DwayneEMTP

While I don't share you feelings that private EMS is the problem...I think we should have private police forces...I can feel your pain. This was one of those situations that, unless the press simply lied their asses off, a competent medic should have had no real issues, (minus possible crowd control). Pretty straight forward, though I'm grateful that you posted the story! Dwayne

It would seem, if they weren't called to the scene, (or were they?) and they didn't have the ability to take them both, ( not sure why that would be) that it would be a simple triage situation, right? Otherwise, load them both and go... Besides, I have no sympathy for an adult with an "injured" leg fighting to take an ambulance from a bleeding child. (Oh hell, is my red neck showing? :oops: ) Wait, this just in. I'm thinking that if you're able to argue for your right to an ambulance to the point that you draw a crowd...odds are you didn't need one. I know Dust is going to kick my ass from a customer service point of view...And most likely rightly so, but it feels good to say it so I'll take my beating and say thank you. My money is on the adult being a wah baby... Just sayin'.... Dwayne

These are almost counterpoints, though not really. I think they bracket the discussion nicely though. See, now I'm right with you here. When someone has read the thread and added something new, I've never really understood the, "Didn't you notice this thread is a year old?" comments. If it's new info, and the thread is still relevant, then I don't see the harm either, though perhaps someone is about to explain it to me. This is becoming a great thread! I think a tribute to the maturity of our environment is that I've seen some amazing discussion in the most unlikely of places in the last few months. The "rape" thread, the "hit a woman" thread, both should have imploded into smoking heaps of rubbish within two pages. But instead they went on post after post of old, new, common, uncommon, angry, patient, thoughts and ideas. Way cool, I think. I've also noticed many of the truly educational medical threads have been getting more attention. I think that speaks well of us as a community. As well, I noticed that many that posted here, but haven't posted in the forums for a while, suddenly started showing up there again!! I thought, "Good God! They didn't simply want to cry, they are actually going to make a difference!" That is the spirit that I love...Cool as hell. I almost didn't come into this thread simply because of the name. I ASSumed that it would once again be populated by whiners and cry babies wanting to explain why good grammar is dumb. It was only the fact that I thought the OP might have a different slant on things that changed my mind, and I'm glad I did. I'm curious to see some of the original posters comment on the later posts. Maybe we' ll walk away from here with a different perspective. Have a great day all. Dwayne

A kiwi in Ethiopia Dwayne

You know, there is a flip side to this discussion. What is often considered "negative" is often the 18th attempt to explain to some that this is a professional board. You've all seen the regular onslaught of n00bs that we get with the opinion that "I didn't come here to be judged, I was just looking for a place to hang out!" There have been LONG threads arguing that spelling and grammar shouldn't matter, etc. Is anyone here arguing that that is truly the kind of board where we'd like to spend our time? That's just not how we roll, Right? And There are a gazillion threads explaining that we need to "come together as brothers and sisters of EMS" regardless of experience, education or level of certification. That we're all equals, as we all do the "same thing." Hogwash, right? I know everyone in this thread well enough to know that you don't really believe this. Respected as people? Sure. equals? No way. Does anyone here actually see me as chbare's, or ak's, or Vent's equal? Ridiculous, and to promote the thought that I should be awarded that status because it "will make me feel better" is detrimental to all. Not just from a learning point of view, but from the point of view of being "real", promoting furthering education, and simply showing respect to those that have earned it. Are there some comments that are overly negative? Sure. Many of them have been aimed at ME, (I know, I find it hard to imagine too) and the vast majority of the time I've learned from them and made positive adjustments to avoid them in the future. Do we want to attempt to censor any of the comments that "someone" might consider offensive at the risk of developing a board that any 14 year old text messenger would feel comfortable in? Not me. Are we expected to be perfect? Not by a long shot. Eydawn could (And might) spend 10 minutes of her time and tear this post to pieces from her anal retent....Uhhmmm....I mean educated point of view. We aren't expected to be perfect, just as good as we can be today. And a little better tomorrow. I think community policing of attitudes and aggressiveness is a good thing, as long as you're not attempting to replace YOUR personal responsibility to be productive, spell properly and use proper grammar, and to develop intelligent ideas that you're prepared to support, with politically correct, "can't we all just get along" foolishness. We grow by surrounding ourselves with smart people that disagree with us, not the other way around. Here's a suggestion as well. This thread isn't a bad idea, but what you've done is complain about an abstract idea of negativity. That's good, just not very effective. I suggest that if you're passionate about the City, and truly believe the idea you're promoting here, that you begin to target specific posts. When you see a post you believe was written poorly, was overly aggressive, illogical or simply snippy, take it to task! Quote the post, highlight the points you disagree with, show the parts that were snide instead of logical, make suggestions for a more productive way to present them, and then allow the community to agree or disagree. That is how you make changes. See what I mean? We need this kind of dialog at the City. It is a community. It grows, changes, improves, goes backwards sometimes, but forward more often, yet requires our vigilance to keep it valuable. Pretty cool you stepped up to the plate GFF. Now let's see if there's any bite to your bark. :wink: Dwayne

