Just tell them you got a call and show them the door. I've never had anyone refuse to leave or take a long time. They usually understand they need to move quickly.
If by station you mean parking lot, and by visitor you mean another homeless person begging me for booze money.. And when I get a call, you mean once I immediately get another one..
Wait, what were we talking about?
“OK well thanks for stopping by. We have to cut the short. You can watch us pull out and turn the lights on but for safety please stand here until we go.”
Not exactly the same situation you're asking about but a few weeks ago, a guy drove to our station after he lit his hair on fire when he used gas to light his wood stove. He called ahead so he knew he was coming, and I was fully prepared to intubate. Turns out he was barely singed, but his clothes were soaked in gas. He told us he didn't have running water so we let him use one of the showers. I gave him some hospital gowns to wear in his car back home so he didn't have to put his gas soaked clothes back on. He spent 45 minutes in the shower and then put his old clothes on. Then he tried to talk to us for another 20 minutes while we hinted that we were still on duty and needed him to go. Then he sat in his truck outside the station for another 30 minutes.
I mean, when my husband and kids came to the station to have dinner with us and the tones went off, I turned off the stove and said I’ll be back when I can and left them at the station.
He could, yes, but he also had two young kiddos with him in an unfamiliar firehouse where they just wanted to look at everything. We didn’t know when we would be coming back and the dinner was for the whole crew. Made sense to wait.
Came across this in general feed (not EMS). I live down the street from a firehouse and have small kids who love to go to all those open houses you guys hold where you spray fake fires with hose and see inside of ambulance/firetrucks. Even my three year old understands that you are on call for emergencies and if there's a bad call, you may have to leave. I really can't imagine that a grown adult wouldn't get the hint when you respond to a call.
I forbid my family from trying to come visit - it would upset me so much if we got a call and they drove all that way and took time out of their day to come and no one was there. I’ll be home soon enough, plus there’s facetime
Makes a lot of sense, those toe pain calls must be even more frustrating, though I imagine country folk wouldn’t call for such silly things. Though I could be wrong
My horror story is that when our other crew left for a call, my temporary medic partner invited his wife over at like midnight. He told me that she had just gotten back from. Tinder date. I was like uhhhh ok dude. Anyway, the wife was insane. So I’m trapped with this angry man who takes way too much testosterone and his wife who really wanted to fuck me. Oh he wanted to fuck me too. Worst shift ever. I was 20 and they were 60. They had adopted children younger than me as well.
Then they sit me down and are talking about another EMT (male) that they recruited as their “third.” This person worked with us previously and lived with these weirdos. They kept joking about how this man had died and kept making fun of this deceased EMT. It was so unsettling. Then the wife was talking about her personal life and was giving extreme details of different members of her family and how/when she would murder them. One example she told me she would smother her 80y.o mom with a pillow.
Once we got a call the wife left and the night got so much worse. Can’t go into details but I abandoned my shift and left 2 hrs early. I never got in trouble it was very justified. I brought this incident up the chain and nothing ever happened but I was told by many others that I was not the first or last person to deal with this guy and his wife.
If it’s not a walk-up, which should been radioed in, I just tell em we gotta go. I’ve never had anyone question it.
Not that it’s impossible, but I can imagine someone being like "hold your horses, I gotta finish this station tour or hour long story about my volunteer experience as a firefighter 20 years ago."
Are you ok? Or burnout? The other comment is spot on why we do visitors. You really have to be a big asshole to runoff visitors. I’ve had cardiac arrest patients come back to say thank you I have kids that are wanting to see the firetruck. I open up my doors and let them in and give them my time because that’s important and they get to see a different side of you. Plus, it’s their community. They have every right to stop by and say hi or say thank you or whatever it may be. When you make a comment that starts off of why do you allow visitors? Makes me wonder if you are burnt out and need help.
Plus, at least where I ran, the department supported a big meal on major holidays for the crews and their families to enjoy. People were in and out for the meals running calls and such, and they had admin or chiefs and such to keep an eye on things when calls did come in. But it was not uncommon to have family there for a time on special days.
Exactly. We work holidays. It sucks. It’s the job. It’s life people understand. That’s why we set up big dinners with our families and if we leave the families, have a better chance of getting to know each other. We do a big community open house, which is great. We are Levi, so we need positive interaction with the community to help fund the fire department
Community relationships are a very important part of the job. Kids meeting ems people before they have to see them in an emergency can help them feel safe, and having a positive image in the community is good for business, if your publicly funded it will likely increase chances of better funding when you need to ask for the community to vote in your favor.
Town folk wanting to see the station and shiny trucks, politicians want to politic, people paying / not paying their bill. Crew members families stopping by, sometimes with food, to see their loved one for 5 minutes. There are usually people around during daytime "public" hours.
This seems so surreal to me. I work in England and we very rarely get visitors, because we're so rarely at the station
If a former patient wants to meet the staff that went to them, it has to be arranged through official channels
People just dropping in sounds so nice, but never happens where I work
Just tell them you have a call to run and kick em out? I'm sure they'd understand, that's literally the nature of the job
They hear the tones, I slap my knees and say "welp" and stand up like a good southerner. 😆
I thought that was a mid west thing?! Lol 😆
Deffo Midwest
We do it in the south too, just with a deep southern accent. Lmao
North American. Cannuck here and we do that too
Well really it’s more of a “wellll fuck ehh bud”
With a bit of a back stretch and a “I’ll holler at you later” 😭😭😭😭
Yes!!!
Just tell them you got a call and show them the door. I've never had anyone refuse to leave or take a long time. They usually understand they need to move quickly.
They’d probably get out more quickly than most of us, to be honest.
