I was hired by the BC Ambulance Service in the late 1990’s and trained as a level 1 Emergency Medical Attendent (EMA1) – now a Primary Care Paramedic (PCP). After years of part time call-out shifts and jockeying for a good station in a system based on seniority, I landed an Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) position in one of the largest and busiest dispatch centers in Canada. I work 4 days on and 6 days off and enjoy my time away from work.
We generally refer to our dispatch centre as “the Tower”. It harkens to the time when our centre was on the top floor of a building that had a wonderful view of English Bay where we could watch the sailboats in the Summer and the fog roll in in the Fall. A few years ago, we moved to a much less grandiose view but the term has stuck with us.
Remember a few things:- I can talk on the phone to you while dispatching the ambulance. It’s called multitasking.
- You don’t call a Fireman a “firetruck driver”, so please don’t call a Paramedic an “ambulance driver”.
- When an ambulance clears the hospital, I know they usually aren’t anywere near the hospital anymore (unless they’re new crew members).
- Ambulances give different levels of care. The questions we ask help to determine the best care for your family.
- Telling me to “just send the %$#&%# ambulance” actually doesn’t get an ambulance any faster.
- I can read a map and know who is the closest car to the call.
- In our system, AMPDS doesn’t tell us how to get to a call. That’s our Resource Allocation Plan.
Note: The thoughts, comments and views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of British Columbia Ambulance Service.
