#ems rant

Master post that will be updated!

Gut Wrenched fic where you, dear reader, try to win the DCA's metallic heart before Y / N can! (Reader isn't Y / N, they are separate entities! Please, read and comment!!! Idc if you hate it, please interact👉👈)

it 2 am and I'm not done

Tonight, while still waiting to turn over patient care at a rehab and nursing facility, we were radioed by dispatch. Mind you, there’s only 10 minutes left to our shift and we still have to complete the report once we depart from the patient’s room. Dispatch informs my partner that they are “backed up” on calls at another facility needing transfers and they need us to run a call to help them catch up.

I refused the call. Not only is their back up not my problem but the supervisor authorised us to be held over entirely because there wasn’t crews available due to poor staffing decisions and lack of providers. Rather than jump on a truck and help lessen the back up of calls in the red, the supervisor thought it was more sensible to run my partner and I beyond our 13hr shift. Not to mention they asked me to staff the day shift (0900-2200) because the medic they assigned me with wouldn’t have had a partner if I didn’t come in, yet I was originally scheduled for the overnight (1600-0500) without a partner. The overnight is my usual shift so for me to wake up at 0700 to get ready for work is not something my body is used to.

Maybe I’m cranky and overreacting, but this is the type of management decisions that send providers elsewhere for employment.

I was within my right to refuse the call and I’m glad I did because I’m drained and I have a doctor appointment in the morning to evaluate my new medication’s efficiency.

At the end of the day, I need to look after myself first if I want to have half a chance at maintaining my position in the world of EMS. Being chronically ill makes me doubt my capacity for working in EMS every day but I’m pushing through it.