TechMedic05

Wow... No. Just Wow.

Wow, the more I read here, the more I find out my Paramedic education wasn't the norm. Our Pharmacology class [A 4 credit college course] did teach to the C level for all of our drugs. At least those NH allows prehospitally [Almost everything] and many that are common occurrences in transferland. Our only text was really a 2005 IV Drug reference book, which I keep on the truck with me now. Our assessment class used a real Assessment book, primarily used by PA programs. Yeah, they made us buy the 5 Mosby series books, but that's not what our classes were based off of.

Mmmmm Aerosolized Valium... What a great idea. Oh, for patients, too. Anyways, I can't say that this happened to me, but while riding for Medic, my preceptor told me about an interesting case he had a few nights prior on one shift: Nursing home calls for multiple AICD firings of a patient. Something to the tune of twelve. Then the AICD stopped functioning. ALS work up finds pt. in V-Tach at 180, cardioverted x2 or 3, Amiodarone without conversion. Then, after about 10 minutes, the AICD became operational again, and continued to shock. Now, Kinda off topic, but will they do that? I can't imagine their batteries are all that powerful, will the capacitor draw enough energy to make the device need a 'rest' per se? Sorry, not trying to hijack.

I wish I did have an easy button, to take care of, y'know, those Evangelions n'stuff. The Person Below me loves terrible puns.

Picky, picky.

Moooooooood! A good pun is it's own re-word. 8)

Point taken. :wink: remember, I wasn't really there when you got hired, oh so many years ago. :wink:

Oh, I dunno... Not you, of course. :cyclops: Someone who is rather daring, careless and desperate for an AMR job.

If for nothing else, the patient is now somewhat mobile. Although yes, you still need to do the moving, at least the patient can be easily moved. I highly doubt it'd be a "CYA" maneuver if here was no C-Spine immobilization performed...Why only do half the job?

Meaning: "We haven't gone through things yet...just keep waiting, you're dispensable." Keep on 'em, honest. They will get back to you.

I know, really! 42 cars all making 4 left hand turns for 3 hours straight, and it's EXCITING? Heh, not really. If you put the same cars to race down the interstate, then you'd have something worthwhile. Besides, after working a few NASCAR events in Loudon, it's really more fun to watch what the person below me does: The person below me rides their red wagons with coolers filled with beer down hills while highly intoxicated, only to fall of at the end and spray beer into a croud of people.

PRPG - Yes, it does. 3:40 AM is good for simple answers ;-)

Just showing up - Although not the best way to go about things...It has happened. heh.

The person you want to ask for is Sarah Buttery. She's head of HR, I believe. Also, she's on the ball with just about everything. :-D

I don't think so, honestly. I believe they just didn't chose the most appropriate words to lead in an article. "Having a smaller number of paramedics who are very highly trained is probably a better strategy for delivering good patient outcomes." Is that not true? I mean, who would you want coming to your Grandmother's house? A Paramedic who does 20% ALS and 80% BLS for their 40 hours a week, or one who only does ALS? If the call they intercept on is not deemed an ALS call, they triage and off available for the next ALS call they go. "The major reason to have paramedics on first-response vehicles is because of the possible impact on cardiac arrest," Sayre says. "If that is not there, it would suggest to me that there isn't a good reason to have paramedics on first-response vehicles. It would be better to put a much smaller group of paramedics on a second-tier response." So, I believe it was San Diego Fire that found A Paramedic on every engine may not be the best thing. . I don't have it readily available [my apologies], but I recall one possible reason for poor intubation outcomes is the infrequency in which intubation was performed. There is a certain number of patients we see every year. A concrete number of assessments performed, leading to a concrete number of skills [although there's the issue of people doing unnecessary skills 'Just because we can!" or "Because it's in my protocols!" which are another issue altogether...] that are being performed. Logically, having the people responsible to do such things should be doing them as often as possible? An ALS unit for every unit in a 911 system may not be the best thing. A Paramedic on every ambulance and every fire engine is not the right answer. The best comparison I can make is of 'Street' Paramedics to flight Paramedics. The Aeromedical services in the areas I work [DHART, Worcester LifeFlight and Boston MedFlight, if anyone's familiar] all have, at least, Good Paramedics that work with them. The Paramedics that aren't that great get weeded out, eventually. 911 Isn't meant for everyone. Why shouldn't all 911 be similar to this? They perform more intubations, more RSI, and see more critical patients. Why shouldn't all Paramedics have this ability? Paramedics in an Intercept or Dual-Response system get more assessments, and more treatments respectively. Isn't frequency one of the standpoints of [skill] retention? The article also left some areas rather vague, like the number of Paramedics needed. I agree, having 2 Paramedics to serve the city of Boston would be absurd. The point was not having a Paramedic on every vehicle. Just my $0.02

