Real things I’ve seen as a Paramedic. Yes this really happened and he was completely serious. #ems

[margotrosendorn]

In first aid class they told me "Once EMS arrives, give them all relevant information and then back the hell off. Let the professionals do their job."

[tjking]

Chances are if they say they are a doctor, they aren’t the right kind.

[LALopezWei]

My grandfather is a doctor and he told us how one time at a medical conference one of the attendees had some kind of medical emergency. Well as you can imagine, he was swarmed by doctors all trying to assess and provide aid to this man. It was a case of "too many chefs in the kitchen, " and even when first responders arrived the doctors would not let them do their work, so police had to detain some of the doctors. What a thing!

[glennjhill]

32 year veteran firefighter/paramedic here. On occasion, we would have a physician stop when we were out in the streets with a patient. If they started to intervene, I would tell them that I have standing protocols for patient treatment, and if they wished me to do something different, they had to accompany me to the hospital, hand the patient off to the doctors at the hospital, and then sign the patent care report, noting why they decided to change patient care protocols. For some reason, nobody followed up. Most physicians that have showed up on scene are perfectly fine, they just offer assistance if needed.

[AsclepiasCorridor]

I (an ER doctor) was giving CPR to this woman who had collapsed in the street, and when the Paramedics showed up I was like ‘Cool. Want me to stay and hand you tape and stuff?’ They said sure and I felt pretty chuffed. These guys are the cool dudes of the field.

[midnights]

The moment he said put the epinephrine direct injection into the heart my eyes widened.

[IonicThree]

I teach CPR for the hospital I work for, and I have taught cardiologists how to do CPR. They were formally a private practice, and so they decided that they didn't need to renew their CPR certification. So, it has been years since they were last certified.

So when I taught them, they were so arrogant, and yet I had to fail 2 of them. Cardiologists failed my CPR class because they refused to listen to me and were horrid at the compressions and didn't know basic questions.

[PKAC]

A surgeon, here, and once I witnessed a car accident where paramedics already arrived. I went to them and asked if they needed help. They told me that they got it under control. I let them do their job without arguing. Paramedics are far more expert about CPR and first aid than most doctors. If they had told me that they needed help I would have done what they would told me to do.

[BattleManiac]

My aunt, a very expeirienced doctor with a bunch of titles and awards to her, once told me that nurses are the best at dressing wounds becaude they do it all the time. She was teaching me how to help my mom clean and dress where they had to cut to operate on her after she was cleared to he home. She told me that by the time it was healed, I'd be better than her because she didn't get to do what I was doing that much since nurses mostly did it. She was always so humble and quick to point out how when people know more than her, myself included now that I've grown up and gone into a healthcare field. More people need to learn to stay humble.

[thekingofcardboard]

As a caregiver at various nursing homes for the past 6 years, I've learned the only way EMTs want your help is answering their questions about a patient, and maybe holding a door open for them if they're moving someone on a stretcher.

[mariedooset]

He thought knowledge of feet would save that man's life...?

[ryanfirst]

We use to have what we professionally called “Go To Hell” cards just for this type of event. It was a card signed by our Med Control basically stating he had full confidence in our work, and unless you plan on taking over pt care and ride in the ambulance with the pt, stand back and let my medics work.

[reggo_]

He was so surprised he had to let the patient die for a minute to process the bs he just said

[joelankeny]

I was fortunate that I once worked a for a program where a local ED doc (who was also my programs medical director) moonlighted as a firefighter on her days off. It was awesome having on scene as I didn’t have to call and ask for stuff. I just turned around and asked Doc. She was really cool and never tried to step in or take control unless you asked her for help.

[tonicolletti]

40 years exp nurse here. Trust me the very second those paramedics show up we back off and let them do their thing. They absolutely know what they are doing

[andylalor]

Had a doctor on a scene try to give us orders, and we ignored him. My captain ran interference while we treated and loaded our patient. The guy followed us to the hospital, waited until we came back out to the bus to get in my partner's face and flick his business card at us, indicating he was an ER doc at one of our regional trauma centers. We immediately took the card into our medical director. Six days later, Dr. Dickhead came to the station to sheepishly apologize. Our medical director had raised such a stink with the administration at the trauma center that the Chief of Medicine threatened to suspend him if he didn't apologize. It's good to know your medical direction has your back.

[briant]

Side story: I heard a story from a volunteer ranger. He was out on trail duty and came across a situation where a hike had gone off the side of the trail, tumbled down the side, and ended up a ways down and a little broken up. As first on scene, he was de facto incident commander. He called it in and started coordinating the rescue.

By the time the professionals arrived, he had things under control, a helicopter on the way, and was doing fine. The pros got caught up on the situation and ... told him he was doing great and asked him what they could do.

That's mad respect right there.

[TheCardsharp]

I’m a hospice nurse. About a month and a half ago I drove by three pedestrians on the side of the street, the third one being a female lying on the street apparently unconscious. I pulled over, took out my nursing bag from my car, and tended to them. She was barely conscious, so I made sure she was safe until EMS arrived (one of the pedestrians was already on the phone). Another driver stopped by and asked if he could help. Then he told me to start chest compressions. I told him that wasn’t necessary because she had a pulse. Once EMS arrived, I gave them vitals I had taken and backed off.

While I am a registered nurse and know what had to be done, I also know that once those who are trained in situations exactly like these arrive, it’s best to hand it off to them. I did what my training taught me to do until paramedics arrived.

[ethansmith]

I had a nurse on my case once because I showed up on scene where she was doing CPR, checked the pulse, then DIDN'T continue CPR because he had a pulse and woke him up with Narcan while giving him a few puffs of O2 via BVM until he started taking more regular breaths on his own. She contacted my department because she said I "endangered my patient" by not continuing chest compressions on a patient with a strong (compensating for hypoxic shock) heartbeat.

She worked at a dialysis clinic.

[arsonne]

As an off-duty EMT one time I was helping a woman who had been knocked off her motor cycle and I had to deal with a physical therapist and a health clinic nurse both telling me how to do the job. Ego is a hell of a drug. I want to help someone in need, obviously, but I never have felt the need to go out my way AND in an emergency no less, to try and reign my superiority over another person.