Dustdevil

LMAO! I know that's right! I definitely had to look at his location to make sure.

Okay, I'll bite. What makes "HFD" (whatever that is) medics so special? I'm willing to bet they suck.

Another good reason to not wear gloves. :wink:

I wasn't criticizing you or your system. Your scenario just reminded me of a question I have encountered many times over the years, so I wanted some opinions on the situation. Your system says the man with local seniority is "senior medic." Do you agree with that, or would you choose differently?

Then there are those agencies to whom the most "senior" paramedic is the one with the most time in that particular agency, not the most time as a medic. How would you choose "senior paramedic" between one who had been a paramedic for 3 years, all in your agency, and another who had been a paramedic for 10 years, only 6 months in your agency? Neither are a rookie or probationary. Who is senior medic?

You definitely do have a point, Race. Of course, we also have to assume that every bit helps. Sure, the drunks and rubberneckers see the lights, but the retroreflective markings help them to understand that there is something IN BETWEEN the lights. There is a theory that drunks see two lights and try to navigate between them rather than around them. If the body is reflective, this helps prevent that. High visibility is even more important during the day. In which case, reflective isn't important. But then again, it's not any more expensive than painting in the same high-vis colours, so why not make it reflective too? And, of course, it's not unheard of for your electrical system to fail on a scene, leaving you without lights. Been there and done that!

Military Thomas splints? I have a few of those, lol. Probably 30 years old, but still in perfect condition, having never been used.

No way. It's cheap. Very cheap. It just causes the area you have applied it to to become dry and tacky. Anything will stick to it. Although, you probably don't want the benzoin on the gel contact area. Just where the sticky goes. I don't know for sure if it would interfere with gel contact.

Ah, understood. I have to agree then. I was looking at the arguement as more of a defense of EMT training and SOP here than a comparison to SJA.

Which is exactly as it should be. Sorry Scott, but I am unimpressed. Obviously you have fallen into the trap of confusing SOP's for quality of education or care. Cramming a handful of extra skills that the student gets insufficient education on does nothing to increase my confidence in a provider. Education increases my confidence in a provider. And you would be wrong to say that clinicals and internship add significant time to an EMT course. They still usually end up below 200 hours, which is nowheres near what it should be for the primary care provider on an ambulance.

I don't care for hi-vis clothing as the standard uniform. I don't like looking like a circus clown for 24 hours straight. Hi vis traffic vests or jackets are perfectly sufficient and can be thrown on for the small percentage of runs they are required on.

Anybody who has not been to the page those photos originated from needs to go check it out! http://www.crestlinecoach.com/evcon/index.php3 At the bottom of the page is a calculator that gives you a visibility score for any given livery scheme. Very useful for designing your next ambo. For instance, with the calculator, you can find the visibility difference between red/lime chevrons and green/lime chevrons, or the difference between green/lime checkerboard and orange/lime checkerboard. Great page. I bookmarked it when I found it last year.

Yang, if you took my comment to be intolerant of yours, you were mistaken. It was not meant to be a comment upon your post at all. In fact, it's just a line from a song that seemed appropriate for the moment. And I didn't see anybody else posting anything that was intolerant of your viewpoints. Perhaps I'm just sleepy and missed it? Anyhow, no need to go away mad. :?

Should certified first responders be permitted to function as a primary member of a 911 ambulance crew? Should certified first responders be permitted to function as a primary member of a non-emergency transfer ambulance crew? Why or why not?

Buddha was not a Christian. But Jesus woulda made a great Buddhist. (with apologies to Ray Wylie Hubbard)

Yeah, I did more Foleys and NG's than ET's when I worked rural. Routine procedures. Pretty much anybody you knew was going to OR or ICU got both. Especially CHF'ers and flyable trauma. Regardless, half a bottle of water isn't going to make a difference on I/O's or even a surgical candidate. Withholding water isn't much more defensible than withholding oxygen, if you ask me. I say talk to your medical director about it. Never be afraid to challenge the sacred cows. Maybe we can finally bring this issue into the 21st century.

I wish I were. :? The original message inserts itself if you click on the "Quote" button instead of the "Reply" button. Then you just highlight and delete the parts of the original message that aren't relevant.

And how exactly do you know it to be true? Did the voices in your head tell you that?

Maybe I have overlooked it, but I have yet to see anybody give a valid example of how this would be relevant to EMS.

I agree. But only if the attending medic has both the education and common sense necessary to make that determination. Currently, very few do. It would require an entire new addition to the curriculum. And when considering additions to the curriculum, apparently this one has never come up. Or else somebody found it too insignificant to consider. You have to remember, there are forces out there who fight every addition to the curriculum tooth and nail because they don't want their firefighters spending so long in school. Something has got to be pretty critically significant before it gets in.

The numbers represent the years that the curriculum was established. So, I-99 has been around for almost seven years and is not yet the standard nationwide. That ought to tell you something about how progressive EMS is in the US. As for the differences in course length and scope of practice, I am afraid I don't know. Somebody else will hopefully address that for us. Intermediates are pretty much a rural phenomenon in Texas. Don't see many in urban areas where schools rarely teach the level. Not much need for it. And, of course, a lot of people simply don't like the idea of people so inadequately trained performing ALS interventions.

Meh... it's one of those silly things that just always has been, without any real scientific validation or anybody challenging it. The valid reasons for keeping patients NPO include: 1. Keeping the stomach empty to lessen the risk of aspiration. 2. Keeping the airway dry in case we need to intubate. 3. To restrict fluid intake in those patients whose condition calls for it. 4. Because too many retards wearing EMT patches don't have the sense to know when a patient can and cannot protect his own airway. That's about it. That leaves about three-quarters of our emergent patients who could safely have fluid intake. But, rather than educate our providers to a sufficient level to make such a determination in the field, we simply say no.

It's very common. My confidence is certainly way below where it was when I left the field. I took one other break from the field for a couple of years and it shook my confidence then too. This is medicine. A lot changes in a short time. Even when you've been at it for 30 years, it's disconcerting to get back on an ambo and hear rookies talking of concepts you have never even heard of. I've seen it happen to other medics who took time off too. And I'm talking about guys who were the best. So, don't let it discourage you. Just take it as motivation to get your head back together. Get into a refresher class. Find CEUs and take them. Pull out your textbook and workbook and work through them again. You NEVER know so much that your textbook can't still teach you things. Do NOT fool yourself into thinking that if you just make a lot of runs, it will all come back to you. It won't. You have to go find it.

Dr. Bledsoe recently used my favourite EMS term, "wanker" in an EMS discussion and was promptly bombarded by people asking what a wanker was. I thought it would be good to let everybody share the telltale signs they use to identify a wanker (or wacker, for our friends in the east). To start the ball rolling, here are the five that Dr. Bledsoe listed. You might be a wanker if you: 1. Ever bought anything from Dyna-Med 2. Carried a "windshield punch" 3. Slept with a scanner on at home. 4. Had an oxygen cylinder wrench on your key chain. 5. Experimented to get alternate sounds out of the electronic siren

Contrary to popular belief, there are such things as stupid questions! But I can assure you that yours is not. In fact, it's good to see somebody exploring the entire big picture before taking the leap than just rushing in because sirens are cool. It's a sign of maturity, which is crucial for success in this field particularly. I'd like to see more people asking such questions about the life changing choice they are contemplating.