Dustdevil

"Off duty?" What is this "off duty" concept you speak of? :?

All excellent advice. Another option that may work well for such a small, low volume agency, is rented or leased radio service. There are communications companies in the Yellow Pages that have repeaters already set up all over the LA area and rent time on those repeaters to businesses and other users. The system is already engineered, already in place, and has known coverage. You just have to negotiate a price with them, which you may get reasonably as a non-profit organisation. If you find one that is on UHF, then you have no equipment to buy. Also, of course, there are Nextel systems that may suit your needs. Chances are, from the type of organisation I am picturing, putting up your own system is simply not at all feasible financially or operationally. Let somebody else's system and expertise work for you. Good luck!

Mental illness is not a crime. It is a medical condition. Like it or not (and by the way, I don't either), it's our job. We have no more right to bitch and moan about psych patients than we do about paediatric or OB patients. They're all patients who deserve the same level of respect and care.

Meh... I dunno about this one. I understand the theory, and I have nothing against being prepared. But that is exactly why I don't think I would ever do this. First of all, my partner will NOT be caught without shears. At least, not more than once. Otherwise, he goes home. And if it is not my partner, then they can either bring their own equipment or gtf out of the way. Carrying other people's equipment for them only enables their laziness, forgetfulness, and complacency, ensuring that they don't make an effort to be prepared in the future. I prefer not to enable these people.

Oh dude! That is inspired right there! You had better copyright that one fast before it shows up in the New York Times!

That show rocks! They should team up with Dr. Bledsoe! :headbang:

Real quote from Parkland ER in Dallas:

How do people live in places like that? :?

Hell, why not just skip this intermediate step and focus on developing the "transporter" beam like in Star Trek? Now there's a "UAV" that people won't be as hesitant to ride on. I wasn't aware that flight costs had gone up so drastically. I remember in the mid 1980's when it actually cost less to be flown to the hospital from a scene within the county than it did to go by ground. This is clearly one case where competition has not brought prices down!

The Brits use paracetamol? I picked up the use of paracetamol while in Central and South America, but have recently found that it is also the term in much of Asia. The Indians, Pakis, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, and all those other guys call it paracetamol too.

Good choice! I purchased one of those right before shipping out. It's the first adult stethoscope I have bought in over twenty years and I am extremely happy with it! It is quieter than any other scope I have ever owned. And, despite the popular misconception that amplification is the important factor in stethoscopes, noise rejection is very definitely the much more important factor. Especially when you get my age and your fingers are constantly creaking while trying to hold the stethoscope head against the patient's chest! But for just taking blood pressures and basic breath sounds, I wouldn't recommend that anybody waste money on any Littmann, much less a Cardiology scope. Wait... I am trying to visualise this. You mean you have the metal eartubes covered by ET tubes, between the earpieces and the beginning of the plastic tubing? What possessed you to do that? Had you seen it done before, or was it just an idea you got out of nowhere? :? Spellchecked for your reading pleasure!

LMAO! Touche'! He's not the only one. Despite my clear disclaimer that YOU are the ONLY person on earth who knows about this morphine, people are still assuming that it must be planted or missing from their stock or something else. I think so many people just live with so much guilt that they can't imagine a situation like this one. And, as Becksdad said, there are worlds that are just so completely different from the ones we work in back in suburban US and Canadia, that we can't imagine a world where there isn't a DEA agent physically tracking every vial of morphine on the planet. Becksdad is right. This isn't cut and dried at all, from my perspective. It's not in any book I've ever seen. It's not a procedural issue. It's a moral dilemma. What can you do that will cause you and/or your co-workers the least grief? What can you do that will bring the most good to somebody who needs it? Or, as Connie understandably stated, why do anything at all? Let somebody else figure it out. Change the commodity and see if it changes your thinking. What if it were four hundred dollar bills instead of four vials of morphine? None of your co-workers admit to having lost any money (well, except for the one firemonkey who swears it's his money, but takes a guess at it being $50 bucks. ). Nobody else has access to the ambulance. Whatcha gonna do? Turn it into security and let them put it in the "general fund" (assuming the bastards don't keep it themselves)? Split it among your crew? Keep it for yourself? Give it to the Iraqi... uhhh, I mean "Spanish" interpreter who works for you whose home was destroyed by terrorists last week, so he can start to provide for his family again? Just leave it there and let one of your co-workers find it later and make the decision? Yep, there are no easy answers.

