DwayneEMTP

Again I ask, why are these accommodations being made for what is now for all practical purposes a pet. Perhaps there are a bunch of services that the average service animal can provide that a hospital staff member can't? I guess it seems to be the heroic, good hearted answer to say, "We don't separate them from their people for any reason!" But why not? Because of emotional attachment? I've had a ton of elderly people cry themselves to exhaustion at the thought of leaving their pet at home, yet I'm unaware of any cases where the hospital made special accommodations for them. I'm not getting what is different here? A person with an aid animal visiting the hospital? The need is obvious as they may need the services of their animal. The person in the hospital? I don't get it. Dwayne

It just occurs to me, I'd be willing to bet our flight medics would have a significantly different opinion on this. Dwayne

We always had two on the ambulance when we could, but like others have said, having them had a lot to do with your ninja like ability, or lack thereof, to spirit them out of the ER. The two I have now are for me to sleep on. I just have my jump bag/spinal gear here, no ambulance. What caused you to ask this question? I'm betting you butted heads with one of the, "That's bullshit, if they need a pillow then the don't need an ambulance!" crowd? Dwayne

I'm certainly no expert on service animals, though I did train assist animals for handicapped patients when I was training, but what service is this animal going to provide during the ambulance ride or hospital stay other than emotional support? A person requiring a service animal will have human helpers to provide all of the necessary support and care plus a lot more. And I think that Happiness makes a great point. If you have a severe fear of dogs, and I know many that due, transporting this dog in your unit may not be an option. Though it's nice to say "You just have to suck it up and provide pt care" that is not always possible. There is almost always a work-around, but not always. If this is an ALS patient and I simply can't bring myself to have the dog in the compartment, front or back, then either the dog stays, or the patient is completely informed of their condition and the consequences of refusing, as in any other situation, and refused. (Of course this assumes the common scenario addendum, "No other trucks available, a million miles out in the country without cell/radio service etc.) Dwayne

'Aight! I get there's not ax! So far... :-) I haven't used it in the rig, but have in a small hospital I worked with. 6 beds I think. 55ish year old woman went, in the blink of an eye, from speaking and behaving normally to sounding as if she was speaking Swedish. (Walkermedic? you know Swedish?), all vitals well within acceptable limits for situation, Cin stroke scale neg, balance confident, facial expressions/extrem movement/annunciation clear/equal/coordinated, in other words the only symptom was the language. I called a stroke alert at the ER but also got the doc on the phone and told her that I can't prove a stroke but I don't know what else could be going on. All other assessment values were within acceptable limits for situation. At the ER they already hat the telemonitor hooked up with a neurologist in Colorado Springs who did an assessment, consulted on treatment and instructed her to be flown instead of driven to their ER. Turns out it was a brain tumor that killed her a few weeks later. great tool, but there is likely going to be a pretty severe learning curve and many, many boundaries to be drawn while folks learn to use it in the rigs I'll bet. