Imagine a scenario where a firefighter/paramedic, is terminated for allegedly providing patient care that was below the department’s established standards. And imagine a big question being the issue of the ongoing training firefighters/paramedics receive.
Fire Chiefs frequently preach on and on about how the department is committed to providing only the best patient care; how their paramedics are held to a higher standard; how they are committed to serving the community with the highest level of blah, blah, blah.
But ask the same Chiefs this question:
“How many hours a day does each firefighter (and firefighter/paramedic) spend drilling on firefighting technique and equipment?”
They will all tell you that it is somewhere between 2-4 hours per shift.
And then ask them to compare the number of those training hours to the number of “Paramedic” training hours – that is, how many hours do on-duty personnel spend practicing lesser-used skills or other such things – and the ratios never add up.
