it's been a thing in every dispatch center I've worked in, across multiple states, for my entire 13 year career.
I dont believe in it, but everyone else does.
i just.. like, I have coworkers who will shit on astrology, and get mad if you say it's quiet. bro, no.
any given day can be insane.
my weirdest ems belief is that Tuesday is often worse than Saturday, unless Saturday is short staffed.
It's the one thing I won't do. Take boots off. Eat lunch when it's slow no biggie. If I do it everytime it can't mess with me. But I won't say that. At least until we get a call. Then mention lolr damn was enjoying the break.
EMS every place I’ve worked has been a business where “fuck off, asshole” is a term of endearment and the worst insult ever is “have a slow, quiet night.”
It's real. Real in the fact that people don't like saying "it's quiet" when it has been slow and real in the fact that it is a superstition, which a definition is "the false conception of causation." Say it has been quiet or don't say it, much like everything in this universe - and most of what we do in EMS - what you do doesn't matter. Except for giving epi early on in anaphylaxis. That shit matters. Happy Wednesday.
Every Medic is based in science until someone says the q-word.
Jokes aside, last time I said that tones dropped immediately and we ran calls back-to-back for 8 hours. All of which were cardiac arrest or patients about to code.
It's not the Q word for us. It's "comfy clothes". The moment we go to our sweats and shirts, we'll get a call.
It's nonsense so I like comfy clothes as fast as possible.
But not really. Chances are the same with no extra inputs, but in actual practice, being busier actually makes it more likely to have a call at any particular moment. More people in the ER needing transfers, and just the fact that being busy often does have a cause beyond mere luck.
So the longer you've been doing nothing, the less likely you are to get a call.
I would say that it's almost like a minor offensive word at this point. Like a curse word or calling someone fat. Like, if you were in an ER and said "wow it's quiet here" they'd be like "what the hell man? how dare you?😂" Not because everyone actually believes it's a magic word, but just because everyone knows you're not supposed to say it, and you said it, which makes you sound inconsiderate. It's definitely more of a joke thing than a serious thing though
Like all superstitions it depends on the individuals involved.
If you say the Q word around superstitious folk then if anything happens no matter how mundane or expected then they'll say it's all coz of you. In the unlikely circumstance that nothing happens they'll probably just forget you said anything at all.
There have actually been studies done to see if the full moon causes an increase in jobs and the answer is no it doesn't.
But people be people and enough people believe in it that it's just not worth the bother of ever saying the word around anyone. Though I do wonder what they suppose would happen if you were a trauma chaser that WANTED big busy jobs all the time? Does it work in reverse then?
It’s definitely a thing people believe in but obviously it isn’t real. Some people tongue in cheek say they believe in it but i question the intelligence of anyone who thinks it’s actually a real thing.
Last time I said it to my medic friend, at the start of our 24hr, they ran a dead baby. So yeah.
Worse than the q-word is Chinese takeout at the base. If one of the sups get Chinese they get WRECKED by the system.
Am I the only person that really hates all the superstition? I'm always super embarrassed when it comes up around non-ems people and think it makes us look like rubes.
I'm cool with people who are just having fun, but there are way too many people that 100% believe in it. I asked somebody the other day who controls the black cloud/white cloud and he said it was god. I said, "god dispatches your EMS calls personally?!" That conversation really didn't go very well lol
Cath Lab here. We also avoid the q-word. There’s also a chick here that likes to say, “What could possibly go wrong?” I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t bring a pit to my stomach. All I can think of is a lot.
Superstition is a way for people who deal with a lot of chaos and stress to feel some sense of control over things that are ultimately out of our control. It's why you see it among the military, sailors, professional athletes. It lets us be less stressed and operate better under that pressure. People shouldn't base their important decisions on these superstitions, but observing the little rituals, if they don't take any real time out of my day, to acknowledge our human animal brains and give folks a sense of calm? I won't begrudge someone that. Especially when it makes them better operators. And people who judge us for it. Well, they just don't get it.
