Siffaliss

... and then there was the time I watched The Green Mile from beginning to end in the middle of a night shift without getting paged out ... only because I've seen it 5000 times already.

My full time job as an EMT grossed me almost $75,000 last year (including OT). Less OT now, but my hourly rate is higher AND I've done some moonlighting so will probably be a bit more for 2009. I'll be done medic school at the end of next year so will go up from there as well I'm sure.

I was told a long time ago I was too short to do casket carry (I'm 5 foot 1, the shortest Guardsman) ... I can however carry a sword (not a butterknife) and participate in flag drill as well.

Wear a helmet.

Yup I agree, and further my point to involve more people if you can such as supervisors, medical director, whomever. Heat is less on you should something go south as a result of the patient not accepting your care even if they're a/o x4 and GCS 15.

Quite ...

I don't know of a service in Alberta that uses these things either. There were a couple that trialled the electric stretchers however found them to be more cumbersome than anything, due to the additional weight. Your average Ferno or Stryker weighs anywhere from what, 50 to 70 lbs? Plus your patient, plus the weight of the electronic thingy ... I'd rather just be responsible for my own lifting instead of depending upon a device ...

One should not be able to give nitro without the ability to first, initiate and monitor/maintain an IV line, and secondly they need to be able to obtain and interpret a 12 lead and 15 lead ECG. The risk is too great of harm to your patient without being able to do these things. In Alberta us EMT's can give nitro (whether or not the medical director allows this in protocols is individual to the service). My service is urban ALS, so EMT's have a great potential for learning and assisting with these things. When I was still in my rural days and had the chance to admin nitro, I withheld as I could not rule out RVI. This was good, as upon arrival at hospital and completion of 15 lead ECG's it was shown in (from what I can recall) 24/30'ish patients that there was right sided involvement. So I could have potentially harmed or killed a couple dozen people if I would have said "oh, chest pain, cardiac, let's give nitro". IV, O2, ASA (if no contraindications), maybe a little Entonox ... I did my thing and never hurt anyone. Hopefully most people aren't jumping the gun and giving something "just because they can".

Sleep ... eat ... goof off with the cops ... never had a naked pillow fight, but there's a first time for everything ... study ... talk about what kind of call you WANT to get ... get excited when you get the call you wanted to get ... get mad because you got blood on your pants on the call you wanted to get ... stick things to co-workers cars ... fill station mailboxes with random crap ... clean - NO ... watch 5 minutes of the ending of a movie you keep missing the ending on ... go for coffee ... fret about whether or not you'll get off work on time ... have "meow" night on the radio ... dream about days off ... think about how nice it would be at that time to be jumping out of a plane ... help your partner play tricks on their spouse ... go up to their house and ask for random things from the fridge because you "need them for a call" ... I dunno ... I think a lot of us are ADD. Whatever amuses us ...

I do my thing as per protocol, unless the patient is of good frame of mind and able to make an intelligent decision and refuses treatment. In such a case if they were refusing something they absolutely needed, I would call in a supe to further my intentions. Who knows, maybe they'd call the medical director (which seriously NEVER happens). If the patient still refuses, well, I've involved more people so I've made a good effort with regard to due diligence. Now, if I had someone who was unconscious and say needed blood products and we gave those to said patient, and later found out he was Jehovah, would I feel bad? No. It has nothing to do with the fact I don't believe in the same things they do. It has to do with the fact that I had a job to do and I did it. I would rather treat when required or under "implied consent", than do nothing at all and lose my medical license. I do what I need to do for the betterment of my patient regardless of religion, unless there is a legality (patient refusal) that tells me otherwise. I couldn't give a krap about religion. Now I am respectful of others, don't get me wrong ... I really don't care what stuff people observe. Just don't force it on me When it comes to say a Muslim woman needing us and her husband is on scene, I will ask the hubby to wait outside of the unit while we do our thing. Those women don't really say much around their husbands and I get a more complete and thorough story and history when they're not around. I will always respect if they don't want their skin displayed, and take care to say re-clothe after a 12 lead, and ensure legs are covered etc etc. Each situation is different, so just react and treat accordingly. Involve more people like supes or docs if possible, that way the heat is taken off you somewhat as you've made an effort to do what you are medically and legally obligated to do.

I think camels are Egyptian aren't they? Or Saudi Arabian? Dunno ... don't think they're Aussie. Whatever.

