Just Plain Ruff

didn't you read any of the above replies. This is not a good idea to put ammonia in any enclosed piece of equipment like a BVM or a NRB mask. Makes you become a defendant if the patient decides to push it. It works just as well if you just crack the inhalant and put it under their nose. At least you can quickly remove it if you wave it under their noses. If you put it in a nrb mask you risk two things. an increase in resp distress as well as ammonia burns by the ammonia getting on the facial skin. putting an ammonia inhalant in a nrb mask could feasibly cause them to aspirate that inhalant and then you are in REALLY DEEP CACA.

Let's discuss one other very very very important aspect of EMT training. Scene safety I've seen more new emt's go into dangerous situations than I can care to remember. some have ended badly some not. The 1 hour lecture I got on scene safety is not enough. I wrote an article for the ems journal Fieldmedics journal focusing on scene safety. Those of you who are interested might want to check it out.

Rid I think that this is where i was going. Get rid of the ability of the EMT to transport or even drive the ambulance. Put them strictly as a first responder which can run the gamut of firefighter, industrial emt, wilderness emt, search and rescue but leave the patient care transporting to those with EMT-P licenses.

I agree that it needs to be a license. Make it a license not a certification. But I am in agreement with my friend in Baltimore that EMT needs to go away and have one licensure for each state. Will it happen? not in my lifetime and it has about as much chance as the fair tax to get implemented in my lifetime but this might be one step closer to consistency and such.

ok, this came up to me in a discussion that I had a couple of weeks ago with a colleague at Shock Trauma in Baltimore. Should we just do away with EMT certification and only go with paramedic? Arguments for: One certification only. Consistency in teaching standards. Enhanced patient care Arguments against: cost, time, grandfathering in old emt's, numbers of students already in emt class. anyone else have thoughts. By the way this person I talked to was all for doing away with EMT and going only with EMT-P.

Dwayne, you are not silly nor was your comment silly I remember back in the day when I had to take the state skill stations. I was a nervous wreck as probably every person out there in EMTCity was too. I think this is one of the biggest disservice in class that we make to the students. I too used to proctor or evaluate the new emt's to be and every last one of them were breathing fast, shaking hands, sweating and other things. I even saw some of them vomit or pass out due to the stress. Why do we put them thru this type of environment. I know my instructor told me this "If you don't pass the skills part then you have to take it again. If you don't pass it again, then you have to retake the class" which is what he told the entire class. Our entire class was focused on that single day in the future when we would go up against the juggernaut of the State Board of EMS testing folks who we were told were strict and stalinistic(in not so many words). It all hinged on one single day. Now I'm not saying to make it easier, I'm saying that we need to prepare the students not for taking the test cause they will take the test once maybe twice but to prepare the students for life on the streets. It goes doubly important to train the student for the streets and to think on their feet for medic students. just my two cents.

Exactly the reason why you should have to respond to the station to run any call if you are a volunteer. If you don't make it to the station to run the call then Go home A little history of a incident I had happen to me when I was working in a rural ems/hospital based ambulance. We were responding to the scene of a rollover into the local lake. Fire was also going to respond but they were volunteer so they had to wait till they got enough personnel in to man the truck. We came upon an intersection and as we were proceeding thru the green light, a small pickup with a blue light on the dash busted the light and nearly hit us. He never even slowed down for the light, just went right thru. We continued on to the call and took care of the patient. The next day we were at the fire station talking to the chief. He took our concerns serious enough to ignore them. He said we should have been paying more attention. It went up the chain of command at my work and I have no idea what happened. But the chief showed his true colors that day.

if we had government healthcare for all this would not be an issue.

Chbare, I think that many RN's operating as first responders would find it really hard to relinquish control of the scene to a medic or god forbid an EMT. It's just a mindset. I think it would be just as hard for a medic to relinquish scene control to an EMT if that medic is acting in a first responder capacity but I think that many of the nurses I know would not be happy handing off care to an emt. So with that said - an RN if working in a first responder capacity is NOT an RN or she/he would be working as an RN and not a First responder.

even though you don't see an IV as a advanced skill the state of kansas as well as most other states do. But on to a different point. I know you want to get this done but maybe you might want to start your RN To medic Bridge program and get that out of the way. Then your service can become bls/als and provide a significantly higher level of care than what you currently provide. I just think that any service that does not have 24 hour als service does their community a disservice when they can offer ALS only on certain days. Being that being said, providing more than what you provide now in terms of ALS care is better than nothing. I do not doubt that having you in play there that this will get done eventually.

my opinion is that we have so many more pressing issues facing us in EMS today than to get really worked up over being called Ambulance drivers. That term is what 99% of the US Population knows us as. the other 1% watched rescue 911(where no-one ever died), paramedics or saved. And that population is the ones to be worried about. So let's attack the pressing issues like training and getting paid as professionals and performing the duties of professionals and then we can attack this issue.