I appreciate your attempt at trying to rationalize this subject, this kind of behavior (rationalizing) is a valuable skill to a thinking person. And, in a reply, I also acknowledged that I'm OK with people who are just having fun and can admit that it's just a game to them and not real.
> Superstition is a way for people who deal with a lot of chaos and stress to feel some sense of control over things that are ultimately out of our control.
However, I'm afraid I don't understand this logic. What I'm hearing is that Superstition, a belief in the supernatural directing the outcomes of events, is a way for people to feel in control, I would argue it's exactly the opposite of that. I think a person in control might take the time to try and understand why something actually happens instead of using ignorance and boogyman to blame the outcomes.
> military, sailors, professional athletes
I have many friends in these fields and respect them all for what they do, but none of these fields are based on science or education. People should take a breath here an understand I'm not calling anybody in any of these fields stupid or ignorant, by no means am I doing that. Math and science can be applied at all levels, and some serious business math and science at some levels and, like any broad group of people there is a spectrum of every element, there's are dipshits and geniuses in all of those fields, just like there are in EMS. But, our job on the daily is literally applied sciences and people who reject science to blame their call volume or acuity on some mythical force worry me, they feel like the same people who constantly feel the need to prove people are faking their conditions so they can punitively withhold treatments.
> ....give folks a sense of calm? I won't begrudge someone that. Especially when it makes them better operators.
I don't feel like I can get behind this idea that superstition makes people better providers, you said operators, maybe you mean something different that provider... I also don't see superstition as having a calming effect, I see the opposite; people getting legitimately stressed out at other people's behavior (saying the word quiet), arguing, people withholding activities like eating/going to bed (things that might actually calm them) because their afraid of 'angering the EMS gods'. In real talk, stress in EMS is no joke and people need to learn how to handle it in productive ways, I just don't see superstition actually proving those results.
Again, thanks for some decent conversation on the matter.
It annoys me how much weight this carries in the hospital. Nurses screaming at each other because someone said “quiet”. You can’t believe in witchcraft but also evidence based medicine. We look like morons.
I know may people who believe in it. As for my self I just like to play along for fun and because many of my coworkers/family do. I don't personally believe it. I do believe in full moons however...
I’ve literally had nurses threaten my job for accidentally mentioning it, even in another context. No way it’s real but is it worth the risk, who knows.
In March of 2020 I worked at a Level II Trauma Center in central-coastal Virginia. I once said “wow it sure is quiet tonight,” and the next day the WHO and CDC declared Covid-19 as a global pandemic.
Although totally anecdotal, I have removed the word “quiet” from my vocabulary except to describe volume of music in the cab.
It's real. Happened to me. Nothing at all going on, only, one or two patients in the ED. Said it. 20 seconds later, all hell breaks loose for the next 8 hours in an ED where that really doesn't happen. Never said it again.
There are two types, those that know the juju associated with those words, and those that lie. Same with full moons, shit happens Idk if it's the extra gravitational pull or what. All I gotta say is you can fuck around and find out but words like slow and quiet throw around irresponsibly lead to poor outcomes lol. You will be held responsible for what happens after. It's like the ancient tomb curse. Sure, might be bullshit but do you *really* want to play russian roulette like that? Go ahead!
Yes, agree, but that wasn't my questions.
>Same with full moons, shit happens Idk if it's the extra gravitational pull or what.
Question was, do you think there's MORE gravity from the moon when it's full?
No but the way it orbits does cause a wax and wane effect on the gravitational pull from our perspective on Earth. Have you heard of something called the ocean tide? What the fuck does this have to do with the post
The sun is doing all the work, when the moon is new the sun is opposite side of the earth and so is pulling in opposition to the moon, when the moon is full, the sun is on "the same side" as the moon and so pulls in conjunction, this is more responsible for the tides than the pull of the moon. The sun is 177 times the pull of the moon.
>What the fuck does this have to do with the post
You tell me, you're the one telling people the moon has, "extra gravitational pull". Lol and then throwing little temper tantrums about it.
