AnthonyM83

I call shotgun. Spenac gets to be air traffic controller. Dust, you can be Brucie or whoever

Heh, been there with the paper. At least with organized crime it's interesting in a different way...100 pages of rewriting science stuff in your own words, yet including enough detail (with citations) so it fills 100 pages, is a freaking nightmare.

Ah, but Dust, it's so much funnier to read, when you think it's going to be a 100% serious report, then in the middle you get the patient quotes

What's that mean? What are you going for? Paramedic, Nurse, Medical Doctor? Get into the best school you can, it'll help prepare you for getting into the post-graduate medical programs which you go into after you get your bachelor's. There are a lot of good schools of varying levels...ask your college adviser to give you some suggestions based on your GPA and your SAT score. That'll give you a place to start.

I don't know about that, I've seen some global-wide progress and some promising trends, such as electric power. And hey, we're going to run out of oil eventually, so there's an example of it having a double good use, even if it ends up being naturally occurring. And no worries, we won't even eliminate greenhouse gases to the point we start freezing. We didn't freeze before the Industrial Revolution. Sorry, Dust, there's something in my genes that makes me want to look out for my future progeny....it's biological. I won't spend that much time on it, but I'll support those who do. PS I'm pretty sure the extreme lows are bad, too. I'm going to assume you were being facetious

Chapman, what's your avatar/icon picture from...?

Dude, do you know how effing boring that would be!? Come on, I love academics, but writing that much on any topics makes me start freaking hating that topic. After senior comps, you end up hating your topic.

Sorry that's http://dt4ems.net/ not .com

Thanks for the advice. I realize how LACounty'ed I'm becoming by including name and age right away in the reports. I used to hate wasting time on it instead of going into chief complaint, first, other than maybe first name, but it's the first thing on the runsheet they're filling out on-scene, so they always stop me to ask. Name, age, Hx,Alrgy,Meds, BP, Pulse, (not even for diagnostic purposes, but for fill in the box purposes, it seems). Also, part of wanting to give good reports, is simply practice in verbalizing findings and practice in making sure I go through a good assessment. Hopefully that helps me in medic school, even if I do it in a different fashion, it helps me get used to verbalizing under pressure instead of just babbling out, skins signs normal when patient electrodes won't even stick to the patient. Make it easier on myself during medic internship. Again thanks for advice guys. YOU are my FTO's, seriously.

Great point there. One should also think about which kinds of penetrating wounds cause most damage...simples clean lacerations or ones that did some exploring and twisting. Also, which are the hollow and solid organs... It's also important to be able to realize when the situation has gone south and you need to retreat. As medics there might be the tendency to wait until it's too late because of abandonment or compassion issues where you'd like to restrain the person and before you know it, it's no longer a psych trying to escape, it's a psych actively attacking and winning. I think I'll once again post the http://www.dt4ems.com site Defensive Tactics for EMS

I hate when they do that to US! We show up second, "hey guys, here you go" riiiip "So and so Hospital". I rush to read to through, then ask him a couple questions and learn it's ALS criteria per protocol, look back up to say something, but there's only dust trails. Dammnit, had again!

I would think b/c it's un-PC for the company...edgy. It's about the impression it leaves on the medical professionals reading it, both about the EMS agency and EMTs/Medics, so I guess yes professionalism also.

I think that's where the miscommunication lies. I'm working on the premise that there is considerable risk WITHOUT going into a combat zone. Of course, you stage for PD and wait until they clear you, but even then it's not 100% safe...you can't have that mindset or expectation. I've been on scenes where we're clear to enter, we walk up to victim, and see cops wrestling on pavement just feet from us with suspects. Do you tell the 12 year old with chest the chest wound you'll be right back? Even if you do, point proven that you can't expect the scene to be 100% safe. Another example, I've worked with a guy who was holding c-spine as a trainee on a shooting, PD on-scene, "scene safe, clear to enter" and original shooter comes back and discharges his handgun into patient's head, next to the EMT's head. The list goes on. Then there's the scenes where you don't know there's stuff going on. We had one call with a very unalarming "call type", I think it was a "bleed." That's usually reserved for medical, non-trauma bleeds... it's just me and my partner and we realize a domestic violence incident had just occurred...the deadliest type of calls for cops. And list goes on...patients that attack you, ambulances that crash, cars that drive into accident scenes. Not that every area is this dangerous or that you NEED to wear one, but someone working in an area where body armor need is justified, doesn't mean he's trying to be a hero or taking unacceptable risks. Technically, the risk of a car accident is higher, so he shouldn't be taking that risk, either.