Roll with the punches, even though on some days you get more punches. Find a HEALTHY out, take it when you need it be it another job, hobby, whatever. You may not be able to change the whole world, however it can change you. In turn, you can change your own. You will in your own time figure out what is best for you. Gastroenterologist?

Freak is correct pretty much all the way through here ... thing is, with the province taking over funding and everything else now for EMS, a lot of people are looking at leaving. It didn't work in BC (as we can see), it won't work here long term either. Yes, and our trucks aren't modified kangaroos with dingos and didgeridoos for sirens

I'm not near your location, so I'm not sure how you'd go about this ... Dunno, try these, I just searched for "honor guard": http://honorguardtraining.com/ http://www.honorguardtraining.org/honor_guard_101.htm http://www.honorguard.af.mil/bhg/ http://nationalhonorguardacademy.com/ Talk to several services with Honor Guards maybe in and out of your state if you can, perhaps speak with the military as well. A number of the Guard members I am associated with are current and past members of the military. They're experts in related topics such as proper marching, drill practice including formation, calling command, etc. It's highly professional, serious and formal on several occasions as you may be called upon/volunteer to participate in funerals, weddings, memorials, etc. You will need training from someone experienced in this. Uniforms can be costly as well, be prepared to look at that. Ours were nearly $2000 ... each ...

I know ... it's really too bad. But hey, at least those people know what their future is, whereas the rest of us have to lead a relatively healthy life not knowing how we'll go.

I think if those ski patrollers you know actually had any good sense, they wouldn't be using illicit drugs in the first place. Alcoholism isn't encouraged. Liquor however is a LEGAL substance; that's why its use might be TOLERATED more so than that of the ganja/crack/meth or whatever your snow bunny friends are using. When it comes to showing up for work while under the influence of ANYTHING, there is and should be a zero toleranace everywhere. It is not only your partner's life and medical license on the line, it is yours. Most of us I would assume wouldn't drink anything if we got less than 8 hours of rest prior to the start of our next shift. That is standard around here, some places might even observe a longer period of "dryness" before starting work. And most of us wouldn't be dumb enough to actually show up for work still reeking like the night before. Worst case scenario: Your partner shows up for their shift with you, they're hungover++++/unrested from snorting coke/hazy from smoking weed half the night. You see this and don't say anything because it's your partner and you don't want to "upset the balance". They're driving with you and let's say a term pregnant women in the back. You're near the hospital and your partner has an accident and crashes the truck. Somehow they manage to walk away, yet mom loses the baby and mmmmmm let's say bleeds out, the car your partner hit contained an elderly couple and kills one of them, the other is permanently brain damaged and has "no life" for the rest of their life. You're in traction in hospital with several pins in your femur, looking oh so forward to months of physio and bills building up because you can't work. Sorry kids, no clothes/school supplies/haircuts/proper food for you because mommy/daddy can't move their legs right now; make your own KD for breakfast. No money for anything again this month because the comp claim was AGAIN denied. Yes I made that up but who's to say it couldn't happen? We all know lives can and do change in the blink of an eye. Could you live with yourself knowing you could have prevented this? Sure, your partner is a retard for showing up for work in that condition. If you knew, could have done something beforehand but didn't, wouldn't you also have to share the blame?

No worries I figured I made an ASSumption out of myself ... frequent occurence lately.

