I have a good friend, I'll call Jack, who has more certifications behind his name, than you can possibly imagine. Jack has been an RN for over 30 years, a flight nurse, at a level 1 trauma center,who has for the past three years, voluntarily donated his time, money ( a great deal of money) and services to a youth football. You will note I've said volunteered, Jack is not getting paid or reimbursed for the money he has spent or the services he has supplied. He also had no children on this team, his are all grown up and gone.
Jack has triaged concussions, fractures, illnesses etc, without any problems, applauded and thanked by countless parents, until the other night when a woman, who did not have any children or relatives on the team over hear a conversation between the head coaches wife and himself. She immediately demanded he show her his NR/EMT license, stating you are the team paramedic. It was explained to her, several times, he is not the team paramedic but a volunteer.
Jack said, if they want to pay me for this, then anyone can ask to see my license but I am not getting paid.
She then said, if I asked a cop on the street for his id, he would give it! Maybe he/she would after they hauled her butt down to the police station.
"I can wear a t shirt that says EMT on it". Yes you can, but you have to produce your license number (star of life and EMT class embroidered patch) in order to get the patch to go along with it. Her final shot was you don't show me your identification, you are not touching any of my kids......she had no children on the team and no one could figure out why she was there.
He had just finished checking a kid out, with an ear infection and his helmet was putting pressure on his ear. So he told the kid, to keep the helmet off, get some water to cool down and do what he could without the helmet. She steps in, touches the kid's forehead says "You're burning up"...sure he was burning up, he had a helmet on and it was 85 degrees outside and very humid. SHE sent the kid home, where she had absolutely no authority to do so. So does this mean she was practicing nursing or medicine without a license? Yeah it does, at least to my mind.
So, Jack and two other of my nursing friends left after the game and are not going back. Because of this woman, who over stepped herself, made a big stink, these kids no longer have three very competent, highly qualified professionals who volunteered, to help protect them.
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