Arctickat

Considering that medical information is private and confidential, there is no legal requirement for you to divulge this information on any application for employment. The worst that could happen is that your employer would fire you for lying on your application if there is a question there. Hell, half the people in EMS have mood disorders, the other half are just plain nuts. Except for Kiwi of course...he's a chocolate covered cherry.

Fixed that. My slaves know who their master is, we don't need no stinking rank insignia.

Not to mention this episode was an MCI, sometimes resources get spread pretty thin. The patient probably had the best qualified practitioner operating the BVM considering that there is only one Medic in the photo, and he was a supervisor. Disclaimer, I am not a Fire Truck Driver, I am a Field Medic in a Supervisory role. I'm poking fun at myself and those like me.

lol, yup, geez, Mike sounds like my twin. Making your own flash cards embeds the topic into your memory better because you have to concentrate harder to write than you do to read, so it gets committed to memory better.

Yup. Like Mike suggests, one step at a time. Any reputable flight company won't even look at a resume with less than 3 years of experience. Even then, they'll take the guy with 4 years over the guy with 3 years, and so on. You wouldn't want to work for one that's less than reputable...it's a good way to end up dead. When you're done medic school, you can start looking at additional training. Advanced pharmacology, Advanced Trauma Life Support (not ITLS - Advanced), aviation related training. I'm not sure what the States have, but in Canada we have a training program put on by the Canadian Aerospace Medicine and Aeromedical Transport Association which is pretty much compulsory. You could even become a pilot, it won't make much difference for employability options, but it makes you more attractive as a candidate because you'll understand the aviation aspect much better.

Wait for it.......

There, I fixed that for you. Welcome to the forums, feel free to join into a conversation that interests you, or start one of your own.

Not just tax payers. If my staff gets called out of their beds to go on a wild goose chase it costs me hundreds of dollars.

I track the numbers for the entire company. I use the Physio Control software suite. Since 1993 we've only done 127 codes, so it's not like it's a lot of work.

Not your greatest embarrassment though, huh?

Yup, white shirt is a medic supervisor, black shirts are LEOs, and the FFs are pretty obvious. Here's something more disturbing and illustrates the technology available today compared to 10 years ago.

Exactly. Our date format is dd/mm/yy, today is 12/6/12 for us. Rock_shoes did a nice job with the interpretation though. Being Canadian, we have to know the conversion format for the dates, as well as the metric system because the Yankees refuse to conform.

Kiwi and I don't follow the same date format as you Yankees. For us, Adenosine day isn't until Dec 6.

Good point Kiwi, it looks like there is a colourmetric CO2 device attached and the towel rolls in the absence of a spineboard would be used to prevent movement of the head and ensure the tube isn't dislodged. I don't see a spineboard, so I figured there was a tube in place, but you're right, we can't actually see it. The strap is the over the shoulder harness strap, too short to get caught in the wheels until they load the cot into the ambulance. There is no requirement for the medic to maintain constant contact with the airway, but he does have to be responsible for it. That's why I check it regularly if one of my PCPs is using the BVM. EMS and Fire work closely together, and I don't doubt that the medic and the FF are well known to one another. I'll hand off airway control to any person I believe is competent enough to care for it and recognise if a problem presents so I can move on to additional ALS treatments.

Yeah, I'm at 3% for 1 yr survival, 29% for less than 1 wk survival, and the rest didn't have a prolonged rosc.

As Bieber states, firefighters may not be ACP trained, (although I do know a few who are) but they are all PCP trained and well within their scope to use a BVM on an intubated patient. Additionally, this picture appears to be taken at Eaton Centre, and judging from the presence of uniforms there, likely from June 2 when 6 people were shot in the food court including a 13 year old in the head and a pregnant woman who went into labour. More were injured during the stampede and the gunman was still on the loose. In this situation, getting in and getting out quickly were likely at the top of everyone's list.

Google the Boss's name and find out any dirt you can use to coerce him into hiring you. Hire a PI to follow him/her around for a week or so and catch any compromising positions on film.

Yes, but what of Ruff's question?

Oh, I understand that Ruff. All I'm wondering is who reported it to the news, or how the news found out about it. Almost sounds like the crew might have tipped them off because they were bitter about driving around in a 20 year old ambulance.

Not really news. Lug nuts don't get re-torqued properly after changing skins and the lug nuts back off. That's why you're supposed to go back to the tire shop after a couple of hundred miles and get the nuts tightened again. Not even sure how this made the news considering there wasn't even a patient on board. We had this happen a few years ago when the back wheels started to fall off at highway speeds. Fortunately, the driver managed to stop before they fell off the axle. Funny thing is, the tow truck came to pick up the ambulance, and as it backed in to hook up....yeah, the wheels fell off of it too.

Good point Wendy, I suppose they can be taken by surprise and bite first, rattle later. Still, a defensive reaction though. Antivenin isn't in any Paramedic scope that I am familiar with. At best they might find an ER doc willing to ride out in the ambulance, but it would likely be a waste of time unless he's actually at the base.

Couple of things. Rattle Snakes never bite as the aggressor unless it's their prey . They use it as a defensive measure only. Since snakes warn before they bite, if this snake wasn't rattling at you and your kids, you weren't in any immediate danger. Wendy's recommendations are bang on, I can't add anything to it. I don't have an issue with your POV meeting the ambulance enroute, provided that the driver is able to keep his wits and isn't driving recklessly at a 100 miles an hour.

Greetings Jim, Thanks for joining. Feel free to jump into a conversation that interests you, or create one of your own.

Oh, I don't take kicking my patient in the chest with a horse lightly at all, drugs are my preference as well. With an Afib RVR I'd like to try meds, but we have nothing but Adenosine, and we know how well that works in such a case. Cardioversion would have been my only option.

I'm just gonna post this link here so I don't have to edit the crap out of a cut and paste. I consider chest pain to be unstable because the pain is likely caused by ischemia and time is muscle they say. I'd have cardioverted the guy in my story if he'd had pain.