nsmedic393

Stroke/Aneurism would be at the top of my list. Also perhaps dementia. Vitals? Physical findings?

If he wants you to drive with the lights and sirens then go ahead and do it. Then you can laugh at him with everyone else at the hospital when the doctor sends the patient home before he can even get them off the stretcher.

Sounds pretty silly to me. Round here we transport 99% of our patients code 2 (non L+S) to the hospital. The decision lies with the attending medic. The way I look at it, if they aren't going to die in the extra 30 seconds it takes to get to hospital then I'm not using the lights.

The correct tearm would be LEAD. LEDs go on the ambulance, leads go on the patient.

Our intermediate level was instituted after the province took over ambulance services from private/funeral homes. At the time they had a mixed bunch of medics working under many different skill sets. Creating the I level allowed medic with skils above the BLS provider to have a level to fit into without loosing those skills. It also gave the province the ability to get ALS onto the ambulances quickly. That was 10 years ago. Five years ago the Province stopped training or accepting ICP providers. Those that worked here previously as intermediates are allowed to practice at that level still however now if you want to go beyond the PCP level you have to go ACP.

I remember when I was a student, each new preceptor was a nightmare in itself. Not to say they were bad guys just each had different expectations of me and the process of working out exactly what they wanted was confusing and difficult. Each new student I get I like to sit them down at the start of the shift and explain things. The bags are theirs to organise as they wish as long as they have the required stock. They are expected to take a leadership role in patient care although I will be right behind them to make sure they don't kill someone. They should always be the first through the door to introduce themselves to the patient. Also my partner and I will do all the mindless grunt work ie. lugging bags and stretchers. The students should be focusing on patient care.

You are absolutely correct there dust... I find I could do a hundred arrests that were gone when I got there and it doesn't hit as hard as one that dies in front of you.

Whoever is telling you that is full of crap. Defib coupled with good effective CPR is what is going to save somebodys life. The drugs tubes and all that other fancy stuff aren't proven to improve patient survival rates in the least.

Get paid for 24 hours on every holiday. If i happen to work than i get paid time and a half on top of the 24 hours.

LMFAO

I should hope that being one hour away from ALS would have no impact on weather rural services have a defib. In any case, IVs Drugs and ETT have not been proven to increase survival rates in out of hospital SCA. Good CPR and early Defib have.

Good call 393. Although we can establish a pre-existing hx of a-fib obviously its warranted to print off a strip but not necessarily alarming.

one brown box, one purple box, one brown box and now one pink box......

"I'M A PLUMBER"

Just remember everyone, the ammount of oxygen you give your patients is directly proportional to how soon you are gonna have to change than damn M cylender.

Maybe i'm just old fashioned, but i call mine a ambulance. On the air we are called by our 3 digit number.

Sorry for the mistype... I have also seen people who should probably been fired get their gobs back thanks to union protection. While it sucks that these idiots are still out there, there jobs were reinstated because mastakes made by our company in the process of firing these individuals. I suppose its kinda like a courtroom, you need to be proven guilty and it has to be done right. If you looked on the bright side of that situation, I know that if my job was on the line and i didn't deserve to be fired I would still have a chance to get it back.

I for one am unionised. We are with the International Union of Operating Engineers and represent over 900 paramedics. Although I enjoy the benifits of being unionised I don't believe that our particular union gives us the attention and effort we deserve. The reason I'm so glad to be in a union is because I know damn well that the company I work for is in this to make money and no other reason. The union is there to make sure they don't make money by stepping all over their employees. They look out for our rights on such topics as hiring/firing, wages, hours of work, pension, benifits and a whole lot of other stuff. Ambulance companies are in this to make money and the less of it they have to spend on their employees the more they make. (obviously) Unions make sure the balance remains fair.

Several fairly ignorant posts on the piners strike subject have lead me to wonder how many people on here are actually unionised. So.... How many people are unionsied? If not, why not? What unions are you with? Are you happy with the services provided by your unions? What, in your opinions are the pros and cons of being unionised?

As it would happen, our company announced today that we recieved funding from the provincial government to implement our e-pcr project. I don't know a whole lot about it, except that they hired two full time support personnel and we will be using Panasonic thoughbook CF19s and medusa lifenet 2.2 software. Also our CAD will be integrated into the toughbooks as well as our computer mapping software.

I'm joining the post a little late here, so sorry. All this hits close to home for me. My service which employs over 900 medics is currently a year and a half without a contract and in binding arbitration as we speak. Dust and Mads argument aside, it seems to me there are alot of people out there that just don't understand how a union works. I'm probably one of the few here that has actually been on strike. We did it seven years ago and i would be doing it right now if I had my way. We walked out in the morning and were back to work by supper. Thats how fast the company caved. I suspect that if we striked this time round, the goverment would have enacted legislation to make us an essential service and take away our right to strike, but at least we are still left with the binding arbitration. In short the threat of a strike and in the end a strike itself is a powerfull tool in a unions bargaining toolbox. To those that say that we should be hung and we don't care about the people we serve I say you are foolish on a whole lot of levels. I care about the people I serve, but I care much more about the people who live under my roof that I am responsible for providing for. I enjoy the protection of a union and to those that don't understand it; nuts to you. You will get it some day.

I find one of the most beneficial forms of mental recovery can be talking to people about what has happened. Talking to your spouse or parents and especially other medics. People who have been through it before. Getting drunk and letting it all pour out doesn't really accomplish much.Especially if its to a room full of people who don't have anything to do with EMS. Lay people don't want to know about the type of crap we deal with on a daily basis. Drinking is great fun, but drink in moderation because trying to remember what you did last night and what you may have said to whome is not fun at all.

Sounds like some people have a severe case of optical rectulosis. Lets try to remember we all have a niche to fill in the EMS world. Id love to hear the strings of complaints if on top of treating a car crash victim you had to extricate them and do traffic control all at the same time. If you always, always, always had to carry that morbidly obese patient yourself. Howsabout instead of running them down and being obviously impatient with firefighters, you educate them? If they are doing something offensive or wrong, tell them. I know there has always been rivalry but were all in the same boat here. We run training nights for the firefighters in our area. We hold them once a month and the night consists of a hour long lecture and then two hours of skills stations. Our relationship between fire and EMS has never been better and the firefighters even held a whole training day last month for EMS to try their hand at using fire equipment. This is the exact same impatience shown towards students and newbies. How about instead of pissing and moaning you guys actually do something to improve things.

Your supervisor is an idiot. Period.

I find the biggest issue when using medical control is to paint a clear picture. In my experience, if you give the doc a good enough report that he can close his eyes and see the patient in his head, you will rarely be denied what you are asking for. I find most of the denied requests are by medics that don't give a good report. The Docs will not attach their name to something they are unsure of. Also, be specific as to what you want. ie... Instead of asking how much mrophine to give say "I would like to give 2.5mg morphine q10 mins PRN".