EMTs Ever Look at You Like You're Dumb?

Specialties School

Published

I'm a new school nurse at a High School, and more than once I've felt that they look at me like I'm dumb. The funny thing is that the nurse who oriented me told that they do that (lol)

Earlier, they came in to take a student to the hospital to get checked out because his pupils were the size of the moon (suspected drug abuse) and he was non responsive, EMT asked me if I knew his history, I said no, he replied "Oh so you're not the nurse",

.... Uh yes I am, excuse me if I don't know the history of my 300+ students :nono::cyclops:

So yeah, I only know if I'm in front of my computer. Ugh. Plus I don't really know what to do when they come in, I just let them take over. Maybe I shouldn't ? Eh I don't know. lol

Specializes in IMC, school nursing.
How come YOU get a code cart and I don't!? Hmph!

The funny thing about this, we had a code Sunday night and I unplugged the defibrillator but forget to unplug the battery operated suction on the code cart. Maybe I should reevaluate the iPad mini.

When I took the EMT-B course, my instructor slipped in "dumb nurse" stories fairly often.

I couldn't slide far enough down in my chair.

:whistling:

Specializes in School nursing.

Speaking of this thread - guess who called EMS today? :whistling:

Student had asthma, was wheezing on exhale initially, coughing non-stop, had used rescue inhaler x2 with no relief in chest tightness. Coughing slowed, but did not stop. Sats were great, but this kid has sated great before, only to drop 10+ points when coughing and previously been hospitalized for asthma. No neb orders. I took no chances and called. One EMS guy stated she was stable, thought he was giving me doubt, heard her history and then told me "always be safe." Handed him my jump sheet and off we went. Love 'em!

When I took the EMT-B course, my instructor slipped in "dumb nurse" stories fairly often.

I couldn't slide far enough down in my chair.

:whistling:

You didn't fight back? I would have. It's one thing for me to get out of someone's way, but don't come at me and try to embarrass me. Screw that instructor. He would have gotten an earful from this "dumb nurse"!

Specializes in ICU, CVICU, E.R..
I'm a new school nurse at a High School, and more than once I've felt that they look at me like I'm dumb. The funny thing is that the nurse who oriented me told that they do that (lol)

Earlier, they came in to take a student to the hospital to get checked out because his pupils were the size of the moon (suspected drug abuse) and he was non responsive, EMT asked me if I knew his history, I said no, he replied "Oh so you're not the nurse",

.... Uh yes I am, excuse me if I don't know the history of my 300+ students :nono::cyclops:

So yeah, I only know if I'm in front of my computer. Ugh. Plus I don't really know what to do when they come in, I just let them take over. Maybe I shouldn't ? Eh I don't know. lol

Did you initially introduce yourself as the school nurse? Maybe they just wanted verification that you were the school nurse.

"hi my name is "so & so", I'm the school nurse who called you guys, we called you because..."

Specializes in School Nursing, Home Health.
Having worked on both sides of the fence I'll simply (sadly) say, they're not trained to look at nurses like they're dumb...they've just repeatedly responded to SO many calls where the RNs gave them reasons to develop those attitudes. Not saying their general attitudes toward us is right, but we're the ones responsible for developing their attitudes of us.

I spent well over a decade on the bus (and still do) before I became an RN. I can't begin to tell you how many calls I've responded to where the nurse was clueless about the patient's situation, or had put a NRB mask on the patient (flowing at 2 LPM), or had a patient in full blown approaching a need for intubation respiratory failure and was having a fit because we wanted to give more than 2 LPM O2 to them 'cause they had COPD. I've seen many (literally hundreds) of miserable failures of employing basic BLS by staff.

I have also encountered nurses who have done everything right and gave quick concise reports nailing all the pertinent info. We notice and appreciate those. I regretfully have to say those experiences for us seem to be rare exceptions.

If you don't like the stereotype, don't be the stereotype. That's the only way to change opinions. We are responsible for developing their attitudes toward us. We are responsible to reverse it.

I like your response. Thank you for this! I really don't want to fit into that stereotype. I am still a very new nurse, and that's part of my fear! That I will not think to do something that I need to do in a time of emergency. So I try to look for resources to prepare myself for those situations, but not sure how sometimes.

No it's not you--while they have a very difficult job to do with dealing with the public in emergencies, and having a broad scope of assessment, they can often be arrogant and rude to RN's. I try to be as professional as possible and courteous to them!

Oh my goodness, yes! I work in a group home with people who are mentally/physically handicapped. I called for an ambulance for one of my patients the other day and told dispatch that her right pupil was dilated, her left pupil was pinpoint, and neither were reactive to light. He asked if there were any other signs of stroke. I said no. There was no facial drooping or one sided weakness. (She is nonverbal, so I am unable to assess her speech). When the EMTs got there, I showed them her pupils and demonstrated with a flashlight. She looked at me like I was an idiot and asked me why I told dispatch there were no signs of stroke. I had to explain the conversation I had with dispatch and that I had said there were no OTHER signs of stroke. Thanks for the wasting those precious minutes just to accuse me of not knowing my job. Oh, and also, thanks for not calling ahead to the hospital to let them know they were bringing a possible stroke patient. (The hospital had to call me to ask, because they got no information from the EMTs)

Former EMT here!

I apologize if we ever look at you like you're less than..typically we don't get any HX,allergies,RX or literally anything useful we can tell the triage nurse or even in our base contact. It sucks because we're then looked at like the stupidest people on the face of the earth when we deny HX per facility then the PT states a slew of conditions and medications. No idea why but pts are healthy in the back of the rig and then tell the triage nurse they have every condition in the book. Quite interesting honestly but makes EMS look foolish. We're often looked down upon when bringing in or discharging and aren't given adequate information because we're "just EMTs". We also deal with nurses who don't quite know what they're doing anymore(or if ever) SNF/Assisted living homes scare the living bajeezus out of me from my experiences.

"He's sick"

-Nurse, this PT has rigor mortis and is colder than a popsicle. When was last rounds? What's his HX?

"No, he's sick. Saw him at dinner 20 minutes ago. Probably UTI. Only a little hypertensive"

-->PT is trached with NG tube. Med list 3 pages long.

I'm not generalizing to all SNFsbut it's crazy that a city will have 7+ SNFs and somehow 911 is called at only 2 consistently for severely critical patients.

Soooooo frustrating. again, I apologize but you don't know where we come from until you walk a mile in our shoes with our unique experiences. I was never that EMT since I knew I wanted to be a nurse and of course, I understand in a school setting you can't know every single kids HX.

Do you have the ability to update the emergency cards with pertinent school health happenings, during a period of relative calm? That way they would be accurate, right?

And maybe you could get parents to update them at least each semester with news from the home part of the students' lives.

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:

School nurses, you know what I mean :cat:

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:

School nurses, you know what I mean :cat:

[/b]

I feel ya. They just don't know.

Specializes in Nursing Home.

I'm not a school nurse. But I am a Nurse, LPN in LTC. I can relate to being looked at like I dumb by EMTs. The fact of the matter is EMTs will never understand the work load and responsibility of a Nurse. I was an EMT-B before becoming a Nurse. Ratios for EMTs are 2 Prehospital Care Providers per usually 1-3 patients and usually always 1. EMT training is so focused on gathering data, hx, etc they don't understand the struggle of having 40 plus patients under your care at one time. Many EMTs also don't understand that we don't call them for there opinion we call them to transport our patients to a hospital quickly. With all due respect I'm a Licensed Nurse and when I decide to send one of my patients out in collaboration with the physician or by my judgement I carry my own license to do so and shouldn't meet resistance. EMTs are certified to provide pre hospital care under a medical director. They are not practitioners of medicine and its very dangerous and unethical for Nurses to take advice from them.

With that being said I was an EMT for a major ambulance company and it does help if Nurses are able to get all the ducks in a row on time. But like I would tell my partner on the rig, we are EMTs, why should we expect ducks to be in a row! That's not how emergencies work anywhere [emoji23]

+ Add a Comment