WolfmanHarris

I'm hopefully competing this year in the student category. Provided my partner doesn't back out.

Oh sure and then we'd have all that unprofessional sex in the station after watching porn and HBO. And if they're not having sex all that pent up energy will go to awful practical jokes that will KILL PATIENTS! When are you guys going to open your eyes and see that having medics over 40 is killing people. Be honest with yourselves and you'll see I'm right.

You're right Michael. We ambulance driving, stretcher fetching, medic monkeys need to be nicer to the Fire Service.

Okay folks since there doesn't seem to be a tonne of debate on topics or format I'd like to start firming this up a bit. I need someone experienced (or two) to volunteer to act as the question reviewers/editers. The ideal suck- er volunteer would have a mind for anal retentive details. After that we need people to start putting their name down for a topic they'd like to do a question on. I'll edit the first post to reflect these including whether the question has been completed yet. Once again I'd like these questions to be largely essay/short answer. Multiple choice, True/False and Matching are too easy for this test. Remember you not only have to write the question, but the answer (in detail) as well. You're encouraged to make these difficult, but should be within the realm of what a new provider should know. Don't be forgiving of medic mill education, write based on what one ought to know, not what they were likely taught. If you're not sure whether a question would be appropriate, feel free to PM me or whoever gets stuck being the editor. Thanks for the interest so far guys. I'm excited to put this resource together and to use it to study. - Matt

So are the studies listed by BEorP unreliable or do we need more of them? How many studies are needed? Do you believe that the link you posted represents a meaningful addition to the collective knowledge and will result in reduced accidents? How will a tally of accidents result in their prevention? Yep I'm being honest. I honestly believe that in order for any discussion on an issue to be generalized to the entire industry requires basis in fact. For those facts to be reliable, they need to be gathered and analyzed scientifically. Swapping ideas about something doesn't require this, but claims that are meant to apply beyond one's own experience do. So while I can say that "in my community we've noticed a problem with elderly falls and are considering a fall arrest program. Does anyone have any ideas?" without scientific basis, I can't say "Elderly falls are killing a huge number of patients. We as an industry must address this now." and have it be truly meaningful without facts to back it up. The most reliable facts are those which are based on scientific data and are peer-reviewed. Don't need statistics on an individual provider. We're talking case study vs generalization. Now being quick to judge would be a problem were we in a position to actually judge them or have an influence on the outcome. But throughout you see discussion based on what was presented and if that presentation is true than what we think of it.

No your wrong. As I stated above, with a 33.3% decrease in function after 40, we must conclude that at 20 function is much higher. Therefore we should be recruiting as young as possible. EMT school should start at 12 to maximize this potential. No point in arguing with the facts, this will save lives.

Congrats Doczilla and Missus! All the best!

Actions aren't meeting words there. If you relished science, I'd expect to see more scientific method or basis in your arguments. Perhaps you can explain how you relish them? I'm sure I'm not alone in my confusion on this one.

I think we should set the retirement age at 5 months following the 40th birthday. At that point we can assume 33.3% decrease in function based on them being a third of the way through their 120yr life expectancy.

Do the parenthesis around "scientific study" represent your disdain for science and academia, or your doubts about the referenced study? As a result of this are you suggesting that we throw the baby out with the bathwater and reject studies due to potential faults (which are usually noted within the study itself) or place them on equal footing with nonscientific studies and online polls? If they should be rejected due to their flaws, then should your arguments based on nothing should probably be rejected as they have even less grounding on facts and less scientific data? Or am I missing something? What about your data makes it more reliable and accurate that than posted by BEorP?

Crotch, I've got to ask. Would it ever be possible to convince you that what you "know" if wrong? And if so, how?

Ever seen "Logan's Run"? Maybe we should just do that.

Facts and studies aside (can't be bothered on this one to be honest), let's do a quick of the cuff comparison. Pediatric croup with severe SOB vs. medical cardiac arrest. One will stay dead the other will potentially get much worse without intervention. So for which is time more critical? Stroke patient en route to a regional stroke centre vs. medical cardiac arrest? One time sensitive one will still be dead and likely won't come back. So for which is time more critical?

