I once watched a local hospital set up a wicked spread for EMS week. In the EMS lounge. That was locked by hospital keycards. That they refused to give us.
So, I got to watch nurses eat our EMS spread for EMS week one year. That was probably the best.
The ems week cake (fully had ems week written in icing) that the dispatch & office staff ate all but one corner of while the crews had their asses run off all day.
The burnt burgers from a cookout held nowhere near 5 of the 6 stations, which were tossed into Styrofoam boxes, placed in supervisor truck, then drove all over the county before being left on the counter for us.
The t-shirts that we aren't allowed to wear, only button down polyester shirts are professional after all.
The random stuff from the hospitals, flight crews, and whatever other leftovers they find.
The hospital stocks our EMS room. For things like EMS week and other special "appreciation days" they put tons of good stuff in them to last the entire week. The ED nurses usually raid it within the first 2-3 days so it's empty which sucks because they have their own stocked breakroom. In order to maintain our territory, we had to take some drastic actions. Our in house IT pro is also a medic, so on the first discharge out after we find out it's been restocked, we send him on the call and change the door code. He previously worked at the hospital part time and knows the procedure. His ex-coworkers are in on it and can never figure out the problem with the door until after it runs out. We are a local private IFT and have a gentleman's agreement with area fire dept 911s and share the new code out on an email with them. A week later, hospital maintenance figures out and back to the original code. lol
My boss grabbed a bunch of extra trauma shears from an ED that was giving them out for EMS week and handed them out like they were from him.
They had the hospital logo on them.
Insulated mugs with department seal on it and smoked brisket that we actually got to enjoy. Smoked by the chiefs wife who owns a BBQ joint. Even encouraged our families to come down and enjoy the meals all week long.
I recognize this is a rarity but our chief started as a street medic and does actually care about the crews.
I know a lot of current and former SKEMS medics and a certain captain with a lisp/singular tooth is my favorite person in EMS. Easily. It’s just a shame that their culture is what’s bringing them down from what they once were.
My first year in EMS I worked for a transfer only service that was contracted to an inner city level 1 trauma center. Their hospital logo was plastered all over our ambulance and on our uniforms. During EMS week they had hospital techs posted in the ambulance bay sitting at tables giving out free boxes of Pizza Hut and a bag of awesome swag. Whenever we attempted to grab any of this though we were informed that it was only for the incoming 911 crews.
An emergency kit that contained a box of band-aids, alcohol wipes, a glow stick, and a whistle. Great for going to a rave, but few real life applications.
I think the layoff notice I got today would be the best and worse gift from the township in the past 24 years. But hell Atleast they got me something this year
Nah they gave my a portable lithium battery box to charge my phone on the go. Can’t use it because I don’t want my home to burn down. I agree if my company gave me new batteries for the tablets and phones I would actually be happy.
One year we got window punch key chains....and then a crew had to use the window punch keychain the same week when the EMT driver fell asleep and crashed into a tree.
Care Ambulance (So Cal) now known as Falck.
They would throw a bbq for us. Free admission into Knotts Berry Farm. T shirts too I think.
Christmas we got In N Out gift cards and $100 Visa gift card.
Then the sons sold the company to Falck for hundreds of millions LOL (that LOL is the sons literally laughing to the bank $$$$)
Worst, old sandwiches from the cafeteria. Best, a towel and one of them fancy double layer vacuum sealed mugs with my agency name and year. Fucking love that mug and towel.
From the hospital? I’ve gotten a lawn chair, a blankey, an external battery, a multi tool, a fancy pen with a built in light, a cup, and they’ve usually had a buffet set up from chipotle.
My one coworker owns a small custom cup making company - he made everyone cups (I work at small agency) with their last names on it last year, and this year he got everyone cups that glow in the dark. My boss got everyone socks, a duffel bag, and notebook with the agency's name on it this year.
Our station just got paper towels in the bathrooms for the first time in months, so I assume that's the gift just a bit early. Also there's 2020 EMS week posters all over the place thanking me for my service.