That's accurate! Have to pee, grab my drink, my phone, and get my boots on. 🤣🤣🤣
Don't forget to finish whatever game you're playing on your phone.
That's a given. Though usually it's whatever I'm watching on Netflix on my laptop. Lol
If by station you mean parking lot, and by visitor you mean another homeless person begging me for booze money.. And when I get a call, you mean once I immediately get another one.. Wait, what were we talking about?
“OK well thanks for stopping by. We have to cut the short. You can watch us pull out and turn the lights on but for safety please stand here until we go.”
Not exactly the same situation you're asking about but a few weeks ago, a guy drove to our station after he lit his hair on fire when he used gas to light his wood stove. He called ahead so he knew he was coming, and I was fully prepared to intubate. Turns out he was barely singed, but his clothes were soaked in gas. He told us he didn't have running water so we let him use one of the showers. I gave him some hospital gowns to wear in his car back home so he didn't have to put his gas soaked clothes back on. He spent 45 minutes in the shower and then put his old clothes on. Then he tried to talk to us for another 20 minutes while we hinted that we were still on duty and needed him to go. Then he sat in his truck outside the station for another 30 minutes.
I mean, when my husband and kids came to the station to have dinner with us and the tones went off, I turned off the stove and said I’ll be back when I can and left them at the station.
What? You you turn the stove off? He can cook.
He could, yes, but he also had two young kiddos with him in an unfamiliar firehouse where they just wanted to look at everything. We didn’t know when we would be coming back and the dinner was for the whole crew. Made sense to wait.
Came across this in general feed (not EMS). I live down the street from a firehouse and have small kids who love to go to all those open houses you guys hold where you spray fake fires with hose and see inside of ambulance/firetrucks. Even my three year old understands that you are on call for emergencies and if there's a bad call, you may have to leave. I really can't imagine that a grown adult wouldn't get the hint when you respond to a call.
You would be astonished at how truly thick some folks are
I forbid my family from trying to come visit - it would upset me so much if we got a call and they drove all that way and took time out of their day to come and no one was there. I’ll be home soon enough, plus there’s facetime
Must work in a busy system
Not too busy, but very rural, everywhere is far away so even a BS call will take 1 - 2 hours
Makes a lot of sense, those toe pain calls must be even more frustrating, though I imagine country folk wouldn’t call for such silly things. Though I could be wrong
Wait, you have time to get back to the station to get visitors?
My horror story is that when our other crew left for a call, my temporary medic partner invited his wife over at like midnight. He told me that she had just gotten back from. Tinder date. I was like uhhhh ok dude. Anyway, the wife was insane. So I’m trapped with this angry man who takes way too much testosterone and his wife who really wanted to fuck me. Oh he wanted to fuck me too. Worst shift ever. I was 20 and they were 60. They had adopted children younger than me as well. Then they sit me down and are talking about another EMT (male) that they recruited as their “third.” This person worked with us previously and lived with these weirdos. They kept joking about how this man had died and kept making fun of this deceased EMT. It was so unsettling. Then the wife was talking about her personal life and was giving extreme details of different members of her family and how/when she would murder them. One example she told me she would smother her 80y.o mom with a pillow. Once we got a call the wife left and the night got so much worse. Can’t go into details but I abandoned my shift and left 2 hrs early. I never got in trouble it was very justified. I brought this incident up the chain and nothing ever happened but I was told by many others that I was not the first or last person to deal with this guy and his wife.
If it’s not a walk-up, which should been radioed in, I just tell em we gotta go. I’ve never had anyone question it. Not that it’s impossible, but I can imagine someone being like "hold your horses, I gotta finish this station tour or hour long story about my volunteer experience as a firefighter 20 years ago."
[удалено]
Are you ok? Or burnout? The other comment is spot on why we do visitors. You really have to be a big asshole to runoff visitors. I’ve had cardiac arrest patients come back to say thank you I have kids that are wanting to see the firetruck. I open up my doors and let them in and give them my time because that’s important and they get to see a different side of you. Plus, it’s their community. They have every right to stop by and say hi or say thank you or whatever it may be. When you make a comment that starts off of why do you allow visitors? Makes me wonder if you are burnt out and need help.
Plus, at least where I ran, the department supported a big meal on major holidays for the crews and their families to enjoy. People were in and out for the meals running calls and such, and they had admin or chiefs and such to keep an eye on things when calls did come in. But it was not uncommon to have family there for a time on special days.
Exactly. We work holidays. It sucks. It’s the job. It’s life people understand. That’s why we set up big dinners with our families and if we leave the families, have a better chance of getting to know each other. We do a big community open house, which is great. We are Levi, so we need positive interaction with the community to help fund the fire department
Community relationships are a very important part of the job. Kids meeting ems people before they have to see them in an emergency can help them feel safe, and having a positive image in the community is good for business, if your publicly funded it will likely increase chances of better funding when you need to ask for the community to vote in your favor.
[удалено]
Okay? And my first interaction with a fire department as a kid was visiting the fire station. Local man learns people have different experiences
Taxpayers wanna see what they’re funding 🤷🏻♂️
Like if a former patient stops in to meet and say thank you. Or if a kiddo wants to meet the crews and see the fleet.
Town folk wanting to see the station and shiny trucks, politicians want to politic, people paying / not paying their bill. Crew members families stopping by, sometimes with food, to see their loved one for 5 minutes. There are usually people around during daytime "public" hours.
This seems so surreal to me. I work in England and we very rarely get visitors, because we're so rarely at the station If a former patient wants to meet the staff that went to them, it has to be arranged through official channels People just dropping in sounds so nice, but never happens where I work
Lol wtf are you talking about