AnthonyM83

Go up the food chain. Talk to one of the ER doctors, but preferably the nurse supervisor and infection control nurse at the hospital.

Yeah, one job gives you freedom and variance/excitement (not to be confused with thrills) and the other gives you a chair and computer screen and nerd status

I volunteered as for that testing recently and it seemed like more were failing because they failed to go over the appropriate procedures in route or didn't ask information/evaluate in order to see if such procedures were needed (like intubation).

The rear endings I've been to have usually had minor to moderate injuries (except on freeway), whereas TCs from running red lights usually had moderate to severe/fatal injuries.

If you have the cash, go see a psychologist that does hypnotherapy. They can anchor it so that when you go into that testing environment you will get calmer, clear mind, etc. You can also just practice yourself. Practice relaxing the hell out of yourself (look up techniques online), then go through the test in your mind again with vivid detail, repeat a a few dozen times. It's basically classic desensitization.

I said "kids from alcoholic families are less likely to become alcoholics the later they start drinking, so legalizing it would promote more of these to drink earlier and start developing the habit." Break it apart and I doubt you can argue any of these. "kids from alcoholic families are less likely to become alcoholics the later they start drinking". -This is just a statistic. I've read in a number of places, including "Psych 101" and "Abnormal Pysch" courses. "so legalizing it would promote more of these to drink earlier and start developing the habit." -Some are going to drink regardless, but as explained in the post, many kids have a fear of being caught, getting in trouble, involvement with police. EVEN those who would drink anyway, the vast majority are LESS LIKELY to drink as often and as early. When we turned 21, we started going out to bars and ordering drinks with dinner all the time. Yup, we drank before that (mainly at college b/c parents were away....harder for high schoolers to do this on a daily basis en mass), but it really went up as far as integrating alcohol in our daily lives when we were legal. For most it then leveled out. So, I can't see how it won't promote alcoholism.... I know everything else you said about kids drinking anyway, environment and genetics being a factor, etc are true ,but I don't think they make my argument void...

The way I see it, illegalizing alcohol if under 21 does drive drinking underground, but doesn't really promote activities that lead to alcohol-related deaths. At my HS, kids under 21 still used DDs, still gave their keys to the party hosts, still called for taxis, still didn't drink and drive (we seriously would have ostracized someone who did that, our school was small). The kids who don't follow these practices, wouldn't suddenly start following them if drinking was legalized. All it would do is allow the kids who don't drink or don't drink as often or don't go out and do dumb stuff for fear of getting caught, it'd allow them to drink often and freely and increase their chances for making a dumb decision or being less paranoid about the effects of alcohol. Which they should be...as evidenced by the lives that have been lost/ruined by drunk driving or other drunk activities or addictions. Also, kids from alcoholic families are less likely to become alcoholics the later they start drinking, so legalizing it would promote more of these to drink earlier and start developing the habit.

Standard practice at my company is to shut down if coming to a light with all lanes blocked and you can't oppose traffic. I would think it'd be a liability to force a car into the intersection. Before I worked in EMS, I would have gone through an intersection of an emergency vehicle, but now I really don't know. I felt very confused once when driving the ambulance and having a PD unit come racing toward us at a red light. In my personal car, I would have safely run it (it was a crosswalk red light, not intersection, pedestrians had finished crossing). But as an ambulance I didn't know what kind of example to set, but also didn't want to seem like a jerk to the police. They ended up passing around us on the right, through a gap.

Man, I'd love to have those. We've had shifts where we get a call at 7:05AM (not even done with checkout) and don't see quarters until 1:30AM that night.

This is similar to the previous KED thread, but I would like to specifically know the order people are being taught. I volunteered at paramedic skills testing for NR, recently, and I saw people using very different orders. I then looked at two videos online and my 2004 EMT skills handout and all three had different orders. Does it matter what order the straps are put on? Does it matter what order they are tightened? Does it just matter that torso goes before head? People at the skills testing were using My Baby Looks Hot Tonight (Middle, Bottom, Legs, Head, THEN back down to Top chest strap). Also, I just saw that my EMT skills sheet said to loosely secure wrists with appropriate straps...I'll have to check the KED at work tomorrow, but I didn't even know they had wrist straps...must've confused them with carry handles.

What's an MRE?

Wow, Amazon's charging $149 for it...

Yup. I documented the heck out of that call on a separate incident report form stating explaining how she was encouraging patients on-scene to go to the hospital, quotes from her in the back of the ambulance of her asking if I was always alone with patients in the back, if my patients in the back were unconscious sometimes (I told her in those cases the back's usually crowded with additional medics), and if I liked being the one with the patients versus driving. Also, how she was talking about suing the bus company while we transferred her to her hospital bed, and aggressive comments made to staff. I also gave a heads up to the charge nurse. Documented what I did and said in response when she made the awkward comments. I was hesitant to even write it at first, because a copy would go in my personnel file and I'd rather any topic close to that not be associated with my file, but I just explained how the report was voluntary and written to protect myself and the company from someone who seemed unstable to me and already talking about suing the bus company. I also added a more thorough medical history than the medics on-scene had gotten, including her partial psych hx and psych meds. But it's still disturbing how easily one's name could potentially be tarnished and how quickly your ambulance company would drop you. If anything, it was practice as good documentation in case a more serious situation did come up.

