Just Plain Ruff

yes sounds like a quick jump to ALS So what else could be wrong with this guy. Any ingestion of any sort any medical history we need to know about. any signs of trauma? He was found on the floor, why no c-spine?

one more pointer. DO NOT study the night before. Either you know it or you don't. If you do study the night before you will see what you really don't know and then the stress hits the roof. Just take it easy the night before.

terri you are sooooo wrong. Got ya, one more for me.

that sign is for morons only, the morons being the ones who posted it. you get two attempts to stick me. after number 2 someone else gets to. I had a lab tech get mad at me because I wouldn't let them stick my son a third time for a cbc. They got mad because I was refusing but I told them, from here on out every stick you do to my son, I get one on you. They brought in the supervisor really quick and she got him the first time. No-one sticks me or my family more than 2 times.

either they take it down completely or they find some people to take it down at night. You either fly the flag right or you don't. sounds like you saw the true colors of some of your co-volunteers.

Doesn't sound like the fire medic has done a full assessment. Seems like the bls maneuvers worked to clear up the bigeminy. Maybe we should assist in intubating this guy

Kmac, sounds like a classic case of burnout. there is nothign wrong with taking a leave of absence and getting your head back on straight. I was in your shoes at one time. take care, you have friends here.

Silence is Golden terri

nice page so far but be prepared for a note from the admin saying you can't advertise your page on the forums. I got one of those. But nice page anyway.

actually it was for a service I previously worked for.

Dang D, you have the mind of a good medic there. You have learned way more than you think you have. the ability to question something that never really comes to mind to most medic students is exceptional. Keep up the good work. I have nothing more to add to this discussion as AZCEP is doing all that.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Aug07/0,4...Charges,00.html

but I'll bet that if you ask those same medics in several weeks if they passed or not they will tell you that they failed at least one station if not more. If you don't go right down the NR line in testing then you WILL fail. NO if's ands or buts about it.

Whit I totally agree with you. unfortunately our protocols at one service were non-negotiable. MOI alone will get you a bird. I'd like to have thought for myself but hey, Medical control says to fly due to MOI so I did. If it was up to me, half the people I flew wouldn't have gotten flown.

that wsas definately a hell of a crash. According to ESPN this morning he refused all EMS care according to one announcer. He apparantly wanted to walk off the field. he did go to the hospital. damaged his back and bruised his liver. That's as close to flying as you can get. It's not the fall that kills you it's the sudden stop. one guy I knew said if your parachute ever doesn't open when you hit the ground try to grab grass. That way you might not bounce up so far. If the fall doesn't get you the jagged pieces of bone that puncture your organs will.

actually the bookseller listed is a really high priced bookseller. they think most of their books they sell are golden. It's been a while since I priced it. Ok it seems that the book has now been made into a 8 hour class. The book is no longer in print but it's on CD Here is a link to the site. https://www.themissingprotocol.com/site/edu...nal_program.htm The guy selling the book for 149.00 is an idiot. He says it's a very rare book.

chocolate and cherry 400

Hey Bent, your analogy about the 20K loan is really good. I've been seeing a lot of ads on tv that are pushing going to school to be a crime scene investigator or criminal justice degree and it touts that there are all sorts of jobs in law enforcement. It's the same thing. Funny how emt/medic classes don't seem to be advertised with the same vigor as this program is. for those interested in becoming a crime scene investigator which usually requires that you are a cop, you can go to www.ITT.com and throw your money away.

Whit, many of the services I worked for had protocols that require patients to go to a trauma center based on MOI. If they met the criteria for MOI then they went to a trauma center period. If the trauma center was greater than 30 minutes away then you used a helicopter. our closest trauma center was one hour by ground or 32 minutes by air. If you did not send them to the trauma center then bend over and kiss your ankles. As you were gonna get reamed by the medical director and the boss too. I'm not saying it's right but that is how it is in some services. Death of same car occupant Passenger compartment intrusion of greater than 20 inches and so forth and so on etc etc. so do you follow your protocols or do you go against the protocols and risk getting fired for not following protocols?

A good friend of mine once told me this He said "the national registry is simply a money making company for Rocco Morando, it does no-one any good other than make them spend their money on a useless certificate. Oh yeah, you get a neat patch in the mail too. " Not sure how true that is but I thought it was interesting at the time.

