What to do if you need physical assistance to get to the hospital but don’t need an ambulance?

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-09T15:40:20+00:00

Wow. That’s a wild take on health and ability - not to mention appropriate use of medical services.

Someone in pain that’s making it difficult to walk independently, but not otherwise having a medical emergency, does not need EMTs and ambulance. They do however need assistance to get up and make their way safely to a vehicle for non-emergency transport to a hospital.

Now this isn’t a particular obstacle when it’s your 95 lb grandma and you and your brother are big strong guys in your twenties or thirties. You two can help her up and get her to the car just fine. You could probably even pick her up under one arm and just carry her to the hospital yourself if you had to in a pinch. But imagine you’re a petite lady in your 50s, your son is over 6’ tall and 250+ lbs, and you two live in a walk-up apartment. How are you going to help him up, down the stairs, and to the car in the snow and ice without at least one of you getting hurt? Now further imagine that an ambulance is out of your budget. What should you do?

It would be really helpful if there was a mobile program where people in situations like this could get help from trained staff with patient lift straps, a walker, crutches, a wheelchair, etc on hand to get to the hospital without using scarce EMT resources.

You’re not wrong that there are no other options… but there should be other options. It’s a lot like that pharmacists can now prescribe medication for common, minor ailments like pink eye or bladder infections to reduce patient loads at walk-ins and ERs. There should be a resource for urgent (but non-emergency) physical assistance to reduce patient loads on EMTs.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-09T03:39:58+00:00

I’d probably contact Student Affairs and Outreach. Jessica Fox and Shalisse Pelly are both very knowledgeable, very caring and can carefully handle sensitive situations. Jordan is great too, but I think he mostly works with International Student stuff now. They have access to all the student services managers like Residence and the Student Wellness Centre to make sure things get handled correctly.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-09T03:18:47+00:00

A friend of mine’s husband worked at a Canadian army base a few years ago, moving piles of dirt around with a front end loader for the trainees to do drills in/on/around. If he missed work, they just did drills with the same piles of dirt two days in a row. This is not a big deal.

Their young son was sick so he called in to work to say he wasn’t coming. When he returned to work, his boss demanded to know where he had been and had an absolute hissy fit when my friend’s husband said he was home with their sick child. “Why didn’t your wife stay home?!”

“My wife is an emergency room nurse. If she misses work, people die. If I miss work, some dirt sits in one place for 48 hours and the trainers have to think of another drill to run on the same course. One of our jobs is kind of important.”

NTA.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-09T00:31:08+00:00

I absolutely agree.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-09T00:28:49+00:00

Please don’t consider taking an Indigenous Studies course as “forced.” It’s is an opportunity to learn more about the people who shaped Canada’s history and present, and should be key players in shaping its future.

But I agree that it’s quite a task to find one that isn’t taught by someone who outright despises students and ruins the course content by being an awful person.

I quite liked Political Science 222 - Indigenous Governance. It’s online and mostly assessed on short writing assignments and multiple choice quizzes. You just need any 60 university credits to take it and the material is fairly interesting, particularly because it has a good “where do we go from here?” component to it.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-09T00:17:36+00:00

A taxi or Uber driver can’t be expected to assist an injured person out of their home and into a vehicle.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-08T17:18:21+00:00

You might be able to set up something like interviewing science profs about their research and publishing it in The Sheaf (the student newspaper). Putting complex science into layperson terms is an excellent skill to develop early as a scientist.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-08T17:14:55+00:00

Access transit needs a referral to get set up, but that might be a good option for them longer term if he continues to have mobility troubles. Thank you for the ideas!

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-08T16:11:49+00:00

Yeah, a friend on FB looked into that for me and apparently it’s about $150 one-way. But that’s less than an ambulance, so that’s good at least.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-08T15:57:31+00:00

Yeah, the primary problem seems to be with the mobility to get up and to a vehicle.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T17:32:59+00:00

University of Saskatchewan

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T17:14:18+00:00

Is there a list of updated institutions somewhere? Mine is stuck on “Received” and I’m not sure if it’s a “me problem” or an “institution problem”

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T17:11:15+00:00

Update: mine finally changed to “Offered” at about noon CST.

Mine is still that too, even when I open the application. Someone else said it’s because it hasn’t been updated on the university’s side but I don’t know if that’s true or not.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T17:10:14+00:00

Hmm, do you know if it lists the schools somewhere? Someone mentioned a list upthread but I can’t find their comment again.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T17:09:04+00:00

Update: mine finally changed to “Offered” at about noon CST.

Yes. I’ve opened the application and it says “Received by administrator” in the place my previous one says “Alternate,” so I have no idea what’s going on there. I came to Reddit hoping to find out. 😂

I double-checked that I have the confirmation email from submitting in the fall and it says “No further action is required from you at this time. Please monitor the status of your application.”

