Advice From All You Medics

kellymoe

Expedition Leader
OneTime said:
Kelly I just took notice of your avatar. (Got to get one of those someday.) I miss leaving in Valencia, jumping on the 14 to 395 and being in Toulume Meadows in 6 hrs. Always wanted to work for Mono County.

My brother was a FF/PM for Mono County for several years. Worked the June Lake station and then Walker. Worked his way as high as he could get in the county and then became the fire chief for a town in Washington state. He is now the fire chief of Soldotna Alaska, a good size town on the Kanai. I miss having a free place to crash in June:(

Toulumne is a great place, love climbing there.
 

OneTime

Adventurer
Two of my biggest regrets.. Leaving my job in Sonoma County and turning down a job at the at the last minute with El Dorado County (Tahoe) for my wife. Oh did I mention she ended up being my ex wife? Whatcha gona do.....
 
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jh504

Explorer
KingCrabberCurry said:
Dude,

I work in Durham. Parkwood Fire Department. PM me if you want to come ride sometime and see how we work in the Bull City.

Haha, I have been in and out of Durham quite a bit with JAS. Parkwood is actually on our list to run clinicals, I think you guys are the only department in Durham County we can run clinicals with. I would like to get some good trauma experience over there. You guys deal with a lot of BS too though.
 

jh504

Explorer
OneTime said:
JH504. Lets keep this thread alive while we are in class or start a new one. Sure wont be doing and real expoing till next year. Im hoping this is not all for not. The state of AZ in a fews weeks from bankruptcy. Hope they dont cut out the Air Rescue program. Oh well I have a good job now and you cant go wrong with getting more education. I'l lkeep you guys posted on how the guys with no prior experience do. There are also a few FF/EMT with over 14 years experience and one with 22 years. GOOD LUCK JH!!
.

Yeah, we will keep it going with progress reports. Our class has a very large variety of students. We have some in the class who are still waiting for their basic certification to come back. Then there are some with many years on the job. Normally in NC you have to have real experience for 1 year as a basic before you can start the class, but somehow these guys have found a way around it. We will see how things go.
 

OneTime

Adventurer
Your class sounds a lot like mine experience wise. I'm curious to see how the ones with no prior experience do. I know I have been buried in my A&P books for over a week. Getting sensory overload.
 

jh504

Explorer
Your class sounds a lot like mine experience wise. I'm curious to see how the ones with no prior experience do. I know I have been buried in my A&P books for over a week. Getting sensory overload.

Thankfully I havnt started A&P yet, I think I sill have a few weeks before that begins. I wonder how they will do as well. There are some other folks in there that I know, and have worked with. It scared me to see a few of them in the class. If they do end up passing I still will not let them touch me with a 10 foot pole.
 

OneTime

Adventurer
What are you guys starting with if not A&P? I had me head burried in the book for over two hours today and my brain is fried!

Also, how long did you say your one day a week program lasted?
 

jh504

Explorer
What are you guys starting with if not A&P? I had me head burried in the book for over two hours today and my brain is fried!

Also, how long did you say your one day a week program lasted?

We are starting with the most exciting part. . . . . . . . . . . Documentation and Legal!!! A&P is being offered as a corequisite and is a seperate class.
The class is one 8 hour day a week, from Jan.8-Dec.18.
 

OneTime

Adventurer
So you go once and week then also have sepperate classes to take? Hour program is set up the following: Almost six months of class room M W F for 8 hrs a day total of 584 hours. One month of clinicals total 120 hours. Two months of field training, 400 hours. Then back in the class room for a week of test prep and pratical testing. We graduate the day after Thanksgiving.
 

firemansxterra

Adventurer
Well I just passed my written part of my EMT-Intermediate test yesterday...what a load off my sholders! Passed the practical part a few weeks back...wasn't worried about that, I don't mind the hands on, but I don't do well on written / computer based tests at all, but I knocked it out on the first try.

Our program here through the fire department was a year long with class two days a week starting last January and then starting in April we had several hundred hours of clinicals and ride along time we had to have finished by November. It all sucked, but I'm not an EMS guy, grew up on the fire side of things, but they are making us do it now. The whole process just cut into my golf, snowboarding, and all my other outdoor activites way too much, glad it's over!
 

OneTime

Adventurer
Firemansexterra, I think you just made ASTN's case for him.....I never really understood the fireman not wanting to do EMS stuff. With out the rescue/ems side you guys wouldnt have much of a job. I mean they arent that many fires are there?
 

kellymoe

Expedition Leader
In Los Angeles City 85% of our call load is EMS. Without EMS in the fire service it would be very hard to justify it's existence in the form that we know it today. EMS is a fireman's bread and butter, big fires are just icing on the cake.
 

4Rescue

Expedition Leader
Well I just passed my written part of my EMT-Intermediate test yesterday...what a load off my sholders! Passed the practical part a few weeks back...wasn't worried about that, I don't mind the hands on, but I don't do well on written / computer based tests at all, but I knocked it out on the first try.

Our program here through the fire department was a year long with class two days a week starting last January and then starting in April we had several hundred hours of clinicals and ride along time we had to have finished by November. It all sucked, but I'm not an EMS guy, grew up on the fire side of things, but they are making us do it now. The whole process just cut into my golf, snowboarding, and all my other outdoor activites way too much, glad it's over!
Congrats mate...

Not to sound like a ******** though, but if you're a firefighter you'd better be "into" the whole EMS thing because that's what we do primarily. If it were up to me I'd play with manual haul systems and rigging all day or the pneumatic fun tools... but in reality it's mostly EMS call in teh real world. Sucks, but that's what were there for.

In Los Angeles City 85% of our call load is EMS. Without EMS in the fire service it would be very hard to justify it's existence in the form that we know it today. EMS is a fireman's bread and butter, big fires are just icing on the cake.

True that brother... Firefighters don't fight fires much anymore eh.

Cheers

Dave
 
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