A father put his three year old daughter to bed, told her a story and listened to her prayers which she ended by saying: "God bless Mommy, God bless Daddy, God bless Grandma and good-bye Grandpa." The father asked, "Why did you say good-bye grandpa?" The little girl said, "I don't know daddy, it just seemed like the thing to do." The next day grandpa died. The father thought it was a strange coincidence. A few months later the father put the girl to bed and listened to her prayers which went like this: "God bless Mommy, God Bless Daddy and good-bye Grandma." The next day the grandmother died. Oh my gosh, thought the father, this kid is in contact with the other side. Several weeks later when the girl was going to bed the dad heard her say: "God bless Mommy and good-bye Daddy." He practically went into shock. He couldn't sleep all night and got up at the crack of dawn to go to his office. He was nervous as a cat all day , had lunch sent in and watched the clock. He figured if he could get by until midnight he would be okay. He felt safe in the office, so instead of going home at the end of the day he stayed there, drinking coffee, looking at his watch and jumping at every sound. Finally midnight arrived, he breathed a sigh of relief and went home. When he got home his wife said "I've never seen you work so late, what's the matter?" He said "I don't want to talk about it, I've just spent the worst day of my life." She said "You think you had a bad day, you'll never believe what happened to me. This morning my golf pro dropped dead in the middle of my lesson!"

I know several medics who have tried to take national registry after they have been out in the field for many years. they failed each time because they didn't know the national registries standard for testing. It's hard for someone who was not taught the national registry way to actually pass their test. You have a better chance passing it directly out of school than taking it 5 years or 10 years down the road. I tried to get national registry about 5 years ago. I took the test after studying for a couple of weeks. I failed the practical in two stations. I then went back and took a refresher course and a prep class for nremt and I passed on my 2nd attempt. The national registry is geared towards people who have taken a cookbook class that taught them to pass the test and not for people who have been in the field for a long time. Without a prep class I would not have passed it the 2nd time. Those medics I talked about above all went to the NR prep class that was held in a smaller town and they passed the NR test. Without the class and prep time they all say they would not have passed.

holy crapola dustman. That was horrible. horrible horrible. Are you done with your leave??? But I digress if they are towed due to parking illegally then so be it. It's not a discrimination thing. Plus I think the one so flagrantly supporting this organization has rose colored glasses. I had an opportunity to work at several hospitals in NYC, New York Hospital Queens for one over a period of 18 months in 2001 and 2002. The medics that came in to the ER there as well as the ER staff members had nothing but negative things to say about Hatzollah(sic). Jumping calls, verbal abuse on scene and just unprofessional behaviour. One medic from FDNY said it best, "they think since they operate out of Israel and are jewish that the world owes them a favor" or something along that line. It's all about respect. If they were belligerent at the scene where their unit was parked and it was parked illegally then damnit, ticket them and then tow it. They have to follow the same laws as everyone else. As for blocking a fire hydrant, remember the scene in Backdraft where the mercedes or BMW was parked in front of the hydrant and the fireman broke the windows and passed the hose through it. If they park in front of a fire hydrant and theres a fire, then break the windows and pass the hose thru. At least the fire department will have a rehab crew on scene for them. I have heard nothing good about this organization in my time at EMT city nor in my time in NYC. Maybe their usefulness is passed.

This discussion leads me to one of my book recommendations. The book is called The Missing Protocol It is a wonderful book about how to write a legally defensible ambulance report. this book does not teach you how to write a report, it already assumes you know how to do that. But what it does do is go through and help you understand that some of what we write is rife with the possibility of nailing us to the wall in court. If you read this book I guarantee you will be a better report writer, one who looks outside the box and will say, wow I didn't even realize it could go that way. I highly highly recommend this book.

Letmesleep - if the hospital wants to activate a trauma alert then let em. It costs you nothing to let them do that. as for being a patient advocate, unfortunately you really do not have any standing to complain about hospital policy and the charges for the patient. Sure you can say something but when you start to complain about a procedure that directly affects the hospital's bottom line then you start to step on toes. It's one thing to be the patients advocate on patient care but when it comes to costs charged by the hospital you quickly become someone that is considered a nuisance. Look at it from your companies perspective. You have a patient with chest pain. You start the MONA protocol, start one or two iv's, take one or two EKG's and transport lights and sirens to the hospital. It turns out that the patient just was having an anxiety attack. Do you complain about the costs of doing all that stuff to the patient when in reality it wasn't warranted by the end condition of the patient. I can attest to the cost of this when my father in law had this happen to him. the costs of the ambulance transport with all the bells and whistles was 2500.00(that's what he told me the cost was) The trauma center is really doing exactly what you did for the chest pain patient. Take for another example - you have a minor mva. Pt complains of nothing other than their pride being injured but due to protocols you have to c-spine, backboard and all that. You might start an iv just to be safe. You might put em on oxygen. Get a quick pulse ox and the like. You find out later at the hospital that the patient was completely fine. Each facility and ambulance service have protocols to follow and I'd be happy that the trauma facility is proactive and looking out for the patients, even the ones you don't think required a trauma activation. That one time that a trauma activation is not called might be the one where you are the trauma patient. Would you rather the hospital be completely consistent and activate for everyone or just activate willy nilly which some facilities I've taken patients to have been. I for one would like consistency if it's me on the cot. I'm sure you would like the same. It's good that you are playing the role of patient advocate but this battle is better left unfought. Save your energy for something that you can really make a difference in.