Dustdevil

Cool! I like those. http://www.prestigemedical.com/Item174.htm# Hopefully they have a retailer near you, because they don't sell online. And I searched my area code and found a few stores that haven't even existed in a few years.

:shock: Speaking of death...

Yeah, well I just know that a nice POA totally changes my disposition.

I can't get past this statement. Is he or is he not wearing a helmet? :?

Wrong. I could not care less if my partner is passionate. In fact, I'd rather she not be. Education and intelligence are the most important combination. Passion is nothing but intent. And intent does not translate to action. And WTF do you know about EMTs anyhow? What qualifies you to talk about the qualities of a good EMT in the U.S.? You're going to sit here and bust on us for not going to SA, which none of us are criticising, yet you think you are of such awesome EMS savvy that you can comment on EMS here without ever experiencing it yourself?

And this has what to do with anything we are talking about? Apparently, the ways of getting qualified in South Africa are as irrelevant to you as they are to the rest of us, since all you can do is make excuses for why you can't do them. Passion doesn't translate to practice. Every wanker I know is passionate about EMS. Passion is a good thing, but it is nothing unique. And until she actually acquires the educational foundation necessary to provide competent and professional medical care, passion and a dollar will buy her a cup of coffee. Apparently -- and not surprisingly -- you don't read so well, do you? Perhaps this is what keeps you from furthing your education? The "politics" of South African EMS is prejudiced against illiterates? You are not the only South African here. Luckily, we have some very intelligent and well respected SA medics here, so I know better than to think that you are typical of them. This is a good thing for the people of South Africa.

So what is your point? Just because there are a lot of people with first aid cards out there doesn't mean that EMS needs to dumb down to give them jobs. Who cares? Why should I or anybody else care what you do before paramedic school? It's irrelevant. You don't need it. You can get it during or after medic school. And if your school told you you need experience to be a good medic student, either they are lying to you or they are just clueless. Either way, it's a bad sign. You're missing the point completely. I don't want ANY basic, no matter how "good" (we still haven't even defined what a "good" basic is yet) s/he thinks s/he is, on my ambulance. And the vast majority of the time, that time on the ambulance as a basic does not give you a "good base" to work from. It gives you bad habits and incorrect notions that are hard to break, making the paramedic instructors' jobs harder. A "good base" would be about two years of college education prerequisites. If you're really interested in being the best medic you can be, then you'll be working on those prerequisites to establish a "good base," instead of playing ambulance driver for minimum wage, or worse yet... for free.

Meh... I'm not particularly fond of this one. When you start making exceptions and allowances for drama, you open the floodgates. My child is no more worthy of drama than my wife, parents, and grandparents, all of which I have spent considerably more time with than my kids. And considering that my parents and grandparents spent their lives giving to me, they have earned more respect than my children have. Don't give me drama at all. No exceptions.

Don't you mean "the farce?"

Empathetic communications is an elusive skill that is extremely important to our field. This does indeed make you valuable. Sometimes. But it doesn't make you as an EMT valuable. Unless this skill is something you and every other student was taught in your EMT school, then it is a personal skill, not an EMT skill. And I don't need a special EMT on my ambulance just for that once every 20 years autistic patient. I'd rather have a paramedic who could do the very same thing.

First of all, I am thousands of miles from the nearest "1st world country." All the blood, screaming, and shooting you see in the rest of your pseudo career is not likely to match what I have seen in the last year. Second of all, my family left South Africa because it was shyte. Apparently, yours is not quite as smart. Third of all, when I realised that my BLS training was very nearly useless in the grand scheme of EMS, I furthered my education rather than sitting around and whining about "politics." There are an awful lot of medics (real medics. Not EMRs who call themselves medics) in SA who manage to obtain higher education despite the politics. I guess you're simply not as good or smart as them, eh? Fourth of all, when I decided to be an EMS professional, I went to school and got a job in EMS. I didn't slap some lights on my POV and call myself a "company" to go wankering about as a hobby. You're throwing around a lot of accusations about people you know nothing about. And sadly, it appears you know as little about yourself as you know about us.

EMTs shouldn't be on the ambulance in the first place, much less getting paid for it.

Minus 5 for unapproved abbreviations. Piece Of Arse? :?

Sweet. That's awesome stuff, bro. Congratulations again, and I wish you every success in your career.

It sounds like we absolutely agree on this. An EMT-B is valuable for all of the above reasons. But what you are describing is a first responder role, not a transporting EMS role. I respect and appreciate the job an EMT does as a first responder. But once the medics arrive and take the patient away, your job is done. Nobody's trying to shut basics out of the field. We're trying to find the optimal application for their limited usefulness. That application is as a first responder. You're still doing all of the things you have said you want to do. None of that is taken away from you. But again, the only people on the crew of an EMS ambulance should be highly educated medical professionals. EMTs simply do not even come close to meeting that definition. But, if it makes you feel any better, neither do most paramedics in the U.S. Yet. And that is what we are trying to change. That change will never happen if you can still be one of us with a 3 week first aid course.

While Googling for those clear handled trauma shears, I came across a few disturbing things. None more disturbing than this... http://www.ssgfx.com/CP2020/medtech/tools/med_gear.htm The ultimate advanced tactical underwater volunteer flight whacker mobile! :shock: I don't really know what that site is all about, but whoever designed that thing is obviously in the business (see supply & equipment list). If anybody knows who that guy is, please have his agency send him for mental evaluation.

