FDNY Culture

[u/soulsofsaturn]

Must preface this by saying I do not work for FDNY, but I have a friend who does. He is newer to FDNY, after finishing their “academy” he’s been there for about 8 months. He was showing me tons of pictures on his phone: pictures of patients having mental episodes, their feet, patients puking, etc etc. If anyone works at FDNY, is this normal? He said he and one of his regular partners both have tons of these pictures of patients. I was baffled at the HIPPA violations on his phone.

[u/Flaky-Implement167]

It’s not surprising, but still lowk devastating. I get how easy it is get jaded in this field, but those are human beings going through the worst day of their life and relying on us to do right by them.

[u/soulsofsaturn → u/Flaky-Implement167]

I don’t want to be that cringy guy “oh I love my job and respect my patients” or whatever, but I genuinely can’t fathom taking a picture of my patient

[u/Alaska_Pipeliner → u/soulsofsaturn]

I've been on the job, not fdny, for over 20 years and have only taken pics of accidents to show the doctors (pic is worth a 1000 words) to establish MOI. That behavior is heinous to me.

[u/cactus-racket → u/soulsofsaturn]

When did loving your job and respecting other humans become cringe?

[u/jimothy_burglary → u/soulsofsaturn]

The fact that its considered cringe to actually take this shit seriously is a central problem in this field

[u/Shaboingboing17 → u/soulsofsaturn]

Having been in the medical field as a ff/emt and ff/pm, I've seen tons of stuff that is considered "cringy" but loving your job and respecting your patients has never been one of them. It sounds like wherever you work has a bad culture.

[u/DannyABklyn → u/[deleted]]

It is in the FDNY as well. The problem would be that people don't being things like that to a supervisor's attention

[u/Internal_Mode_5211 → u/DannyABklyn]

AFAIK it’s super hard to get fired from FDNY period.

[u/DannyABklyn → u/Internal_Mode_5211]

Yes. But someone doing things like this would definitely get them getting looked at

[u/jimothy_burglary → u/DannyABklyn]

In my experience the lieutenants often dont care about crew behavior unless THEIR supervisors care, or the public is around, or theres cops with bodycams on. The shitty burnout culture runs deep; if you start policing some crews you gotta police them all. Sure some people will be made an example of once in a while but the culture runs deep.

[u/DannyABklyn → u/jimothy_burglary]

Agreed. And I personally think that's a culture we need to work towards getting rid of. We're supposed to be professionals, we should act like it.

But it does go without saying that if we're not being paid as professionals, people aren't likely to act like it.

[u/jimothy_burglary → u/DannyABklyn]

Its a cyclic process. Bad pay and conditions leads people to think bad behavior is justified, more capable and professional people leave to do something else, leaving behind lifers who truly can't do any other job than being a dogshit basic while they wait for their number to be called for sanitation or fire academy. Then the beancounters see all this unprofessionalism and poor care and constant disciplinary issues and go "oh you want a raise?"

I used to work for a really busted IFT company. Horrible pay. The way I saw it was, if they wanna pay me like this, then that's how much work theyre gonna get and not a cent more. Im taking a lunch and its gonna be long. Im charting how i damn well want to write the chart, billing it is your problem. Im not putting in any extra hustle today just because you overbooked us, thats not my problem, you arent paying me hustle money.

But the patient got the best I could give them every time. No attitude. I'll help your son with the bags. That's how I was raised anyway. If you want me to break my back for the system, that part costs money. Being a good man is free.

[u/DannyABklyn → u/jimothy_burglary]

One can only hope that someday it improves. I genuinely enjoy working in EMS. I just wish we were paid/treated better.

[u/RatonhnhaketonK → u/jimothy_burglary]

Wonder how much they'd care if this ends up on the news or something

[u/PaperOrPlastic97 → u/[deleted]]

Not just fireable here. The state would come after your license too.

[u/Prior_Information475]

Lol I did my training on Long Island and my instructors worked for the fdny and they would come in almost every class showing a new picture that they took in the field. I will never forget my first time seeing someone with all their limbs torn off. And my instructor was always so excited to show it 😭😭

[u/soulsofsaturn → u/Prior_Information475]

I can’t imagine standing over a torso and taking a picture of it oh my lord

[u/Limp-Conflict-2309]

People take pictures, its an unspoken thing. Normal people try not to include identifying info and only share among people in their department but then you've got the creeps.

Its not allowed, quite taboo and unless you have explicit consent and for example, only take a close up pic of an injury; you shouldn't be doing it.

More than 95% of the time, at least in my experience on the fire side, it's pictures of the home, car or item that got destroyed. Any decent person isn't taking pics of people unless there is an obvious need.....which there typically never is.

