Kiwiology

OMG you speak the truth mate, went to an old lady who NOF'd herself one night on the kitchen rug, took over an hour to get her pain under control enough so we could scoop her

We have the Ferno scoop stretcher which may be the "break away" you are referring to They are bloody fantasmagasmic, I do love the scoop stretcher.

Hi Kinkos, do you do bulk discounts? .....

Dear Santa Can I please have GI Joe, Action Man with accessories, Matchbox City modular kisets, um, my red BMX bike and one of those old Lifepak 10's that are in the store room at the station?

Indeed you are correct 'tis a Jordan lifting frame, a uniquely Australian apparatus from the mid seventies. Would still prefer a scoop stretcher however.

Trust you to know that Weirdest thing I ever did see; Google seems to confirm they are uniquely Australian and not something I have seen before. I don't see the logic of having a frame with slats but it was the 70s after all.

While I hate to say it; I think a big improvement in the quality of graduates would come from not taking 18 year old's out of school and perhaps shifting back to taking people a few years older who have done something out there in the big wide world; work, travel etc so they know how to talk to people and have general life skills which I know first hand, school-leavers just don't have.

Phil; I agree with you 1000% here mate. I've seen some Graduates who are really good people and just as good clinically as well as some who are excellent clinically but either have the people skills of a rock or this "Holier than Thou" attitude that makes you want to take to 'em with an oxygen tank. Personally I think the University model is the way to go but the University system seems to have different foci than the Ambulance service. Peter O'Merra from Charles Sturt University talked about this when I had the opportunity to hear him speak and basically ran parallel with what I've thought all along: the University looks at your suitability to succeed academically while the old vocational programs ran by the Ambulance service were largely geared towards personal traits without a lot of regard for academics. You can teach a rock about cardiology but you cannot teach somebody to be mature, to laterally think, to problem solve, to communicate and how to work in a team. I have worked with gang members I'd rather have on a truck with me than some of the Graduates I have encountered because they can talk their way out of a sticky spot and are dependable; may not know all the cardiology in the world but that's not important if you're in a tight corner trying to get your patient's mates to stop trying to shank you. I would be supportive of a degree program that is run in conjunction with the Ambulance service where you do say a semester of sciences and praxis to get you up to an entry level step then put you on road full time while completing the rest of the degree over say 2-3 years so you can get a proper amount of experience and consolidate what you are learning.

Surely if they did that many illegal things the FL DOH would be onto them like a fly on shit coz student with half a brain would be complaining!

I would say take A&P, pharmo, patho, English comp, communications and a research methods class before even venturing into EMT or Paramedic. They will greatly increase your knowledge above what is taught in the EMT course. You may even strike it lucky and be one of the first to take the new 2009 EMT curriculum.

I'd settle for a Lifepak 10 (you could at least do a 9 lead with one) and we had the orange plano drug boxes (big tackle box) and I loved them! Dunno what weird scoop type thing that was on the MICA unit but I'll stick to my Ferno scoop thanks

Yeah I agree they're pretty good; when I was in Melbourne I was just around the corner from Box Hill Hospital where MICA 5 was based.

Remember that any guideline should be fairly generically nonspecific and that it is important to learn the underlying physiology, pathophysiology and pharmo as it applies to that guideline. You'd be much better off doing an A&P course and learning whats in there rather than being able to regurgitate information from a cookbook upon demand.

I agree Happy - a Dr is a Dr regardless of whether they are an ER doc, pathologist, primary care, cardiothoracic etc just like a nurse is a nurse be they assisted care, public health, renal etc etc etc However I think the distinction here is that people understand the difference whereas the media has done a wonderful job of marketing advanced life support as the capability of every ambulance out there. This is misleading and I believe inappropriate to label somebody as a "Paramedic" if they aren't at least the ILS level. This is a personal belief and may infact just be my own thinking and not something that the public perceive as a problem.

Depends what services you want from me, did I mention I have an instrument rating and that one of my buddies works for the New York area TRACON (terminal radar approach control) on Westbury, Long Island? .... aren't I a fun date? ILS is intermediary life support generally taken to mean IV fluids, ECG/defibrillation and limited medications generally restricted to "core" ACLS meds (adrenaline/amiodarone) and maybe glucose or naloxone. New York State has Advanced EMT-Critical Care and Advanced EMT-Intermediate at the ILS level; don't ask me what the difference is because heck, even the guys I worked with in Westchester didn't know! There are some systems who have phased out BLS and just ILS/ALS or have phased out ILS and are just BLS/ALS. NYC is an example of a no ILS model whereas Australia is an example of a no BLS model.

Man dont be up in here dissin my ride n snoop dog oughta put a cap in yo wanksta ass .... eh, whatever, I drive an 80s Mitsi like friggin Nana styles. A very good point, our driver training manual points out exactly this situation and advises if you're in gridlock to turn off the siren for this very reason as it freaks other people out and makes you look like a dick sitting there going whoop-whoop-wail-phazer-ice cream or whatever funky siren they are up to now.