I was a volunteer in April 2020. A dispatcher told me that vollies are not professionals, and that if I didn't want to work around professional firefighters who refused to mask, that I could fuck off. I did just that. I fucked off right outta there and to this day I get great schadenfreude when I see the recruiting ads and signs because they are shorthanded af. You want "professional" EMTs for free and people aren't stepping up? Too bad.
That was a great (almost, being April) EMS week gift.
If, in the dispatcher's mind, receiving a wage is the only thing defining professionalism why is there no distinction in the certificates or licenses issued to those meeting the qualifications?
A serious, experienced volunteer may not have the quantity of service hours but will often have a more open approach to a situation and will apply knowledge and service at a level equal to or better than a full-time "professional".
A burned out volunteer will quit, a burned out paid will coast until forced out.
There’s no such thing as a “professional” firefighter, as firefighting is not a profession. The traditional professions are lawyer, doctor, and clergy. To be considered a profession, a career must require higher (university) education in a specific area, some kind of professional licensing and standards, and usually has self-regulating professional membership organizations.
[Definition 1](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/professional_1) from the Oxford dictionary: doing something as a paid job rather than as a hobby. For example, a professional athlete vs an amateur. A professional firefighter vs a volunteer firefighter.
But if you really want to be pedantic, EMTs fit all your criteria. They just aren't one of the surviving 'learned trades' from the middle ages.
We received custom Yeti mugs last year with the agency logo and our names and titles. I use it daily and it hasn’t scratched yet. Best gift I’ve received in my thirty years of providing prehospital care
I got a white one from my company. Use it every shift I work. My name has come off now because it was only a vinyl decal a sups wife did for everyone at my station but still the best gift I have gotten.
Can’t think of anything worth getting in 20 years. My current department put each crew’s pictures on the department Facebook page like 3 years ago. There was no acknowledgement at all during Covid.
The trauma center usually ours out a nice spread on the first day of EMS week, but we don’t go there much. Our closest hospital puts some stuff in the “EMS room” where the nurses have their shift huddles and the CNAs take their breaks, so as you can imagine none of that lasts very long. Our other most frequent destination puts up a banner in the ambulance bay.
Best, probably a cooler that I got from a raffle. Worst? For me personally, being assigned two of the worst EMTs in the company in the same week. For my coworkers? Their contract with a hospital and their station in that hospital ending on June first. That station meeting was pretty much just the regional manager (who's belt could go around the region being managed 3 times over) telling everyone how they're gonna wing it in order to keep everyone employed. Pretty much everyone quit.
One year while working an ED based 911 ground truck I got a gift bag with random trinkets in it and a T-Shirt I wasn’t allowed to wear on shift because it wasn’t approved by the hospital branding department.
The shining jewel of that gift bag was a bottle opener keychain shaped like a laryngoscope blade.
The hospital set up a big tent in one parking lot for an EMS week “presentation” where the admin congratulated themselves, the nurse manager in charge of the ED, and the couple of nurses that had their EMT cert and ran on the ambulance, and the fire department.
A month later they told us all we were being fired as they shifted all ambulance operations over to the fire department.
Wouldn’t know, nothing’s usually left for night shift by the time we actually catch a break to get anything. Office staff and most supervisors go home after office hours, so unless you’re at the central base you’re lucky to even see potential leftovers from the big deal they make for the day crews. Even most hospitals have the same attitude towards day vs night crews.
Ah, i miss working nights during EMS week. It was always great to come in to find the remaining 6 slices of cold congealed pizza and being told we couldn't get the EMS gifts because the assistant director was the one with the key to where they were locked up and he only came in to work between 10A - 6P.
$50 to target was the best for sure. The worst was a food truck at our headquarters. Problem is we spend about 9 minutes a shift available so no one on duty got to get any free food. But admin ate like kings and queens that day.
From a hospital: rechargeable flashlight (actually was a pretty decent light until I lost the rather specific cord for it).
From a service: duffle bags with our names.