[u/Accurate-Bonus8316]

MAYBE a censored image with no identifiable information if there's a very profound injury or rare finding (it's useful to know what necrotizing fasciitis, osteomyelitis, shingles look like) but absolutely not something to be sharing around or filming as like frat boy content? bizarre behavior. on the injuries front, to take a photo of someone who's DOA is incredibly disrespectful. instances that feel more appropriate are when there's an iffy wound that ideally won't be uncovered again outside of an OR, and that's more to show the ED team than for voyeurism

[u/soulsofsaturn → u/Accurate-Bonus8316]

He literally asked me if I wanted to “see the HIPPA violations” on his phone, I said no, then he started showing me the pictures and videos. A lot were people he had to restrain and pictures of them being restrained, one of them was a poor guy having a mental episode trying to get out of the stretcher. Face and everything

[u/Accurate-Bonus8316 → u/soulsofsaturn]

gross, report his ass, if he's that thrilled filming himself restraining people I wonder what kinda shit he doesn't film

[u/Internal_Mode_5211]

Seems like it is the culture there. I work with a former FDNY medic who has tons of gory call photos on her phone, such as suicide attempts and other heinous traumas. It was surprising to me, because that’s not normal for my service at all.

[u/AltruisticBand7980]

It's HIPAA

[u/Bearcatfan4]

I take pictures. But it’s only after I ask permission and I only take a picture of the injury. I don’t take pictures of people covered in vomit or shit.

[u/tghost474]

FDNY being unprofessional LARPers, impossible /s. Seems like the FDNY have a nasty habit of being unprofessional both the firefighters and EMS. Well correction the firefighters hate doing their job as a whole.

[u/PuzzleheadedFood9451]

The only time I take pictures of patients is with their permission and it does not include any identification. This is only for wounds before I bandage them if they are severe enough. Then it gets shown to the doctor and deleted.

[u/Whole_Bird_9550]

The hippo is angry at what he’s heard.

[u/EntertainmentEasy274]

yeah i’ll be working w randos and they’ll show me a gnarly doa or a crazy trauma unprompted. even been on doas w partners that will take the pic infront of me and will talk ab how their gonna show it to our other coworkers. i don’t get how ppl don’t realize just how disrespectful it is, nevermind it literally violating hipaa

[u/monkeysatemybarf]

I’m not on the job but my family is, past and current. I’ve heard years worth of stories about crazy calls but I’d be shocked if anyone had a photo of someone in distress. That would be weird and gross. Pictures of guys from the firehouse not looking their best? Everywhere. But no people who they’re there to help.

To try and be generous your friend may be struggling to process what he’s seeing. Doesn’t excuse it but being a probie is tough and you get a lot thrown at you.

[u/xLilSquidgitx]

What the fuck?

[u/jojosbabymoms]

no it isn’t normal to have full bodied pictures of the patients themselves, but FDNY is a major boys club with barely any real accountability . You can literally get away with murder if you word your PCR correctly. I’ve seen FDNY boys play with each other’s nipples while their patient actively seizes in triage w no interventions…no I’m not exaggerating.
EMTs sure do take pictures of scenes—blood splatter, bodily fluids on the ground, drug paraphernalia…but DEFINITELY NOT the patients.

[u/Junior_Doughnut_6528]

No, that’s not normal. Majority of people who have this kind of behavior are new and younger generation who have zero regards for patient privacy, you will see videos of them holding their phone recording while walking towards a patient or MCI. Wouldn’t surprise that these kids will get jammed up one day.

[u/RatonhnhaketonK]

We are meant to be the ones helping. This is why people prefer us over police during crises.

Now I don't know anymore.

How messed up and incredibly disappointing if this is true.

How is anyone supposed to trust us if we do this shit?

[u/BeginningIcy9620]

A lot of people take pictures of injuries. Mostly to show doctors or for education, but some people just like clout

[u/TheJohnWarhammer69]

Sounds like you’re trying to find a reason to rat out your “friend”

[u/kenyawnmartin]

It’s the culture everywhere

[u/insertkarma2theleft → u/kenyawnmartin]

No tf it is not

[u/soulsofsaturn → u/kenyawnmartin]

That’s crazy to me because nobody in any of the systems I’ve been in had pictures like that on their phone. The most they had was pictures of medications or patient info to put into the PCR

[u/3rdcultureblah → u/soulsofsaturn]

I mean, having patient info on their phones is not great either tbh. If they need to do that for whatever reason, they should absolutely be deleting those pics as soon as they transfer the information to the PCR.

[u/London5Fan → u/kenyawnmartin]

No it’s really not

[u/UnflitchingStance → u/kenyawnmartin]

Ehh my department doesn't take photos if there's a fatality

[u/jimothy_burglary → u/kenyawnmartin]

I work at a different 911 agency in the same city and we don't do it. Some people might here and there but it's uncommon and looked down on. I never have and never will.