I try to throw out the ABC's first, because I'm often cut off when giving reports to ask what the vitals are, I think to know if patient is big sick or little sick. I don't know if that's a medic thing or so captain can fill out the PCR. Perhaps, I'll start with name, age, chief complaint, mini-history, and then ABCs (thing is I usually check ABCs first on-scene, so that's what I have to report). Also, a lot of medics will cut you off as soon as they arrive, so if you start getting into history with patient (which often goes around in circles to get patients to answer the questions you need) you end up with nothing substantial to report other than "chest discomfort" and they wonder what you've been doing that minute you've been on-scene.

I'd like to hear from the medics out there how they best like their reports from EMTs who have been on-scene first. At my service, FD Medics and Private EMTs usually arrive 1-2 minutes apart. When we're first on-scene, I'd like to have something to say, even if we just got there. I've started doing: Hey guys, this is Jane Doe, 31, alert and oriented times three, skin signs normal, warm, and dry with a radial pulse of 96, strong and regular. Her chief complaint is chest pain. *stop* Then continue with whatever details of the complaint, history, allergies, and meds (while partner concurrently obtains BP). Also, after obtaining a chief complaint, such as chest pain, do you guys find it more useful to go into OPQRST (or whatever non-acronym method you use for details) or in history/allergies/meds which often also ends up yielding background to her complaint?

Wasn't the girl in the article nuts?

I don't think she killed a cop, though....

But legal systems don't seem to apply death penalty only when it's 100% obvious, on videotape, events. It's kind of an all or none thing.

Separate post b/c I don't want to mix topics: On the topic of the PCR itself, why is it necessary to say it was a "nigga" that assaulted him. I don't think the point of the PCR is to include all quotes from beginning to end, rather to include pertinent information to better assist in patient's medical assessment and treatment. Quote help greatly, but you also don't include all the "uhh's," "ummms" etc etc Not saying you can't include that direct quote, but I can understand why a supervisor might have a problem with it. I would have written: AND that would have added less confusion for doctor reading the chart.

That wasn't the issue being addressed in my post or in the reply the PCR author, though. The issue was that he was brought in for something the boss disagreed with and after being lectured he told his boss "Are you finished" and then pointed out he was black, as if that was going to be the final word and boss would feel stupid and it'd be over. THAT is what I'd issue disciplinary action for.

I knew a girl who followed that motto, she was the most vengeful little thing ever and it was her downfall....actually knew two girls like that. Works I guess, until you try to punish the wrong person. Except in real life legal world, it's an innocent person who ends up dying and the family mistakenly remembering them as a rapist/killer/etc....what an awful memory to leave behind

What, you don't like agreeing with me, now!?

Probably, but body armor has less chance of people getting into trouble with it. You must routinely wear your seatbelt to respond to help someone, too... should you not be in there in the first place, too, then? And since we're on the topic of crashes, there's a real danger of death or injury from an ambulance crash, so you're taking a risk anyway....and so happen the vest can help reduce serious bodily injury or even death in TCs. Take it from Dust and several others.

The problem is the correlation of human activities and marked changes in weather changing faster than than the historic rate of change through the ages. I say it very well could be naturally occurring, but it's stupid to dismiss the idea that we're not significantly contributing, because of the consequences. To big a risk. And either way, the efforts still end up contributing to a cleaner environment which is a good thing, especially health-wise.

Your partner's reply to the boss was stupid. Asking "are you finished" then pointing out he was black. I wouldn't have fired you for the incident itself, but likely for that comment. It implies you weren't even really paying attention to what he was saying. You can be black and be racist, without doubt. And the other issue is how the PCR is perceived regardless of who wrote it. There's no box to checkoff what race the author is. It's about the comment not about whether he was racist or not.