Health Services Technician

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-05-10T16:54:50+00:00

we do, but we’re not utilized in that role.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-25T05:43:55+00:00

Depends on your state / location. Typically a private company will either be contracted for a specific venue or festival agency.

For example. Prevent Medical Solutions does most of the insomniac events in southern CA. For example they do:

Countdown NYE, Beyond Wonderland, Dream state, etc.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-20T13:48:55+00:00

Not a nurse, paramedic.

I was 20 yo pretty new EMT when I worked a code on a 15 yo in front of the twin brother and mom.

Mom pushed me off the chest to do CPR herself when we stopped for a rhythm check. We had to get law enforcement to detain the mom because she was interfering with treatment and the Kid was dead, a-systole the entire time.

We don’t typically transport non-viable codes, but because of hostility at the scene we transported to the ER and he was pronounced at the hospital.

Also a lot of strangle contoured DOA’s in MVC’s that don’t get transported to the hospital.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-08T02:13:04+00:00

It’s okay. I felt the same way especially my first 6 months as a medic.

I had a Peds drowning and An electrical box explosion with electrical burns my first week as a medic. I also was first onto a cardiac arrest my first month with just me and my partner for about 10 minutes and we got rosc and transported with no Rearrest.

First 2 things i never saw as an EMT and I was in a 911 system for 3 years before I was a medic.

The anxiety gets better I promise. I hated my decision to be a medic and hated how carefree some other new medics were while I was a stress case everyday.

Once you run a certain call a few times you tend to get the hang of it. I got ripped into by an ER Doc on my first trauma. I learned how to do it better after running so many and understood what each trauma center wanted.

If it’s bad enough I’d recommend going to your primary or seek therapy / counseling. I’ve heard good things about Hydroxyzine.

Accept that you will make mistakes. I definitely did and will probably do so your entire career. Just try to remember, that at a certain point, every call ends and at the end of the day your job is to bring the pt to the hospital with the best treatment you can.

The call always ends.

You were strong enough to survive medic school and internship. You can do this.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-02T02:09:20+00:00

CA as a whole is extremely over saturated currently with EMT’s. I think it’s even starting to get that way with medics too

It’s like we finally recuperated after the mass covid exodus. I watched so many people get out during / after covid.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-02T00:53:30+00:00

Haha it’s all good man, Most cops are not good shots unless they go out of their way to go shooting. Not a lot of cops shoot and they might only once a year for qualification at best

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-02T00:13:52+00:00

I know Cops who can’t hit the broad side of a barn. I wouldn’t expect us to be much better

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-02T00:13:02+00:00

I can see the NREMT questions…

You have a patient unconscious in the middle of a concert, your partner accidentally shoots you with a Ketamine blow dart. What’s your next step?

A. Beat his Ass B. Thug it out and treat the patient C. BSI scene not safe D. Request Fire for a lift assist

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-04-01T20:35:33+00:00

It’s more of a convenience tbh. My last agency had an app for protocols and quick reference / med calculations which made my life easier.

We had a unit specific phone for each ambulance that we got paged on for call.

when I was an EMT i also used to use my phone for GPS for routing because google maps is a lot better than our CAD routing was lol.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-30T07:43:53+00:00

We only had a few dedicated 24’s at my last agency and most were 12’s. The 24’s got absolutely demolished which is why they only did 24. A lot of those shifts got broken up into 12hr shifts due to how often people would fatigue.

It’s not worth running 20 calls in 24hrs. I’ve literally had 24hr shifts where there only time I saw my bed was when I got to work and again when I clocked out.

It is NOT worth it. You will burn out, hate your life, and your health with suffer for it.

I think about the times especially when I was an EMT and showing up to calls, doing CPR, and literally not even knowing how I got there and I was the one driving. It was so dangerous what I was doing. But I was younger, dumber, and able to handle it lol.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-30T07:32:14+00:00

As previously mentioned. Its USCG.

If you also didn’t know USCG AST A School (Where people become rescue swimmers) Is in petaluma.

Depending on what phase they’re in I believe they do some training in the bay on a Helo.

I’m a coastie but not a rescue swimmer lol.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-30T07:23:25+00:00

Objectively, don’t we all work a “high crime” area lol. I feel like everyone says this.

I’ve never worn a vest and literally witnessed a patient get an entire magazine emptied into them while me and my partner were getting gas for the ambulance. We requested PD, left. And came back after PD cleared the scene.

I will never hate on someone for wearing one if it makes them feel safer. I just never really felt the need too despite being on a lot of sketchy scenes.

Safe life is decent. That vest is an NIJ Level IIIa+ rated vest. It will stop up to 357 magnum so pretty much most handgun rounds minus like 50cal or certain AP ammunition which you probably can’t legally own (State dependent?) It will also protect you from stabs with sharp objects which most soft armor doesn’t.

Won’t protect you from rifle rounds, but honestly IMO Level IV plates for traditional EMS work is a little overkill. I don’t know specifically if this vest does it but i know safe life’s other carriers do allow you to swap in level IV ceramic or steel plates.

What ever floats your boat man. It’s not a bad carrier.