I'm afraid I have to agree with somedic. The vast majority of these so-called "tactical medic" courses have little to no medical content. They aren't for making medics out of tacticians. They are for making tacticians out of medics. Think about the term itself. It says "tactical medic." It doesn't say "emergency surgical medic." It doesn't say "super secret special medical skills that other medics don't have medic." It's just a regular medic with some basic training on tactics, which hopefully helps you to tag along with a tactical unit and not get in the way too much. That's it. The medical competency you enter with is the same medical competency that you are leaving with, assuming you don't lose any brain cells during the training. Basically, most of them want a couple thousand dollars for the pleasure of crawling through the mud, doing IADs and push-ups, busting a few caps, and just basically playing army for a weekend. Except for the very rare school (which are restricted to federal and military participants), you won't learn a single thing about "medicine," just tactics. That is why the term "tactical medic" is really a joke in the US, and why you find so many of us laughing our arses off at all the hoopla over the entire concept. It's sort of like "flight medic." The ability to fly doesn't make you any better of a medic than you were before. It just inflates your cranium. So... if you are in a position to actually join such a tactical team, and have an actual need for training to help you integrate with law enforcement teams, tactically speaking, then go for it. Let them pay your way to a week of playing army in the mud. After all, any team professional enough to be worth joining will send their own people to training. They won't take walk-on, freelance "tactical medics." I really can't imagine any medic wasting money out of their own pocket for this crap that they will never, ever have a single hope of using, just so they can call themselves a "tactical medic." That's like paying your way through the police academy, then calling yourself a cop, even though you aren't employed as a cop. It's just silly. And pointless. And yes, CLS is much, much better and more relevant training than any so-called "tactical medic" school available to civilians. It is actually about medicine.

Screwing with people who wear a fanny pack is a pretty dangerous game, my friend. Everybody I know who wears one keeps a Glock in it. Be careful about the assumptions you make about people. :wink:

:oops:

That pretty well says it all. As for the frequency of finding a traumatically angulated c-spine, it's pretty darn rare. And one that cannot be re-aligned is usually on a dead body anyhow. Live people's necks remain supple for the immediate aftermath of most injuries. I've just never encountered this problem in a living patient, except for those described by Zilla. Old, contractured, arthritic geriatrics may have a permanent crick in the neck, but they also don't get into many wrecks, so I have never encountered one in the field.

Kinda sucks for the Supreme Allied Commander, doesn't it? :? Does the law also specify what titles you have to use for your officers? :roll: I once worked in a town that had 6 police officers, and they all had rank. Corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, assistant chief, and chief. That way everybody got a gold badge.

BigShears Small LED flashlight (bout the size of a MiniMaglite) Walkie Talkie Camera 2 pr Nitrile Gloves 2 black pens 1 black Sharpie pen Military ID Cash Watch with compass Everything else is either in the clinic/ER/ambulance. I've got my own personal stethoscope, otoscope, and opthalmoscope at the clinic, but I do NOT take them to the ER or into the field with me.

She was an annoying, know-it-all nursing student who thought that (and the fact that she was a paid, full-time employee rather than a volunteer instructor) made her an expert on first aid and CPR, and strutted around with that attitude, even though most of the stuff she spouted off to people was scientifically inaccurate. So I guess it was her poor attitude combined with her complete uselessness that made her a bimbo in my book. Why do you ask?

Plus 5 for a very informative and helpful post! Word. In fact, I think we ought to be ENCOURAGING more normal sized women to enter EMS, not discouraging it by not making clothing for them. Hell, they ought to stop making the XL and above uniforms altogether! Of course, the real root of the problem here is that your organizations insist on dressing you like cops and firemen, which seriously limits the available size options. I've never heard of a female nurse or doctor complaining about not being able to find a uniform that fits.

LMAO! Dude, we should seriously start a school especially for grads of "The Academy" to teach them all the stuff they missed out on by going the "accelerated" route. We could accelerate our class too. Make it three years instead of four! I was once co-teaching a CPR class with a total lay bimbo full-time Red Cross instructor. I was sitting back and just assisting as she was doing the obstructed airway lecture. She grabs her throat with both hands and tells everybody that it is the "international" sign for choking. I quickly spoke up and interjected, "universal." She stopped and looked at me and said, "huh??" I explained to her that it is the UNIVERSAL sign, not the "international" sign. As she stood there with a deer-in-the-headlights look on her face, totally not understanding what I was saying, I added, "Not just on this planet!" She still didn't get it.

I'm still trying to figure out where they got this grandiose notion of being an "international" standard. Was there a UN vote on this that I missed? :roll:

Hehe... twould be nice! We have both the Cougars and Jaguars here, being utilised by the Engineer battalion for mine sweeping and EOD teams. Maybe if I just stick some Red Cross stickers on the sides of one, nobody will think anything about it when I drive away in one. 8) I have yet to see one come back in blown to bits, so either they haven't come up against anything yet, or else they are as tough as they look. I dunno though. I see full M1 Abrams tanks being dragged back here in pieces, so I am not overly confident that this thing can take a cluster of 4 155 Howitzer rounds any better than a tank can. Anyhow, I'll get some pics of them soon and post them.

If you call me to respond from across town, and you could have been at the ER faster than I was at your patient's side, then yes, I will beat you up over that decision. There is a common misconception that if you cannot give somebody a drug to fix them, you aren't doing anything for them, and you need to call somebody who can. BS. Transporting them to definitive care IS doing something for them. Calling for this "ALS intercept" thing does nothing for the patient, except delay his care and transportation. Doesn't sound to me like he seriously needed anything that a medic could have provided that was worth waiting for. And, in that case, your assessment is over. It's time to roll.