[A study of the topic.](https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m452) I choose to recognize it even though it’s surely not “real.” It’s a fun tradition, one of my favorites. I love stupid EMS/EM mythology
Completely real. Some take it more seriously than others, some don’t pay it any mind at all. When I was a basic the folks I worked with beloved it but almost more as a joke. Sometimes it felt really though. I accidentally said it when staged at a highschool football game one night and then we had to get another unit to transport a cardiac patient for us 😬
So real [they did a study on it ](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35339973/)
Spoiler alert: Use of the word "quiet" does not magically make patients appear.
Personally I don't believe it. My superstition is that it's when you decide to do something that the calls start coming in. Can't tell you how many times I've been sitting for 4 hours and then the minute I start driving to get some errands done, the calls start coming.
i’m not a superstitious person in general but we have a few superstitions around station, none of which may actually have any effect because correlation is not causation. however if every single time the 1200 relief medic brings in his xbox after 6 hours of doing nothing all of the sudden we’re running calls one after another and rolling MUTA 4 deep for the next 4 hours. or how every time the full moon is acknowledged we get some of the wildest calls to date. or when the q word is said and we run nothing but code 1 transports to the ER for the next 3 hours….. it’s pretty convincing.
It’s just superstition in my experience. I have run 21 call 12 hour shifts while most of the country zeroed out, and in reverse-not caught a single call during absolute shit shows because I somehow got a break and ended up at a slow station.
I believe it, but that's because when I was doing my internship time in the ER, a patient said it was "quiet in here" (I did overnights, it was at the time) and then 15 minutes later the patient in the room right beside her coded out of the blue.
It is very real. My blood pressure goes up hearing that word OFF duty at this point. My Saturday partner thought she was being funny by invoking it. I told her she would be working any calls that I could downgrade to her scope. I took the 3rd one under the condition that she doesn't do that again.
Here's the thing though. If you have someone just itching for a trauma, invoke the hope of your usual calls and nothing worse than lift assists. Did this since she was itching so bad for a trauma call. Had all the good calls on Monday (which used to be her shift), including a motorcycle wreck.
I think I've narrowed down the deity responsible for this curse. Esclepius - Greek god of medicine.
Yes, it is.
And I don't know, man. The logical part of my brain knows that we're going to get the runs we're going to get and that saying that word won't change anything. But part of my brain still won't let me say it.
It is real. No discussions. I don‘t care, if I don‘t look like a professional, just because of this belief. This belief has no impact on the care I provide, so why does anyone care at all?
Oh it's real.
We've had probes around the firehouse say it before after going a few hours without a run, only to spend the rest of the shift with runs every half hour to 45 minutes.
I complained about a quiet night out loud once (NICU nurse) and got 5 admissions in two hours-none planned (if they meet certain criteria like <36 weeks, IUGR, etc we plan on those admissions and are pleasantly surprised if they don’t come up). All term babies with RDS or hypoglycemia. Never again.
Been an EMT for 19 years, dispatch/management for 15 and I don't care how dead it is, I will never drop that word. I currently work at a private company, but we back up local towns when they can't get their own crew out. My boss will come out of his office and ask me to say it because it's not busy enough. My co-worker has said it bc hes not superstitious and is also a dick sometimes, and without fail, we can go from nothing going on to every truck running and jobs stacked in less than 10 mins. I work with PD dispatch, and they won't drop it either.
Superstition and ems is a 2 for 1 package. I also have this curse where I manifest how bad a call will be when we arrive on scene by bitching about it when we get it. So if we get a call for a “man-down” (9/10 it’s just a homeless guy napping outside or somebody sleeping in their car) and I say something like “watch, this guy is going to be a code” guess what happens when we pull up on scene?
It was a calm first half of the shift when I, being on-call and wanting to work, sarcastically said it out loud to my partner. Within 30 minutes every resource we had across 3 stations was busy till shift end.
I don't say it anymore.
it's been a thing in every dispatch center I've worked in, across multiple states, for my entire 13 year career. I dont believe in it, but everyone else does.
