HERBIE1

The true secret of the test? Read carefully, decide what you THINK they're asking YOU and then discard that and give the answer that you believe your retarded great dane would give...you'll be golden. Dammit, Dwayne! Spit my Diet Pepsi all over my lap top. You better hope my keyboard doesn't get gummed up or you are getting a bill...

Good, solid test taking advice. I think too often people get tripped up when they read too much into exams- especially these national types. As you say, do not assume anything more than is given in the question. It's easy to overthink these things- you have a head full of facts, figures, and knowledge, and you need to know how to parse it down and properly apply that data to the questions. Unless it's an essay type. stick with the facts presented. Test taking for standardized and national test exams really is in many ways an art- generally different than the exams and quizzes you take to get you to that point.

Welcome to the city! Way cool- South Africa. Never been, and likely will never get the chance to visit. Enjoy your stay, jump in and get involved. The closest I get to South Africa is a friend who spent her early years in Scotland, moved to South Africa for about 20 years, and now lives here. She has the most interesting accent you ever heard. LOL

Yep. I've had people tell me I can't cut their leather jackets(especially bikers), their brand new coat/shirt/pants.etc. Document, document, document. So I say something to the effect of- "I'll save your jacket if you sign this to verify you are willing to trade an unseen and potentially fatal injury for your article of clothing." Even with a statement like that, many people are perfectly OK with such a choice. \\Shrugs..

What I find ironic is the fact the legislators will not be affected by a shut down, yet without a special exemption for the Department of Defense our soldiers would not be paid. Disgusting. I submit that if the politicians may not receive a check, this situation would be resolved- immediately. And they wonder why Congressional approval ratings are the in the single digits?

LMAO Aw come on Dwayne- grow a pair! Some of us here really understand and appreciate "smart ass"...

In a significant MVC, I agree with you, but... Sounds great on paper, but in a minor MVC with a dented bumper and someone is C/O neck pain, are you going to be grabbing at their crotch to make sure you do a "thorough" assessment? Good luck with that. I don't know about you, but I do not strip someone nekid because they have an isolated hand injury.

Good for you. Sounds like you are doing everything you can do, given the circumstances. Good luck.

Gotta love the job, eh? In the demographic portion of our run report(electronic, of course) we have choices of male, female, and unknown. It's not too often we need to check that box, but it does happen- especially if the person has a gender neutral name such as Chris or Pat. Most of the time their gender is irrelevant to patient care, but sometimes it can make for an awkward moment. We have a well know area of our city where a significant portion of the population is gay. I've dealt with transgendered, transvestites, women who are more masculine than I am, guys dressed as women who swear they were doing this as a "dare", and every other conceivable story. Quite entertaining, actually. LOL

Define "unjustified". We only use IO's on patients in extremis, not for a routine ALS hook up, so if someone decides to use an IO for a simple, stable abdominal pain patient, for example, then yes, they could and should be disciplined for that. Losing their jobs over such an error? No way. Unless I am missing something, methinks you are trolling. .

First, thanks for your service. Talk to the state that holds your license. Because of your service, you may qualify for an exemption or an extension to get your con-ed hours up to date, take quick refresher, do some ER time, etc. Explain your situation, and see if they can make an exception and/or help you out. I'm quite sure you are not the first to experience this problem, so there must be some mechanism in place to accommodate our service people.

Been wondering what ever happened with the legal issues. Any word on a resolution of the situation?

Welcome. The board is what you make it. Many simply lurk and do not contribute. I guess you can pick up some good info that way, but to me, participating is the way to get the most of your on line experience here. Many points of view, many opinions, and perspectives from all over the world are expressed here. Truly a unique experience. I've been doing this a long time- around 30 years, and I still pick up information, tricks, and ideas here.

I agree there are homegrown "terrorists" of every ilk. Some are anarchists, some are angry about some political agenda, and some are simply crazy. Their "causes" may change over the years, but we will always have our "in house" nut jobs. No one is advocating hysteria, but I certainly do not like a denial of a potential threat. I also think much of this is politically motivated. One side tells us there is a monster around every corner, while the other side tells us the monsters don't even exist. The truth is somewhere in the middle, but personally I prefer to err on the side of caution. Too much at stake.

I don't see a real problem with your ideas- except that I wonder how much money they would actually raise or save. Just a note though- you mentioned there are ways of raising money without raising taxes, yet most of your proposals are tax increases of some type. What a couple of your ideas DO say is that we need to shift gears in terms of how we look at things. Should there be a safety net available for those who need it? Absolutely. Should we reconsider what the qualifications are for that assistance? ABSOLUTELY. It should be something of a last resort, and just enough to get by. If someone is able to live their entire life on the public dime-often passing that idea to their offspring, then barring any physical or mental disability that would preclude them from being able to support themselves, then there is NO WAY someone should be able to collect cradle to grave assistance. Public works projects- push a broom, grab a paint brush, mop or a broom, provide day care or child care, be trained as a laborer- ANYTHING to work for their aid. The hope would be that they could learn a skill, a trade, or at the very least gain enough self respect to appreciate earning a paycheck for an honest day's work. Needed work would get done, it would stimulate the economy, provide jobs, and lessen the need for entitlements. That said, the major obstacle would be the public and private sector unions that control many of these entry level jobs. To be sure, there are no easy solutions, but it's clear the current system is not working, and there needs to be a drastic change in our mentality before it's too late.

