Dustdevil

If that is your protocols, your protocols suck. Run.

I faced this question recently. The answer is, Iraq. No doubt about it.

What is your ambulance, a Yugo? :?

And now, for your viewing pleasure... go pee, get some popcorn and a Coke, sit back and relax the much anticipated Dustdevil slide presentation of Iraq. Home sweet home. Someplace I wasn't supposed to be. The sign I passed to get to where I wasn't supposed to be. What I should have been driving when I was where I shouldn't have been. What I was in when I was where I shouldn't have been. Where I was supposed to be. Where I hide when mortars are falling on the place that I am supposed to be. What happens to Iraqi police who take on the US Marines. What happens to Iraqi MIGs who take on the US Air Force. The pea shooters they tried to shoot stealth fighters down with. And a special treat for the firemonkeys of EMT City, the great latrine fire of 2006! Legal Disclaimer: That's not me in the pictures. I didn't take these pictures. I have no idea where these pictures came from. What pictures?

Yep. We went through this where I was once employed. They wanted photocopies of everybody's licence, but several of us refused, citing State Board rules prohibiting photocopying your licence. It was a major hassle with threats of termination and such. Idiots. :roll:

Nobody declared victory. All that was declared was that the mission that aircraft carrier was sent on was accomplished. Lie and spin if you like, but on that point, there is no debate. :roll: Again, those who know nothing of what they speak, as well as those who intentionally misrepresent their "facts" should STFU.

Ha! Excellent point, Rid. Plus 5! Yes, I have to agree. Anybody who enters EMS without first completing a basic educational foundation is indeed "skipping levels" and should back up.

You don't have to be computer literate to simply read the forum rules and FAQs, so that excuse doesn't exactly work. No harm done, Bro. But this topic has indeed been beaten to death and the general consensus here -- including that of the most vastly experienced persons on the board (see Old Timer Introductions topic) -- is that your theory is great on paper, but holds no water in reality. So-called "experience" as a basic in most cases only contributes to poor habits and poor understanding that are both very hard to break at the next level and weaken the Paramedic educational process. And, you would find VERY few people with real experience as a Medic or as an educator who would agree that the Intermediate class contributes anything positive to the Paramedic educational process. In fact, it too tends to retard it. Thats why most states, apart from those largely rural states, are doing away with it altogether. Again, nice theory, but only on paper.

Interesting how this has become a discussion of Iraq. WTF does this have to do with Iraq? Those who know nothing of which they speak should STFU.

I don't know where you got the impression that assessments are the easiest thing about being a paramedic. If your school taught you that, your school sucks. Assessments are the hardest thing about medicine, period. Any idiot can memorise drugs and protocols out of a book. Any monkey can sink a tube or IV. It is knowing when to do it that is the real practise of medicine. You can't learn assessment through memorisation. Asking all the right questions does you no good if you don't have the education, intelligence, and common sense to put it all together into a correct diagnosis and plan. It takes lots of experience to get it down pat. And again, if your school didn't provide you with adequate experience to get it down pat, your school sucks. So now your employer is going to have to do what your school should have and provide you with a quality and quantity internship experience in order to develop your assessment skills. Chances are -- if you are employed, that is -- they won't, so it's all up to you, Bro. Whether or not you ever become a functionally proficient medic is now 100 percent dependent upon you taking the initiative. Don't let yourself down. And, minus 5 for not reading forum rules before posting.

Actually, there are many, many women here and, being the medical officer here, I am the only one who IS allowed to touch.

It just says "Connecting to server..." for a full two minutes before timing out and giving me this message in a pop-up box... "Connection failed! Maybe your network can't access the server, or the server is under maintenance, please try again later!" Any suggestions? I sure miss my chat!

I don't condone Camel Spider races. People who go to those things just want to see a spider crash. Anyhow, apparently Uncle Sam doesn't trust the EMT City chat client. I have been trying for the last two days to get in, and it won't let me.

Darn, I missed it. It asks for registration and password now.

So... what exactly makes this rare condition a frequently asked question? :?

Hey kids! I have finally arrived at my semi-permanent destination to get comfortable for awhile. I am at a major airbase in the so-called "Sunni Triangle of Death" out west of Baghdad. It's pretty busy out here, but not overwhelming. It's been a very long time since this old fart has slept in a tent, dodged rockets, or cared for adult patients, so I feel like a total rookie still, but I'm getting more comfortable everyday. I've been getting jerked around for the last three weeks on being issued a computer (as they were supposed to do before I even got here), but I should finally get one in the coming week. Then I'll be able to get online daily and catch up and chat. I even bought a new webcam already. All I need is a computer too hook it up to, ha! Y'all are going to love the buzz cut hairdo. And khaki is definitely my colour. :? Talk to everybody soon!

