afd1307

Not medical, but my favorite by far... CHAOS--- Chief Has Arrived On Scene

One of the hospitals we do IFT's to has an office that faces the hospital entrance doors. The people in the office, the wonderful TEMSIS people, push a button as you walk by that opens the doors. I like this idea as it helps when carrying folders, patient belongings, etc.

New hires on my service are watched for the first 6 months via a probationary status. During the 6 months, the new hires are watched by their fellow crew members and reports are written by the more senior crew members as to the new hires abilities. After 6 months, the new hire is either hired or let go. Also, for each level a certain number of IV sticks, EKG rhythms, and other level specific tasks must be completed and signed off by their crew member. This system appears to work pretty good, but there is a lack of ems professionals in the area, so my service sometimes has to hold onto some people that they normally wouldn't, so that they can cover shifts.

My apologies for posting back to back, but now that I think about it, a side loading ambulance might be a little safer. Bare with me as I flesh this out. Pulling up to an accident scene on the side of the highway. The patient would be covered from traffic as long as the accident was on the same side as the door. This would get rid of the need to put the patient in the way of traffic. On MCI's the ambulances could park much closer together, taking up less space and allowing quicker load and go situations. The need for backing up would nearly be eliminated (except for backing into the station) as pulling up to the ambulance bay would not require backing up to the loading dock, but instead driving up to it. These are just a few things that I thought about. The interior is a completely different thing that could be discussed. Also, everything would need to be redesigned for it to work. Hindsight is always 20/20, as maybe we should have gone to side load ambulances at the start, yet were taking over hearses and cadillacs for ambulances before the boxes were introduced.

my service uses 2 brauns along with 2 pl customs. i love the brauns. i know this is a little off topic, but those sliding side doors are awesome. it also works well when going into narrow streets. if what my boss told me is correct, the sliding door was originally used in san francisco because of their narrow streets.

I volunteer on the campus rescue team at my college and one night I heard a call go out for the fire department to respnd to the dorm next to mine for fire watch because the fire alarms had been shut off because they weren't working properly. As an aside, no one responded, and the Resident Assistants had to do it. Can't say I blame the firefighters for not showing up at 11pm till 7am.

I say no because it all depends on what the ends are and what the means of getting there are. My answer would be a "depends" but that is not a choice.

Just took a CERT( Community Emergency Response Team) class for a volly department back home and they were talking about ambulances and what this CERT needs to call them. They mentioned calling them bus' as that is what the EMS professionals call them. I balked at this and was a little astonished that they would use this. I hate it when people call it a bus. I know this is gonna make people laugh at firemonkeys, but, in wildland firefighting, if you ask for a tanker in Maine you get a truck holding about 2 to 3 thousand gallons of water, if you ask for a tanker out west, you'll get an airplane... We need to have a specific name that we call everything to minimize any confusion. Asking for a bus on an MCI would get me a big yellow one not an ambulance.

The Globe gear posted a couple posts before me is what my service uses. We have dark blue jackets and pants, a blue helmet, extrication gloves, goggles, and fire fighter style boots. The boots are too bulky, I prefer my Rocky boots. We are required to wear the jacket or a vest on accident scenes, and all gear when in active extrication. When doing patient care inside the vehicle, I do not wear the extrication gloves, seems common sense to me. We do keep the patient in mind during extrication and will cover them with a heavy duty thick blanket or a fire fighters jacket that is not in active extrication activities. We keep our gear in the station as we do not do active patroling. We sit at the station and wait for calls to come in and grab the gear when needed. This works well for us as our crews change sometimes per call. I do think we should carry it on all calls just in case we come across something or get called to another call when back in service after a call.

I remember my first code like it was yesterday. I was effected by that for a couple days, but by far the worst, was working a code on my grandmother. That was by far the toughest thing to do. That was just over a month ago. For my sake, I wont go into the details, but has anyone else had an experience with working on a family member?

we deny it until they wont give in and then use the money to buy teddy bears for either kids that we transport or for christmas donations

thanks, you are so helpful.

the class is for my college. we have a group of students, around 200, that go on 'spring break alternative' trips across the country. basic first aid meaning what they can do as lay people to help out if something happens with their group. very minimal traumas, allergic reactions, etc. Im thinking less than an hour class. So very very basic.

Im not sure where to put this, figure this topic will do. Im teaching a very down and dirty basic first aid class tomorrow night. Is there anything you all can offer up for suggestions to include?

20$ in canada is last i checked pretty much 20$ in the U.S as far as exchange rates go. If thats not what you wanted to know, my apologies