Kiwiology

Why transport them? What good is it going to do and what can the hospital do that the ambos cannot?

I remember in Mobile Intensive Care Officer class way back in 1994 being told that transporting cardiac arrests has no value ... *checks calander, hmmmm

are you a US citizen/LPR or have a spare 30-40 thousand US dollars? go to the UK, get a FDSc/BHSc (Paramedic) and work somewhere progressive

1) No 2) No 3) None 4) Lots 5) Some secondary arrests (hypothermia, advanced pregnancy and certian overdoses only)

Our Paramedic (ILS) students undertake over 1,200 hours of intergrated clinical praxis and exposure during the three years of thier degree ranging from the fundamentals in Year 1 with the Patient Transfer Service to Year 3 where you are assigned to an Intensive Care Paramedic ambulance and expected to be a reasoned, functioning member of the crew under clinical supervision able to critically think and apply cognitive knowledge dexteriously with recall to appropriate clinical oversight if necessary. The clinical component covers a range of in hospital, ambulance and community health settings aimed at reinforcing theoretical concepts and creating a well rounded, thinking, critically reflective healthcare provider. During such time it would not be uncommon for a student to strt several hundred IVs, administer a range of medication and be presented with a wide variety of clinical scenarios.

Increased education; in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the UK and South Africa you require at least a University degree and often Graduate degrees to work on the ambulance.

Hyperkalemia should show on a 12 lead ECG if you have such capability.

I cannot but help wonder if this ambulance wil be staffed by the same people who bought me a drink at that bar in Mexico ..... its just no fun waking up in a bathtub of ice thats for sure!

I forgot heart failure can produce a wheeze that sounds like asthma ....perhaps its not so simple after all!

Scoop stretchers are friggin awesome, long board are old school, throw them away!

It's very simple, either - the chest pain is of cardiac etiology or you are highly suspicious that it is of cardiac origin, or - it's a side effect of the salbutamol and nothing to worry about In theory positive chrono and inotropic effect and myocardial oxygen defecit could be possible due to the beta dernergic properties of the salbutamol but its probably not likely.

The idea of ambo's being let loose with etomidate/propofol scares the shit out of me .... we use fentanyl + ketamine in induction dosing for RSI

Oxygenation and ventilation are not the same thing. Blindly squeezing the bag is not the way to go, think about each breath. Squeeze the bag and in your mind say "release, release, release" and then squeeze the bag again. Chest compressions should never be paused, well thats obviously not possible, so as little as possible and not for ventilation.

See now your address comes up on the screen in the ambulance; not that 1) Kiwi can read it or 2) he knows how to get there coz the text in the map book it too small for him to read or 3) he should be driving there anyway .....

What not to do? Don't let that Kiwi guy in your house if he is in a fluro jacket with "AMBULANCE" written on it and a Thomas Pack slung over his shoulder ....

a parent of a sick told me she had no panadol to give her (tylenol) because the police took it some guy who tried to jump a retaining wall on his bike despite being grossly intoxicated

Our Ambulance Officers have been leaving people at home for thirty years Get with the program

Sorry Kiwi is too busy playing blackjack at the Circus in Reno Vegas blows, too damn hot

We use ketamine at both low doses (10-20mg) for analgesia and high doses for anaesthesia/RSI (1.5mg/kg)

Ketamine is too advanced for the US mate, they are stuck in 1990 with a couple mg of morphine that they have to ring up on the ambo phone for. Bloody hell even the UK aren't using it outside of HEMS which is staffed with a Reg or Consultant physician who is most-often an ER Doc or an Anaesthetist. We have been using it for the last 5 years and its amazing I just love the stuff to bits its totally freaking sweet. Useless Australians are using it but its a bit of a shit storm because well, they want to get paid more for doing it, bah HTFU I say.

That thing is the CombiCarrier II which is what we use, we threw out spine boards years ago

Breat is what you do at night

Kiwi proclaims the NREMT questions are designed for the lowest common denominator patch factory Parathinktheyare, therefore do not read into the question. For example the question asks what to do for patient who is having shortness of breat a. manually ventilate them b. give high flow oxygen c. call medical control d. attatch AED The answer is B Cognitive knowledge is not being tested, behaviourist reaction to stimuli is.

Here we are all "Ambulance Officers" despite the fact we have Technicians, Paramedics and Intensive Care Paramedics ... go figure