crotchitymedic1986

No, I am in my 40s, when i said we, I was implying we black people. You do remember the civil rights movement , the MLK assasination, voting rights, birmingham, selma ? But lets not dwell in the past, my original question still stands, "How many of you currently have a black supervisor at work" ? I think we are still at less than 10 in a forum of 1000s of EMS professionals that cover multiple countries. An industry whose management force is 99% white male couldnt possibly be due to racism, it must be that blacks just dont try hard enough. Please. I dont know why whites failed your test, but my guess would be some were probably lower middle class, and face some of the same challenges that blacks have faced. A poor rural white school in Mississippi is not much different than a poor black inner-city school in the northeast. The only difference is the poor white folks usually have a successful relative who can give them a job they are not qualified for.

You miss the key point, the field is not level. If the field were level, I would have no problem with it. When you whites finally let us start attending your schools and universities just 40-50 years ago, the field began to level, for a few minorities. But you have to realize that racism still prevented us from getting good jobs, which relegated us to the inner city projects and worst public schools possible. Go to any innercity school in downtown detriot and talk with my young brethren --- then go to your average white school in suburbia, and tell me that the educational process is fair and equal.

OK, will try once again: 1. Standardized test are not objective, nor are they color or lower-socio-economically blind. As mentioned in a previous thread, a question like "saucer is to plate as wine goblet is to ________ ?" seems to be a fair question, unless you were a poor minority that has never seen a saucer or a wine goblet. 2. The national registry test did "fail" some unqualified applicants, but it also gave license to many who are not qualified. I would emotionally argue that the medics that passed their respective state tests in the 80s are far superior to medics that pass national registry today, but I can not back that up with fact. 3. I said base it on job performance, not supervisor opinion. If you are worth promoting, you should have a concrete record of accomplishment that you can point to. Unfortunately in EMS/Fire, we are typically too lazy (all races) to do any extracurricular projects until the promotional exam is mentioned, so all supervisors have to judge you on is a single "test" score. 4. I agree that I would rather not have incompetent supervisors, but I am sure you have also had supervisors who were great medics or firemen but were horrible managers. In your world can an EMT-I or Fireman supervise Paramedics ? Many departments have done this for years, and the EMT or non-medic obviously could not pass a Paramedic skills test -- so how do they manage ? Just because you know human anatomy and physiology backwards and forewards does not mean you can lead people. 5. I agree that the best person should be promoted regardless of age, sex, or race, but the current system in most departments discriminates against those of a lower socio-economic background (all races).

George Bush graduated from Harvard --- nuff said. Who said anything about personal opinions ? I suggested that each candidate be judged on his/her prior performance. Leaders do not need to have a title to be leaders --- leadership is action. Those who have been leading in the months/years prior to the announcement of the racist written exam, should be promoted. I have no problem with a written test being part of the criteria, I just don't think it should be the only factor. A good example of this in our industry: If you had been around in EMS 20 years ago, you would remember that the National Registry Exam was not the method of certification; each state had their own test. When states transitioned to the National Registry Test (which was harder), the failure rate increased dramatically. By your arguement and/or method, we should not have any substandard Paramedics in the field, as this test should have weeded them out -- but just like with the promotional exam, the test does not indicate their ability to be a good medic --- nor does a promotional exam prove ones worth as an officer.

Regardless of who was the first to graduate college in your family, your family had access to education since this country was founded. My ancestors were not afforded that opportunity, thanks to your ancestors. As far as the Harvard versus the Grenada doctor, statistically the harvard doctors may be smarter as a group, but that does not mean that every individual harvard doctor is better or smarter. Which is the problem with your logic on promotional exams. Just because the whites have better scores on a written test regarding job knowledge does not necessarily mean they will be great supervisors. I would argue that the things that are often tested, are the things that a manager needs the least knowledge in. Most employees are counseled for policy violations, not patient care or firefighting issues (when was the last time you were written up because you couldnt do a friction-loss equation ?) Racism is alive and well -- if you dont believe me just look at this weeks events --- Compare the death of Elvis to the death of Jackson. Both were depressed, drug addicted, child molesters, who destroyed their own bodies, lived weird secluded lives, and basically committed slow suicides. The white guy is a hero, complete with postage stamps of his likeness and a shrine that draws millions of visitors each year; the black guy is a freak. But you guys arent racist.