Man, you know what I love about your post MedicNorth? I can pretty much see you thought process throughout. You didn't say "be nice", you said "be logical." You didn't say "Leave people alone", you say "be logical and productive while you teach them." Pretty cool. I do think sometimes a heavy hand will help some, but you're right, after you've been here a few days it can become second nature to assume the things we've discussed often should be common sense to others. I like Gaelic a lot, though I think he's a bit off in the ditch here. But his heart seems right, and he's started a much needed discussion, so kudos to him. You know MN, you Canadians are Ok, sometimes....Knowing that is going to make it even that much harder when we have to invade you some day.... :wink: Dwayne

Thanks all! My advice, for what it's worth... If you haven't started class yet, get right with your family. We walked tonight for graduation, and when the president of the college announced that the students receiving degrees would be next he asked for some quiet. He then spent a few minutes explaining that he was proud of the students, but that getting an advanced education is very much a team sport for most of us. He then asked the entire stadium to stand and give a round of applause to the families of the students....And every student and family member there knew exactly what he was talking about. It was way cool. For that last two years I've dedicated a minimum of four hours/day to study. I went to work, went to class, and then went into my office to study. Babs did EVERYTHING else. If she'd not been on board for this, I don't believe I could have done it. It was too hard. Make sure your family knows what you're in for, that you need this time to excel, and then put your head down and demolish every class. For clinicals, I'd simply ask that you make them valuable, and if they're not do ANYTHING to change yourself, your preceptor, or your location until they do. I wasted my whole first phase because I was a wuss and allowed myself to be beat up on every shift. And then I wasted half of my second phase regaining the confidence I'd forfeited on my first. You need to be there to learn. Learn from the medic, from the basic, from the Docs and nurses. Make sure you have questions prepared and written down for the slow times during the shift, and ask any as they come up. I had a thing that I liked. When the preceptor asked me a question that I didn't know the answer to, I wrote it down in the little notebook I kept in my pocket. Then when I got home I would research it and write a paper on it and turn it into my preceptor on the next shift for review. My preceptors didn't demand this, in fact my first preceptor simply tore them up each time I gave them to her, but over time they seemed to stop seeing it as kiss ass behavior and respected it as a true desire to learn. My third phase preceptor started asking me questions about anything he wasn't really strong on, and then would put my paper in a folder that he'd study from when things were slow... And be prepared to make things better when you find them lacking. You can make a difference. I kept pursuing the issue of my first phase, not just my treatment but patinet care as well, finally talking to the medical director of the area, and recently heard through the grapevine that both the medic and basic that I had issues with have been fired. Not what I was looking for, but they earned it, and now have been paid in full it seems. This is your education. DEMAND that it is first rate. Good luck to you both!! Your posting history here leaves every reason to believe you'll make me look like a dancing monkey before you're done! In fact, I'm rooting for you to make it so. Dwayne

I'll put in a good word for you...but it will be a stretch with your limited experience..... :wink: Dwayne

Yell, well, that one wasn't very dignified. Dwayne

"way bigger than normal", she says "I thought it might explode". Man.... If I had a nickel for every time a woman said this to me... We had a 75 y/o or so male we picked up for sever pain and slight swelling in his right knee who claimed he was dealing with the pain, but his wife noticed the swelling while he was getting out of the shower that morning and alarmed them. The medic said, "You were getting out of the shower naked and your wife was looking at you knees?!? What's up with that!?" The man, without missing a beat said, "I'll let you think about that for a minute." Medic....?...."Oh man! you're my hero!!" Dwayne

As if you'd really know...You started for Florida and ended up in Afghanistan! Learn to ask directions dude.... Dwayne

Holy shit. I bagged on you a bit because I thought you were being cocky and arrogant, yet you went on to explain that your thinking almost exactly mirrored mine when I first read the article, only you explained your point much more intelligently and eloquently. You know why I didn't continue along that line of thought? YOU! Do you remember the goofy kid that came here? Telling us spelling, punctuation...and that stupid grammar was just not as important as having a place to hang out? Now look at you. You're a mentor. Those of us that used to preach to you now learn from you on a regular basis. Who'd a thunk it? Don't let it get you down man. These articles get a lot a attention specifically because they are not real, every day life. Those of us here don't do that crap because we expect more from each other. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (author and exact quote often disputed) Keep doing what you're doing Timmy. It helps. It makes a change. It truly makes things better. At times when I was dead tired, just sick of worrying about my grades, I'd sometimes think about you taking your beatings here, always becoming better, but never running away, as most do. You helped me be better and I'm old enough to be your granddad. Don't let these stories convince you that you shouldn't be here. You're strong, and smart...and you're a teacher now. So learn, and teach, and don't let anything else matter. Dwayne

Not good enough Timmy. You don't get to play for free. If you have an intelligent opinion, then let's hear it. If not, then don't do the "I'm simply too smart and too good to participate in such a silly conversation." nonsense. You're too old, and been here too long to play that crap. That is for the n00bs. Dwayne

But what if she had reason to believe that the service that currently "possessed" the patient was not giving proper care? (Devil's advocate only) Dwayne

Obviously some very strong bad feelings here... But if the story is even true only in the very basic facts, how does this guy keep his job? If our very first priority morally and ethically is patient advocacy, how the hell do you get to keep working when you've you've opening demonstrated that you are unwilling/unable to do so? Now, I'm not nearly as hard on the wife. I have a lot of faith in my wife's intelligence/ compassion and common sense, so, if I show up and know nothing about the scene except that she's screaming that "This patient needs my care and they won't allow me access!!" Then I'm going to stop the ambulance as well. (Of course we have no reason to believe that this is what happened, I'm simply trying to define a scenario where she might not have been off in the ditch.) Will be interesting to see how it all turns out...if in fact anything comes of it at all...beyond the kid getting rich of course. Dwayne

I wonder if in this time when everyone is freaking out about MRSA if perhaps they are not able to tell the difference between pathologies, so that a "skin thing" is always to be feared. I'm not pretending to know of course, but I did notice during my clinicals that some medics assumed that anything red, irritated and weeping in any fashion was scary, while others had no trouble putting skin issues into their proper categories, thus treating, and applying caution, more appropriately. Just a thought. Dwayne

