Quick Vent

[4095fanatic]

Ok... how's this for a doozy. Tones go off for a medical, 7 y/o female at the local elementary school with trouble breathing. Medic and Engine roll out the door, and we show up to find the girl with SOB, possibly Asthma related. In the midst of all this the principal barges in, and says "hey! could you move the fire truck and ambulance? the school busses need to park there!"...

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WE'RE IN THE FIRE LANE YOU JERK OFF!!!!!!!!!!

I swear, he wanted us to move our pieces out of the fire lane so he could park school busses there... *sigh* I really hate civilians sometimes, I really do. Was about to call the county PD and have them ticket all the school busses (some of which were starting to block us in), but our LT told us to let it go. Wasn't worth the bad public image. Bah, I hate being held accountable to a higher standard *sigh*.

[tarsij]

I know what you mean, theres a one-way road in my town that is extremely narrow to being with and with people parking on both sides of the street we can barely get our ambulances down it. One day we parked in front of the house and went inside, a car came up behind and was laying on the horn wanting us to move out of the way so he can pass. to make matters worse he was only 2 feet from our back bumper and refused to move so we couldnt even get the stretcher in. Its a good thing that patrol was parked in front of us, he came back and straightened that guy right out.:supergrin: Alot of times the public has no respect for you until they actually need you and sometimes not even then

[Tvov]

Yes! Feel free to vent.

Schools are always tough to deal with. You have your incident to take care of... Meanwhile, the Principal is walking around "being in charge", hundreds of kids are in the middle of their normal school day, bus drivers are showing up (yes, what they do is important, but sometimes they can be, well, difficult), and then, possibly worse than dealing with the Principal, the PARENTS show up.

I am a parent with kids in school so I know the fear that can hit when you see emergency equipment at a school, but many times it is tough to keep cool when they start demanding to know what is going on. Especially since usually the first responders they run into are outside, and honestly don't know what is going on!

Knock on wood, we have not really had any "major" incidents at our local schools during the normal school day. Probably the biggest annoyance with our principals is them turning off and resetting the alarms after a fire alarm (which 9 times out of 10 is a false alarm, bad detector, etc) before we can figure out where the problem is. Yes, we can go back and check the computer log / readout to scroll back, but it is easier and quicker to leave the alarm going until we pinpoint the problem.

Remember, keep smiling!

[Skintop911]

Originally posted by 4095fanatic
Tones go off for a medical, 7 y/o female at the local elementary school with trouble breathing. Medic and Engine roll...we show up to find the girl with SOB, possibly Asthma related...principal barges in, and says "hey! could you move the fire truck and ambulance? the school busses need to park there!"...

A follow-up visit with the principal might be in order to sync your processes and priorities. In his world, maintaining that schedule is pretty important.

Some stuff to chew on:

Does the bus need to be parked where it is? It's our fire lane, but...

Meet him halfway, and send the engine back? (Why's the engine there?)

Load and go?

How many people are standing around while the medic is working the patient? Principal perceiving extra people who could be a in a position to help him out?

Someone communicating with the principal while this is going on?

[4095fanatic]

Originally posted by Skintop911
A follow-up visit with the principal might be in order to sync your processes and priorities. In his world, maintaining that schedule is pretty important.

Some stuff to chew on:

Does the bus need to be parked where it is? It's our fire lane, but...

Meet him halfway, and send the engine back? (Why's the engine there?)

The engine was there because the transport unit only had an EMT-I on board, and the engine had an EMT-P on board. Additionally, dispatch almost always dispatches a support piece in support of the transport unit should the call seem to have any patient that might have an emergent condition. Almost everyone is cross-trained, so dispatching the engine gets you at a minimum two more EMTs and one ALS provider on scene should things go south. The engine really had nowhere else to park, due to schoolbuses taking up all the other spots anywhere close to the school.

Load and go?

Unfortunately, the principle also didn't want us to move the patient as we were near dismissal time and he didn't want to create a scene in the hallway. Additionally, the medic we had is a bit of a "house doctor", as in he likes to stabilize on scene before loading.

How many people are standing around while the medic is working the patient? Principal perceiving extra people who could be a in a position to help him out?

We had a pretty stacked engine that day... 5 of us, 2 of whom didn't have EMT. The nurses office was a bit cramped, so we had the medic crew inside the office, as well as the engine's ALS provider, while the rest of us waited outside.

Someone communicating with the principal while this is going on?

Yes, we were... both the medics, and our LT.


Thank you for the constructive critique.

[comstockfire]

Maybe you can do a "preplan" for EMS calls to the school.

Is there a door or other access to the school away from

the busses and parents?

Just another idea.:)

[4095fanatic]

Nope. Either there's the front door, or we drive over the grass, onto the ball field, and wheel the stretcher across homeplate through the gym into the hallways. Yes, it's that bad... not exactly a huge school. There's a backdoor , but we don't use it... parking lot only indirectly connects to it. We should have a plan, but we don't run their frequently enough to go to the hassle (Volunteer/Career meeting, chief officers meeting, board of ed. meeting, county council probably would throw its hat in the ring... you'd be amazed how many committees have to stamp something before anything gets done).

[Tvov]

Originally posted by 4095fanatic
you'd be amazed how many committees have to stamp something before anything gets done.

I understand that. That is why on rare occasions (rare because you don't want to do it too often), our Chief pulls the "Because I am the Fire Chief, and this is the way it will be done".

[4095fanatic]

We had to get half the county council to fight tooth and nail, but we're finally getting a new $5mil firehouse built... trying not to create too many waves. It's going to be so nice when it's done... no more running to the back shed to get to the 2nd out tanker... no more sleeping on cots because the bunk room only sleeps 14... going to be a good place to be again!