DwayneEMTP

Heh..yeah, I know they're ladies, some more than others, but who's going to click on that title? Is it just me, or have we been really lucky lately to have some strong new posters? Yeah, I didn't think that it was just me. I mention the girls in particular as I've seen them a couple of times stepping in with some of our other seasoned providers here...and, still acting like girls! Not backing down, staying in the discussions, but also not taking on the whole, "Just because I have boobs doesn't mean that I can't act just as crude and stupid as you!" attitude. And that's cool as hell I think. Anyway, for what it's worth..... man, it's good to have you all. We've been missing some of our stronger women posters for a while, not all, but some, and the City, I believe loses something important when they're gone. I'm not sure what it is...but it's something that's always lost when there's not enough girl energy in a place. Thanks for being here, to all of our new folks, whether you have an innie or an outie, it's been really cool this last bit to have some fresh attitudes, insights, and perspectives. Dwayne

Medic's not a cop, no search warrent necessary. The guy may be able to sue him and his employer, but I can't see where there was any illegal gathering of evidence if he found it, either ethically or not, and then turned it over to the police, right? I'll bet you dollars to donuts Kat that that is EXACTLY how that vid was found....

Man..that's cool! Thanks for pointing that out....(Sorry, to my reading that sounds patronizing, but it is sincere.) Can't see the vids...I can't wait to get home to real internet again! Man..that's cool! Thanks for pointing that out....(Sorry, to my reading that sounds patronizing, but it is sincere.) Can't see the vids...I can't wait to get home to real internet again!

Yeah, I get where Patton is coming from here. Some of the same people that are saying it's not unprofessional to take food or drink would never, ever consider using a person's bathroom, no matter the emergency, right? We've had some pretty involved threads on that subject too. One is necessary, the other not, yet the unecessary is professional and the necessary unprofessional? Like ak, I used to run on a diabetic that took a long time after waking up before we could get him to eat. Neither he or his parents had any interest in transport as the reasons for his crashes were evident to all...They lived from hell to breakfast up in the mountains. While I waited for him to become clear headed enough to be able to follow instructions I'd sit on their couch with their dog and do my paperwork. They offered me a Soda once and I accepted and from then on one was just waiting when I got there. But yeah, if there was still work to do and they stopped doing it to go and picnic, then I wouldn't like that either, it's impossible to tell from the pic... But babe, even if there was still work to do, they are firemen, they weren't slacking, they were performing Community Outreach....Just sayin'... And MY panties are just fine Island, you shithead... :-)

I've nothing to add except to say that that is why I love these threads...when was the last time any of us considered these question...fun, right? Thanks for staying with it guys. I've not lost interest, just any type of internet access that allows research...

LMMFAO.... Oh man, that cracked me up.... No worries. Sometimes Mike get's a little cranky, and maybe short on humor, but well worth the effort... PMike, really? You thought that his post was serious? I think that you're working too hard Brother....

There's one bar that my partner and I like to hang out in because they give free tequila to those in uniform... In fact, I'm sometimes disappointed when my shift is over and they try to make me start paying 'cause then I have to go outside and change into my nursing uniform, which, of course means I get to drink all night for free... I love medicine...

No offense, but I guess the part that bothers me the most is that this is suddenly considered an unimportant, non life threatening call because it's just a hospice patient. You have a patient that is dying, at least it appears so if they are in the hospice system, and for some reason it's less important to get there because they're going to die anyway? I'll tell you what...after rereading it really, really bothers me that you use, "If it was really an emergency", "This was just a hospice patient" over an over. Either you've not been doing this long, or you need to really, really rethink why you're in this business. These patients are not only some of the sickest, most emergent patients that you'll see, but also, they and their families have normally been suffering for a really long time, in some really humiliating ways. I would rather provide comfort and care to this family than the kid that just crashed his motorcycle and has just started suffering 15 minutes ago. My care will be more meaningful and appreciated here. And if they called for a non emergent transport, why were there first responders there anyway? Once you've dealt with some of these patients and their families you will understand why they would want a particular service (Most often because their loved one had been treated kindly by that service before), and would NOT want a bunch of first responders running around in their house trying to pretend like they had something to offer. It's after the football game, so I'm guessing, what 10:00pm or so? Maybe later? When was the last time you heard of a non emergent transport that involved a "well" person at that time of night? Your boss did the right thing. At least until he started eating shit from another wanker that prioritized call volume over patient care and safety. I'm not busting your balls/ovaries, I'm truly not, but I don't really get this either. We've all been caneled a bazillion times, and I'll bet that less then 1/3 of the dispatches that I've responded to were a good representation of the patient present upon arrival. (Not bashing dispatch. They report what they're told, they're just simply are rarely talking to calm, rational people.) And if you were really frustrated because it might have been something really important, like a sexy arrest instead of a boring hospice patient, then you'd accept that even at 15 minutes out that you had nothing to offer the arrest either, right? It sounds to me like a low volume area where there aren't enough calls to keep folks entertained so they look for things to fight about...

Now they can go to the prison fight club...Let's see how well, "No pinching!...works for them there...

Man, Chris, what an excellent post....

Hey Island, the times that I was mentioning were inside the U.S. working on the street. I've never been jammed up outside of the country....

