Just Plain Ruff

Anyone from around there? I'm probably going to be spending some winter time up there and wouldn't mind getting together for a dinner or two. Plus good locations of hotels and stuff like that so I know where not to stay. Thanks

Doc I ABSOLUTELY positively agree with you. There should be charts and cheat sheets. It does not make you a lesser medic if you use a dosage chart. I always do. I have my hospitals dosage charts reduced down to a 3x5 card that fits in my shirt pocket. I have travelled around to many hospitals in the USA and in each and everyone of them I see physicians pulling out their Merck manual, their drug reference books and the PDR to get the dosages of the drugs right. I have seen countless cardiologists and ER docs and peds docs pull out their Iphones, their smart phones and their PDA's and use their tools to determine countless different things that they have their phones/pda's do. If charts are good enough for physicians then they are surely good enough for a medic who might have to start dopamine on a handful of people in a year. Put in a epi drip, a dobutamine drip and countless other drug dosages and going by memory is a recipe for disaster. These tools are out there for a reason. USE them.

One quick question - do you think that any of his issues with ventillation and perfusion had anything to do with the smaller ET TUbe?

Try this http://about.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/topcat_id=1/form_keyword=WRE54G

Hey CpHt, I'm a fatty too. And I can't get the image of an entire Zoomba class being told that they are now doing ab crunches all while laughing out of my head.

Can you imagine a gym full of overweight people doing this and laughing. Gives a whole new meaning to all fat people being jolly.

Dwayne I think it's doable. Definately. I'm not against this type of living relationship but boundaries have to be set. You need to deterimine what is an acceptable number of people that you will or "want" to have in the group? Is it 5 or is it 50? Next you need to find a location that will fit all those who you want to include. If the number is small then a small apartment building might be a good fit. If there's 50 or so, then something much bigger is needed. That is what I think might be your biggest hurdle is finding the right place(location) to begin your journey. I found quite a bit of useful websites via "google" if you put in communal living in the search field. The best one I found is www.ic.org Hope it helps Are you planning on living off the grid so to speak? If so you will need some additional resources that you often take for granted. Consider rainwater collection - some states have laws against diverting rain water to your own personal consumption/use. Yes, they really do have laws like that. Are you planning on living a somewhat normal life and just living communally where every one provides for their own livelihood or are you truly going the collective way and what you bring to the group becomes the groups. I don't recommend that focus. Too much of a risk to the group. The what's mine is yours mentality makes a slippery slope. Plus how are you going to determine who the effective leader is? Is it by election or by who brings in the most stuff? Is the determination made by who is the most charismatic(bad precedent - see Jim Jones, Warren Jeffs, David Koresh) Will you allow christians, muslims, atheists, agnostics etc etc in or do they have to be all the same religion? What about political leanings? Are all parties welcome or do you preclude those of one particular political party but not another? You have a huge road ahead of you if you truly do go through with this. Good luck. I have other thoughts but I'll leave them off here for a while.

Again, liability touts common sense. Nurse lines are specifically trained to tell every single caller that if they think they need to go to the ER then they should go. Anything above take 2 tylenol and call your doctor in the morning gets the standard "go to the ER" mantra. Until tort reform in medicine is done, we are still going to have the majority of systems refusing to allow their medics to initiate refusals or no transports. I've always offered the no transport suggestion to the patient if I don't think they need to go but I always, and I REPEAT ALWAYS temper that offer with a counter offer of transport to the ER for physician evaluation. Until my service backs me with specific "provider initiated no transport"protocols, I'm going to transport the patient. My licensure is too hard fought to lose by a service who won't back me.

I find that a contributing source of longer scene times is the seemingly laid back attitude of those in Rural areas. When I was working urban ems my scene times were quite short. If they fit they ship I found when working rural that I knew most everyone I was seeing so it was easy to get lost in a conversation while doing things and wham, you realize that all your interventions have been done on scene and the transport was smooth. By no means did my scene times extend if the patient condition warranted them, ergo if they were really sick, load and go and transport and perform what was needed on the ride to the hospital. But I think that a rural area is more relaxed and slow going so the scene times should accurately reflect that, in my experience at least.

I can imagine you were scarred for life for that one. How's the therapy goin?

I too am not too keen on communal living. I dont' do well with Roommates. Hell having a wife and 3 kids is hard enough. Put in a bunch of other people who I may or may not like that's a recipe for disaster in my books.

Nah wendy, reading whole threads is so last year. And don't tell me you are going to start using the "just sayin" mantra? And have we really moved on to other topics? Look at the posters after mine and you will see that they echo some of the same points as already made so why point me out yet not the two posters after me? And I really really really hate the saying "Just Saying"

ok, Dwayne I love ya and all that but heres my suggestion Get about 10000 acres overlooking the rocky mountains. Parcel it off in 100-200 acre plots and keep most for you and Babs. Have the collective provide for security such as fences and armed security and also have the collective provide the living materials. The group(communites) can come and go as they please but you can have a requirement of get togethers every week or so to make the collective function smoothly. I'll buy 500 of the acres or we can go in halvesies on the 10K acres. That is my dream

Novel idea, why don't you call several of the schools in your area and ask them directly about dwi convictions especially at age 17. Then next call a couple of EMS Agencies out there in your area and see what your chances are on getting hired there. I find it much better to discuss with the people who will be making decisions affecting my career rather than asking anonymous people on the net that may or may not be in your area whether or not you are or are not hireable or acceptable to the education program you are wanting to go to. Good luck

I just got a forced vacation from my client due to lack of work so I'm going to have at least a week if not two weeks off from work before getting a new client. I'm planning on taking CPR, ACLS, PALS and NRP if I can find that class all in one week if possible. Thanks for the heads up for CPR

Flew 5 from one scene one night. ONly had two ambulances and 7 patients. 5 critical and 2 serious.

Hence the center of a tootsie pop.

If you can get em at Walmart or CVS or Walgreens you can spend upwards of 19.99 on a good magnifying pair.

I took care of a little lady who had the same type belly as this guy. She had two issues, major ascites and a triple A that was near to rupturing, it was leaking at the time. Imagine the infection control and course of treatment for this lady. It was a nightmare. She passed away not soon after her surgery to repair the AAA.

I'm a little bit more extreme on the levels of certs. Ask me in a pm what I think really needs to happen to all these certs out there. If I put it out there I'm sure that a bunch of people would jump on me about it but its' truly my feelings about the whole deal.