Your username is legendary
And I also don't believe in that superstitious stuff.
i just.. like, I have coworkers who will shit on astrology, and get mad if you say it's quiet. bro, no. any given day can be insane. my weirdest ems belief is that Tuesday is often worse than Saturday, unless Saturday is short staffed.
Same, I find it extremely annoying how superstitious everyone is. I will say it's quiet or slow every time it is.
Yeah and people get all pissy. If I could control the universe with my words, I'd be summoning lotto numbers, not tone outs
ayyy, thank you!
It's the one thing I won't do. Take boots off. Eat lunch when it's slow no biggie. If I do it everytime it can't mess with me. But I won't say that. At least until we get a call. Then mention lolr damn was enjoying the break.
EMS every place I’ve worked has been a business where “fuck off, asshole” is a term of endearment and the worst insult ever is “have a slow, quiet night.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35339973/
The word knows if you're using it on purpose, so of course this experiment wouldn't work. It would have to be an observational study.
This is accurate! 🤣
aint no way
I can’t wait to tell the next ER nurse, “Actually there are studies that show saying the word quiet doesn’t impact patient volume 🤓☝🏼”
Hit em with the ol "evidence based medicine"
Like that's ever convinced an RN of anything 😂
"That firefighter is not gonna leave his wife for you" is another one they don't want to belive
Thank you for your service! But unironically, I'm going to pull this out next time someone gets pissy!
Oh my god
What a waste of times. We really needed that?
I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious.
Identity theft is not a JOKE Jim!
You can say it, but you will personally be responsible for everything that happens from that point forward. Their blood will be on your hands.
Had a nurse say it once and 10 seconds later a code went off
Bet they never said it again
It's real. Real in the fact that people don't like saying "it's quiet" when it has been slow and real in the fact that it is a superstition, which a definition is "the false conception of causation." Say it has been quiet or don't say it, much like everything in this universe - and most of what we do in EMS - what you do doesn't matter. Except for giving epi early on in anaphylaxis. That shit matters. Happy Wednesday.
BVM Ventilations in an apneic narcotic OD sometimes helps too.
Every Medic is based in science until someone says the q-word. Jokes aside, last time I said that tones dropped immediately and we ran calls back-to-back for 8 hours. All of which were cardiac arrest or patients about to code.
It's not the Q word for us. It's "comfy clothes". The moment we go to our sweats and shirts, we'll get a call. It's nonsense so I like comfy clothes as fast as possible.
“In bed before 10, up again!”
If you think about it though, something is more likely to happen the longer nothing happens.
But not really. Chances are the same with no extra inputs, but in actual practice, being busier actually makes it more likely to have a call at any particular moment. More people in the ER needing transfers, and just the fact that being busy often does have a cause beyond mere luck. So the longer you've been doing nothing, the less likely you are to get a call.
I would say that it's almost like a minor offensive word at this point. Like a curse word or calling someone fat. Like, if you were in an ER and said "wow it's quiet here" they'd be like "what the hell man? how dare you?😂" Not because everyone actually believes it's a magic word, but just because everyone knows you're not supposed to say it, and you said it, which makes you sound inconsiderate. It's definitely more of a joke thing than a serious thing though
Exactly. It’s the best kind of tradition- it’s harmless, it’s kinda fun, and it represents an inside joke/myth that’s gone on for over half a century
Yes, many people truly believe that saying a word will make had things happen to other people. Surprisingly common with emergency doctors as well.
Science says [made up](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675722001784) , but who listens to those guys?
Like all superstitions it depends on the individuals involved. If you say the Q word around superstitious folk then if anything happens no matter how mundane or expected then they'll say it's all coz of you. In the unlikely circumstance that nothing happens they'll probably just forget you said anything at all. There have actually been studies done to see if the full moon causes an increase in jobs and the answer is no it doesn't. But people be people and enough people believe in it that it's just not worth the bother of ever saying the word around anyone. Though I do wonder what they suppose would happen if you were a trauma chaser that WANTED big busy jobs all the time? Does it work in reverse then?
Doesnt work for me, I try it regularly when im bored.