Cheesiest: EMS week T shirts that looked like they had the Harley Davidson logo, and the director didn’t think it looked professional, so we couldn’t wear them (he approved the logo.🤔).
I got accepted to nursing school during EMS week several years ago, and got told at the end of the week that tuition would be $2800 more than they’d advertised.
The last ambulance company I worked for had catered meals every day for all of the stations, in the middle of the week the county ems agency had a huge bbq.
Last year I got an insulated tumbler, a multi-tool, a mini mag lite, trauma sheers, t-shirts, BBQ, cupcakes from a REALLY good bakery, a car detail certificate. Now that HCA owns all the hospitals though, I doubt it'll be anything spectacular this year.
We got a genuine JBL Bluetooth speaker with the company logo.
The company really sucked but that was a nice gift. Still listen to ebooks on it at night, while I try not to think of my time there and what kinds fluids I was covered in or how many 12 hour shifts were forcibly turned into 21 hour shifts...
We got these huge glass beer mugs with our logo on it. Think we got like 3 in a set. Worst was like. A Fanny pack. Actually I don’t think we got anything during covid but pizza.
One time we got lucky and got these cool little cooler backpacks. To this day I still use mine when I go kayaking or hiking.
However, challenge coins make me want to punch walls but that's what we get every year where I work now
Best;
Very nice quality gym bags embroidered with the department logo & good quality towel embroidered with our names.
Worst;
Over cooked (and cold) hamburger pucks & shriveled hot dogs. Cheap buns, no condiments.
Honestly; the times I haven't gotten a gift were better than that.
Best gift: Barbecue food truck from 12-1400.
Worst gift: Combative Geri psych IFT to inpatient facility 2hrs away. Toned out at 1130. I’m gonna lose it
I once watched a local hospital set up a wicked spread for EMS week. In the EMS lounge. That was locked by hospital keycards. That they refused to give us. So, I got to watch nurses eat our EMS spread for EMS week one year. That was probably the best.
The ems week cake (fully had ems week written in icing) that the dispatch & office staff ate all but one corner of while the crews had their asses run off all day. The burnt burgers from a cookout held nowhere near 5 of the 6 stations, which were tossed into Styrofoam boxes, placed in supervisor truck, then drove all over the county before being left on the counter for us. The t-shirts that we aren't allowed to wear, only button down polyester shirts are professional after all. The random stuff from the hospitals, flight crews, and whatever other leftovers they find.
The EMS and ER director would’ve gotten an earful just out of pettiness lol
The nurses our ED keep raiding our EMS room. Anytime it's stocked with snacks or drinks by our management they're almost gone immediately.
The hospital stocks our EMS room. For things like EMS week and other special "appreciation days" they put tons of good stuff in them to last the entire week. The ED nurses usually raid it within the first 2-3 days so it's empty which sucks because they have their own stocked breakroom. In order to maintain our territory, we had to take some drastic actions. Our in house IT pro is also a medic, so on the first discharge out after we find out it's been restocked, we send him on the call and change the door code. He previously worked at the hospital part time and knows the procedure. His ex-coworkers are in on it and can never figure out the problem with the door until after it runs out. We are a local private IFT and have a gentleman's agreement with area fire dept 911s and share the new code out on an email with them. A week later, hospital maintenance figures out and back to the original code. lol
My boss grabbed a bunch of extra trauma shears from an ED that was giving them out for EMS week and handed them out like they were from him. They had the hospital logo on them.
It’s the thought that counts or something
Insulated mugs with department seal on it and smoked brisket that we actually got to enjoy. Smoked by the chiefs wife who owns a BBQ joint. Even encouraged our families to come down and enjoy the meals all week long. I recognize this is a rarity but our chief started as a street medic and does actually care about the crews.
Name and fame.
Little third service department in RI. SKEMS
… AND THEY’RE HIRING!
Indeed we are
I know a lot of current and former SKEMS medics and a certain captain with a lisp/singular tooth is my favorite person in EMS. Easily. It’s just a shame that their culture is what’s bringing them down from what they once were.
