What's in my pockets!

EE posted a question and answer from Ellie that I thought was pretty cool, so I went ahead and stole it from her:

Ellie asks: What do you carry in your pockets at work?

I'm going to go ahead and break this down into four different sections, because the items change depending upon where I am. Two are EMS related, and two are every day life related. I don't run EMS as a profession anymore, and don't get to spend nearly enough time on the ambulance every week. But I remember those days. OK, here we go:

At Work:
On my belt: Cell Phone (personal) (left side), Cell Phone (issued) (right side), Radio (sometimes) (left side)
Right Back pocket: Usually a pair of gloves, although occasionally a hand tool of some kind (crimps come to mind), also a notepad when in the field.
Back Left: Wallet, and Surefire E2e if my pants do not have a cargo or carpenter pocket.
Front left: keys, change, etc.
Front right: Pocket Knife, occasionally a pen
Cargo Pockets: Usually at work I'm in just plain jeans, but sometimes I have carpenter or cargo pants on. In that case, the Surefire light gets moved to the right side cargo pocket if applicable.

Not at work:
On my belt: Cell Phone (personal) (left side), handgun (right side, concealed), spare mag (left side)
Right Back pocket: Empty
Back Left: Wallet.
Front left: keys, change, etc.
Front right: Knife (see above)
Cargo Pockets: Surefire - usually wear carpenter pants off the jobsite.

When I still lived in NJ, I had two main methods of dress for riding the ambulance. I wore both, depending upon my mood, and the particular look I was going for.

The more casual look that I often used around the squad house consisted of jeans and a job shirt. I would carry everything indicated above, except for the handgun (yeah... try carrying a handgun in NJ and see how you like the results....). Also added to the belt, 24/7 in NJ was a pager, and a glove pouch. They went on the belt as part of getting dressed in the morning, and came off at night when getting ready for bed. In addition, I carried a pen in my jobshirt pocket, and usually a patient information pad in my right rear pocket. Finally, I also ALWAYS wore boots, usually 8" side zips.

Whenever I rode the truck, I made sure I had a radio. Two distinct reasons for that particular trait. On one instance, while riding as a volunteer, I managed to get left at a bad MVA scene by myself, with a jump bag and a radio. The other two guys on my crew took the critical patient to the landing zone to meet the helicopter. I was on my own. The other reason I always carry a radio, is I've learned that stuff goes downhill too quickly sometimes, and that's not the time to be running back to the truck to call dispatch (did enough of that as well.)

While dressed casually and riding on the ambulance I used an FDNY style radio strap from RadioTech. The strap rode comfortably, and allowed me to take the radio and stuff off and hang it on a chair while not on a run.

For a more uniformed, and some would argue, professional look, I usually dressed in a polo shirt and EMS cargo pants, or Dickies, 5 pocket pants (the ones with the cell phone pocket on the right leg). Pen was carried in the neck of the golf shirt.

For this uniform, if I was planning on doing EMS (as opposed to a transport shift), I actually wore a police style nylon duty belt (yes, go ahead and laugh), that had everything I could ever possibly need on it. I carried 4 sets of gloves, L, nitrile, a pager, a cell phone, a radio, a tool holster (shears, mini-maglight, leatherman), and a Surefire 6P flashlight for lighting my way.

If I was wearing cargo pants, my right pocket had shears and 2 pens on the tool loops, and a patient info pad in the pocket itself. If I was wearing the Dickies pants, I had the info pad in the cell phone pocket. I carried the stethoscope around my neck (yes I know it's a no-no), or in my left cargo pockets, depending on specific situations.

When I would work a transport truck for 12 hours, I'd carry a duffel bag with the following: a change of uniform, a windbreaker (also made a nice rain jacket), a flashlight, spare batteries, a window punch and a spare knife. I also usually had a paperback, and some kind of study material.

Yeah I used to carry a ton of stuff, but most of the stuff I carried, ended up being invaluable at least once!

--Jim