brentoli

Does your certification agency recognize your EGK ablities? Is it a BLS skill in your state? If not, how do you justify the actions you take on an ALS assesment? I'm not arguing to argue. I am honestly wondering. Lets say you disregard ALS on a toothache because you show a normal EKG. The hospital finds out diffrent on their EKG/blood work. What do you do in this case?

Users with 3 posts: 297

Define a situation where ALS would be requested on EKG readout only? Does your defib switch into automatic mode? Or is it all manual? I don't know of manual defib being BLS anywhere. I have faith in you until proven otherwise. I am just pointing out what the truth is. Maybe not the crew you have now, but somewhere someday it will go through someones mind.

That scares me. Not that you can read (and then not do anything about) the EKG. Props for learning it. What scares me is you have access to this and theres not a paramedic on board. Is there any type of lockout which requires a paramedic to activate the pacing/defib functions? I know how college kids think, and I know how EMS'ers think. Ponder this situation if you will: 21 y/o co-ed presents with SVT. 22 y/o male EMT wants to impress co-ed. EMT defibs, instead of synchronized carioversion. Co-ed enters V-Fib. EMT jumps out back of moving ambulance. The End.

I can't find sympathy. Really. I can't give anyone sympathy who fails the EMT-B. If you graduated high school, you can pass the EMT-B. What is your reason for not being able to pass it? Are you not a good test taker, test anxiety? Freeze up? Are you going to do the same on the motorcycle accident where the guy created 5 more joints then a normal body has? Did you not know your stuff? If you couldn't study for it, get away from here. You don't want to do it for the right reasons obviously then. Give me any reason someone would fail an EMT-B and I will give you a reason to have no sympathy.

Beat me to the punch. You male nurse you...

Indiana. It should be in the top 10. Loose blue/green light laws. Every township is required to have, or contract a fire department. Most have one. Just go to www.indianafiretrucks.com and look at the wealth of VFD's. Indiana EMT test is a breeze. I would rate it a 7.5/10 on the whacker scale.

Why does everyone have an issue with dispatch? As one person put it in the chat today "they are overpaid morons." Has anyone worked dispatch? Do you ever go in and understand how it operates? I am not trying to defend incompetence, thats impossible, but I am trying to defend the profession as a whole. Understand my job for a moment. I work for a multi-agency dispatch center.We dispatch approximately 10 diffrent fire departments, and 15 police departments. We staff 3-4 per shift. We have 4 frequencies we must monitor with an additonal 4 that can be used. 4 incoming 911 lines, and 3 non emergency lines. We keep all criminal records for the county, and are the back up dispatch for the 3 cities in the county. Take the instance of a vehicle accident with injury. Fire dispatch starts the ambulance and station. Police dispatch starts PD units. Depending on the location of the accident, we could recieve 30+ 911's refrence it. We have mutliple units with radio traffic on 2 frequencies. Most ambulances are BLS and we must contact a private carrier for ALS. We have to make phone calls to contact a heliocopter, power company, wreckers, and any other resources needed on scene. Can you do all of that from your ambulance and still maintain paitent care? Think about this next time dispatch takes more then 5 seconds to answer you. Maybe there isn't a huge wreck going on, but still, theres alot more that happens in the small dark room than you hear on the radio.

Come on Dust, you know the reason for this thread.

How does your service handle the DOA? Do you do morgue transport? Is PD required at all DOA scenes for you? What about the family, do you have any special training in helping the family? Here, we make contact with the coroner, who asks questions to establish if he must respond to the scene or not. Then we wait for the funeral home, or a local service that does morgue transport.

spiderpig

First Responder is for people too dumb to pass EMT classes! :sign5: Just playin and you know it!

Clinton

Are you being serious? I don't want to sound rude here, but think your statement through. Completely. You answered it right there. If a company can not insure you why would they want you hire you and they take the liability on themselves? But, I digress. Would you really want some pimple face 18 yearold driving you to the hospital lights and sirens? Would you really want that pizza face shoving a non visualized airway down your throat? I did it, and I realize how horribly inexperienced I am, and was. And I don't think I should have been trusted with it. Granted, if EMS was professional, we wouldn't be getting 18 year old pizza faces, we would be getting 22 - 23 yearold B.S. graduates.

That seriously doesn't make sense. The more experience I get, the more I realize how much reform EMS needs. And this just isn't Dust working on me. The only services that are worth their weight first of all, is full time paid, or transitioning into paid. Secondly, this job shouldn't interfere with your normal life. If you are working overtime, its your own fault, if your company is allowed to mandatory overtime you as much as they want, its your own fault. Third, the only time you should be getting called in off duty is in a disaster. EMS is your job, not your life. If it is causing problems at home, you really need to step back into a reality check.

Two men walked into a bar. The third one ducked.

Dispatchers never know what to do when the computer says no.

Marinated and aged, yum.

Detox

Well, you mentioned the glucometer, but I didn't see the BGL? I am BLS mind you here, this is a canidate for assisted breathing by BVM for me. Give it a try with an OPA, switching to NPA if needed. I went on a call along these lines at a nursing home, I belive about halfway to the hospital the medic gave her Atropine. Her GCS was probably about a 7 with shallow slow resps and a pulse of about 45. So blind faith would have me following his course of action, because the only diffrence is the LOC. Blind faith will screw me too in the end.

Dishes (I see this tread being locked when the new people start abusing it.)

Sorry. I wasn't trying to stir the pot. I was seriously looking for more insight into what he was getting into. Then I saw those articles. And realized he didn't get into anything. I wasn't trying to discredit KMAC, just show the hyperbole in order to discredit his other arguments.

Fashion show turns to fracas Posted by The Times of Trenton August 27, 2007 11:36AM Categories: News EWING -- A fashion show taking place at the West Trenton Ball Room on West Upper Ferry Road turned violent Sunday night when a melee broke out, causing chairs, bottles and tables to be thrown around, police said. The fight started at 9:47 p.m. in the ball room of the West Trenton Fire Co., where 300 to 400 people had gathered. The fight then emptied out into the parking lot before Ewing police, with the assistance of officers from Trenton, Hopewell Township, the Mercer County Sheriff's Office and New Jersey State Police, were able to quell the violence, officials said. Emergency medical personnel were on hand but there were no reported injuries. The fight caused extensive damage to the West Trenton ball room, including broken tables, chairs, windows and doors

It isn't that hard to hit a shift key seriously. Capital letters start the beginning of a sentence. If they are gang members with weapons and shanks on them, then they are not paitents they are suspects. You said you had all but 2 BLS? That tells me all but two were ambulatory and they can walk with the police right over to be lined up, patted down, and hauled to the 5 Bar Inn. BUT WAIT The "MCI" in question So where are all of these BLS and ALS paitents?