Entonox used to be on the Ambulances in Ontario (as per my instructor) and isn't anymore. Couldn't tell you why.

You got a link on that one? I'd be interested in reading it. Oh and are Waterfairies and bucket brigade still acceptable term?

Starling's law - the force of contraction of the heart if proportional to the amount of stretch. Interesting idea, but I'd prefer it as a separate thread from this one.

Dwayne, I appreciate the volunteering and would be happy to have you play J. Jonah Jameson on this one. (Spider-man anyone?) How about this? Once we have the categories locked in when people take on a question we'll put their name down beside the category. And to keep the questions varied, we'll ask that people only do one question per category until they're all done. (Unless of course they have a really good one, or its a multi-part question)

So as I was studying a couple days ago I was really frustrated with how simple the practice questions in the workbook (Bledsoe) was. The questions were straight forward and didn't require a great deal of combination of concepts. So I got to thinking about how I could better test myself and what resources I could use. I decided one of the best one's I have is right here on the forums and I got an idea. The EMTCity Test! My idea is to have members create a few good questions that test cummulative knowledge and really challenge a new (or newer) provider. I was hoping that some of seasoned vets on here would be willing to take on a question or two and post it on here (with the answers behind spoilers please). We'd set out a list of categories that the questions would address, but the question would not be required to only deal with that area. So for example, if the question involved a Pt. with diabetes, that doesn't mean that their previous heart condition wouldn't need to be considered. The questions should also require knowledge of pathophysiology, A&P and pharmacology and should not be answerable in short sentence fragments. The questions should not be geared for any particular level of training (Basic vs. Medic) and should not focus on skills. Personally I'm okay with treatment being a bonus, but with such different scopes, I'd prefer the focus on the knowledge. Obviously this project will rely on the goodwill and interest of members and in order for that to work we'll need to make sure everyone agrees. So this is open for discussion at this point to finalize the plan and details and once that's done we'll start collecting questions. Once that is done (and after I've attempted them myself) I'll type up the questions and answers and post the pdf here for public dissemination and send the open word document to all the contributors for their own use. My current thinking on the test format is ten categories (below) with three questions for each. 1) Respiratory 2) Cardiology 3) Neurology 4) Musculoskeletal 5) Renal and Urology 6) Obstetrics and Neonatology 7) Toxicology 8) Gastrointestinal 9) Trauma 10) Miscellaneous I hope there are others who are on board or interested in this idea. I think this could be a really positive project and would be really useful for myself and hopefully other students and newbies out there. I look forward to discussing this with everyone and please feel free to PM me if so inclined. - Matt

Bushy you got a stop this man. You're the best salesman for Australia a medic's ever seen. Good standards and scope, excellent education, non-death trap ambulances, respected by the public. If I move there to be a medic my fiance will kill me!

I'm considered a BLS provider here, but we don't have ILS and I can do a lot more than Basics can. Unfortunately none of that includes pain relief. The only drugs we carry are ASA, NTG, salbutamol, glucagon, epi. Now PCP/ACP crews are becoming more common (where ALS is available) and they carry fentanyl and/or morphine.

Burns well though. Shoe bomber would have cooked his feet real good. You could have placed an electronic timer though couldn't you?

The original question was like "have you stopped crashing your Ambulance?"

Seems pretty clear that he fits a good definition for "really quite sincerely dead" Sounds like you did everything right on this one. Now if we remove lividity from the equation, the problem of the family's wishes becomes a bit more interesting. Sounds like there's some real variance among systems. Another Ontario provider can correct me if I'm wrong, but if there's not a valid DNR or they're obviously dead, then I have to run the arrest. Dealing with this person's next of kin could be difficult.

Thanks for saving me from this mistake. Looked like a good concept. Too bad.

Titles can be a bit weird sometimes though. Consider that as a BLS provider I will be a Primary Care Paramedic, but in Alberta the equivalent would be EMT-A (for Ambulance I guess) and their ALS providers are EMT-Paramedics while in just about the rest of Canada they're Advanced Care Paramedics. You have to call yourself whatever your system uses. Now I think the systems need to standardize for the country you work in ala the new levels in the USA or Paramedic Association of Canada's NOCP, but you can't fault the individual provider on this one.