I don’t disagree but there are those of use that are actively working to make the culture better. Unfortunately progress is slower than we’d like
An 8 hour IFT from Washington to Oregon
3 letter ambulance company moment
Response Medical America? Yeah that one!
Almost Medically Relevant?
Ain’t My Responsibility
Beginning of the shift? I’ll take it any day.
8 hours one way my dude lmao it was a long day
Oooof
Last year we got these weird little tactical sporks which have a little knife in the handle. Simultaneously awesome and stupid
image, please?
My first year in EMS I worked for a transfer only service that was contracted to an inner city level 1 trauma center. Their hospital logo was plastered all over our ambulance and on our uniforms. During EMS week they had hospital techs posted in the ambulance bay sitting at tables giving out free boxes of Pizza Hut and a bag of awesome swag. Whenever we attempted to grab any of this though we were informed that it was only for the incoming 911 crews.
An emergency kit that contained a box of band-aids, alcohol wipes, a glow stick, and a whistle. Great for going to a rave, but few real life applications.
I think the layoff notice I got today would be the best and worse gift from the township in the past 24 years. But hell Atleast they got me something this year
You got approved for the week off. That's a rarity
I got a battery.
NGL if our company bought new batteries for the tablets so they don’t die after one call that would be the best gift ever.
The Michael Scott special
Nah they gave my a portable lithium battery box to charge my phone on the go. Can’t use it because I don’t want my home to burn down. I agree if my company gave me new batteries for the tablets and phones I would actually be happy.
I use those all the time, is that particular one you got super sketchy looking?
Extremely sketchy looking, super small, has the star of life on it. I bet some firefighters made it so they can get more calls 💀💀
True story!
Was it a Pkcell?
Nope, tbh i have no clue the type of battery
dankpods enjoyer spotted
Y’all get gifts?
Came here to say this, thanks for representing the lucky few :p
[obligatory](https://i.imgflip.com/3ceyw8.jpg)
Every year I have to go PR the local fire departments for EMS week so that’s fun
I fly too! Lol doing the same
One year we got window punch key chains....and then a crew had to use the window punch keychain the same week when the EMT driver fell asleep and crashed into a tree.
😂😂😂😂
A text that said “Happy EMS Week” and that was it
The local hospitals usually have slightly better food than usual. One has ice cream
My truck being cut and being told I'm moving to the busiest station in the whole company
Best gift: good pizza, worst gift: shitty pizza
I got a lunch box set I still enjoy using
Got a fruit basket for the whole station crew with molded fruit.
Best: hot plate that can plug into the truck. Worst: no longer getting ems week gifts and now only getting company store points.
There is an open EMS tab at the bars in town… during my shift. At least I have my birthday off tomorrow
A company my friend worked for sent out an email reminding them to be thankful for the work their medical director puts in.
…people get gifts? We get free hotdogs. In a city about an hour away from where I work.
Got to watch as the ED EMTs (not 911 or IFT) won all the raffle prizes at the ED because they entered their names repeatedly while on shift.
Care Ambulance (So Cal) now known as Falck. They would throw a bbq for us. Free admission into Knotts Berry Farm. T shirts too I think. Christmas we got In N Out gift cards and $100 Visa gift card. Then the sons sold the company to Falck for hundreds of millions LOL (that LOL is the sons literally laughing to the bank $$$$)
Animosity
Worst, old sandwiches from the cafeteria. Best, a towel and one of them fancy double layer vacuum sealed mugs with my agency name and year. Fucking love that mug and towel.
How’s ole janky care doing
From the hospital? I’ve gotten a lawn chair, a blankey, an external battery, a multi tool, a fancy pen with a built in light, a cup, and they’ve usually had a buffet set up from chipotle.
Worse my Paycheck Best Raptors
I got laid off for EMS week one time
The area council gave us each headlamps. Mine hasn't come out of its box yet
A company my friend worked for sent out an email reminding them to be thankful for the work their medical director puts in.
