WolfmanHarris

All the new Ambulances in my county have had them for about three years and the crews neither like or dislike them as it's probably one of the few gadgets that can be put on an Ambulance that don't give the medics something else to worry about or get in the way. It just sits there keeping the battery from getting run down.

I've been consistently amazed with just how waterproof electronics are. Last summer while landing a boat I got my lace caught on the gunwale and face planted into the lake with my radio on my lifejacket. Full immersed, but when I dried it out it worked fine. This summer I was supervising a lifeguard team during an open swim and a swimmer got into trouble. I was closest and jumped in, with my radio on my shorts still. (New one too) Dried out and worked fine. Then in October I accidently washed my fiancee's cell phone. (After she'd said "I'm not sure where my phone went so make sure you check all the pockets." Whoops.) Still works. Last month I spilt a glass of water on my phone. Still works. I'm somewhat accident prone when it comes to electronics. Now I'm not advising you try this with your radio and I still spent some hours wringing my hands until they turned on again, but.... I don't actually think I had a relevant point there.

Good point Wendy and my fault for assuming this one all along, but I'd never consider any sort of joke that may be borderline or at someone's expense that I didn't know would enjoy it. I couldn't imagine being so uninhibited with jokes (at work, home, the mall, wherever) that one wouldn't make sure they knew their audience. If you're playing pranks on anyone/everyone with no regard for whether they'd appreciate it, then more than likely you're just bullying people whether you realize it or not. I've assumed twice on this thread and that's left me back peddling a fair bit.

Now is the Good Samaritan Act state or federal in the US? And does that make a difference in how we're discussing his? (if we all have different GSA's I mean.) Here is the Ontario GSA act. It's a short law and pretty clear. No gross negliegence and no reasonable expectation of compensation = no liability, despite common law.

We have to complete ACR's after all of our practice scenarios in class and submit them for marking. Early in the semester I withheld a medication under the incorrect belief that the medication the patient was allergic to was an NSAID (which it was not). I not only did not write that I gave it on my ACR, I wrote that I neglected to give it and what my mistake was. The worst I've seen is people brushing over checksheets. I've had a partner sign off on the airway/oxygen bag and then with surprise tell me there wasn't a nasal cannula or pass me a busted collar. That's why I check absolutely everything whether I'm required to put my name on it or not. It's funny I'm not very tidy at home and my desk is usually a mess, but I am absolutely anal retentive when it comes to equipment checks.

Perhaps this would be a better alternative to testicle painting? [web:0a0cf8e71b]http://www.motivators.com/Promotional-Custom-AmbulanceStressBall-11561.html[/web:0a0cf8e71b]

And I'm definitely not with you now.

I know you explained this at some point Vent, but how are credits measured in the states? In Canada (well Ontario) Universities measure as half credits (half year) or full credit (full year) or double/triple credits (usually reading courses or thesis courses). But all the colleges measure courses in terms of credit hours. So A&P 1 was a 60 credit unit course, which means the course had 60 hours of class time. So while I'm in a two year program, internally each course is counted in credit hours.

Sorry Crotch you've already lost my support on this one. The only practical jokes I like or would consider last about as long as a knock-knock joke.

You know the little jokes like that I like Kaisu. (The seat one especially) Easy to set up, only seconds to recover from and usually everyone has a good laugh and moves on. Kinda like snap gum.

Oh don't mind Jbangas. He was a troll and never replied to direct questions anyways. He's gone now.

"Feel good cuddly?" Hardly. One is asking individuals to admit to wrong doing with no expectation of discussion. The asks us to address the problem whether we've falsified a record ourselves or not. One is divisive the other generates discussion. Where has anyone on this thread justified falsifying any document. I just reread the other replies and not once as someone said "Ya, but it was one of those BS TPS reports."

Hey Crotch, slow down you missed the point as you charged past. I'm not saying issues don't need to be discussed for the betterment of the profession. What I'm saying is the tabloid language and polls aren't going to lead to any intelligent discussion. When the scope is sweeping and the tone accusatory you're not laying the groundwork for this. For example, rather than a "Yes/No" question how about a: Falsification of records goes beyond blatant fraud and can include improperly completed check sheets, adjusted times on PCR's, or incorrect vitals. This falsification can potentially harm patient outcome and negatively impacts the profession. What factors affect affect honest and diligent record keeping? What can be done at a provider/service/system level to ensure accurate record keeping on all forms of documentation in EMS? That to me seems like a better way to frame this discussion.

Were they running the arrest on scene, shocked a V-fib or V-tach that converted into NSR but wasn't perfusing? Were there compressions bringing up rate and pressure so that they were perfusing again? Anecdotal evidence is meaningless in the big picture and keeps us stuck on doing something the old way because we've seen it work once or twice. But I think they point you're missing is that in this big picture, these patients stay dead and that by transporting them doing crappy CPR in the back we're not only not going to change that, but we're more likely to kill ourselves or others in an MVC en route than we are to change their outcome.

Oh Crotch, don't make it sound like a bad thing. You found an interesting article that may potentially elevate this discussion to something educational and intelligent. Who knows we may all learn something. Off to read the article now.

And of course this is being broadcast over the radio, b/c you left them both behind at the scene. So now the whole county knows.

Crotchity, I don't get why you approach things this way? Falsification of documents is fraud and a career ender. Does it happen? Unfortunately yes. Might we gain something from discussing this? I'm not sure as I feel a professional provider is going to realize the importance of accurate documentation and we'll have a whole lot of agreement going on. As far the less than professional providers, I hope none of them on this board are stupid enough to admit to it publicly. Either way there's got to be a better way to approach this that won't dissolve into... well the save 6 million people thread.

You understand that could be considered a criminal offense right? And that these medics demonstrated way beyond a lack of professionalism, but violated their position and the trust their patient has in them? At best, if it was a joke with no relationship with a real situation or patient, than they show so little judgment that they don't even recognize potential career suicide when they say it.

and the stretcher's been dragging behind the ambulance the whole way.

So never got caught on standby for awhile? Crotch, why not just leave it at there's a time and a place for the phone and driving or with a patient is not one of them. I'm sure you'll get agreement on this one.

Are you aware of how effective those procedures are during an arrest? Or whether they are ever used in an arrest in the ED? (I have only a passing knowledge of this, so I'm not being entirely rhetorical) My understanding of ACLS, including a quick refresher of the algorithms right now found nothing we cannot do. Furthermore, my understanding is the more research is done, the more we realize that none of this stuff works all that well to begin with. With early defib and early, PROPER CPR being the key to survival there is no justification for crappy CPR en route. With the SCA survival rates, there is even less for trying to do it in a moving vehicle putting yourself and those around around you at higher risk of dying than your patient has of surviving. (Once again I wish I had stats to back this one up, but a google search found no cited statistics.) I accept that you, I and others have to transport patients who have no business being in a moving ambulance. It's the nature of our systems at the moment. I'm hopeful that mine will be changing in the near future. You should be pushing for the same.

I know running rolling codes is a fact of life in some areas but don't try to defend it as best practice, or worthwhile, or anything like that. Rolling codes need to go and as quickly as possible.

I don't think you need to give them a chance when doing so involves transporting L&S with an unbelted provider doing CPR in the back. We have to transport medical arrests in Ontario as a PCP unless your service is participating in ROC's TORIT study. Hopefully this study will change that. If after running my whole SCA algorithm there is no ROSC what are the chances of that changing? Is their chances of survival higher than the chances of myself, my partner, another motorist or bystander being injured in an MVA while we run L&S? I don't think so.

In that case shouldn't the service be providing a phone? That way it can have all the hospital, base and dispatch numbers programmed in and the service will foot the bill as well as monitoring use rather than have to reimburse providers for their own airtime.

When you're paid a stipend per call, this number might be really important for bookkeeping. Or when the department has only 400 calls a year but everyone responds from home in their POV to every page and then draws straws to go back and get the Ambulance.