You know I didn't really like the term "Intensive Care Paramedic" when it came out we used to have "Advanced Paramedics" and I much preferred it as it was less wordy and more aligned with "advanced life support" but the more I think of it the more sense it makes. I mean if I said "hey my buddy is in 'advanced care'" people would look at me funny but if I say "intensive care" there is a clear distinction that he must be pretty sick. I think "first responder" is appropriate our sort-of pre-BLS level (what I coined 'limited life support' remembering that BLS here is a lot more advanced than the US) is called "First Responder". I think in the more progressive systems (like Australia) using the terms "Paramedic" and either "Intensive Care Paramedic" is appropriate and as I understand Alberta has EMR/EMT/EMT-P and as I understand EMT in Alberta allows IV fluid, IV medication and 3 lead ECG interpretation so "Paramedic" would be appropriate for this level.. Perhaps I am mistaken but I think Canada has all but abolished ILS level (except maybe New Brunwsick or something, but honestly, when is the last time you heard anybody mention New Brunswick when you were in the grocery line or at the pub? ... hey man guess what New Brunswick did! .... mm yeah just not seeing it) so again I'm not sure how to get around this problem. "Paramedic" for ILS level works well here and "Ambulance Technician" is a good separator as it really drives home the distinction between BLS and ILS/ALS as much as I HATE the term and would much prefer "Ambulance Officer". At the end of the day is this simply a problem we are creating in our head because we've become so used to "Paramedic" or does the public really care or understand the difference, I'd say no and eh ... maybe. LMFAO

I firmly believe the driving is one of the most dangerous things you can do; so I label it a necessary evil. Personally I have zero tolerance for siren freaks and speed junkies the ten seconds we might have going p1 to a job is not clinically significant and in my time I've seen two patients go into hospital p1 - a seizure and an inferior STEMI. Now I don't have a problem with somebody using the lights and siren to clear traffic and request right of way if it's necessary but these speed freaks who run red lights, weave in and out of traffic and live with their fist on the air horn and the other pounding the dash in frustration because they can't clear gridlock going 100k an hour to a job are just idiots. Edit: Whoot, 500 posts, .... man I need a life eh? lol

That is exactly why I am against using the term "Paramedic" for all levels eg PCP/ICP/ACP as it is misleading to the public. New Zealand has recently adopted "Ambulance Technician" (BLS), "Paramedic" (ILS) and "Intensive Care Paramedic" (ALS) and while our BLS scope is very progressive and quite good it still doesn't include things like IV fluids or parenteral medication so I don't think "Paramedic" or "Primary Care Paramedic" or whatever spin you want to put infront or behind "Paramedic" is appropriate! Last I heard Quebec didn't have ACPs and ran the French SAMU/SMUR model of prehospital physician backup. Imagine Quebec doing some French, I am shocked!

I happened across these old videos from the 70s of the Melbourne ambulance service (aka Ambulance Service Melbourne, then more recently Metropolitan Ambulance Service and now Ambulanve Victoria). Now as unlikely as I am to promote the Australians they are a great look at the how things in this part of the world have changed since the 70s and they feature MICA (mobile intensive care ambulance (ALS)) of the day which is a serious whoot frickin Johnny and Roy down under! As lure has it, Melbourne's MICA Paramedics were in the third such service in the world starting in 1971 (behind Seattle, '67 and Miami in 1969). New Zealand unfortunately rounds out at #4 with the Auckland mobile life support project beginning in 1972 - grumble, grumble. http://www.paramedic-community.com/ahsv/videos/archive/asm_rotary.html http://www.paramedic-community.com/ahsv/videos/archive/25yrMICA.html

Get yourself a 12 lead book; I personally recommend something decent like Lippincott's 12 lead ECG book from their nursing series (little brown one) but I hear Tim Phalen has a good one.

Canada all but runs third-service EMS, I know Winnipeg and one or two others have Firefighter/Paramedics. Remember also the education in Canada is much, much, much higher than in the US. Any use of Firefighters above an EMR/First Responder level in Canada except in the few departments mentioned would (I strongly suspect) invoke some sort of revolution. NZ Fire Rescue is the same, fire and EMS are totally separate except for a first response capacity. Fire should stay fire/rescue and EMS should stick to medical.

I quite like something like that; like some sort of incentive to go and work for a year or something and get out and deal with people in the real world. Not so hot in the idea of compulsory military service again but hey, some of these "youth" need a good swift kick up the arse and the Army is certainly the place to see that they get that!

40 years of perpetuated misconception and Type A personalities who like to drive fast with flashy things going.

*Kiwi meekly chips in his intubations for the year ..... 1, and it was a success!