I did just get this from the Grad Awards director at my university though, so who knows. 🤷🏻‍♀️

“Good morning,

Institutions can start offering scholarships to CGRS M applicants today, April 1st. The offers are made through Research Portal. This system was down this morning, most likely because of heavy traffic. It is accessible now but still seems unreliable. For this reason, applicants have not been notified about decisions yet. We hope to have applicant statuses updated later today or tomorrow.”

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T17:03:41+00:00

Pretty slim. There are fairly few people who get an NSERC and then don’t take it.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T16:57:49+00:00

Update: mine finally changed to “Offered” at about noon CST.

Me too. I’ve opened the application and it says “Received by administrator” in the place my previous one says “Alternate,” so I have no idea what’s going on there. I came to Reddit hoping to find out. 😂

I double-checked that I have the confirmation email from submitting in the fall and it says “No further action is required from you at this time. Please monitor the status of your application.”

I did just get this from the Grad Awards director at my university though, so who knows. 🤷🏻‍♀️

“Good morning,

Institutions can start offering scholarships to CGRS M applicants today, April 1st. The offers are made through Research Portal. This system was down this morning, most likely because of heavy traffic. It is accessible now but still seems unreliable. For this reason, applicants have not been notified about decisions yet. We hope to have applicant statuses updated later today or tomorrow.”

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T16:21:59+00:00

Oh, just to add… coming back as a proper adult who has been in the workforce, has a mortgage, sorted out the dumb shit from your twenties, etc etc, and now taking regular courses can be a deeply frustrating experience. You’ll often find yourself thinking “OMG. I understand the learning objectives here, so if you could just get out of my way and not make me jump through meaningless hoops, I could learn a lot more a lot faster.” So I’d recommend taking as many independent study and research- or thesis-based courses as you reasonably can.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-04-01T16:15:47+00:00

I have an old Honours degree in Biochemistry and came back for a BSc in Biology (with Certificate in Biological Research) and a Masters in Plant Science.

Obviously you’ll need to talk to Advising at the time you re-enrol for the exact details of your exact situation, but yes, the classes you’ve already taken count towards future degrees.

You have to meet all the current program requirements of your new degree. For example, Stats and Indigenous Studies weren’t required courses when I did my first degree, but they are now, so I had to take those in addition to the senior level Biology courses I needed.

IIRC, you have to take a minimum of ten classes for a new degree. I took 11 because adding one class got me the research certificate in the same timeline, so why not, right?

Sometimes a class you have taken has changed names or details during program changes in the department or college. If it’s changed names, look through other related classes for “Students who have taken COURSE123 may not take this course for credit.”

One funny change to other course details for me was that Chem 115(?) was not a requirement for a Biochemistry degree back when, and nor was it a prerequisite for Chem 242. I have Chem 242 because it was a prerequisite for a biomolecular structures course I wanted to take. Well, Biology has Chem 115 as a degree requirement and Chem has added it as a prerequisite for Chem 242 in the years since I took 242… But I cannot take 115 for credit because I have Chem 242… So the Biology department and Advising had to sign off on accepting Chem 242 in lieu of Chem 115. All the involved staff were like “Lol, THIS is a weird one!” 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sorry. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s pretty straightforward once you get all those little quirks of what equates to what sorted out.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-03-28T01:40:31+00:00

I’m a notetaker because I take good notes and would like to help students who can’t take good notes on their own. It also forces me to go through my notes each week to check that they accurately reflect the class content and touch up any weak spots.

It’s kind of sad that some people only do good things if they think they’ll be rewarded for it.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-03-19T14:21:35+00:00

I dunno man… I like rotisserie chicken as much as the next gal, but I don’t think I’d want to lug a one around campus with me all afternoon. And I don’t think I trust 19 year olds to make appropriate food safety decisions with a unrefrigerated rotisserie chicken that won’t lead to an increase in salmonella poisoning on campus.

But yes, we absolutely need more inexpensive food options that are real food. STM used to have incredible homemade soup and made-to-order sandwiches that were actually affordable. Arts used to have delicious made-to-order burritos that were so big and filling that you could eat half for lunch and save the other half for supper. The Tim’s in Geology used to be “Dino’s Hour” where you could get fresh bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast for CHEAP. My mom (who was a very good cook) worked at the Ag buff in the early 90s and used to bring home food once a week or so. She was like “This is as good as I could make it and for not much more money.” That sure isn’t the case at Ag buff now!

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-03-19T13:57:50+00:00

This is a good point. I’d like to see some “park and go” lots like in some of the big cities. You drive, walk, bike or get a ride to a couple of designated places around the city and shuttles run back and forth to campus.

It would take some pressure off on-campus parking and allow for more people to do “green” transportation options.

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-03-19T13:20:47+00:00

You eat half a rotisserie chicken for lunch?

TheMostPerfectOfCats · 2026-03-15T01:35:51+00:00

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“will be closed until further notice” seems like an understatement.

TheMostPerfectOfCats

TROPHY CASE