Just Plain Ruff

Let me put it a different way If I accept a patient from you as a medic and I find out you slammed narcan as you entered the ER or you took 20 minutes to give the pain medication that was ordered then your medical director is going to get a call from my medical director. And... I'm gonna have a come to Christ meeting with you in the ambulance bay and it won't be pretty. If your patient injures one of us here you can bet that there will be repercussions. We've all had the narcotic overdose or heroin user who we used narcan on and many times they come up swinging. If you do slam the narcan as you enter the ER just because you do not like the ER crew that is on, your name will be on the shit list of our ER for many many moons and you will quickly find out that your request for orders will be denied many times because of your actions. Your credibility will be shot and the physician will more than likely wait to assess your patient before any pain meds are given. Now, I know that there are no medics on this board that do this but who knows, and you know who you are, remember, what goes around comes around. I can even imagine that if you were the patient on the cot and you needed pain meds and the doc knew it was you and you did any of the things above, you might not get your meds you need for a while.

There are two types of providers out there. Those with the patient's best interests at heart and those without. We have a couple of providers in our service who think every patient is a burden. Every patient is a "drug seeker" or "They've been here 10 times for the same complaint" and they feel that person is a burden on them personally. We have others, and I fall in this category, who understand that even though those patients may have been here many many times before, it's not my emergency and I will do what i need to do to take care of them in that particular instance and then they are out of my mind and I go on to the next patient. I think that once you lose sight of the fact that the patient is there, you are called to take care of them and you do what you have to do to take care of them, once you lose that perspective then EMS may not be for you any more. I can spot a half assed medic from across the city. I want a provider that will treat me like I would treat them. I can spot the medic who will only give a partial effort and not the right effort. If you don't bring your A-game to every call then maybe you should be thinking of Career B There is nothing I dislike worse than a provider who considers the patient a burden and does nothing to hide that demeanor to the patient. If you give half an effort then I don't want to work with you.

Does anyone have a restraint policy or protocol set out in your protocols. If so please share. What I am trying to do is to add to our protocols and this is a good one to have set in stone. Soft restraints first then further measures and finally pharmaceutical restraints Does anyone have in their protocols the use of RSI as a restraint?

you beat me to it scuba, it's an old CT scanner for research. I think it's pretty cool

nice site but with one bigggggggggggggggggggggggggg problem. You have to sign up and in order to get the articles you have to pay to get them. I found no way to actually read anything more than the synopsis. If someone can get the articles you might want to show us all how. Plus to subscribe to the service and see the articles it appears to be a 185.00 subscription fee. well I just went back in and found a way to get 30 days of access. You just have to look around because I can't find the link again but it's out there. If anyone wants one of the articles let me know. If it's in my 30 day window I'll get it for you.

I report all med errors I make, I make very very few but here is one where another person would probably gloss over. I had a 3 year old patient and I went to give motrin suspension. The dose was for 5ml rather than 7.5ml but I inadvertently gave 7.5ml of childrens motrin. The fever was 103.5 and the order was for 5ml. I told the doc, he said, no big deal. I documented anyway.

inferior wall MI Did someone check a blood sugar

I have a few words to describe her but I'll keep it civil and tell her to keep her legs together.

Yes, I would transport. You cut off blood flow to the brain with the choke hold and there could be problems. i'm sure that there have been countless times where the suspect get's up, rubs some dirt on it and walks it off but like a previous poster said, go look at the long term care wards of some childrens facilities.

3 years of schooling and you don't know what DCAP-BTLS means? hmmmmm you sure you got your money's worth? but seriously I learned it in ITLS yet I have filed it away for just such an occasion that I might have to take the nremt testing again. Mnemonics help you pass the test but in the field no-one truly cares whether dcrapbtls is there, all we want to know is do they have a fracture, or a burn, or whatever else they have goin on. Mnemonics do not a good provider make.

I don't do this job for the patient to give me a gift but if given a gift I'd take it. I'd talk to the nurse manager and let her decide but to refuse a gift from a patient strikes me as a slap in the face to a grateful patient. Sorry if others disagree but I don't have an issue with accepting a gift from a patient. I have in the past been given 2 different gifts from patients I've taken care of. The first was a 4 ticket/parking pass to a Kansas City Royals game which I brought to my boss and she said "Can I come" and she indeed did. The second was a gift certificate to Golden Corral restaurant which I shared with my partner. Both times I went to my boss and both times she said "Have a good time" I don't see the issue. If you don't go around asking for a tip or a gift then I don't see a big deal in getting a gift. Now if the gift is a grand in cash or a new car or something then that's a different story but if it's gifts of the above nature, Who really gives a hair. I think that by refusing a gift from a grateful patient or family member is in poor taste. I know that some people here think that all gifts are taboo but in the overall scheme of things is this really going to change the world. I think we have bigger things to worry about than a patient giving us a gift. We have a thankless enough job, it's nice to be recognized. Now if you begin to do your duties with the end result that you might get a gift from the patient or family then that is when I have an issue with it.

I took the seat belt off a dead guy once, It just so happened that part of the engine was in his chest. He would have probably survived the wreck had he not have had a heart attack, coded and hit the semi head on.

One day in Band Camp- but seat belts have saved countless more lives than not wearing them. End of story.

Actually Indiana I don't believe didn't recognize it, it just was in two time zones and they gave the cities the options to recognize it or not. Not surew about that though.