Meh... after a couple years out here working out of the back of a Toyota Land Cruiser or Chevy Tahoe, even a Sprinter will be a welcome relief for me! Love the MUGs!

This discussion is taking an interesting and worthwhile turn that is probably worthy of its own thread. The patient's right to choose his or her own destination, as well as the medic or the system's right to choose against the patient's wishes is definitely a hot topic, with lots of special conditions, that should be discussed a lot more amongst us. There are more situations than the simple, "hospital A is more medically appropriate than hospital B" scenario. Many systems simply have blanket rules that say you must transport to the closest facility, that you cannot transport out of the city limits, and other such operational limitations that are not necessarily based upon medical priorities. Obviously, you have to draw the line somewhere, whether it is the city limits, the county line, or the state line. And, since limits can and must be drawn, it seems to set a precedent for choosing those limits based upon systemic concerns. The laws (in most states) do not even mandate the existence of EMS. If a subdivision chooses to establish EMS, it would not stand to reason that any laws would tell them that they must take their patients anywhere the patient chooses. I know of no such laws. So then, what we are bound by are: 1. Laws against kidnapping and unlawful detention, which may apply when you take somebody somewhere against their will. 2. Laws or directives that direct specific conditions to specific facilities, and/or prohibit them from others. 3. Accepted standards of medical practice which advise the transport of specific conditions to specific facilities. Any of those three types of laws or standards can end us up in civil or even criminal court, should somebody decide to complain. I would sure be interested in seeing some legal statistics about how often and how many times there have been legal cases regarding these situations though. As well as how many were actually successful. I would be willing to bet that the number is pretty small. But, of course, that does not relieve us of the duty to do what is right for our patients.

So what are your plans now? Are you working in EMS currently? If so, what is the process for you to move up to a medic slot? If not, are there any good prospects for you in the area? I hate to see guys work so hard to excel and graduate, only to realise "crap, there are no jobs here!" Did you earn a degree, or just a certificate? Do you have plans to immediately continue your education?

I understood Anthony to be saying something different than you did. I think he is talking about a sort of "pre-internship" ridealong programme for potential paramedic students just to test if the atmosphere is their cup of tea. To see if the job is really what they think it is from watching Turd Watch, and if that is something they are really cut out for. Not to really "work" as a team member, but to do some integrated observation before taking the plunge. I see a good deal of value in that. We did that in pre-med. Students were sent to the county hospital family practice clinic to shadow doctors all day long doing mundane, routine doctor's office care, not just the sexy and exciting ER stuff we see on the tele. It wasn't "work." And it wasn't "volunteering" either. Just exposure. Again, Anthony is talking about a scenario where there is no longer an EMT position in EMS, so the ability to "check it out" as a basic for awhile no longer exists. It would indeed be advisable for us to have a system for our prospective medics to gain exposure. Currently, the system of letting them get that exposure as an actual crewmember causes our profession a terribly unstable workforce because of all the tourists taking up jobs. Anthony's suggestion is a much better one.

Excellent! If you go away, we both lose. These discussions keep us both thinking instead of getting too comfortable with the status quo. In 6000 posts here over the last two years, you can bet I have been schooled a few times myself. But I value those learning experiences, and count them among the very best reasons to stay here. Well... that and the hott chicks.

Excellent summation! That is actually my point. Skills do not exist in a vacuum. They are only one part of a much larger picture. And without that complete picture, they are worse than useless. They are dangerous. Totally agreed. The back and forth taxi ride from MRI should not involve EMS at all, at any level. EMS should not be trying to finance their operations by running taxi services any more than the fire service should be trying to fund their operations by selling bottled water. But anybody who calls reporting an emergency should receive personal evaluation (not phone triage) by an educated medical professional, not an EMT. Although I read a lot of horror stories about paramedics dumping patients who should be ALS on BLS crews (coughLAcountycough), I believe that kind of system does have the potential to work with properly educated medics. Conversely, I have much less faith in the potential of a system that sends out EMTs to evaluate whether or not a patient needs ALS care, and am really not confident that it can work to my satisfaction.

Clear rubber grips? This sounds interesting. Just for grins, I Googled "trauma shears" and "trauma shears clear grips" and didn't come up with anything relevant. I did, however, come up with some disturbing results like a lot of links with titles like, "Movies of two horny moms in wild interracial gangbang orgies." :? I did come up with a lot of hits from scuba supply houses for trauma shears with rubberised grips, although none that I saw were clear. But you might do a more focused search of scuba sites to see if that is where they are coming from. Sorry I couldn't help more. Do they look like normal trauma shears, or is this some special design?

Drawers at the head rock! I love them! Think of all those things that just don't stand or stack up neatly in a cabinet. And being right there at the head, they are especially useful for 0[sub:9ba5b4f6c9]2[/sub:9ba5b4f6c9] masks and cannulae, as well as other airway supplies. It's like working out of a crash cart, which is eminently more convenient than working out of those cabinets you have to reach over the patient to get to. Minus 5 for the c-collars on the grab rail. That is a serious compromise of a safety device. You are losing 99 percent of your ability to use the rail for what it was intended for. Not to mention that those things dangling above your patient's head tends to make them seasick. I'd fire whoever's idea that was.

Congrats. Maybe you'll hear today! And plus 5 for the Devil Duckie avatar. :twisted: