Is The Term "VAC" Obsolete?

[x635 4,066]

I was wondering if anyone else found the term "VAC", or in some cases, "First Aid Squad", obsolete???

Yes, I know it represents pride in some agencies that they are volunteer. However, "Emergency Medical Services" is what we are and do, and I feel that term versus "VAC" doesn't give off a good image, since we're more then just the ambulance.

Think about it as a civilian. You pull up along side an ambulance, and see either:

Blahville Volunteer Ambulance Corps

-OR-

Blahville Emergency Medical Services

Which one paints the better picture of our profession? And you can still add volunteer to EMS if you're an all volunteer agency.

Or has VAC just become slang?

[NYMedic37 22]

I agree....Emergency medical service is more of an accurate description of what we do and is much more professional.

[EJS1810 7]

I believe while EMS or VEMS is the new acceptable term, I feel VAC or First Aid Squad still let the public know that help is on the way, Too often we continue to change the name of the organization for reasons that escape me. We go from Fire Department to Fire-Rescue Department because some people feel that more accuratly says what we do. Well we all know we do more then that but Fire-Rescue-EMS-Prevention-Inspection Department won't ft on the side of the trucks.

My agency has Mahopac Vol. Fire Dept EMS on the ambulances. It accuratly tells who we are and what we do. We have for some reason lost the VOL. off our fire apparatus. (they left it off one, then lettered all other new ones to match). The Ambulances are the only ones that tell the whole picture.

If my organization started as the 'Blahville' Volunteer First Aid Squad, I would want to keep that name for pride and heritage. Add EMS or VEMS near the star of life. After all, that replaced the red cross.

Edited November 7, 2007 by EJS1810

[ex-commish 490]

As long as the people on the rig are compotent and professional I am not concerned what the agency is called allthough "you call we haul" may not be a good idea

[mpgfire93 4]

I agree VAC has become a old and outdated term. How do people feel about the XYZ Fire Department Ambulance. this i feel is another outdated term. Why not say the XYZ Volunteer Fire Department EMS.

[OnTheWheel 43]

first aid squad is OUT! You guys do way much more then that and dont sell yourselves short, even for history! sometimes its ok to let go of the past, always remember where you came from and who came before you, but dont dwell! That seems to be a downfall in the fire service today, people living in the past. I digress, I think EMS is cool, VAC is cool too, as long as you get there im happy with whatever is on the side of the bus, even you call we haul!

[Remember585 815]

Our new "Ambulance Corps." or "EMS Department" or whatever it is going to be called will not be Croton VAC - just Croton EMS. We went with this figuring that if (when) the time comes to pay someone we won't be lying nor will we have to change our name with DOH.

But in all honesty - I don't think Joe Public pays any attention to us - an ambulance showing up to their emergency is all they care about - not what it says or where it comes from.

[MerlinMedic 5]

VAC, Vol. EMS, First Aid Squad ... all are traditions that should be kept so we know where we came from, but don't forget the Life Pac!

[ny10570 745]

You give the public entirely too much credit. Why aren't people surprised when the FD shows up at a car accident, drowning, or other non-fire related emergency? Its because they have been educated to expect the fire dept to show up. Unless you are going to list all of the capabilities of the agency in its name people are not going to know or care what services are provided until you educate them. Most ER doctors still don't understand the differences between EMT's and AEMT's or even all of the capabilities of EMS in general. How do you expect the average citizen to get it. All they know is that when they're sick or hurt they want an ambulance to show up. Just like they want a fire truck(not an engine, a truck, a rescue, etc) when their house is on fire and a cop(not and officer, sgt, detective, ESU, etc) when they're being robbed.

Any knowledge people have of any emergency service is thanks to TV or personal experiance. Sadly a 1970's TV show, "Emergency" is probably the single greatest education tool EMS ever had. Fire prevention is help every October and FD's all over the country go to schools to spread the word. Police officers go to schools with safety messages every year. What is the extent of community outreach offered by local agencies. A few open houses is all I know of. We need to bring the message to the people. Lets get a professional image and presentation together and take it to the schools. The officers that came to my school in Elementary school where in uniform and gave a professional presentation. Fire prevention has members in dress uniform speaking and members in dept shirts and full turnouts familiarizing the kids with our equipment and taking hte fear out of the Darth Vader like image. How about the VAC's or EMS agencies get a few members together dressed professionally (not in t-shirts and wind pants that don't fit) and do some injury prevention. Maybe get involved in the bicycle helmet and car seat safety initiatives handled by PD.

[E-38VMFD 0]

In the Village of Mamaroneck, The EMS crews were always considered EMS (not VAC, Although EMTs are all volunteers). Add in Mamaroneck and you get MEMS and that what they are refered to as.

[Danger 160]

I agree, especially when VACs start having paid personnel

[RWC130 594]

this whole topic was covered

in a previous thread that i wrote a while back.

[tracdoc 1]

Those of us that Volunteer should be proud enough of what we do to educate the public that we are highly trained and professional, not hide the fact that we are vollie's.

Kentland VFD has no problem advertising the fact that they volunteer, they have it in big letters on all of their rigs.

[TCD0415 26]

this whole topic was covered

in a previous thread that i wrote a while back.

Thats Great, but a lot of us have not been here as long as you have and find this dialog interesting.

As a matter of fact Seth sems to have interest too as he lit the candle on the thread. Unless you have some input, dont throw water on the fire. Just My Opinion

[Guest]

i got rid of the term "vac" on the back of our t-shirts and put "ems." the main reason...no one i know outside of the ems, fd, pd world has any idea what it means and i'm tired of being asked what "vac" stands for, and most (not all) people know what ems stands for

as for ny10570 and his ideas for ems to advertise...

you're right, but we (my vac) can't ask PD to be a part of the bike helmet, seatbelt, car seat, etc check ...they already do it themselves and have been for years, plus they do it in a PD "substation" outside of our ems district.

its also sad that EMS Week is unknown to the public. besides a few agencies and hospitals that put the same banner up year after year, it's really not recognized.

hopefully this year, we'll be having a health fair which we would've had last year if a local school district didn't cancel on me 2 days before the event! it would've been a nice, fun event...i even had STAT Flight comming! and since the chopper cannot land in a parking lot w/o an engine present, i even had a EMS, FD extrication drill planned.

pretty much the bottom line for me is, FD's simply have more man power to do this stuff. we have members who work their butts off, but i'm not willing to stress them, even burn them out for an event. i'd be doing the member, vac and community a diservice.

Edited November 8, 2007 by vacguy

[x635 4,066]

Thats Great, but a lot of us have not been here as long as you have and find this dialog interesting.

As a matter of fact Seth sems to have interest too as he lit the candle on the thread. Unless you have some input, dont throw water on the fire. Just My Opinion

Thanks for the back. I don't know the purpose of that post either, nor did I see one in the recent topics. I don't recall the topic being discussed. Could have just put a link to a previous discussion.

[Goose 188]

Not going to lie, VAC, Rescue/First Aid Squad sure sound silly. As far as painting a better picture of your profession, i'm not sure if i would call volunteering at a VAC/Rescue/First Aid Squad a profession. There is no doubt EMS sounds more professional and resonates with the public far better because it stands for what we are and do - emergency medical service.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Carry yourself well, give good service and have good solid public interaction and it won't matter what you call yourself. EMS is seriously lacking in the public education department even though injury prevention and recognition is suppose to be a huge mainstay. While the fire service has the same issue, EMS is even farther behind them and that is a serious problem for many agencies.

Vacguy I see your dilemma. I would take it that you can't ask them more because of the substation issue then because they've always been doing it. I would still talk to them about it and see if you can work with them on working with you at certain times a year in your district or building.

There is also the vial for life program which is a very helpful program for providers and gets you face time with seniors and others you assit with giving the vial to and filling out the information card. It is a huge benefit for providers to have the information available.

One thing I can say is I never for the life of me ever got why someone would call an EMS agency a "first aid squad". I know my Jersey buddies always called their agencies "first aid." It just sounds wierd and no offense to anyone but for lack of a better term dumbed down.

I know down south they like Rescue Squad...which again wierd for me coming from the northeast. But everyone down there associated that with an ambulance. Where they would call their FD "rescue" a "squad" and BLS ambulances were Rescues. "Rescue 1 to dispatch"...then ALS units would be Medic "medic 4" and when they were running shock/trauma's "Shock Trauma 4"

[helicopper 1,050]

Those of us that Volunteer should be proud enough of what we do to educate the public that we are highly trained and professional, not hide the fact that we are vollie's.

Kentland VFD has no problem advertising the fact that they volunteer, they have it in big letters on all of their rigs.

Why does being a volunteer matter?? As ALS said, provide quality service and people won't give a hoot if you're paid, volunteer, or if your vehicle says Joe's Hot Dogs on the side. We need to educate the public better about the services we provide, resources we have, how to properly and effectively access them and so forth. Advertising that you chose to do this for free while the guy next to you does it for a paycheck is irrelevant.

you're right, but we (my vac) can't ask PD to be a part of the bike helmet, seatbelt, car seat, etc check ...they already do it themselves and have been for years, plus they do it in a PD "substation" outside of our ems district. its also sad that EMS Week is unknown to the public. besides a few agencies and hospitals that put the same banner up year after year, it's really not recognized.

Vacguy, why can't you ask the PD to be a part of that program? If it is outside of your district why don't you collaborate with the agency whose district it is and provide blood pressure screenings, info on accessing emergency services, medic alerts, or any of the other valuable programs out there that do promote EMS?

Why don't all the EMT Bravo EMS'ers use this forum to coordinate a big media campaign to promote EMS week next year? Set up activities so there is something going on every day that week, promote it with the media, get elected officials involved (after all it will be a BIG election year), get big signs made up and post them all over the place, etc. A little bit of coordination can insure that it is more well known than in previous years.

Just some thoughts...

[Guest]

Why does being a volunteer matter?? As ALS said, provide quality service and people won't give a hoot if you're paid, volunteer, or if your vehicle says Joe's Hot Dogs on the side. We need to educate the public better about the services we provide, resources we have, how to properly and effectively access them and so forth. Advertising that you chose to do this for free while the guy next to you does it for a paycheck is irrelevant.

Vacguy, why can't you ask the PD to be a part of that program? If it is outside of your district why don't you collaborate with the agency whose district it is and provide blood pressure screenings, info on accessing emergency services, medic alerts, or any of the other valuable programs out there that do promote EMS?

Why don't all the EMT Bravo EMS'ers use this forum to coordinate a big media campaign to promote EMS week next year? Set up activities so there is something going on every day that week, promote it with the media, get elected officials involved (after all it will be a BIG election year), get big signs made up and post them all over the place, etc. A little bit of coordination can insure that it is more well known than in previous years.

Just some thoughts...

i like that emtbravo ems week...sounds real good.

as for the pd issue im sure we could work something out maybe at our hq, and not their substation. the 4 ems agencies in mount pleasant meet every month or so, but i believe through "MPEMS" the vial of life is in the works...i could be wrong if it .

has been x'd already. also we already do the bp screenings and other info to attract people when we have first aid stations/stand-by's at random events.

but the 12 people that attend our bike helmet event isn't enough. something has to be done to at least make an attempt for go mainstream...there's a chance a BIG event would get the medias attention, more so than each little vac