JTpaintball70

This. And if you can find a community college with concurrent enrollment, you can get HS and college credit for some of those classes like A&P 1 and 2. It will also give you a solid foundation for advancing out of the first aid (basic) stage and onto a real career like nursing

Hence a good argument for getting rid of the EMS moniker. And the BLS/ALS bullshit

Wow... Just wow... Ok, I do agree with you about fire needing to get the hell out of EMS. But not about anything else. You're focusing all on skills, which I know is the basis of this thread, but not going into education. I'm a fan of making medic the entry level with a CC level that is a BS degree'd provider. An AAS medic might have the knowledge to start to understand what's going on with the basic patients, but if we want to grow as a profession we need to stop the emergency only mindset and actually concentrate on those 'bs calls'. We can do a whole lot more good if we became a real branch of medicine instead of the bastard step child of both medicine and public safety. If we started working community health as a full provider, we could help bring down the clog that ERs all over the country have. Look at Oz and NZ, those countries are closer to what we should be. But of course, none of this can happen without us getting our asses in gear and standardizing EMS throughout the country. None of this volly vs paid vs private bullshit. None of this glorified boy scout (basic) vs ALS level arguments. We need to pull our heads out of our asses and look at it as medicine. Oh, and BTW soem of the best medics I've worked with never spent a day in the field as a basic. They concentrated on their education and being the best at patient care. Not mastering a few skills you could teach a monkey to do.

I was up front from the beginning at the ambulance company and hospital I work at. They were willing to work with me to find a schedule that fit (friday night + weekend nights). Although I'd say skip medic and go straight to RN

Sounds like a good thing to happen. Fire has no place running medical. Now if they'll stop sending the engines to every medical call, that would be good

RIP my friends. The medic on board was one I've dealt with several times on fixed http://firefighterclosecalls.com/fullstory.php?101528

Apparently SW Medevac lost a bird on a training exercise over McGregor Range near Ft. Bliss. It sounds like it was taking part in a military training. http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_14344903 No official word on crew or pt condition or if they had a pt. One of the comments says that three fatalities of the crew... Prayers go out to them, I've dealt with the SW base several times when working IFT.

National curriculum yes, but NM has always thumbed it's nose at anything national. I would like to see NG/OG and Foles on all rigs not just some.

Some of those rural medics are actually allowed to do them.

There's a rumor that the urban areas of the state might lose it, but they want to keep it for a lot of the really rural areas that we have. With a transport time of well over an hour you can actually see a little benefit from Lasix.

I'd much rather have a LEO than a local yokel volunteer hosemonkey drive my bus (and around here at the private country service I PRN with, it's required to not let fire drive the bus, which I'm fully agreed with)

I'm glad I could help point you towards it My comment is still the last one on there too

I read something similar in Peter Canning's blog... I'll try to find it when I get home in the morning

That was awesome! And if you switched the accent for a Spanish one, it would represent SNFs here perfectly

Seriously? A three year old thread has been necro'd. Although to answer, most services here still use either all needled or combo lines

Not impressed with the iPad at all. Nothing to make me want to go from my iTouch to it. I think I'll stay with the netbook I have and then pick up a Nook or Kindle. Or buy one of these: http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/ if I want touchscreen bad enough

Cable at my apt, T1 at the hospital work, when I pick up ambulance shifts it's a Sprint aircard or finding some WiFi someplace

It does look bulkier than my RX7, but doesn't look too much moreso than a lot of the modular helmets on the market. I'd like to try one while wearing my leathers and see if it's bulky enough to interfere with the aerohump on the back.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10442326-1.html What do ya'll think about this? I would love to see some studies done on it, but I'm not sure how it will catch on with riders

Another thing to ask is if they're fans of the 'No-Neck for everyone' fan club

No it;s not uncommon... Ever patient I board gets foam head-blocks as part of the stabilization. I've never seen a fully immobilized pt brought to any ER locally without those blocks.

Hey it does make me feel better though

It might take some of the load off of our hospitals, but I know my ED still sees just as many drunks, if not more lately, than normal. I'll talk to some of our bus crews and find out when they are closed down... The first shot they showed said MATS and they tend to not want to take anyone who is obtunded at all. Maybe this MOTU will be setup better for that type of pt.

This is a completely different issue altogether. This is one of the times that you do what it takes to protect your patient.

This sounds a lot like what our EMT-Ps that work for the local trauma center are allowed to do, minus they're not on trucks anymore. While working ED they are allowed to do most suturing, administer a range of meds, start lines (U/S lines as well), splint, etc. Combining that into someone working the street in a rural area or even a smaller metro area would be an incredible idea. But here in the US we run into the problem of needing more education than is the current standard to make it work. I'd be all for it though