Well, cuts need to be made, and entitlement programs do eat up a major portion of our spending. Are there other places that we should cut first? Of course, but this is a political issue more than a financial one. Suggesting cuts for things like medicare, welfare programs was often political suicide in the past. These days, times are different and drastic measures need to be taken. Do I think there are plenty of places that could be cut before we start axing entitlements? Sure, but I also think those cuts will probably not be enough. I question the wisdom of sending billions overseas for conflicts and reasons that do not directly impact our country. Humanitarian aid is nice, but at what cost? We have plenty of people here in dire circumstances and before we send hundreds of millions to a place like Libya for humanitarian reasons, I'm thinking we need to worry about our problems here first. Suspend our idea of solving the world's problems- at least until we can get a handle on our own problems here. Isn't our government's first priority to take care of US citizens?

The information you learned was in the context of being a health care provider, and was revealed to you by the patient. You did not learn it from their medical records or from 3rd hand information. As such, it would violate no confidence or HIPAA law to inform the staff what you have learned. You mentioned the person is noncompliant with their medications, so at the very least you should bring up that fact to someone in authority who can do something about it. It may simply be a case of someone who is tired of dealing with their various illnesses, advancing age, etc, and they realize their condition may not significantly improve. Maybe it's a simple medication adjustment. Maybe a social service/therapist issue. Either way, I would certainly make the notifications. Sadly, depression in those who have lost a long time spouse is common. Some can move on, while others never fully recover. Tough situation.

Obviously the notion of standards has changed over the years. As noted, what was considered risque back in the 50's is now quaint, and barely PG. I think the disparity of female vs male nudity is a gender bias, but think about classic art. The female body has always been considered to be a form of natural beauty. I agree that for the most part, men do control movies and TV shows, so the inclination would seem to be to favor nudity of women vs men. That said, making movies or TV shows is all about money, and if there was a "demand" for more male nudity, it would happen. I simply think the naked female form is more acceptable,and more aesthetically pleasing to most people- even many women. I would also argue that because of the differences in what men and women find arousing and erotic, men are more visual, vs the more cerebral/emotional likes of women. Think pornography here. The vast majority of women are not really aroused by porn to the extent that men are. I've had this conversation with staunchly heterosexual women who say that given a choice between the 2, they would much prefer seeing female nudity vs that of a man. Women can appreciate a beautiful figure of someone of their own sex much more readily than a man.

Just one of the many dangers associated with such incidents. Of the countless crashes I've dealt with, I have never seen an inadvertent airbag deployment, but that is not to say they do not happen. This video is proof of that. As the narrator said, it could have been a short, an accidental trip by cutting a wire, a malfunction- who knows? In a serious crash, clearly the first step needs to be disconnecting the battery, all the while remaining vigilant of the possibility this could happen. .

I remember seeing this before, but it bears repeating. As the memories of 9/11 fade for many, I think we need to be reminded that lunatics are still all around us. We are still in danger, and we will always be in danger from people who hate us simply for the freedoms we enjoy. There are many weak minded people like this guy who are lost, looking for direction and a cause, and fringe and lunatic groups are more than eager to provide a cause for them. We will never change the minds of people like this, but we can certainly minimize their impact on a civilized society. Hunt them down, punish them, destroy their networks, and punish anyone who supports their causes. We need to remain vigilant- they operate on a different time table than we do. Remember the sleeper communist agents from the cold war? They were put in place to assimilate into our society- just waiting for the proper time to execute some plan. Many of the modern day terrorists have similar plans, so our fight will never be done.

Inflammatory is not the same as libelous or slanderous. I see nothing here that even remotely rises to that level.

I assumed this was an article from "The Onion", but I never even saw the fine print at the bottom of the page. Don't feel too bad, Dwayne-apparently my powers of observation are pretty dim.

Welcome to the city. I went the opposite direction as you are pursuing. Out of HS, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had a friend who was just finishing up his RT training and suggested I give it a try. I did, fell in love with medicine, and after a year abandoned the RT programs and went pre med. Took my EMT- A (now called EMTB) as an elective, and to make a long story short, finished my BA, and then continued on to my paramedic license. My journey began back in 1980 and I'm still going. Good luck on your future..

Something does not add up here. Why did the officer feel the need to run the plates? Based on the information given, as was suggested, I would suspect they were indeed looking for smugglers- illegals or drugs. They probably had an alert, had some intel that said ambulances could be used in such a manner. Is it a HIPAA violation? I'm no lawyer, but I disagree that the officers are not entitled to see PHI- given the appropriate circumstances. Example- If you have someone in critical condition, they may be a victim of or responsible for a violent crime. The officer may need to know mechanism of injury, type of injury(ie is it GSW or blunt force trauma) Is the patient expected to live? Any possible evidence you may need to preserve if possible? Can the patient give a quick description of their attacker or any witnesses? Why or why not? These things and more determine how they may need to proceed with their investigation. Do they need to call out detectives, a supervisor, evidence technicians, major accident investigators, more officers to canvass the area for witnesses, conduct a search, secure an area for a possible dangerous person, etc? You may indeed need to tell an officer that the patient is too critical to respond to questions, and in my experience, I have never had an officer challenge me on that. I'm all about protecting the rights of patients, but we also do not operate in a vacuum. Other agencies may depend on not only our cooperation, but our discretion, to effectively do their jobs. Law enforcement is not the general public, and unless a cop is trying to satisfy some morbid/inappropriate curiosity about a patient, what possible harm could come from agreeing to verify you are indeed transporting a legitimate patient? Is the officer taking notes on the patient's medical condition? Are they asking you or the patient(I know, in this case the patient was incompetent) inappropriate questions? I would also hazard a guess that laws concerning these things can vary from location to location. I'd love to hear from any LEO's or lawyers about this to get a definitive answer. Rules are fine, but you also need to temper adherence to those rules with common sense. To me, this is no different than some of the creative solutions we must come up with to best serve our patients, and not every one of them may follow the letter of the law or be in strict compliance with our policies, procedures, or standing orders.

Point taken- I apologize. No offense intended, but my point remains.