Thursday, March 31, 2011

Dispatcher Bitch aka CPIC

***for some reason, blogger is not keeping my paragraphs when I post, sorry for the long stretch of words.*** So I'm looking at flights on line, going to Ottawa in the summer, checking out some prices, you know, all that stuff. So I wondered if I was allowed to bring my own food on or if they'd be like a movie theater and only want you to eat their stuff. There is a spot to check for it and a little drop down list. No where does it say food but it has informed me that I cannot bring a catapult on board. Damn. Some of the rules seem silly and I wonder who in their right minds would be bringing some of these things. I suppose the rules are for people, who are in fact, not in functioning minds. Last cycle during my night shifts I started my CPIC training which is exciting. Before I was simply 911 and non emergency police and fire. Now I will be on the radio as well, getting tow trucks, running people, vehicles for officers. If an officer needs a phone number of a business or if any dispatch just in general needs someone called, I do it. I turned to a friend and informed her, that essentially I was the dispatch bitch. I don't mind, but I draw the line at getting coffee and doing someones dry cleaning. It also means I am one step closer to dispatching as well. It's where I want to end up. I don't know if I said it before but in our centre we have calltakers (answer 911, alarm, non emerg police/fire) and dispatchers (Fire=Handles radio/needs for responding fire crew, Police=handles radio/needs for police of all sub agencies Cpic=dispatch bitch, lol, jk, already described) Most people get trained in 3 areas, so three skills, others get trained in all and have 4 skills. Last night shift I ended up going back to calltaking because they closed CPIC down at 3. We had members/call takers/dispatchers going home earlier (most earlier then this) and we were short staffed. We had a member that passed away so they were going to the funeral the next day. Some very considerate people came to our watch to fill in while we did this, so thanks! My last call of the night was a woman who sounded rather calm, but that was not a reflection of her situation. Me: 911, What is your emergency? Girl: I'm upside down, please help me. Me: You're upside down? Girl: My car went off the road. It flipped. I'm upside down. So, I got help to her, while's she dangling down. Someone stopped and was able to get her out. She wasn't hurt at all, which is very lucky. I instructed her to just sit in one place, if it was safe to do so and not move until the paramedics or firefighters instructed her. Throughout this whole time she is calm for the most of it, once or twice getting a bit hyper, but really that was awesome. She knew where she was and she was willing to listen to me and do what I was instructing. When she thanked me, it was one of the most sincere thank yous I have had in this job. So tomorrow is my first day back, off to make some blue jello for first day shift. It's a sudden and intense addiction, lol. Oh and post #60, man I talk a lot.

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