Oh, where to begin ? I am glad your great-great-great-grandfather and every male descendent in your family was a firefighter. My great-great-great granfather or mother for that matter probably would have loved to have been a firefighter, but blacks were not allowed to enter the profession until the 60's (but we arent disadvantaged that every white male firefighter's son and nephew gets hired regardless of their ability because granddaddy worked there). I repeat again, you cant expect a race of people that have only been in the educational system of this country for 30-40 years (as a whole group - not individually) to compete with a race of people who have hundreds of years of education in their family. As far as promotional tests, I am for dropping them. Why not just promote the best employee ? Written tests were created for the sole purpose of suppressing minority candidates. So a white guy makes a 90 on the test and the black guy makes an 85, are you telling me that in and of itself makes the white candidate better ? If you must have a test (especially in the fire department) why not have a written, practical, oral, and a review of the past year's performance (how often they called out or were late, what special projects or committees have they served on). And if you must "grade" us, we should have an extra 10 points added to our score, for doing all of the work all year long while you white guys are running your side business on fire department time for most of the shift.

What time are youall burning the cross ? You guys seem to forget that the last time we discussed this topic, I asked a very simple question : I asked everyone who had a black supervisor in EMS to speak up, funny, no one ever spoke up. But there isnt any racism in EMS, except for those whites who felt oppressed because they didnt get a promotion. Please enjoy your win over minorities again. As stated before, you can keep the white hoods, we african americans just wanted to wear the white shirt once !

The problem with your premise is that you assume all ambulances, emts, paramedics, and systems are the same, and interchangeable. Are all cars the same; is a kia as good as a lexus ? both are cars that will get you from point a to point b, but if your life depended on it, which car would you choose ? So just because private company ABC has a closer ambulance, does that make it the best to send ? Do they have the same level of equipment as the local 911 provider, do they have the experience and expertise of the 911 provider, do they have the same level of investment, insurance, and employee training ? Now if you took a geographic region or state, and said all ambulance services and 911 services will have the same type of vehicle, the same insurance, the same training program, the same equipment list, the same protocols, and staffed at the same level, I might agree that the closest ambulance should run the call.

chbar raised a good point. I once almost called a rhythm 3rd degree which was really 2nd type 1, but the pacemaker was firing so no beat would drop (pacemaker spike not discernable in rhythm). I think what we are seeing as Ps are actually Ps, the rhythm is to regular for fib. Unless the pacemaker spike is not discernable here, i would say this in not wenkebach. In one of the strips, you can measure a p at the top of every T wave (lead 3), but in other strips the p waves have no correlation with the QRS, so I think the patient is going back and forth between 2nd type 2 and 3rd degree.

Just plain old Atrial Fib, what you are seeing as possible p's do not measure out. A longer strip could be useful to ensure that it is irregularly irregular throughout

I dont think there is a magical formula that fits every department, you have to customize it to your needs. The first question I would ask is why a 24/48 ? If you are an existing service, you could probably staff a 10-12 hour unit instead of a 24. Better yet, for the price of a 24, you could staff "2" 12s during peak hours. So first you need to look at your call volume, track it over the last 90 days or so, specifically looking at the times of day and days of week you frequently are "out of ambulances". Once you have that data, you can better decide how you should staff. If you are a govt agency that does not allow part-time folks, then I would staff atleast one extra person for every 4-6 trucks you are running (more if you have a kelly/liberty day that requires one or more people to be off every single shift). Without knowing your call volume, number of existing trucks, and frequency of paid-time-off usage, it would be hard to give you further advice.

May Numbers: Number of accidents 84 EMS Personnel Injured: 85 EMS Personnel Killed: 0 Patient Injured: 16 Patient Killed: 4 Passenger in Amb injured 1 Passenger in Amb killed: 2 Other Vehicle Injured: 52 Other Vehicle Killed: 11

1mg/kg benadryl always worked for me

Dont be so quick to judge, I experienced one of these. Female ejected in interstate accident, I arrived as commander shortly after first ambulance. Female was apneic, pulseless, crew had triaged her as dead and moved on to the others. I noted her color was just too good, and rechecked a pulse, didnt find one -- asked crew to put a monitor on her, she had a sinus brady at 30-40, still couldnt feel her pulse, but decided to work her; got her rate and pressure up, she died the next day at the trauma center. Would she have come back to life when the coroner jostled her body about, maybe she would have been dead-dead a few minutes later -- who knows ?

