The alarms sound and everyone hurries to grab their shirts, ties, and boots. Dispatch informs everyone of a motor vehicle accident that occurred five blocks away.
EMTs and Paramedics rush into ambulances while police report multiple personal injuries. Adrenaline surges through all those involved as the street ignites with flashing red and white lights and blaring sirens. Ambulances speed down the street towards the accident scene, discovering a high-speed collision involving four cars. A total of seven individuals are involved in this specific accident. Requested additional trucks arrive, and the initial scene is replicated as three more teams join the first two at the scene.
Emergency personnel diligently work to extricate patients from the wreckage of the vehicles. In one particular instance, a patient is experiencing full traumatic arrest. During their efforts, three emergency medical workers collaborate to intubate the patient and initiate intravenous procedures, all while performing CPR, readying the defibrillator, and simultaneously searching for the patient’s identification. Maintaining chest compressions, administering breaths, medications, and defibrillation in a concerted attempt to prevent death, the team transports the patient into the ambulance. Despite the vehicle’s jolting movements, the EMTs and paramedics persist with their endeavors en route to the hospital. Upon reaching their destination, a member of the team updates the triage nurse about the situation before transferring the patient from their stretcher to a trauma bed within the facility.
Finally, the team members have been given permission to clean up the back of the truck and go back to base. While they clean and drive back, they discuss different aspects of their recent run. This includes speculating about the condition of their patient, as well as other patients at the scene and their co-workers. The atmosphere is slowly returning to normal between calls after experiencing a typical accident scene that most emergency medical personnel are familiar with.
After such a call, many questions arise among the team members. They wonder who exactly were the EMTs and Paramedics involved in the depicted accident scene. Was it Jeff, Will, and John? Or maybe it was Charlene, Lee, and Tracy? Despite efforts towards societal political correctness today, there is still a noticeable gender bias in certain fields like Emergency Medical Services (EMS). It is clear that men outnumber women significantly in this field and unfortunately women are often seen as less capable than men when it comes to performing duties of an EMT or Paramedic.
Both male and female EMTs and Paramedics face the challenging tasks of making split-second, life-saving decisions, lifting heavy weights, and working long hours in all conditions. However, there is a perception that women lack the necessary strength to lift patients or equipment in certain situations due to physical differences between genders. I personally experienced this during an incident while on my regular ambulance shift. My partner and I were called to assist paramedics with a patient who had fallen down the stairs. Considering the impact on the man’s head from the fall, we carefully secured him to a board that matched his body length in order to effectively immobilize his head, neck, and back. It should be noted that in this specific case, the patient happened to be a significantly large man weighing around 350 pounds. What is also important to mention is that I am a female.
During a patient transfer, I offered to assist by grabbing a corner of the board. One of the paramedics reassured me that they had everything under control and playfully suggested that I go to the truck and “look cute”. Another example of teamwork occurred when my partner and I carefully moved an overweight patient from his nursing home bed to our stretcher since he was unable to stand or walk.
While preparing to transport him in our truck, the man expressed doubts about our strength and made inappropriate remarks regarding my appearance and sexual activity. Throughout the journey, he persistently offered us Sambuca shots. Upon arriving at his residence, we unloaded him from the truck with the intention of moving him onto a stair chair – a specialized wheeled chair for navigating stairs. Despite the patient’s constant interruptions and unwanted advice, we successfully transferred him. It is worth mentioning that he resided on the third floor of a house with narrow staircases. Just as my partner and I were about to lift him, he insisted on calling for more assistance due to his skepticism towards me as a female being capable enough.
He did everything he could to belittle women and convince me that I couldn’t lift and carry him up the stairs. However, we ended up carrying our difficult patient slowly, with breaks, all the way up the stairs, and were denied the shot of Sambuca when we reached the top. My partner and I proved him wrong, which was satisfying. However, our backs suffered in the process. Another way in which women are treated differently from men in EMS is during the transportation of female psychiatric patients. It is inevitable that whenever there is a female psychiatric patient needing transportation, either from their home to a facility or between two facilities, a female responder is assigned to the call.
This practice is highly unfair for multiple reasons. First, if a female is assigned to a psychiatric call, she cannot respond to an emergency call if one arises. Additionally, when a facility requests a team for a female psychiatric transfer, they often fail to specify the need for a female team member. This incorrect assumption is made by whoever dispatches the call, regardless of their gender. In my personal experience, both male and female dispatchers have made this mistake. Men argue that assigning an all-male crew to transport a female psychiatric patient could leave them vulnerable to allegations of unwanted sexual advances.
The initial claim seems valid, but it is uncertain who accompanies the patient in the back of the truck during these transports. Personally, I prefer to drive when receiving these calls. There are no specific guidelines regarding the roles of male and female crewmembers in these situations. At times, a male crewmember accompanies the patient while other times a female crewmember does. The previous paragraph suggests that there is one male and one female crewmember present, but this is not always true. Sometimes, there may be two male crewmembers, but never two female crewmembers.
Despite some companies permitting two females to ride together, my current company does not allow it. The regulatory authority responsible for setting rules has determined that it is unsafe for two females to work together due to several reasons. One reason is the belief that if a combative male patient were to attack them, two females would be unable to defend themselves adequately. It should be noted that this concern applies equally to male EMTs and Paramedics.
In terms of physical harm caused during attacks by patients, regardless of gender composition or individual characteristics such as heightened aggression in some women compared to men, my experiences confirm that equal levels of intervention from healthcare personnel are required for both males and females. Moreover, differing treatment approaches exist within hospital staff dynamics.
Female nurses tend to give more attention to teams consisting of two male individuals compared to teams of two females or mixed teams. This lack of respect towards the majority of emergency workers not only affects the patient’s treatment but also poses a risk if the nurse fails to fully focus on instructions from emergency personnel. On the other hand, this argument raises issues regarding basic manners. When men in EMS behave properly by not showing off their superior lifting abilities, avoiding psychiatric calls, or flirting with nurses, they demonstrate civilized conduct. There are numerous examples that highlight this specific issue.
One instance occurred while I was talking to my supervisor before a shift. My partner and another crewmember entered the supervisor’s office. The other crewmember said hello to me by saying, “F_ _ _ You!” As soon as he had, the males in the office immediately told him to watch his mouth because, “there was a female present.” Another good example was an exchange my partner and I had one night over seatbelts. I always wear my seatbelt in the ambulance, and I asked him why he was not wearing his.
He responded that in the event of any incident, his responsibility as the male crewmember would be to safeguard me by positioning himself between my body and the windshield to avoid any harm. It is important to mention that this assertion does not align with the regulations of ambulance driving. Traditionally, men have viewed themselves as having a protective duty towards women, a notion that can be observed both in domestic environments and professional settings. Nevertheless, in contemporary society, women hold high-level positions within prominent companies, suggesting that gender boundaries are now more flexible than they were in previous times.
Women have exerted significant effort to earn the admiration of their male peers, with the battle for equality persisting in the corporate, academic, and professional realms. Although the previously existing glass ceiling has been elevated, its complete destruction is still a process that will require additional time.