OhBoy! AMR In Massachusetts! Did you do your testing in Natick, or up in Newburyport?...Or Worcester, or Springfield? Sometimes, different offices are faster than others, where all hiring does go through HR in Natick. Keep on them, because sometimes it may take a while to hear back from them... At least find out when the next "New Hire Orientation" is. If all else fails, I know of at least two instances where people didn't hear back from HR, and just 'Showed up' on the first day of orientation. Although their names weren't on any list, they just got written in. As long as you have done your lift test, drug screening, and have all the paperwork, no one asks any questions. As you can see, Communications is one of AMR's strong points in Massachusetts. PM me if you're looking for more information

If you send something on a boat, it's cargo, but if it goes by car, it's a shipment. Why is it we can sit at an Internet cafe and talk with people around the world, and yet never say hi to the person next to us? If you've tried to fail, and you succeeded, which have you done? Do sheep shrink when it rains? Why is there braille on drive-up ATM's? And someone had mentions Progress -vs- Congress- What goes on in Congress? Politics. Now lets break down that word: Poly: More than one; many; much: Ticks:Any of numerous small bloodsucking parasitic arachnids of the family Ixodidae, many of which transmit febrile diseases, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease. Any of various usually wingless, louselike insects of the family Hippobosciddae that are parasitic on sheep, goats, and other animals that causes general unhappiness. 'nuff said?

SA ...You mean Small Adult? Which is less of a guess than Adult Small, from AS?

That's VERY cool! Although, honestly, I was waiting for a screaming bloody skull to appear, as in other "Stare at this non-moving object for a while while you're not suspecting anything, really!" pictures online. Thanks, Pug!

YOU'RE RIGHT! However, the person below me wants to hijack this thread to talk about their new found love for underwater basket weaving.

Very nice, very nice! I learned a few new ones to add to the collection

In my experiences, the LP12 is the way to go. A fire dept. I worked for just *had* to have the Heartstart MRx, and ever since, they've had issues with it. Overall, I can see it's a great monitor, but I feel it's really made for in hospital usage. Rather poor tracing in vehicles, the button clips on the lead wires don't stay attached well, and it's been serviced several times for the same issues [spO2 sensor not working, and V1 not being displayed on 12 leads] Unfortunately, the Intermediate level service could care less about my opinions, and are happy "They have a machine that's as good as having another partner on the truck." The MRx also prints on the same paper as a LP10, Two inch paper, I believe...making it incredibly difficult to read 12 leads, as the still printing off the same [the 4 columns of 3 leads]. The Zoll series is decent. I've had the least experience with this monitor, but I haven't had any issues with it. I guess the only drawback is user-friendliness. But, after playing with the monitor for a while, and moving soft key points to logical places, it'd be good to use. Paper is a bit wider than the MRx, making 12 leads easier to read. The LP12 is what I currently use most of the time. No problems with limb leads falling off, the BP is mostly accurate, or will time out, so it rarely gives false information. Paper rolls are like 3.5 - 4 inches, leaving decent room to read 12 leads. It's easy to use. Any time you're lost, the Home key brings you back. It's incredibly easy to change leads or what waveforms you want to view. Most monitors have similar ETCO2, 12 lead faxing, SpO2 capabilities. Best advice, visit other services with different monitors and go play. :-) Good Luck!

One company I work for requires it. The other company I work for, from what I can tell, isn't interested. 'Haven't needed it yet, so why bother now?' Of the two fire departments I have/ do work per diem for, they don't feel they need it because they've never been at fault for an accident yet. Gogo good 'ole boys clubs. :clock:

::sigh:: Yes, Dear. :tongue3:

"My husband and I are a team ( considered one EMT) because we have 2 small kids." How does having children affect your license status? Do you lose one quarter of your license for each child? "Several months ago he took a call elderly women knitting developed a severe headache that radiated down her neck and back. There were no other S/S. She was transported to the hospital via our ambulance and then flown to the cities (2 and half hours away by ground) where she stayed for about 6 or 8 days. It was a bleed on the brain for what we were told and she did have surgery. Her family got to spend a few more days with her once she was moved out of intensive care. She passed away at the hospital. It is helping people in cases like this that makes us feel good about being an EMT-B. " Just because nothing happened in that one instance, does that mean patients should be deprived of ALS assessments and interventions?