You should always treat the patient, not the monitor. I worked as holter monitor tech as one of my part-time jobs and I can attest that there are many people walking this earth who have the ugliest complete heart blocks, mutliple runs of vtach, AV dissassociation, 1000s of beats of ventricular ectopy, even 3-4 second pauses who are walking the earth symptom free every day. Many times, due to their underlying health or age, cardiologists choose not to treat it aggressively. Often times, their only symptom was "feeling tired" or had some unexplained symptoms that no other test could provide a diagnosis for, so the doc throws a holter monitor on them for 48 hours and sees what happens. These are very good strips; the kind that if you showed them to 10 cardiologists, you would probably get 8 different interpretations. Good job, keep it up.

It is not ventricular, look at AVF

I started with SOAP and transitioned to SOTC. Alot of people I know preferred CHART (I think stands for complaint, history, assessment, forgot what R stood for, and treatment) Example: S) Arrived to find 14 year old female who stated she accidentally cut her hand with a kitchen knife. No hx, no meds, NKDA, last known tetanus shot 4 years ago. Pt has no other complaints. (subjective- what pt said). O) Patient has 4 inch suturable laceration to left palm, bleeding controlled by first responders, patient able to move all fingers, no other visible injury. Knife was a butcher knife with 8 inch blade, secured by PD. (objective - what i saw) All v/s stable, pt in no obvious distress. Tx) Bandaged wound, transported to xyz hospital per parent request (put that in there for spenac) (Tx - treatment rendered) C) Rechecked circulation, no changes enroute (changes that occured enroute).

Not V-tach, SVT with aberrancy and BBB

The Hustle by van mccoy What is the nickname for your genetalia

Make your own personal copy of both if you do not have a palm or phone that will allow you to store the text and keep them with you until you have them memorized. Doctors use all kinds of books and reference material, no reason you cant keep some on your truck. Of course it may not be comforting for your patient to see you using a book for reference.

Third degree with BBB.

sorry to hear that -- remember it is not what you know, but who you know when it comes to a job search. Call everyone you have ever known, and see if they, a friend of theirs, or a relative of theirs can hook you up

Here are my suggestions: 1. Figure out why you can't pass chemistry, is it you or the teacher ? If it is you, you need to fix that as Chemistry is not the only hard class you will encounter going forward. If it is the teacher, take it at another college or online, and get credit for it that way. 2. Do a little investigating to see if you really like either of these professions. Go to a small rural hospital and see if you can tag along with an RT for a little while (bigger hospitals may not allow this). If you can not, atleast go talk to some RTs/Nurses/ Rad Techs/Whoever. Same for EMS, go third-ride on an ambulance for a few shifts, or atleast visit with your local medics. Since you mentioned flight medic, you should probably spend some time with them too. 3. You can get all the degrees you want, but you are not getting on any helicopter ambulance until you have some field experience. So you really need to do Step 2, and figure out if it is worth the years in school and years in the field it will take to get your dream job. If flight medic is your goal, than you will also need to take a critical care medic course at some point.

I disagree, most promotional tests are very secretive, and you may or may not have access to materials to study for it, since there is usually not a single manual/book that is used. Yes, you should have on the job knowledge, but as you are aware that will vary by shift leadership. One station may have a younger Captain that values education, while another may have a Captain who could care less about studying friction rates and gpm water problems. It could vary from station to station and shift to shift. You also have call volume to consider, the busier station, the less time there is for education versus the slower stations. But just because these guys belong to the same department, does not ensure that every candidate had the same study material, or opportunities. Then you have the buddy system: I remember a Driver Engineer that got promoted to Captain shortly after he erected a fence around one of the new stations for free (his side business was a fence company). But of course no one does that anymore. If i gave a national registry written test to everyone at your company today, can you guarantee me that they would all make > 90% ? No, you can't, but they all have access to the books, dont they ? P.S. Still waiting for everyone to step up and say YES we have "x" number of african american supervisors at our EMS Department. Surely all of you have atleast "1" AA supervisor ? But my guess is that you have not spoken up because you do not want to admit that ugly truth. Apparantly all black ems professionals are lazy, and can not pass a test nation-wide. Or could it be for another reason ? We only asked to wear your white shirts, we didnt ask to wear the white hood.

no but i will research it