BINGO!

A few months ago there were some news stories floating around about an apparently disgraceful game of "EMS Bingo"

You can cover this card in a couple shifts in the city.

The above picture was posted on a FaceBook account, along with a wish for a happy EMS week. And as it happens when you have 24/7 news networks the story blossomed into a beautiful little controversy.

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Since this is a blog I'm going to give you my opinion...

Personally, being an insider in the profession, I don't really have a problem with it. This is a high stress job- you can see it right on the card. Practitioners need a healthy way to blow off steem (pun intended).

I can tell you with 100% certainty any call of note will be talked about in the squad room, or while changing shifts. Its half venting, half bragging, and half an analysis of what happened (EMT math). PTSD is a big problem, and if this is someones way of dealing with it who is to say they're wrong?

I will say I don't agree with the way it was handled. This isn't something you should be leaving on the dashboard. Like they say in the news story, a family member is most certainly going to notice (especially if they are being overly dramatic). And this definitely should Not have been posted to social media. Who ever did should have known better too. While this isn't a privacy violation or against any kind of protocol, it is against common sense for the same reason leaving it on the dashboard is. Someone will see it and take it the wrong way. If you're going to do something like this, keep it in house.

Anyway, that's my take. I hope to see some comments of what other people have to say. Thanks for reading.

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A couple clarifications:

• "Patient Gone on Arrival": Not an instance of DOA, but rather the patient was physically not there upon arriving...It happens.
• "Code Brown": Probably what you're thinking it is. Use your imagination...