SA_Medic

This is standard practice for my current employer. No argument will be entered into, if you do not comply with this you there will be no flight. Sa d day indeed seeing another headline like this.

Saw this the other day and have been thinking of writing this into my first aid courses. I mostly provide courses to men so it might have the desired memory effect.

With working off shore and remote like I am, it's a requirement for me to go through a physical and medical fitness test at least every twelve months. The physicial involved swimming, lifting, climbing and carrying various crap around. While the medical includes, hearing test, visual test, lung funtion, various bloods including HIV. I personally think introducing something similar as a employment requirement in South African EMS would be a step in the better direction.

Ahhh, gotta love the dark continent. We are always about 10 years behind the rest of you guys

Ditto.... Now if only I can find a way to show it to the gangbangers here and see if there's a change in attitude. Nothing scarier that treating a multiple GSW chest and having a firearm shoved into your neck with the holder saying "leave him, let him die".....

Wow, this thread suddenly exploded with comments. True to human nature and our individuality there's positive and negative comments. While I am not a fan of rap either, I say let the man do what he does. We all have our "coping" methods for this job and this might be his. Personally I think it's done really well, and good show to FDNY for supporting him in this. Had I tried (and I don't have an artistic bone in my body) to do something like this, no service within South Africa would be as forth coming as FDNY has been with Farooq. Yet another reason I will cherish my visit to FDNY a few years ago as one of my fondest memories.

I have no idea how relevant this will be, I got lost somewhere between Alba and BC. We in South Africa seem to be heading the same way you guys are heading. They are currently reviewing the education standards and has comeup with the two tier / qualification systemand simply dropping the "short" course system like a hot potato. With the short course system we effectively had three qualification. Basic Ambulance Assistant (a 120 hours course) which was followed by Ambulance Emergency Assistant (Intermediate, a 470 hour course)and then finally Critical Care Assistant (Advanced, a 1200 hour course) however before you can challenge the courses after Basic, you had to proove 2000 experiential hours between Basic and Intermediate. Likewise for the move between Intermediate and Advanced, acceptance to the course was also subject to passing an "entrance exam". A few years ago, they also introduced a 3 year university National Diploma which basically qualified you as a Rescue Paramedic. Now the powers that be has decided they want to move to said two tier system. This system will basically consist of the 2 year univeristy certificate called Emergency Care Technician (It fits in somewhere between the old AEA and CCA), which incidently is also provided over 2 years part time The next step would then be a B-Tech in Emergency Medical Care which, is yet again a university degree done over a period of 4 years. The interesting thing about this course though, would be the fact that they are going to teach primary healthcare and diagnostics. Included in the diagnostics section is x-ray interpretation. The chatter in the woods at the moment says they want to use these B-Tech people to work and run rural clinics where the doctors are not willing to work. Leaving the future of EMS in the hands of the ECT and the few B-Tech's that will remain as management. There is however a pending court case, since people like myself who followed the good old three tier system (6 if you include the rescue mudules) will have our qualifications dropped. Wether they will simply allow us to keep working as we are I don't know. What I do know is the fact that since the introduction of N-Dip the CCA's no longer get a promotion into a management position. These seem to be reserved for N-Dip and recently B-Tech's. We used to have the whole title protection laws making it illegal for anyone but a CCA to call themselves a Paramedic. Since the introduction of the N-Dip and B-Tech though, the fight started with regards to who the "real paramedics" are and the fight is still ongoing.

Arrgh, I've had a few times were I thought I might have given myself a cracked skull on those. Sadly we still have the dome fluorescent ones in the patient care compartments

You have got to love the field we are working in. Things like this would make for brilliant reading

Scary stuff. In South Africa you are required to have a drivers license in order to enter the profession. From time to time we (supervisors) simply arrive on a scene or call and do "quality" checks on the crew at hand. As supervisors or ALS providers we have rapid response vehicles making such checks easier. I had a 4year ILS member recently who had no idea how to check HGT when I asked her to please check it on a suspected hypoglycemic case. Her incompetence resulted in a disciplinary hearing with a final written warning. I also instituted remedial action for this and forced her to check HGT on all patients, no matter what the complaint. Later that week I noticed her running through the office taking HGT from everyone there. Suppose her job suddenly meant a whole lot to her. This dude needs to be sorted out real quick. If he lies so blatantly about vitals, he will easily lie to save his own ass while dropping you in the crapper like a hot potato. Sadly in life you are the most important person when it comes to watching your back, no matter how long you know someone, they won't do it as good as you can.

We've also been using the LED lights for some time now. It beats the old rotators in the dark hands down.

Fat I can live with, Lazy would be that I have to work with. In most cases, lazy and fat.