Fiefighter/Medics

[Terry McDonald]

Thoughts on
firefighter/medics. I
am a Driver assigned to
an engine company and
also a paramedic. We
are a FD based ALS
ambulance service. The
question is, how much
ambulance time, in your
opinion, to keep up
medic skills. In our
dept., driver rank and
above are not routinely
assigned to the unit to
cover for vacations,
sick time etc. I
volunteer for the time
on the unit when the
medic is off if we have
a full engine crew and
the senior FF can drive.
I also get the leeway
to ride in with the unit
if the need be on ALS
calls and can use medic
skills then.(we first
respond engines on most
"bad" EMS calls.) Is
this sufficient? I
study and reveiw more
than most medics i know
because i feel this is
the best way to keep up
with drug dosages and
treatments in general
for the patients. Is
this enough?

[Paramark14]

I think your doing all you can do for now. Drug dosages are'nt that big a deal, you can always cheat and look it up or call MC. Skills like ET, IV, etc. are things you need to do fairly often to keep proficient. Does your home ED allow you to do time in the ED?

Mark
GCEMS
Indiana

[HILLBILLY70]

Most of our guys would slit each others throat not to be on EMS, and would like to forget that stuff if they could! Really, making the challenging calls with EMS and riding with them on occassion would do it for me. We are talking about you though, so you have to judge your own ability. It also has a lot to do with experience. It is easier to lose it if you never really had it. Not saying that is your case, but I think you understand.

[Medicman315]

I think the time you have spend as a medic should determine how much time you spend on a transporting unit, I have been a medic for 9 years, and I have had an occasion to ride the fire engine on a month to month rotation and I don't think my skills suffered, but I have seen younger medics lose some abilities by being off of the unit for more than a couple of duty days.