Arctickat

I did that once whilst driving late at night to stay awake...it seems to work okay.

An innovative way to advertise, that's for sure.

Did I scare him off?

Welcome

Welcome

Welcome.....err help with what exactly?

Using a portable electronic device while driving is an automatic 6 day suspension without pay. It's also illegal here with a $280.00 fine. We have hands free systems in each ambulance for phone and radio operations.

Ohhh THAT DNP, sorry Kiwi, I thought you were asking about something else.

Whatayertalkinaboot? Doncha know yer own language?

Dodgy Nappy Pashers Whooo Rosetta Stone is paying off already!!

Just get me a life....chuckle. Edit: Actually, I just started playing with my new purchase. Because of you I got the 5 level lessons of Rosetta Stone, I'm gonna learn me a new language. Down Anda'nese!! Then maybe I can understand WTF you're talking about sometimes. What you type seems to be intelligent and thoughtful enough for me to make the effort to try and understand it, but I need to learn, just to be sure.

I've got a pretty simple phrase for situations like that. "It's not in my scope", then proceed to do something within my scope while someone takes over. It's not the responsibility of the nurse to know what our various scopes are, it was his to remain within them. Unfortunately this individual sounds like the type who has an Ego too big for his Character. I would be interested in knowing if he actually did anything that was beyond his scope though. Inserting a Combitube wasn't. Administration of anticonvulsants aren't. I'm not sure what meds he was calling for or if he actually physically gave them (or a nurse did). If he didn't actually give a medication that was outside of his scope, his comments could be considered as "suggestions". It would be unfortunate if he was actually able to defend his actions successfully because he didn't actually do anything beyond his scope....only acted like a pompous ass.

I don't believe that this is a case of the Practitioner being mistaken for a qualification that he was not, but more of him misrepresenting himself. I see no problem with everyone who has completed PCP, ACP, or CCP training being called a Paramedic, so long as they don't represent themselves as a higher level of training than they have. Look at doctors for example. They're all called doctors, but some have a higher degree of training than would others. If a General Practitioner were to conduct a heart transplant without taking the training to be a Cardiologist he would be misrepresenting himself, but both a GP and a Cardiologist are doctors. Why can't a PCP call himself a Paramedic when it is in his title? As to the PHd statement, this reminds me of the Paramedic Program in Edmonton 20 years ago. They had to replace the head of the program, who was also responsible for being the medical director for the students, therefore being a doctor was a requisite. 18 months after they hired the new program head the administration discovered she was not a medical doctor, but rather had a PHd. She was fired on the spot and the school had her charged with impersonating a physician. I heard a rumour though that the case was dismissed because the school actually didn't specify that she had to be a Medical Doctor....just a Doctor.

Okay, now pay close attention... Step 1. Left Click over your user name in the top right corner. Step 2. Left Click where it says "My Profile" Step 3. Hover your mouse over the location your Avatar would be located in your profile, then Left Click on "Change" when it appears. Step 4. A new popup window will appear, the following directions are for a file located on your computer. Left Click on the "Browse" button. Step 5. A file browser will open on your computer, locate the file you want for an Avatar, highlight it by Double Left Clicking on the file. The window will close and the path to your image will appear. Left Click on "Done". Your Avatar should be updated. The file you choose should be rather small, you may have to resize the image so that it will upload appropriately. Mine is 100 pixels X 100 Pixels.

Sure, I have no life and nothing better to do...give me an hour or so and I'll be right back with a step by step guide and pictures for your convenience.

Hmm, I see. I am assuming that the more referrals you get the larger your personal drop box becomes? I'll go sign up, but I'll be asking you for a favour one day soon.

Kinda like a Cloud drive?

I honestly couldn't believe my eyes, but I shouldn't have been surprised either. I was called out to standby at a structure fire yesterday and was stunned when my dash cam captured the following images. My apologies for the quality of the photos, the video tells a slightly better informed story. The GPS location has been deleted to protect the moronic. In this image we have our local fire chief who responded to the fire about 30 minutes later with a tanker truck. As his truck is off-loading to the pumper truck he leaves it unattended to speak with some firefighters in front of the house. Wearing only turnout gear, he strolls into the house. 28 seconds later he emerges from the house carrying a something under his arm. Lo and behold, it's a six pack of beer!!!! He passes the beer around to his crew and returns to his post on the tanker truck to monitor the off-load sipping his beer. Slightly over 2 minutes later the flames can be seen coming out the door he just came out of. I love my keystone fire department, they're soooo good for a laugh.

My apologies, I did not read through all of your posts to learn that information. I'm pretty sure you can change that to something more appropriate in your profile.

I'm beginning to see a troll like trend here... http://www.emtcity.c...h-this-patient/ Even an EMT student, which is what your profile claims, should know that a dislocated knee is a valid reason to call for an ambulance. It needs to be carefully immobilised and the distal circulatory system assessed for compromise because a dislocated knee can easily result in loss of circulation and loss of the limb within a few hours. Trying to pile into a car and get a ride to the hospital would be a stupid proposition at best, potentially life threatening at worst. Your "friend" is a moron. Now, to your actual question; Do I ever feel annoyed when someone calls an ambulance when they don't really need it. Yes, all the time, even if I do make money every time someone calls 911, I'd still prefer not to have to respond to a scene where someone's cat scratched them on the thumb and didn't even draw blood. Fortunately, I also have the ability to tell those idiots that they don't need an ambulance and they don't need a hospital.

No need, It's difficult to comprehend tone and inflection when reading text. Especially when the author is as inept at conveying such minutae.