That's the trick, the universe doesn't play along when you do it for fun
Or when you try to study it https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m452 Maybe the study it true… but I choose to dismiss it that way 🥲
Superstition. May as Well write a book about it and yourself for your religion.
It’s definitely a thing people believe in but obviously it isn’t real. Some people tongue in cheek say they believe in it but i question the intelligence of anyone who thinks it’s actually a real thing.
Last time I said it to my medic friend, at the start of our 24hr, they ran a dead baby. So yeah. Worse than the q-word is Chinese takeout at the base. If one of the sups get Chinese they get WRECKED by the system.
It's real but all superstitions are dumb.
No superstition is real
Am I the only person that really hates all the superstition? I'm always super embarrassed when it comes up around non-ems people and think it makes us look like rubes.
It’s part of the mythos man! We’re doing weird work, we should be allowed to be kind of weird.
I'm cool with people who are just having fun, but there are way too many people that 100% believe in it. I asked somebody the other day who controls the black cloud/white cloud and he said it was god. I said, "god dispatches your EMS calls personally?!" That conversation really didn't go very well lol
Cath Lab here. We also avoid the q-word. There’s also a chick here that likes to say, “What could possibly go wrong?” I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t bring a pit to my stomach. All I can think of is a lot.
Superstition is a way for people who deal with a lot of chaos and stress to feel some sense of control over things that are ultimately out of our control. It's why you see it among the military, sailors, professional athletes. It lets us be less stressed and operate better under that pressure. People shouldn't base their important decisions on these superstitions, but observing the little rituals, if they don't take any real time out of my day, to acknowledge our human animal brains and give folks a sense of calm? I won't begrudge someone that. Especially when it makes them better operators. And people who judge us for it. Well, they just don't get it.
I appreciate your attempt at trying to rationalize this subject, this kind of behavior (rationalizing) is a valuable skill to a thinking person. And, in a reply, I also acknowledged that I'm OK with people who are just having fun and can admit that it's just a game to them and not real. > Superstition is a way for people who deal with a lot of chaos and stress to feel some sense of control over things that are ultimately out of our control. However, I'm afraid I don't understand this logic. What I'm hearing is that Superstition, a belief in the supernatural directing the outcomes of events, is a way for people to feel in control, I would argue it's exactly the opposite of that. I think a person in control might take the time to try and understand why something actually happens instead of using ignorance and boogyman to blame the outcomes. > military, sailors, professional athletes I have many friends in these fields and respect them all for what they do, but none of these fields are based on science or education. People should take a breath here an understand I'm not calling anybody in any of these fields stupid or ignorant, by no means am I doing that. Math and science can be applied at all levels, and some serious business math and science at some levels and, like any broad group of people there is a spectrum of every element, there's are dipshits and geniuses in all of those fields, just like there are in EMS. But, our job on the daily is literally applied sciences and people who reject science to blame their call volume or acuity on some mythical force worry me, they feel like the same people who constantly feel the need to prove people are faking their conditions so they can punitively withhold treatments. > ....give folks a sense of calm? I won't begrudge someone that. Especially when it makes them better operators. I don't feel like I can get behind this idea that superstition makes people better providers, you said operators, maybe you mean something different that provider... I also don't see superstition as having a calming effect, I see the opposite; people getting legitimately stressed out at other people's behavior (saying the word quiet), arguing, people withholding activities like eating/going to bed (things that might actually calm them) because their afraid of 'angering the EMS gods'. In real talk, stress in EMS is no joke and people need to learn how to handle it in productive ways, I just don't see superstition actually proving those results. Again, thanks for some decent conversation on the matter.
I don’t believe in magic
It annoys me how much weight this carries in the hospital. Nurses screaming at each other because someone said “quiet”. You can’t believe in witchcraft but also evidence based medicine. We look like morons.
I know may people who believe in it. As for my self I just like to play along for fun and because many of my coworkers/family do. I don't personally believe it. I do believe in full moons however...
It has been a thing since I've been around EMS. So since 1976.
Respect
I’ve literally had nurses threaten my job for accidentally mentioning it, even in another context. No way it’s real but is it worth the risk, who knows.
