We have a very strange service. That's putting it mildly.
Let me explain. Most of our pre-hospital providers, from Paramedic down to EMT-B, are law enforcement officers. Yup. Somebody decided that we would staff structural fire, wildland fire, and law enforcement, but all of the EMS calls would be handled by LE. Now we do have people, including myself, who are not LEOs, but we are the minority. Every LEO is trained and most of the permanent, year-round employees are either Paramedics or EMT-I level practitioners. We do hire in temporary duty paramedics to cover the area in the summer - usually a 12-24 week gig, but for the most part it's just the LEOs and the other rag-tag EMS folks.
We are more akin to volunteer EMS most days than we are a paid service. (Yep, If a deer bites off your hand, you are getting charged for the ride). It's a bizarre situation. As a sparky noob, here I was jumping at every call. I had my radio on at all times to take the pulse of the daily vibe - if there was a call and Mr. Medic was on, I would likely text him before the page to see if he needed a hand. In the process, I managed to unintentionally piss a bunch of people off. Take my buddy Van. He's a temporary LEO here for the summer. He makes less than I do and consequently would like a bunch of overtime. If he drives or they need a third in the rig he gets his OT.
In steps me. I typically will drive (and get paid for it) but I also volunteer to be in the back as an unpaid third just so I can get some patient contacts. The higher ups saw this as a way to get a free bonus - I do vitals and such, the medic gets their paperwork finished on the drive, and we turn 2 paid people around at the hospital faster = less OT. See where I'm going?
It's a slippery tightrope I'm walking - get some patient experience while our call volume is relatively high (read: more than 3 calls a week) but try not to alienate the rest of the crew. Ho hum.
Meanwhile, it's been 3 days with no calls.
Very little traffic.
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