It wasn't so much as meant to put them in their place as it was to poke fun at ourselves and maybe stimulate some thought at the same time. Most of the time I don't care if I'm called an ambulance driver or the ambulance guy, or anything else unless it's in an obviously derogatory manner. Much of the time I just have a light hearted response, like saying fire truck driver rather than firefighter, or police car driver rather than police officer.

Okay, here we go... Did you ever wake up in the morning from a dead sleep, right out of a dream, and have the tone of that dream set the tone for the rest of your day? It happens to me lots. I'll have a dream of spending a great time playing with my twins, wake from the dream and be in a great mood all day and everything just falls into place to make it even better...Well, not yesterday; I woke up and the last thing I remember is my dream of a fight with my ex wife. To make matters worse, I woke up right at the point that I was about to win that fight. (remember, it was a dream) That makes all the more frustrating. So, I throw my uniform on after my shower and my wife tells me I need to change my shirt. Big stain on the front of it. Shrug, no biggie, I'd do it after I have some breakfast and take out the trash. We're on 24 hour call from our homes here, so as I'm taking out the trash my radio goes off. Jump into my car and drive to the station to get the ambulance, call that we're on air and the dispatch location is just down the road for a 60 year old male with chest pain. We arrive at the house to find him on the sofa, alert and oriented, no palpable pulse and I can't hear his BP. Put him on the LP12 and it's VTach. The LP12 gets a pressure of 109/65. My options are Amiodarone or Cardioversion. I opt for Amiodarone because he is currently pain free, just pale and diaphoretic with slight dizziness. Regardless, I have to start an IV. After my second failed attempt I decide to transport him to the hospital 5 blocks away. On the way there I manage to get the line started, but no amiodarone yet we're at the hospital doors. Pressure is 113/76, HR 185, Sats are 98% on high flow. We go into emerg and the nursing staff start to evaluate him, I'm looking around like, WTF? Where's the doctor? Nurses do their assessment and decide they'd better go get the doctor, it's their protocol to conduct a patient assessment before they call for the doc. Two docs walk into the room and decide they're gonna cardiovert, at this I quietly suggest Amiodarone, since he's stable. They speak their foreign tongues to one another for a moment, then leave the room. I finish starting a second IV on the patient and go out to do my paper work only to find both docs with their noses buried in the ACLS manual. They decide to call a cardiologist to consult on a treatment plan. While on hold waiting for the cardiologist, the nurse comes in to inform them that the patient's BP is now 79/46. They thank her and sit on the phone while I'm thinking...yeah, now would be the time to cardiovert guys....Cardiologist comes on the phone, they give the history and cardioogist says yeah, you need to cardiovert, his BP is too low for Amiodarone. Docs hang up and tell me they're gonna cardiovert, (20 minutes after we came through the doors) . I'm thinking, no shit sherlock, you have to now. An excellent example of waiting for the patient to deteriorate to the point where you know what to do. Fast forward... I need to change my shirt, swap my partner out for a new one, and fill my coffee mug, I drive back to the office and someone parked their car across our driveway....pet peeve of mine. Fast Forward... About an hour down the road my partner turns on the siren and it sounds like a cat being put through a meat grinder, tail first. I'm thinking, great, I have to buy a new siren. 10 minutes later my Amiodorone infusion pump bites the dust. My power inverter is turned on, but the pump isn't getting power....I plug it into a different outlet and it starts to work again. Now I'm thinking "Great, gremlins moved from the siren to the inverter." I managed to get our patient to the CCU without much interruption on the IV pump, but had to get another pump in the hospital because our battery was dead. From this point on, the day actually improved...We took the unit to the local Demers depot and they determined that our conversion batteries were dead, thus a lack of power to the siren and the inverter when operating under a heavy load. During their investigation the technician asks me if my strobe lights were working. We do daily checks and I know they had been, so he pulls out the pictured fuse and shows me. Then he takes a closer look and the fuse is, in fact, fully intact and functional. After these repairs we go back to the hospital and pick up our other patient for his return trip which was when the aforementioned encounter occured. Really, it wasn't a bad day by any means, but it was one of those ones where you begin to wonder what's gonna kick you in the ass next. Today we got almost an inch of rain and I tripped into a pothole and did a faceplant on the street. I picked myself up and walked, covered in mud with a boot full of water to my car. As I drove home to change into clean clothes and get my spare boots all I could do was giggle...what else could I do.

I have a long and rambling story of my day today that I want to share with you, but I'm too beat to type it all down. I just wanted to share this one little bit before I head off to bed. As we're transporting our stable post Vtach patient to the CCU tertiary facility 250kms away we get notified of a patient being returned to our home hospital that we can bring back since we'll be empty. No biggie, we do it often. Dropped of our cardiac patient and went up to get our return and the conversation is thus: Nurse - "Oh, the Ambulance Guys are here" (my partner being a 22 year old female) Me - "Ambulance guys? Now days we're usually known as Paramedics" Other Nurse - "Don't mind her, it's been a long day, she really is excited to see you." Me - "That's okay, I know how hard you bed pan ladies work." (As I wink) Nurse - Dirty look, blushes and buries her nose in her paper work. Kinda like a few weeks ago...going to pick up a return patient again... Nurse - "Oh good, the ambulance is here." Me - (Ducking to the side and looking behind us) Whoa!! Where!!! (regaining my composure) Oh, I thought I was gonna get run over by a crazy ambulance driver or something." "Nope, no ambulance here, just us paramedics. We couldn't fit it into the elevator."