You know what's funny? I expected this huge burst of energy, like kids get waiting for tomorrow to come so they can go to Disney land. I mean all of a sudden I had 60 extra hours in my week! (Cinicals + study time) But it was like I ran head first into a brick wall. I turned in my last paperwork after my last clinical...and couldn't stay awake! I slept about 15 hours/day, three days in a row before I began to feel like myself again. I was pretty shocked. But now, as you mention, I have to rearrange my whole life as I don't really have any idea what to do with free time! Last night, just out of habit, while Babs and I were watching a show I said, "Ok...That's enough of that." And Babs got this "I love you but you're such an idiot" grin and said, "Yeah? Where ya goin'?" (See, cause Babs is always mentally about three steps ahead of me.) So, (catching up) I thought...well...I don't know exactly. I guess I don't have to go anywhere if I don't want to!" But I'd imagine I'll get the hang of it... :wink: Thanks mrmeaner...it's been a hell of a ride. There is still so much I need to know, but I'm finally thankful to be able to research, discuss and learn it in the order, and time frame that interests me the most.... Have a great day! Dwayne

Actually she had simple, possible options, such as adjusting the airway, pressure on severe bleeding, etc. I don't need much equipment for that. Neither of these things is going to help this guy, who sounds like he's going to be in pretty big trouble if equipment doesn't arrive soon. Should you have stopped...It's a dangerous, but personal choice. But as said, once you've decided to do so you have very few options and have exposed yourself to massive risk as well as possible liability. I wonder, and I know I've been taught this but can't remember....First on scene, what do you do about the undeployed airbag? One thing fire and medic school did a great job of is convincing me that this man is not going to get any assessment until I can do so without being exposed to the air bags sudden deployment. We usually stand back until fire tapes it and cuts power....I've not had to deal with this on my own before... Would it be acceptable to lay the seat back if possible, to distance him from the the full force and direct path of the airbag until rescue arrives? Every brand new basic here probably knows this answer...But...I....Just can't...re...member! (Yeah..that was supposed to be a William Shatner impersionation.... :oops: ) Dwayne

Thanks again everyone... It warms my heart to see so many well respected members here... Pretty special. Have a great day all! Dwayne

And the standard fire argument of "Well, response times are going to suffer...." Not if we can the unneeded firemen, sell the trucks and replace them with 6-8 ambulances per unit! Fire seems to believe that there is something magical about fire response times...I'm thinking if we had an ambulance every 300 ft. like they have fire houses...response times would be just fine... Dwayne

Actually our last shift is 12 hours in the ER with the medical director for this district! I was pretty worried, but all of his questions were relevent, he was nice as can be, and I fooled him into signing me off! :shock: I've heard that he's very involved...We had a great time! But I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to come and spend a shift with either you or ERDoc....if it was forthcoming? Dwayne

You know, it's funny the things you remember sometimes... Once, about a hundred years ago I was whining something to the affect of, "I don't get it! I never got it, and I will never get it!" and you told me, "Relax, it will all come together someday, and when it does, it is a beautiful thing." So whenever I got fried, and/or frustrated, I'd think "Don't worry if you get it now, Asys says it will all come together, so just keep moving forward." So I did, and you're right, all the important stuff did come together. And it was/is a beautiful thing. You all have no idea how many times I drew strength from your wisdom throughout this thing...It was so much tougher than I'd ever imagined. Thanks again. Dwayne

Didn't it say in the article that the medic was banging on the back door when they pulled away...? (didn't reread it, but I think so) Dwayne

You bet!! I love getting them, but as you've pointed out, have not been so hot about replying....I'll do better now! Dwayne

I can't change my name without losing my stats can I? Besides...I would have no idea what to change it to. Medic something doesn't feel right yet... Thanks a million all. It's pretty cool to see all of the people that have held my hand throughout this in this thread. I love to look at the names and see those that I've had 'knock down drag outs' with....yet we're still friends...still on the same page of moving each other forward. Way cool. 'Specially you Scar..There are some things I've said to you that I'd take back if I could...and I try not to have to do that if I can help it. Thanks for being here. It's such a powerful thing to have you all here. To know that there is not a single challenge that I can't come to you and get help with...amazing. Hell, it feels like a party already! Have a great day all. Dwayne