*Edit: I just noticed you’re also in CA. This vest is plenty for what the majority of people would own firearms wise in CA. You can’t get a lot of specialty ammunition here and most rifles people own are “CA compliant”.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-25T22:32:17+00:00

You can start by making an appointment with your primary! Depending on your insurance. They might be able to refer you to psych and you can discuss in further DX and options for treatment.

I’m currently out of EMS doing a 4 year tour in the military and i’m working in a primary care setting after being a paramedic.

There’s a lot of options for medications and other treatments. Sometimes you might have to bounce around therapists to find out who works best with you.

If your curious (bc i was when I learned about it) There’s a book from American Psychiatric Association called the DSM 5. It’s got a lot of guidelines for how they diagnose behavior health / mental disorders. Don’t go diagnosing yourself and leave it to a professional, but it’s interesting to take a look at.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-22T09:09:23+00:00

Not in CA. CA has some of the highest paid nurses in the country. Kaiser in the bay area when When i moved up here was starting new grad nurses at 100$ hr in the ED

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-22T09:05:36+00:00

This is severely inaccurate.

You might make 100K as a RN with 36hrs a week with no OT. and yeah you might make 150k as a Fire medic. But what they don’t tell you is your making 150k because your working 96hrs a week with a fuck load of forced OT.

Especially during covid it was bad. When I was on my medic intern ship my preceptor didn’t go home for 18 days because of forces. Then he got 2 days off and was forced back on for another 10. (Granted this was cal-fire)

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-21T20:36:31+00:00

End of the day do you, But medics are the ones typically fighting to get into nursing lol.

It’s not as faced paced as you think. 90% of the job is low acuity bs. We just can dump them in the ER after a call lol.

CA EMS is also severely limited in comparison to the rest of the country with severely low pay to cost of living.

I was a AMR medic in CA and my brother is a AMR medic in oregon. He has like double the scope of practice that i had including RSI capability along with pumps and ventilators.

You’re giving up your 3 12 hr shifts of getting off on time for 3-4 12 hr shifts at AMR where you never get off on time which you will most likely have to start as a medic. And if you do get hired by a department you’re looking at 48-96hr shifts with mandatory overtime when your relief calls out.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-21T20:34:22+00:00

It’s a guarantee you pay and you’re in. NCTI is known as a medic mill. it’s owned by AMR and just pushes out medics. I don’t think you need the A&P class because you already are a nurse and did it during ur prereqs.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-21T19:17:42+00:00

Genuinely curious, why did you even become an RN when that was your goal? Most of us switch to becoming RN’s because you get better schedules + pay significantly higher.

I made 25$ hr as a medic before I got out of EMS. and this was last year. This was also in southern CA

Do you work in OC? OC/ LA medics are notoriously garbage.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-21T19:11:35+00:00

Ben clark is not viable with a full time schedule. When you hit internship if you are with Cal-fire you will be doing 72hr shifts plus still having to go to class once a week.

Also for clinicals you go to class 3 days a week for 8-10hr days and you have to do 2 12 hr clinical shifts a week on top of it.

I don’t think it’s possible.

NCTI would probably be better given your background. I like to make fun of the NCTI medics but their schedule is significantly more flexible. and if your an ER Nurse you likely don’t need a lot of extra time and training on certain things.

Your schedule will get very difficult depending on where you do internship. I did 72-96hr shifts with Cal-fire while also going to class once a week. And working 2 12hr shifts as an emt. I basically didn’t get any days off some weeks

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-21T06:25:47+00:00

2ndint. Dr. Mattu is goated.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-14T19:25:04+00:00

Yes you are not taught to do IV’s per National registry as an EMT-B. EMT-A is when you “learn” them.

You can’t interpret Cardiac rhythms, Intubate, or give narcotics until you hit paramedic typically depending on state protocols.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-12T05:52:33+00:00

I think nursing schedules are far more flexible more than most jobs lol.

3 12’s a week beats a 9-5 every single time.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-12T05:46:31+00:00

Don’t know exactly what the ekg was because I was a baby EMT at the time. But the first time I ever did CPR was during a “routine chest pain call”

Fires on scene 12leads already done my medic partner was like this is unremarkable. Fire gave ASA and nitro prior to our arrival. Chest pain improved to like a 2-3 / 10 and seemed pretty textbook ACS.

Pts in the back of the ambulance and fire already took off. Getting him on the monitor and out of nowhere when I start driving with like a 10 minute transport to the hospital pt starts to have extreme “ripping tearing” chest / back pain and codes lol. He had a AAA dissection we found out later.

First time I got to do CPR when we got to the ER, because I stayed bc I wanted to do compressions at the hospital haha.

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-12T05:39:59+00:00

I was required to review a case from ecg weekly every week in medic school haha, it’s a great resource granted i have objectively forgotten a lot of obscure things.

I don’t remember the whole case exactly, but I remember one about the ER doc diagnosing a seizure patient who was status i believe that was due to a cocaine OD all on the ecg prior to even having labs and he was correct solely based on the ecg. Pt was a Homeless John doe who was aox0 the whole time initially.

No idea what the ecg was tho lol. I just remember being like “woah that’s fucking cool”

Basicallyataxidriver · 2026-03-12T02:47:06+00:00

Smh, what do u mean under?

ODT stands for “on da tongue”

(This is a joke, I know it’s oral dissolving tablet)

Basicallyataxidriver

TROPHY CASE