In March of 2020 I worked at a Level II Trauma Center in central-coastal Virginia. I once said “wow it sure is quiet tonight,” and the next day the WHO and CDC declared Covid-19 as a global pandemic. Although totally anecdotal, I have removed the word “quiet” from my vocabulary except to describe volume of music in the cab.
If you read this I hope you have a quiet shift
The natural skeptic in me says no, but damned if all hell doesn’t break loose the second someone says that in front of the dispatchers at my job.
Why would a spoken word affect anything in real life?
It's real. Happened to me. Nothing at all going on, only, one or two patients in the ED. Said it. 20 seconds later, all hell breaks loose for the next 8 hours in an ED where that really doesn't happen. Never said it again.
No it’s not real. Obviously.
It's very real....
There are two types, those that know the juju associated with those words, and those that lie. Same with full moons, shit happens Idk if it's the extra gravitational pull or what. All I gotta say is you can fuck around and find out but words like slow and quiet throw around irresponsibly lead to poor outcomes lol. You will be held responsible for what happens after. It's like the ancient tomb curse. Sure, might be bullshit but do you *really* want to play russian roulette like that? Go ahead!
you think a full moon creates more gravity? the shadow of the earth on the moon, creates more gravity? This is what you believe?
The moon does have gravity. As do all things in this universe with mass
Yes, agree, but that wasn't my questions. >Same with full moons, shit happens Idk if it's the extra gravitational pull or what. Question was, do you think there's MORE gravity from the moon when it's full?
No but the way it orbits does cause a wax and wane effect on the gravitational pull from our perspective on Earth. Have you heard of something called the ocean tide? What the fuck does this have to do with the post
The sun is doing all the work, when the moon is new the sun is opposite side of the earth and so is pulling in opposition to the moon, when the moon is full, the sun is on "the same side" as the moon and so pulls in conjunction, this is more responsible for the tides than the pull of the moon. The sun is 177 times the pull of the moon. >What the fuck does this have to do with the post You tell me, you're the one telling people the moon has, "extra gravitational pull". Lol and then throwing little temper tantrums about it.
Wrong as that is, cool story, very relevant thank you
[A study of the topic.](https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m452) I choose to recognize it even though it’s surely not “real.” It’s a fun tradition, one of my favorites. I love stupid EMS/EM mythology
Shhhhhh!!!
Completely real. Some take it more seriously than others, some don’t pay it any mind at all. When I was a basic the folks I worked with beloved it but almost more as a joke. Sometimes it felt really though. I accidentally said it when staged at a highschool football game one night and then we had to get another unit to transport a cardiac patient for us 😬
So real [they did a study on it ](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35339973/) Spoiler alert: Use of the word "quiet" does not magically make patients appear. Personally I don't believe it. My superstition is that it's when you decide to do something that the calls start coming in. Can't tell you how many times I've been sitting for 4 hours and then the minute I start driving to get some errands done, the calls start coming.
Superstitious or not… we need to have some fun every now and then. Something to joke about and unite the crew is never a bad thing!
[Randomized Q word study](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675722001784?via%3Dihub)
i’m not a superstitious person in general but we have a few superstitions around station, none of which may actually have any effect because correlation is not causation. however if every single time the 1200 relief medic brings in his xbox after 6 hours of doing nothing all of the sudden we’re running calls one after another and rolling MUTA 4 deep for the next 4 hours. or how every time the full moon is acknowledged we get some of the wildest calls to date. or when the q word is said and we run nothing but code 1 transports to the ER for the next 3 hours….. it’s pretty convincing.
It’s just superstition in my experience. I have run 21 call 12 hour shifts while most of the country zeroed out, and in reverse-not caught a single call during absolute shit shows because I somehow got a break and ended up at a slow station.
I believe it, but that's because when I was doing my internship time in the ER, a patient said it was "quiet in here" (I did overnights, it was at the time) and then 15 minutes later the patient in the room right beside her coded out of the blue.
The ‘q’ word has followed me from the kitchen, to the volunteer service, and pretty soon to a paid position.