I was blessed to have made this decision early. When faced with what I considered to be a moral and ethical conflict when first going to Afg I called Babs, and she said, "If you damage your paramedic spirit to stay employed...or allow someone to suffer so that you can keep bringing home a paycheck, I won't thank you for that. Don't come home and expect me to call you a hero." This is a woman running a single income household and raising a handicapped child...And, as Babs almost always knows what's best for me, I've followed that for my career. There have absolutely been times, while I was performing an intervention, thought, "I'm going to get so fucked for this..." But I didn't get hosed on those, actually. I got hosed the times that I performed what I knew for a fact to be within protocol, but no one at the service had the balls to perform. I'm guessing a few of us remember my hypoglycemia/ I/0 patient? (That was a pleasant thread, wasn't it?) It's going to be decided by what you can live with, in my opinion. If you are ok living with the fact that you allowed someone to die, or suffer when you had the knowledge and skills to mitigate that, as you're covered by your protocols, then ok. I won't judge you for that. I won't find it abhorrant that you chose to protect your family first. For me, and this is a personal decision not an argument for my point of view....I have chosen not to allow suffering if I can mitigate it. I just simply don't believe that you can allow a person to be further injured, or remain in pain, or, in cases that I'm personally aware of, allow people to die, because your protocols say that you must, and then ever come back from that and pretend that you're a real paramedic. The heart and soul of which, I believe, to be patient advocacy. It's an interesting delimma, that's for sure...

As above Brother, good to have you. And thanks for participating! We can use another old timer here. Us youngsters sometimes have a hard time keeping our morals and vlaues straight.. Too often those with something to sell make a trite post or two to try and avoid being deleted as spam and then disappear. I too look forward to checking out your book and I hope it's making you millions. Not that you'd need it, being a paramedic and all...

Which part? I'm thinking the apology? That was a dorky way for me to phrase it. At the end of your post you said, "Debate over..." I was pretty confident that when you make a statement such as that that you've probably covered it pretty thoroughly, to include the subject of my statement. I'd started the post and a visiting doc sat down at my desk for several hours, so when I got back to post, you'd posted in the meantime. Wanting to make my point anyway, as it's one of my favorite points in the religious wars (my only point, really), I went ahead and posted. Basically I kind of felt like I was being purposely redundant despite not being able to see your content.. :-) Kind weird, right? But there you have it.

LOL

However you choose to do it I would like to suggest the the trainers status/advancement is tied directly to those that they train. But fair warning, you will get resistance to this as it's much easier to blame than to improve. In my opinion too often a failure of the trainer is blamed on the trainee. The trainer, who sucks, continues with their chest puffed out while the trainee skulks away in shame. The exact oposite of how it should work. When I rode with AMR in the Spring years ago each of their FTOs got training in that job. They were paid a small bump in salary to do it, but much more importantly they were tied to their students for, I think, the next year. Once completing the FTO process the new hire was evaluated monthly on attitude, appearance, documentation skills, etc. When the new hire got jammed up, the trainer was called in off of the street and both were evaluated to try and determine where the weakness lay. I think that it was an amazing system and you constantly heard FTOs talking about the 'spirit' and confidence of those that they were training. Training by humiliation was almost instantly humiliating for the trainer as that attitude just couldn't survive in this system. I believe that every month that a new hire met their minimum requirements then the trainer recieved a small percentage bump in pay. I don't think that that mattered though as having the process set up this way the giant paramedic egos were on the line to constantly prove that they were the best, and that was much more motivating. Anyway, any process that you use that judges students, but doesn't judge the program and it's instructors at the same time is hypocritical and pathological...in my opinion. Don't waste all of the valuable information that every new recruite has to offer you. Just a thought. Do you mean that one? Should he have said in in Spanish or something?

Ahhh...gotcha. Thanks.

I think that it was Carl Sagan who said that "you can't profess to be an Athiest (if it is defined as a belief that there is no "higher power") and also a lover of science. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. You can't have it both ways." (Paraphrased from memory as I can't find the original quote.) Sorry chbare, I can't view anything but the text in your post. No disrespect if redundant.

What does this mean? Ditto

Great question. Though I'm not sure if they'll allow non current providers to play, I would think that it would be an awesome opportunity for future providers. Not only from an educational and pt exposure point of view, but the people that teach it set an example that all should follow throughout EMS. I saw some folks that were too timid to step up in front of the group and speak, but that was their self imposed peer pressure. I didn't see a single instance of anyone, peer or instructor, that gave anyone reason to be uncomfortable. Should you choose to go I have zero doubt that you would be welcome by all, taken seriously as a student at your current level of study, and be really, really glad that you went. Write your paper Brother! As ak said, there is, unfortunately, very little participation. I'd love to hear the thoughts of an attendee that's not yet worked in the field...

The same amount of pressure could have consticted both the veins and arteries delivering this same symptom, or so it seems to me. As there should be a given constriction pressure that is high enough to constict the low pressure vascular side yet allow tons of blood via the high pressure arterial side. This should make a big, fat, black face, shouldn't it? But as Fab said this would have made it necessary for him to be alive for at least a short time after constriction, and that's pretty easy to believe, right? I'm sure that this explanation is correct. 'Cause I say so.... Where is chbare to tell us all bout valves and pressures and such? And Fab, a new member with an opinion on a medical topic? What the hell?? (That doesn't happen here nearly often enough.) Thanks for playing Brother...

No idea what that means, so I'm simply going to reply..."Screw you." That should cover it.. (Good to see you here ol' girl!) Not sure. I'd forgotten much of what Chris had explained, and didn't understand much of it until he explained it. So for now I'm going with "particles are not aware, in fact are not even particles, so therefore there is no universal awareness." Why? Because chbare says so and that's good enough for me. :-) I am grateful for the conversation! Where does the layman go Christopher for additional reading? Interesting reading, as I'm not likely to be invested enough to make it through dry books with tons of mathmatics above my ability. And what the hell happened to Beibs? I was hoping that he and Chris would disagree on something here...that would be a fun debate!