WTF :?: You totally lost me there. :? If you are nothing but a street medic or tech, don't waste your money on anything more expensive than a Classic II. You don't do anything but take BP's and rudimentary breath sounds. A cardiology scope is a waste of money for the average medic. It seems that most medics choose their scope based upon what others are wearing instead of any realistic criteria. Crazy. ADC's are just as good, but everybody wants a Littmann just for bragging rights. Of course, none of them have a clue about heart sounds, but they still must have a "cardiology" scope to wear around their neck. Or their rearview mirror. Wankerism. I've used nothing but a Littmann Infant stethoscope for the last twenty years. It's just a Classic with a very small head. Makes it perfect for sliding under a BP cuff or really pinpointing heart sounds. But I bought a new Littmann Master Cardiology scope (Black Edition) right before deploying here, based upon these criteria: 1. I needed an adult scope 2. I need a cardiology sensitive scope, which you do not if you are working on an ambulance. 3. I want a dual lumen scope for sensitivity and noise reduction. 4. I want a single head scope for noise reduction and the ability to put it under a BP cuff. 5. The solid black (including head and earpieces!) really looks cool. 6. Nobody else has this scope, so if it gets stolen, I can recognise it easily. If you can't come up with a similar, objective list of criteria for what you are buying, then you need to keep looking. And yeah, this has been covered in many previous topics here.

Three friggin' pages and we still haven't learned if the lifeguard was hott yet. This topic is useless. :roll:

Meh... I still can't watch it. :roll: If it's the same old vid I've seen a million times of the car rolling over onto a guy in the crosswalk, then minus five for posting in the wrong forum.

Ah! There's the problem. You're asking the wrong questions, so you're getting the wrong answers. No, there is no "reciprocity," and there should not be. Reciprocity is just giving you a licence, taking your education, experience, knowledge and competency for granted. Bad policy. But, if your ACP credentials are in order, the state (many of them) can authorise you to challenge the NR exam to validate your knowledge and competency. And, if you pass that exam, then the state and the NR grant you a licence. That's what the other ON ACP is doing. That's what I will be doing in ON. The service she went with has their own EMT school and a very professional and active in-house education department and is familiar with the process now. They are a combination paid and volunteer agency with many per diem employees, as are others in the Houston area, which is the best (if not the only) decent area for active volly/part-time services of any quality in Texas. But I'm warning you. No snow is not all it's cracked up to be. You have to question how well you could tolerate 37 plus degree days with 95 percent humidity for months on end just as seriously as I have to question whether I can handle 6 months a year of snow and days below 0. Be careful what you wish for!

Race, you bring up a situation that I was not considering. The majority of my FA/CPR instruction has been to lay persons, not to healthcare professionals. Certainly, if you are recerting healthcare professionals who have had this over and over, then yeah... you can breeze through it. If you are teaching lay persons, which is the situation addressed in the original post, then it is a whole 'nother animal. Some are making ASSumptions that to take the entire class time means you are throwing in a bunch of extra "boring lecture," and that is not necessarily the case. Certainly not in my case. The true measure of the success of a class is not measured by the clock. Too long or too short is irrelevant, really. And it doesn't matter how much they enjoy it or how satisfied you are with their performance. The true measure of success is how well they UNDERSTAND the material and how well they REMEMBER it. I take every minute available to me to ensure that both of those criteria are met. If you do not, you are shorting your students.

Do you have a specific region in mind? It's a big country, and not all states are created equal. Neither are EMS systems or volunteer squads. If you can narrow it down for us, that would be quite helpful. If you are interested in Texas, I can recommend a couple that would suit you well. One of them has already taken on an Ontario ACP from EMT City, so they know the ropes. Let me know if you would like to connect with them or that medic. Although, I suspect you are specifically interested in NYC or the Los Angeles area for your profession. Pity. Both suck.

For the same reason that all ER patients need to be evaluated by a physician. Because you simply do not know what level of care a patient needs until they are competently evaluated by an adequately educated medical professional. You don't diagnose by phone in the ER. Dispatchers shouldn't be diagnosing by phone either. A medic needs to evaluate every patient. If that patient does not need advanced care, fine. But he ALWAYS needs advanced evaluation.

No. Do you feel it is a waste of resources using a physician to evaluate every patient that presents to the ED instead of just letting the admissions clerk decide who gets seen by who?

Utilise more than one source for your cards. Accept the variations. Most things are not absolutely cut and dried. Get different publications' input and draw your own conclusion from it. Whatever you do, don't get your info from other drug cards. You want to get comprehensive info, not quick notes. Do NOT write things on your cards verbatim from your sources. You want to UNDERSTAND the information, not just transcribe it. Look up and write the info multiple times to assist memorising it. Look up a drug at several sources, write it down (by hand on paper), transcribe it to word processor, then finally type it up onto your cards. By then, you should have the information pretty well memorised. Oh, and be careful when choosing your forums. This would have been more appropriately placed in the STUDENTS forum. Good luck!