let me tell you a story about a picture of me that made it into the local newspaper of a small town. The accident happened about 200 feet from my apartment. I heard it and went out. It was a rollover accident and on a busy street, the busiest in the small town I lived in. I was assisting the patient until my on duty crew got there. I had noticed that the photog from the paper was there about the same time I was. He was snapping pictures left and right. I didn't have a chance to put a belt on prior to running out to the scene and when I stood up I hiked my pants up a little higher on my waist. Well you can imagine that the photog(ahole) got that picture. not one of the other pictures were in the paper but the one with me hiking my pants up made the paper. Well to make a long story short, I got to treat this photog about 3 months later in the ER and I showed him the picture. I asked him why he chose this particular picture and he said it showed the best view of the wreck. I then proceeded to start that IV with a 14 guage needle instead of an 18. I know petty and mean of me but hey, he was a jerk. He asked me why such a large needle for a gi bleed and I told him it was the best iv needle for the job and my picture never made it into the paper again. Coincidence - I think not.

my personal favorites are 1. take a spray bottle and act like you are coughing and spray the bottle. It works with sneezes also 2. Walk in the elevator and stand facing the rear. 3. Say, someone just died in here, I'm here to disinfect

The only pso model that I know of in Missouri or the KC MO area is a town called Gladstone but I'm not sure if they changed that or not. I've been out of touch with my gladstone buddies for a while.

and those in the bottom 25% pay 10% of the taxes but consume 75% of the services that are out there available.

since Dust has not spoken up on this one Your service sucks if they let you play cop while on duty. your service sucks if they wrote you up over letting a ff use a urinal your partner is a whacked out psychopath who should be the one who got the discipline since she was the lead crew member. Any time you are the lead crew member then most of the crap rolls downhill and strikes you first. all in all, your service sucks

92 words and not a single punctuation point. WOW

well we do have a chicken soup for the dog lover so why not a chicken soup for the EMS lover. But I think it's not a great idea or someone would have already written it.

would be nice if the original poster would respond back to this thread. If there is an uncertified and unqualified person on the truck then there better be a good reason for it if you want to be in my ambulance. Will I allow them to help - not on my license I won't. But if we are talking about nurses or politicians (they really don't belong on the ambulance unless you are trying to get funding from that said politician). Media personnel - NOPE NO NO NO NO especially not with a camera or tape recorder. Did I mention the word NO FREAKIN WAY!!!! WE all know what happens when you let a reporter get within 200 feet of you trying to take care of a patient or even when they try to report the news on a benign subject. But in the end, you cannot fight management and if they want someoen on the truck with you then you are pretty much stuck with them. But I do like the requirements that were set out in a previous reply to this thread. If they don't have the minimums then they don't get in.

well there is that Julian

I actually just sent this guy a pm about his language and didn't get to this one until after I sent it. I can imagine what he's gonna say to me in reply. It's amazing how many of the members here with Fire in their name seem to be so negative and nasty. There's this guy and also firemedic523 or whatever his name is.

what does this have to do with EMS discussion? It should be in the news section.

Actually, might the going away from the wearing of a specific color have been a learned response over time. You have the crips which are red I believe. Doesnt' that make them a more easy target and the law of natural selection would be that the strongest survive. So if you are a crip and you are wearing your color doesn't that make you standout and pretty much say "Here I am, I'm a crip, shoot me"? Might they have learned that they have a much higher survival rate if you aren't wearing a specific color that stands you out of a crowd and says TARGET!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes I agree the study is racially biased anyway. There is no way that this study cannot be a racially charged study. I have worked the whole spectrum of ems, rural, urban, very very rural and ED based. I can honestly say that color of skin has never, NEVER come into play. If they are in pain who am I to withhold pain meds. Honestly, if you are on an ambulance and transporting a male patient, does race even play a part in your treatment? Do you give a radio report with the patients race. I never did. Race should never come into play in treating a patient. But this is about racism in EMS but veiled as a study. Thinly veiled I say. I wanted to comment earlier but thought I'd wait till others replied.

Actually ER Doc I had a case in the ER with a 87 year old lady with pneumonia bilaterally. She had an extended coughing episode for over 20 minutes and she decomp'd at home. We got called and went and got her. Bilat decreased breath sounds. Sats in 70's We got to the ER, I was working hospital based ems at the time. chest x-rays confirmed bilat pneumos with a tension developing to the left. The doc was busy with another very sick patient. I brought him the x-rays and he said to dart the left and prep for bilat chest tubes. WE did that and after we chest tubed her she got better but after a little bit she worsened and ended up on a vent. After 3 days in the icu she ended up dying. Not sure if this classifies as non-traumatic what with the coughing fit but she had bilat pneumos. She was a really sick lady anyway and this didn't help her.