Well, the way I took that person's post was that all Nova Scotia ACP's are automatically licensed here as EMT-P's ... which of course is NOT the case, I might have been making a poor assumption as to how the post was meant to read. ACP's from that province or any other province for that matter cannot just come to Alberta and say "hey, give me a 50# so I can be a paramedic here too". Their education is reviewed for reciprocity, and if approved they may challenge the exam here. As for doing your EMR then ACP then oilfield then EMT well that's great, but why don't you try getting some real ambulance experience in between as well? If you do end up in the patch, you will certainly see that there are many people misrepresenting themselves as EMR's, sometimes even EMT's. I will give two examples and tell you why this bothers me. For instance, I did a couple weeks up north early this year in between full time emerg jobs. There was a 19 year old bimbo up there who told everyone she was an EMR. When I asked her what her reg # was, she told me she couldn't remember. Ok fine, we can look it up online if I needed to put it in a PCR. I asked her when she wrote the ACoP exam, she said she hadn't yet. Okayyyyyyyyyyy .... so I asked why she was calling herself an EMR to which she replied, "Well they gave me this temp number so I'm an EMR". Upon completion of an ACoP recognized course in Alberta, one can apply for temporary registration at that level. What that temp # allows that person to do is practice at that level ONLY IF they have the approval of the medical director for the service they are working in, and ONLY IF they are DIRECTLY SUPERVISED by someone of equal or greater PERMANENT registration. They have a certain amount of time to write the exam, if they go over that time the temp # is revoked and cannot be re-obtained. Same goes for if they fail the exam, they cannot reapply for temporary registration. So this little girl kept telling me I was wrong and that she knew what the temp # meant and that she was an EMR. I went to the ACoP website and printed out the information for her and told her that if she would have read the letter she got from ACoP, this is what she would have found. I also told her that if myself or another one of the EMT's or the paramedic, or even one of the EMR's told her she couldn't do something at the EMR level for whatever reason it was, by law she had to stand back. She made a smartass little comment and stomped away, didn't talk to me for three days which was just fine by me because I really didn't care for talking to her anyhow. The second example I mentioned is a guy from BC who came out to the site I was on. He also misrepresented himself as an EMR "because he took his program at the Justice Institute of BC and that ACP was going to be forced to recognize it within 18 months" and blah blah blah blah blah. I said ok fine if that's the case, however you still don't have an Alberta registration number therefore you are not an EMR in this province. He constantly argued over that, said he didn't care what anyone thought or said, he was an EMR. Didn't even believe me when I said that he could be prosecuted over that and would then never be allowed to register in Alberta. He carried his little box of some symptomatic relief drugs like Benadryl, Tylenlol, Advil, Pepto-Bismol, etc etc, things like that which he stated that BC EMR's were allowed to give out. I didn't care to research that #1 because I don't really care, and #2 because EMR's here cannot administer those meds. I simply told him that if I found out he was doing anything outside the scope of an advanced first aider, I would report him. My reg # is my livelihood, and I will not have it risked because some moron has a chip on his shoulder about having to take an exam in order to practice at their level here. I plan on having a long and productive career doing emerg in EMS. Now here comes a run-on sentence because I'm actually saying this while I type it ... If everyone who is registered at one of the three levels here in Alberta has to go through the gears and jump through the hoops and pay the money and take the exam and wait for results etc etc, what makes anyone else think they shouldn't have to? If that is what is required to work in the province of Alberta and you want to work here, then just shut up and do it. Seriously. We hear enough complaining at work. There may be better ways out there of doing things than how ACoP is functioning. For now however, that is the way things are and that is what we must do. If everyone who had a good idea brought it forward to ACoP instead of just bitching behind the scenes, perhaps more effective changes could be brought about. That's all I have to say about that ... (said in a Forrest Gump voice)

As for NS ACP's, they are ACoP licenced. My 2 cents your mileage may vary. Sleep

Hehehehe

It's the people that make the country, not the other way around. Unfortunately there are idiots everywhere, they keep us in business

Were you referring to a backwoods redneck from southern Alberta? Must be where you're from ... Pretty ignorant comment there ...

Yes!

Well said! I think things are a bit different here however, because every service no matter the type has a medical director, as required by law. I love the longer transport times on the really good calls when there's no ALS. There's always the phone and medical direction around if need be of course, but we still have protocols regarding drugs/Tx and cannot go outside of them. When you're 20 minutes from hospital going hot with a critical/semi-critical pt and there's nobody around but you and your EMR/EMT partner, that's quite a feeling. As for the transfer people, I think they'd have a hard time working rural. City, well whatever because they're 5 minutes from hospital, but there's still stuff to do. Less time to think and that would probably fluster a great deal of them. Rural? Well more time to monitor interventions like drugs, etc but you still have to perform the critical tasks STAT when it's a bad situation. They'd likely still get flustered. EMS is not like riding a bike ...

Trying to make sense of what you said there ... are you saying that anyone who is an EMT or paramedic is in emergency medical services? Oh sure, someone who hasn't done an IV in 4 years is probably still qualified to initiate/monitor/maintain, but do you really think they should be? You'd be fine suffering an MI with an EMT who's been an EMT for oh 6 years but hasn't actually done an e-call in 5 years, sweating their face off, shaking, wondering whether or not they can start the line while your veins bulge in front of them? You wouldn't be apt to take the damn catheter away from them and do it yourself? Can you honestly say that every EMT should actually be an EMT, and that you wouldn't care which one of them (as an example) treats your unconscious child?