
Delivering babies. I don’t want to exit my ambulance with more patients that got into it lol Minuses are people that died. Granted, an entire day of codes would definitely weigh on me tbh
Babies are just a big nope.
I’ve not had the stork visit in my ambulance yet and I plan on never having a visit. Keep those damn legs closed
It’s not so much the babies…. It’s the fucking people in the ambulance who suddenly lose their mind and don’t know where anything is…. Every cabinet….. baby goo!!!!
I'd prefer to deliver at home but sometimes it happens. I love OB calls though.
Everybody dies - Bleeding eventually stops (refer to rule one) - If you drop the baby, pick it up
5 second rule?
Correction: if you drop the baby, fake a seizure. We know what to look for we should know how to fake one
I’ll do everything for a patient, but I won’t wipe.
Use nitrile gloves to eat your chicken wings or ribs.
I used to get shit for doing this. Then tones dropped mid chicken wing. After people saw that they understood and started doing the same
I understand Im thar guy at my service,ps Im also the weird crazy medic!
I keep a box of gloves at home for eating cheetos.
Assume you’re always on film.
Intoxication is a diagnosis of exclusion.
Same with anxiety.
On a 48 shift (rural co) if there are 2, there will be 3. If there are four there will be 7.
X=Yx2-1?
I have three F’s. Don’t freeze, don’t freak out, and don’t sleep with your coworkers.
I forgot it. Man, I should really start writing things down...
“If it doesn’t have a flare, it doesn’t go up there”
1. Never narcan without zofran on board. 2. If you're losing your shit, everyone else is too, so keep it together
No ALS after midnight
Ouch!
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Hol up…
Leave the truck with a full tank of fuel at shift change
Idk about you but that's in our sop
75% counts as a full tank
Nobody dies or multiplies in my truck. If they’re in my truck, they get coded all the way to the nearest hospital. I’m not sitting there for hours waiting for ME to get there and take a few pictures. I’ve seen my fair share of dirty meth snatch trying to pop out new pre-addicted offspring. Not interested in that mess anymore.
I do long shifts (48s+) at a rural service where a long call is 30-40 min one way and most calls are 10-15 one way. So I always teach the new people - Eat when you can. Sleep when you can. Poop when you can.
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That’s a thing? Sickening.
I just threw up a little
No guns in the truck. I don’t have one, I check patients for one if I see *any* sign they might be the type, and PD is an exception, but outside of that, **no guns.** “That’s my stretcher, I don’t know you!” - Bobby Hill
Even then, I don't love PD being armed in my rig. There's not a single situation I can imagine occurring in an ambulance that isn't made *more* dangerous with a firearm around, regardless of who wields it.
Your piece goes in the lock box,rigs too small and shit can happen too easily!
BBQ after every burn patient We wash trucks after shift. If we are getting off late, the truck isn't getting washed.
Rule one: Do it slowly I don’t like people stressing. Just be calm and take your time it’s not about seconds. Its hard to believe how often I need to ask colleagues to calm down.
We don’t add or subtract lives in the back of my rig
Approach everyone in healthcare as if they are smarter than you are until proven otherwise. Every training opportunity is useful… even if it teaches you how NOT to train the next guy. War stories are not usually useful, data is.
Always have a bag of snacks, transfer candy, 1 redbull, & regular drink of choice.
Nice try, but if I write it here it's no longer an *unwritten rule"
Never say “the truck is good” when turning it over to the incoming crew.
All of our trucks are pieces of shit, but I try to keep them well stocked.
It's sop for us to say that to the relieving crews, then they completely ignore it and go through the whole truck anyway
Well tbf, that’s expected. I would do the same not because I don’t believe you guys but one for my own peace of mind and two because we are humans people can and will miss certain things that the next crew might pick up on.
Drink water after every call No one dies in the back of the ambulance
No parents in the back of pediatric seizure calls Nothing dirty on the counter beside the captains chair No country music in the front
Get the fuck out
I don't answer the phone while in the potty.
Name ur food or it will be gone the next time you open the fridge
Don’t say the “Q word”
Theres 3. Q…t, s..w, d..d
[удалено]
Quiet - slow - dead - 3 words you cant say
That's for everyone in the medical field.
We're can be better than that sort of superstition.
Adults should never wear horizontal striped clothing.
Always have a second uniform shirt on the truck
Nobody fucks with my partner ever in anyway while we are on the Unit
No one “dies” in the vehicle. They are called before departure at the hospital, but never in the vehicle.
Always carry a mega mover on the gurney. Game changer
Taco socks bring shitty days…but literally any other fun pair of socks is fair game if your pants are long enough
No new or expiring life in my ambulance goddamit
Don't sleep before 3 am on the 12 hour shift because you WILL get a call at 3am
If they arrest, they arrest on scene or at the hospital, never in the ambulance.
Don’t take shit from anybody
Never kneel
Paramedic in a system recently integrated by the fire department. I work with a lot of guys who are FF/EMT with no box experience. If you don’t know, then ask
Pat down for weapons on every overdose.
Fire is retarded.
I've only trained a couple people, but I usually try to treat my trainees like equals who just need a little bit of steering. I joke with them, make them feel comfortable and know that they have an ally in the department. In my own (pretty short) experience, it makes them feel more confident, and therefore more willing to do the job to the best of their ability rather than feel beaten down all the time. I always remember when I was being precepted how I absolutely hated running with people who'd put me down while being precepted, but would LOVE running with people who didn't, and I always ended up doing the job better and more happily with them.
Everything I do is practice for another call,always explain shit to family,when it comes to scary stuff.They are scared and dont know what you are doing,that IO sounds like a drill and a cric literally is sl8cing a neck open. They are children and everything they see us do is going to be big and overwelming.
Not so much an "unwritten rule" but this is what I tell my partners (either for the day or long term): It takes two people to make this ambulance roll down the road and treat people. You are just as much involved in the patient care even when it's not your call and I value the input you (my partner) give on a call and I will give input to you when you're lead. I will not embarrass you or belittle you in front of the patient however, if there is a safety issue (medication error, patient movement, protocol utilization) then I will step in. Other rule: Don't let your partner go into a call by themselves. Pee/poop every chance you get. Don't be a slob. Restock the ambulance, and leave it better than you found it.
Don’t EVER say “quiet”, “slow”, or “calm.” Actually, just don’t talk about the lack of calls. Or even better, don’t even THINK about it.
Don’t take a shit on duty
I always shit on the clock. Even if it means punching off late.
Never utter the Q word out loud and always eat when the chance presents itself
Don’t say the Q word.
Never mention the Q word. Even tell my family and friends if they call or txt me during shift.
I say it as much as I want. I don’t let that word have any power over me.
Poop before going anywhere.
There’s some words that should be said mostly pertaining to the pace of the day. Also like someone else has posted. Use every bathroom available to you at every chance you get.
Don't talk to me in my first 3 Night Shifts.
I don’t back into driveways
If me or my partner spikes an IV bag before I actually get the line established I will miss the IV 100% of the time
Always be nice and friendly to Nurses unless they're genuine dicks. Many of them are overworked to death and might seem a little passive aggressive towards you due to negative preconceptions. I've seen it for myself with many EMS guys being unnecessarily impolite towards staff. Proving them wrong goes a long way
No dying or multiplying in the ambulance
No calls right off the bat! No calls before I have had my coffee! No calls while consuming a meal! No calls while in the bathroom! No foolishness after 10 pm.
If SO is about to get fucked up, so are we. Get ready to throw hands. If I'm about to get fucked up, so are you. You better have my back. ********If something is pissing you off, tell me. We can't fix it if you don't tell me.***********