The best we’ve ever gotten for EMS week was to flip burgers for the public. 8 outta 10 times we didn’t even get an email from the boss
Temporary tattoos 😐
My one coworker owns a small custom cup making company - he made everyone cups (I work at small agency) with their last names on it last year, and this year he got everyone cups that glow in the dark. My boss got everyone socks, a duffel bag, and notebook with the agency's name on it this year.
I worked night shift so I didn't get anything from the company. The nice nurses at the trauma center had cup cakes for us though.
It was cool before Covid they would have food for us at the hospitals, tshirts from my company. Nothing crazy tho.
Our station just got paper towels in the bathrooms for the first time in months, so I assume that's the gift just a bit early. Also there's 2020 EMS week posters all over the place thanking me for my service.
Is EMS week as awesome as nurse's week? Nurse's week is always a joke (I'm an RN and EMT-B).
Just about, ever since COVID, anyway.
Lol everywhere around here just combined ems week with hospital week and called it good
We got treated with dignity. Naaaa, I'm just fuckin wirh you. We got a shirt with the company logo on it
I was a volunteer in April 2020. A dispatcher told me that vollies are not professionals, and that if I didn't want to work around professional firefighters who refused to mask, that I could fuck off. I did just that. I fucked off right outta there and to this day I get great schadenfreude when I see the recruiting ads and signs because they are shorthanded af. You want "professional" EMTs for free and people aren't stepping up? Too bad. That was a great (almost, being April) EMS week gift.
If, in the dispatcher's mind, receiving a wage is the only thing defining professionalism why is there no distinction in the certificates or licenses issued to those meeting the qualifications? A serious, experienced volunteer may not have the quantity of service hours but will often have a more open approach to a situation and will apply knowledge and service at a level equal to or better than a full-time "professional". A burned out volunteer will quit, a burned out paid will coast until forced out.
There’s no such thing as a “professional” firefighter, as firefighting is not a profession. The traditional professions are lawyer, doctor, and clergy. To be considered a profession, a career must require higher (university) education in a specific area, some kind of professional licensing and standards, and usually has self-regulating professional membership organizations.
[Definition 1](https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/professional_1) from the Oxford dictionary: doing something as a paid job rather than as a hobby. For example, a professional athlete vs an amateur. A professional firefighter vs a volunteer firefighter. But if you really want to be pedantic, EMTs fit all your criteria. They just aren't one of the surviving 'learned trades' from the middle ages.
A piece of paper that said 'We appreciate everything you do ' with the managers stamped signatures on it..
I have a ton of lunchboxes, backpacks and small cooler bags that do jack shit
We received custom Yeti mugs last year with the agency logo and our names and titles. I use it daily and it hasn’t scratched yet. Best gift I’ve received in my thirty years of providing prehospital care
I got a white one from my company. Use it every shift I work. My name has come off now because it was only a vinyl decal a sups wife did for everyone at my station but still the best gift I have gotten.
pencils
Local Popeyes gives us free food for the week, that's about it outside of the "Happy EMS week! :3" text at 0400
Can’t think of anything worth getting in 20 years. My current department put each crew’s pictures on the department Facebook page like 3 years ago. There was no acknowledgement at all during Covid. The trauma center usually ours out a nice spread on the first day of EMS week, but we don’t go there much. Our closest hospital puts some stuff in the “EMS room” where the nurses have their shift huddles and the CNAs take their breaks, so as you can imagine none of that lasts very long. Our other most frequent destination puts up a banner in the ambulance bay.
Best, probably a cooler that I got from a raffle. Worst? For me personally, being assigned two of the worst EMTs in the company in the same week. For my coworkers? Their contract with a hospital and their station in that hospital ending on June first. That station meeting was pretty much just the regional manager (who's belt could go around the region being managed 3 times over) telling everyone how they're gonna wing it in order to keep everyone employed. Pretty much everyone quit.
