Leaderboard

Damn Mikey, just when one of your posts was stellar and then you come here with that pearl of crap, you can't shine this turd my friend. That was rude and uncalled for. Seriously lacking in tact. Not everyone get's the material the first time and sometimes people need help. And I for one, as well as Clutzy, and probably Island were NOT thinking that this person was not cut out for this profession. Aint it great to be living in that glass house of yours.

Huh? I wasn't thinking that....so please don't put words in everyone's mouth. Have you ever sat in front of an "instructor" who reads word for word off of a power point? Some people need "hands on" experience and examples in order to put things into perspective...not everyone can see something on paper and make sense out of it........ Don't go slapping someone upside the head with a Brady book before you know what they are talking about...........

Sigh.... Sitting down to my perfectly BBQ T-bone steak and dispatch calls. Hospital wants me to call and speak to the doc. I call the doc, they have a diabetic patient there who overdosed on Insulin, so they're going to titrate a D5W infusion to maintain her BGL until the insulin wears off. She wants to add a couple of 25g amps to the litre of D5W to make it D10W. Problem is, they can't figure out how to add the D50W to the IV bag. I tell her I'll be right over and with one bite of my juicy T-bone savouring away in my mouth, I drive the 4 blocks to the hospital. 4 nurses and a doc greet me with a litre of D5W and a syringe of D50W that they can't figure how to inject into the bag. Our IV bags have the access port on the side of the bag, and the D50 have the clave adapters on them. Although this one was removed so they could use the needle to inject into the bag. The needle can't penetrate the port because of the protective shroud around it that would only fit in to access the ports on the bottoms of the bags. Worried that my steak would get cold if I held an inservice for them, I firstly suggested a D10NS instead of a D10W, then grabbed another box of D50, assembled it, placed an 18ga needle onto a syringe to evacuate sufficient NS, removed the syringe and attached the D50W with the green leur lock, and injected it into the bag. Quite literally, they were stunned. I then recommended the doc to start at 50ml/hr, check BGL q15 min and titrate to keep it between 4 and 8 Mmol/l If it goes down, increase by 10ml.hr, if it goes up, decrease by 10 ml/hr. My steak is cold. :/

What do you use for oxygen tanks now? H/Q? M is still a tank size here, 122 cubic feet.

I don't want public regonition per say. Only to have a reputation as a profession that when I come in and give my findings and differential diagnosis of my patient I am given the benefit of the doubt instead of having to overcome the same tired assumpt that I couldn't possibly know what is wrong or have made a difference. Of course this is earned, but I want to strive to earn respect of my peers.

I had a similar problem when I first became an EMT in 2004. I was lucky to have understanding preceptors and mentors to help me through my rookie phase. There is no easy way to get over this situation, you have to do assessments repeatedly until you develop confidence and competence in your practice. The good news is that it gets better with time, now that I'm ten years into it doing assessments is second nature and I don't have to worry about freezing up on calls any more. The one piece of advice that helped me was to not think of the assessment as a rigid set of questions you have to ask, but instead a problem you have to find a solution to. I found initially when I first started I was trying to rush through a series of predetermined questions without really listening to the patients answers, then getting stuck when I forgot what the next textbook question should be and also realizing I hadn't listened to anything the patient had told me. Try to really listen to what the patient says, then integrate that into your line of questioning. Generally that will get you out of your head and help with those awkward brain freezes. Also, don't be too hard on yourself, others have been where you are and got through it, so can you.

respect of your peers and other healthcare professionals that you interact with is a valid thing. For the Dr's you work under to have respect in your abilities and knowledge to provide proper care without being in a " mother may I " situation . This has changed greatly over the decades. It was originally a need to call in for a consult on just about every single part of the decision making process and to proceed with interventions as ordered. Today we are very autonomous by comparrison. Why?? Because of the respect we have earned .

I worked in two different hospital ER's where EMS runs out of the hospital. When I wasn't on the ambulance, I was in the ER taking care of patients. I had my own patients that I took care of and relied on the RN to work with me but in all intents and purposes, those patients were my patients. I did everything to them including foley catheters on male patients all the way up to running the code (doctor was of course always there). I could hang blood and give antibiotics and any other medication that we carried in the ER. I was functioning as a nurse but not paid as one. The community knew that medics staffed the ER along with nurses and never once did I get asked by the patient to not take care of them and substitute a nurse. My care was as good if not better sometimes than the nurses we had in the ER. When an ambulance call came in, I would give quick report to the nurse and I would go run the call and then return and take my patient back over from the nurse I gave report to. If you have any more questions - pm me

Nice post Ms. Bulik (Can I call you that? I don't feel okay calling you Tami) I am going to keep this in mind as I get into this profession.

I am sorry to say what I am sure others are thinking, but will not say ....... if you need a tutor for the EMTB program, you are not cut out for this profession.