My hiatus from life was a cessation of all things EMS and a foray into the IT consulting field. I loved that part of the work for about 3 years and then the travelling got to me. Gone 4 days a week, week in week out, being away from the family for the 4 days straight got to me. I began to look for a way back into EMS and finally after 6 years of travelling, I was given my walking papers from the nice paying job to the low paying job. I went from around 100K to 35K in 12 minutes. Got the call from the old work, said "you didn't do enough to find your new project so we are letting y ou go" and after arguing this with the assholes at the old job and not getting anywhere, I walked into the new job and said I'll take the full time opening here. so I never really was out of a job, I was just into a new job that dropped my yearly salary from 100K to 35K in 12 minutes. I said that already huh I'm back in EMS, I love it, the attitudes and behaviour of both the co-workers and the public are the same. I go into every shift saying to my self. "I cannot change anyone, I cannot change the world but with one day at a time I can make myself do my best" I know that the dirt bags and assholes that are out there in the company and also the public do not define me. I know that only I can define me. you are not a failure if you fail one time. you are not a quitter if you quit one time. You do not become a loser because you lost one time. You become this person who only you can define and if you let others define you then you are the loser/failure/quitter. Hiatus's are great, that's the reason why we have sabbaticals and vacations. Have you had a vacation lately? If not then that's something to consider. Use all your vacation time on a vacation and keep your pager at home. Do not answer your cell phone if it is work. Do not bring your laptop if you are going to work on work. If you let work define you then you have lost the battle. Those people who eat, sleep and breathe work and do not allow outside interests into their lives are sad if you ask me. If you do not have any outside interests and all you do is wait till your next shift make me sad for them. I see them all the time. They are the ones who are the most unhappy. A job is just that, some place you go to spend time away from home and home and family are where the fulfilling things are. Do not let your work define you. People are so much more than their occupation. you never see anyone's headstone saying "If I could have only worked one more shift" or "If I could have only saved one more person" or "If I could have only worked one more cardiac arrest" but what I do think that most people say are "I wish I had spent more time with family", I wish I could have spent more time with my son and wife" That's what I think. In the end, there is no-one that is going to help you out except yourself. No one to wipe your butt when you poop, no one to feed you no one to help you get over your rut's except for yourself. There is God if you believe that which I fervently believe but with God's help I can do anything.

ok, I feel your pain but if you let the stupid people get you down then you are really no better than the stupid people. I know exactly what you are going through but you can't let their attitudes dictate how you react to the situation. I read a story the other day that has everything to do with your situation but I can't seem to recall or find that. What I suggest is a hiatus from EMS. You show the classic signs of burnout and if you don't get away from this situation and either talk to someone or just get away then you will become one of the people who you are currently bitching about. I hope and pray that you get the help and solace you need before you get too much further down the road to despair.

Fiz, this is a great idea. When you get this educational piece put together any chance to get a copy in the hands of those in the EMTCity land? That would be a wonderful educational tool that we could all use, basic or advanced.

so the defiant teen gets put in a cell She kicks her shoe off at the officer and he releases a barrage of pushing and shoving and then knocks her to the ground after kicking her. He then proceeds to have his buddy come in and help him subdue this young girl and while he's at it he hits her at least 3 if not 4 times. They then proceed to handcuff this girl. After they have beat her into submission, they lift her up by her hair and remove her from the cell. Come back in a couple minutes and do a little housekeeping to make sure that the room is just clean enough. The video speaks for itself I think. There is nothing that you can see in the video that would warrant such a violent response by the officer unless she had a loaded gun in that shoe or maybe she's the newest version of the shoebomber. Dollars to donuts they took out the next osama bin laden when they took this girl down. Good to know these guys have made the US a safer place to live since they took her out. Now there could have been some other thing that set this officer off and we don't know the story but this is a sad deal.

hell yes i'd treat hell yes I'd report I'm not a immigration officer but it's my civic duty to report illegals according to some. I'm going to report no matter what anyone says.

Please bring a new horse. The original one is beaten beyond recognition.

with regard to the original posters questions and concerns it works over there, not over here. Who really gives a flying monkey's butt what goes on in a country other than the one you are from. Before we go about trying to fix someone else's house let's fix our own. We have plenty of things to fix here in the good ole states than to spend any time trying to force the Britt's or whoever else to change their ways. when our EMS systems are safer, less dangerous places for a new driver to be and until we have a significant reduction in EMS Accidents and the like, let's stop bitching and moaning about what happens an ocean away and concentrate on fixing our broken wings. Maybe this is something that we in the states want to look into implementing because I know that the last 3 people we hired got a whopping 30 seconds of driver training - "you see the key, turn it and see if the engine starts" if it did then thats the driver training you get at most EMS Agencies.

So what exactly were you doin on a end of the world website? You have insight that those of us here don't? Or is your pack similar in nature to the nutjobs? ha ha

thanks for the clarification. I do agree that if you have transmitting capability and you get the 12 lead before you give nitro or ASA that it serves a purpose. Hopefully with you doing a 12 lead on a patient that you have ALS backup on the way. thanks again for the clarification and welcome to the city EMTMcall

But in chasing tornadoes I am not needlessly -endangering others by speeding, You might want to go and watch those tornado chasing programs - they drive like nutjobs -barging through red signals taking right of way from deserving others, - as a matter of fact, I watched one of the tornado chasers do just that on one of the shows- inconveniencing drivers to move onto shoulders or up curbs where their tires can be damaged, (Imagine that truck getting a flat tire from a nail for nothing!) - you have a group of vehicles that have revolving yellow lights and driving like nutjobs the other drivers do not know what type of vehicle they are so they do indeed make other drivers move to the shoulders -disrupting traffic flow, (need I say more)

just remember, these guys who put these packs together are the out there whacko end of the world people. If I had a kit like that I'd put it in my basement under the stairwell. I'm the only trained medical person on my block other than my wife. I'm sure I'll be needed, oh wait, it's the end of the world so I don't give a shit.