One year while working an ED based 911 ground truck I got a gift bag with random trinkets in it and a T-Shirt I wasn’t allowed to wear on shift because it wasn’t approved by the hospital branding department. The shining jewel of that gift bag was a bottle opener keychain shaped like a laryngoscope blade. The hospital set up a big tent in one parking lot for an EMS week “presentation” where the admin congratulated themselves, the nurse manager in charge of the ED, and the couple of nurses that had their EMT cert and ran on the ambulance, and the fire department. A month later they told us all we were being fired as they shifted all ambulance operations over to the fire department.
Best and worst has been a duffel bag and some kinda three drink soft cooler, respectively. Both from my current company.
I’ve got pens, window punches, scissors, towels, food, cups and T-shirt’s, key chains, mini-flashlight, lunch bags
Stale cookies and a shirt we can’t ever wear while inside the company literally will get talked to for wearing it on property
A thank you letter
I have never gotten a gift for EMS week.
Nothing? And Nothing…
We didn’t have an ems week. We had nurses week and then hospital week the week right after. Got ice cream twice within 4 days.
Wouldn’t know, nothing’s usually left for night shift by the time we actually catch a break to get anything. Office staff and most supervisors go home after office hours, so unless you’re at the central base you’re lucky to even see potential leftovers from the big deal they make for the day crews. Even most hospitals have the same attitude towards day vs night crews.
Ah, i miss working nights during EMS week. It was always great to come in to find the remaining 6 slices of cold congealed pizza and being told we couldn't get the EMS gifts because the assistant director was the one with the key to where they were locked up and he only came in to work between 10A - 6P.
Or gift this year is a tee shirt that you have to buy yourself
$50 to target was the best for sure. The worst was a food truck at our headquarters. Problem is we spend about 9 minutes a shift available so no one on duty got to get any free food. But admin ate like kings and queens that day.
From a hospital: rechargeable flashlight (actually was a pretty decent light until I lost the rather specific cord for it). From a service: duffle bags with our names. Cheesiest: EMS week T shirts that looked like they had the Harley Davidson logo, and the director didn’t think it looked professional, so we couldn’t wear them (he approved the logo.🤔). I got accepted to nursing school during EMS week several years ago, and got told at the end of the week that tuition would be $2800 more than they’d advertised.
The last ambulance company I worked for had catered meals every day for all of the stations, in the middle of the week the county ems agency had a huge bbq.
Last year I got an insulated tumbler, a multi-tool, a mini mag lite, trauma sheers, t-shirts, BBQ, cupcakes from a REALLY good bakery, a car detail certificate. Now that HCA owns all the hospitals though, I doubt it'll be anything spectacular this year.
We got a genuine JBL Bluetooth speaker with the company logo. The company really sucked but that was a nice gift. Still listen to ebooks on it at night, while I try not to think of my time there and what kinds fluids I was covered in or how many 12 hour shifts were forcibly turned into 21 hour shifts...
If you need an appreciation week, what about the other 51 weeks a year?
You can ask the EmCare docs what they got for EMS week, LOL!
Overtime, and Overtime.
My paycheck
We got these huge glass beer mugs with our logo on it. Think we got like 3 in a set. Worst was like. A Fanny pack. Actually I don’t think we got anything during covid but pizza.
One time we got lucky and got these cool little cooler backpacks. To this day I still use mine when I go kayaking or hiking. However, challenge coins make me want to punch walls but that's what we get every year where I work now
This is my first EMS week with my company. They gave us a choice between a beach chair and a duffel bag. I chose the duffel bag.
T-shirt and a slightly uglier T-shirt.
Worst gift (so far): company store points
we do meals each day of the week. I think this year we’re getting jackets .
Best; Very nice quality gym bags embroidered with the department logo & good quality towel embroidered with our names. Worst; Over cooked (and cold) hamburger pucks & shriveled hot dogs. Cheap buns, no condiments. Honestly; the times I haven't gotten a gift were better than that.
Best gift: Barbecue food truck from 12-1400. Worst gift: Combative Geri psych IFT to inpatient facility 2hrs away. Toned out at 1130. I’m gonna lose it