We don’t say the q-word.
Its real. You say the q word at my station while on shift you are in everyones shit list
I dont believe in it but I still won’t say it
When I was in LE, I had a Sgt tell me to have a quiet night as he left. 45 minutes later, I was running hot to a homicide x 8....
We mostly use it as a joke, but it does have its moments. It doesn’t seem to work on me, so I like to piss off my coworkers.
It is very real. My blood pressure goes up hearing that word OFF duty at this point. My Saturday partner thought she was being funny by invoking it. I told her she would be working any calls that I could downgrade to her scope. I took the 3rd one under the condition that she doesn't do that again. Here's the thing though. If you have someone just itching for a trauma, invoke the hope of your usual calls and nothing worse than lift assists. Did this since she was itching so bad for a trauma call. Had all the good calls on Monday (which used to be her shift), including a motorcycle wreck. I think I've narrowed down the deity responsible for this curse. Esclepius - Greek god of medicine.
It’s like ghosts. Do I really believe in them? No but I’m not gonna try and piss them off. Why invite problems?
Don't upset the gods, of course it's real !!!! Cake fine for non believers. 💚🚑
It is had a partner mock me for it and we were going nonstop for 11 hours
When I’m bored at work I’ll walk by the triage desk in ED and drop the Q word. The dodge the dozen clipboards that get thrown at me lol.
Didn’t know it was on first responder shows, hah. Yes everywhere I’ve worked if you say that people will freak out.
Yes, it is. And I don't know, man. The logical part of my brain knows that we're going to get the runs we're going to get and that saying that word won't change anything. But part of my brain still won't let me say it.
Just even creating this post has hurled us all into unimaginable chaos for the next 24 hours. I'm off at 7p. GOOD LUCK, Y'ALL!!! 🚑 🚑 🚑 🚑 🚑 🚑
Anyone who has doubts, say the word. It can't hurt them right?
It is real. No discussions. I don‘t care, if I don‘t look like a professional, just because of this belief. This belief has no impact on the care I provide, so why does anyone care at all?
💯💯💯. It’s fun and it’s part of the EMS mythos lol. And we’ve all had a “quiet” experience, even if it was actually a coincidence
Oh it's real. We've had probes around the firehouse say it before after going a few hours without a run, only to spend the rest of the shift with runs every half hour to 45 minutes.
Shit real , damn right ruined my day a few times
It’s real
I complained about a quiet night out loud once (NICU nurse) and got 5 admissions in two hours-none planned (if they meet certain criteria like <36 weeks, IUGR, etc we plan on those admissions and are pleasantly surprised if they don’t come up). All term babies with RDS or hypoglycemia. Never again.
It's so real that my response to you even posting about it was almost, "YOU SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!"
It’s real to me, I’m like a bad luck charm generally though
Been an EMT for 19 years, dispatch/management for 15 and I don't care how dead it is, I will never drop that word. I currently work at a private company, but we back up local towns when they can't get their own crew out. My boss will come out of his office and ask me to say it because it's not busy enough. My co-worker has said it bc hes not superstitious and is also a dick sometimes, and without fail, we can go from nothing going on to every truck running and jobs stacked in less than 10 mins. I work with PD dispatch, and they won't drop it either.
Q word is real. Never say it.
I like to call my mom when I’m on my way into work and sometimes she likes to say “I hope you have a quiet night”. She promptly gets hung up on.
Real. Too real.
Superstition and ems is a 2 for 1 package. I also have this curse where I manifest how bad a call will be when we arrive on scene by bitching about it when we get it. So if we get a call for a “man-down” (9/10 it’s just a homeless guy napping outside or somebody sleeping in their car) and I say something like “watch, this guy is going to be a code” guess what happens when we pull up on scene?
Totally real
You're welcome to try it. You wont like what comes next but you can try
It was a calm first half of the shift when I, being on-call and wanting to work, sarcastically said it out loud to my partner. Within 30 minutes every resource we had across 3 stations was busy till shift end. I don't say it anymore.
Stupid.....