I've only been asked by a patient to see their PCR once, but this girl was ready to sue. She had alluded to it from the moment we were putting her in c-spine (it was a low speed bus accident). During transport she began asking ME shady questions during my detailed physical about being alone with patients in the back. I decided to just sit back the rest of the trip, monitor, and document what she had said. She tried arguing that it was HER medical record, but I told her it was our documentation OF her and still our record, but that she could obtain a copy from the hospital upon discharge. (I still wasn't done writing it)

We follow orders from Fire Captains. Apparently, they're ranking medical authority on scene in LA County even though some aren't medics. I've never seen a really screwed up order from them...most have been running EMS for many years and know when to defer to the medic on-scene. They're not making actual treatment decisions.

Good point on having everything you need with you. But not everything on that list was something both partners needed to have with them. A few were things neither of us on the crew carry with us , some only one of us, like radio. As a side note, to whoever criticized original poster for carrying monitor on every call. I'm not a medic, but on ride-alongs was taught you NEVER go to a call without your monitor. As EMTs, we sometimes go without our AEDs, but even then we're playing a dangerous game...and monitors are used much more often.

Attach the regulator key to the car keys. Phone in shirt pocket. Radio on hip. Sheers in boot. Gloves in each of your back pockets. Get a Surefire miniflashlight, they usually provide ample light. It can go in your pants pocket. Give the stairchair to you partner. We only take these when we see there will be stairs for sure, but I guess in NY that might be every call. In fact you partner can carry the flashlight and radio and keys for you. Spread it out.

Can't tell you how long it took me to get over that. Every time someone said PCR, I'd have just a quick second of confusion.

I forget if I got this from the convo with ccmedic or his article or my prep class or other article, but it discussed the idea of how cells that are forced to revive but aren't functioning properly will initiate apoptosis in order to save the surrounding cells (by not taking up nutrients and energy). Anyway, seems like steps in the right direction as far as revival medicine.

Our medics usually just leave the four leads sticking partially out of the zipper, so you can just grab all three at a time and easily separate white/green from black/red. Sometimes it might be useful to have them sub separated into w/g and b/r like if your passing the leads to someone, but more often than not I think it'd be faster not to have to rip the tape IF they're sticking out of the bag already. I like the idea of keeping the 4-electrode stickers still connected in a row of four (if they come prepackaged in rows). Our field medics have pre-separted circle ones though. I've also seen the disentangler wand that you slide from start to end of electrodes to separate them. Props for taking time to come up with a system, though.

The debilitated state I see con home people in has reminded me how important keeping healthy is, both in diet and exercise. I've always worn my seatbelt, but seeing all the seat belted rollovers on the freeway walk out without injury and the non-belted lower speed city crashes with skull fx has made me become a better advocate for seatbelt use with friends. It's kind of made me see my body as just flesh...rather than a person. Not sure if that's healthy...but when I have a good workout or eat a good meal, I'll occasionally have a passing thought about how if I'm in a TC and lying lifeless the food in my stomach or muscle mass isn't going to be worth crap. Guess it's made me a better driver...as far as remembering to slow down.

Well, look at what you all have been talking about while I've been away. As someone who works in Los Angeles County system (I work for one of the private ambulance companies that either transports patients BLS or FF/Medics with patient ALS), I have to comment. I'll start off by saying we have a few really good, skilled medics who truly care about their patients and I'm always happy to work with them. Then there's the majority who seem like they aren't really interested in the job, BLS all they can, do the bare minimum, no in-depth care, and burned out outlook even though they've only been doing a few years. Then there's the horrible medics who either are incompetent or know what to do, but don't give a crap. It's a bell curve, I'd say...slanted to the right. FFs are recruited to medic school against their will, sent to a painfully simplistic medic school (learn only 22 drugs, I think), then forced to work the medic squad. We have people going to medic school to become better FF applicants even though they "hate medicine and the medical side of fire". Things that have been sent BLS by LACoFD: -Multiple Stab Wounds, including upper back -GI bleed patient who has coded 5 times prior at hospital -Falls from over 15 feet to hard surface (trauma criteria here) -Patient left on street corner with PCR taped to chest (might not have been LACoFD, but another Fire based system we do backup for) -Traffic Collisions with positive loss of consciousness -Difficulty Breathers including ones with audible wheezing and 4-5 word dyspnea without even an O2 reading or proper eval -Substernal chest Pain, radiating to left side I've heard so many more, though, that's just what came to mind. My point: FFs who are forced to become medics will be subpar medics and a liablity. As is the case in LA, it will force county to have a very narrow scope (to limit what they can screw up), providing substandard medical care (if citizens only knew). And is a waste of resources and money. You don't need 9 people crowding a living room on a chestpain call.

One of the crews had two young guys who might have been on that based on the way they described the plant. One was just a bit out of it. The other had reverted to a baby...he was gently pawing at the EMT's badge in complete wonder and amazement.

Might be. I think the idea is a police officer isn't qualified to decide whether cancellation is needed, he has limited first aid. First responder at best, usually, but most are not even that. I've been through their class. It's very narrow training, CPR, rescue breathing, choking, and GSW procedures, at least where I took it.