THE_DITCH_DOCTOR

What's a "Master MD"? Do you mean a physician who holds both a doctorate and a master's degree completed at the same time? There are lots of medical schools (nearly all of the older schools) that offer MD/MS, MD/PhD, MD/MBA, MD/etc combination courses in 6-7 years. It's usually referred to as a "medical scientist training program". They cut out all the "fine arts" (again assuming you mean liberal arts education) because that's never a part of medical school to begin with. You have to have the basic education (including some exposure to a broad background in most cases) to gain admission to medical school in the first place, so the comparison of the training an MD goes through, even with the additional research work required for a MD/MS or MD/PhD combo, to the increased educational requirements we are suggesting for medics is not an adequate one, at least not in the way you are implying. Rid simply meant it in the sense that just because we can crank out an MD in two years doesn't mean that it's a good idea. Just as cranking out undereducated EMT's and paramedics after 150hrs and 1 year respectively is not a truly appropriate course of action. I hope you did learn a lot from your training, at least for your patients' sake, and I hope that you don't take it that we are maligning everyone for the sad state of EMS education simply because we are not. We are attempting to improve the quality of care and improve the quality of the EMT's. You can't write the educational requirements with an eye to the best and brightest in the field- you make the courses difficult and challenging so that you weed out the idiots, the wannabes, the thrillseekers. Seperating the wheat from the chaf is all we are talking about. Nothing more, nothing less.

In Fountain County, Indiana, you never know. (greetings from someone who grew up in Parke County) :wink:

Like was said before, it all depends on the circumstances. We've transported people in the cab of then engine at my former VFD because there was no ambulance available. So if push comes to shove, do what you need to do. We all know your affiliation with a Canadian paramedic union or some such group, and that you're simply toeing the party line in regards to this issue, but I don't see it as a terribly big problem. Personally I'd have more problem if the firefighters were sitting around with their thumbs up various orifices waiting for an ambulance rather than getting resourceful. Of course the issue that firefighters in Canada aren't EMS trained (at least from what I was told (correct me if I am wrong)), adds another side to the story, but remember that there are several police departments in the US that will throw shooting victims into radio cars and haul butt for the nearest ER (not so surprisingly with equal or sometimes better survival rates than for those patients transported by ambulance).

"In hindsight, giving humans free will: HUGE MISTAKE"

Eeeeeexxxxcellent Smithers, excellent. Now too bad we can't make them into their own country. Hard to believe we fought a war and lost several hundred thousand good men in order to keep the ancestors of these idiots in our country

Want my honest opinion? If that fault produces an earthquake of the magnitude of the 1811 and 1812 quakes, pretty much everything in a 50-100 radius of the fault break is going to be screwed up. Local response is not even probably going to amount to much and they will have to rely heavily upon outside help (DMAT and DMORT teams, Red Cross, etc).

Don't mean to be blunt Dix, but you're not exactly one who should be giving out advice on how to cause trouble for EMS authority figures since you've painted yourself into a corner in regards to impressions you've made in your area.

:roll:

Me too. Nice work.

Sounds like a well constructed study.... :? I'd like to see a full protocol for that.

The use of sodium bicarbonate should be restricted to cases where an arterial blood gas has revealed significant metabolic acidosis, or in cases of TCA, aspirin or diphenhydramine overdose

No offense, Dixie, but this is an excellent way to wind up blacklisted. Yeah, the guy's a dickhead, but chances are he's far better connected than these two students in the local EMS community and will do everything within his power to make sure they do not ever get a job. Just food for thought......

Epi-shock, bicarb-shock? Uh........

No, not the same medical director....at least not for most of my career. The one I spent the most time working under actually treated most of us (read as those who could back up our reasoning and have an intelligent conversation) with a great deal of respect and he would have the ass of anyone who didn't respect "HIS" medics (and he called ALL of us that- from FR's up to EMT-P's). He was not a man you wanted to cross, but he got more pissed if you didn't stand up for yourself during audit and review than if you fought tooth and nail about something you felt was right. That's where I learned the debate technique I utilize on here.

That's assuming a couple of things: 1. You can defend your argument in some semblance of an organized, logical and educated manner. Many can't. 2. Your medical director is not an egomaniacal prick who thinks you have an ego problem, compounded by a serious lack of education because you are (in his mind) one step above a guy who asks "Would you like fries with that?". Many are. 3. Your patient has a good outcome because of, in spite of, or irregardless of the care you provided. Many don't.

I pick fights on internet forums. I'm kidding. No, seriously, I do research and go to school full-time in addition to working (which really isn't that stressful anymore since I now work at a radio station), so I spend my off hours sleeping. That's my way of relaxing.

Ah, nice to see that some people in EMS still check common sense at the door in their balls out rush for the most "advanced" treatment possible.

You didn't piss me off. I just stated my opinions and gave my response to what you said. There would have been a funny picture if you had pissed me off.

It's like saying that, well the ship is leaking, but lets keep on sailing because most of the compartments don't have water in them. If you want to retain more of the "good" medics you need to make this a profitable career which means advancing things educationally and legislatively. I find it rather contradictory that you are all for advancing the field but you have a problem with the way of doing that. As I've pointed out before, in various debates, you don't make rules for the best and brightest- the good medics- you make them for the dumbest and most immoral EMS provider- the one you wouldn't let treat your dog. You increase the educational requirements from what they are now in order to weed out the less desirables and grossly unqualified, at the same time making the "good" medics you speak of, even better. I believe Lee Iacoca said it best in those old Chrysler commercials: "Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

The problem is that there are a lot of very ignorant people who can pass the test (which is not nearly hard enough at any level). Just knowing what to do and when is not enough. You need to understand a tremendous amount more if you want to be able to help this become more than just a job. This is a career field and it needs to be treated as such. The only way to do that is to impose more staunch educational requirements upon those entering the field, irregardless of a shortage. I don't see nursing lowering their standards and they are far more shorthanded than EMS is currently.

BUMP*

And to think if they had just shot him in the head the British wouldn't have to pay for a trial and imprisonment.

I can beat that for worst attempt: One of my friends from the military has the video of me doing the worst attempt ever at beer bonging Yuengling.

Ewwww.....funny, but exceedingly gross.....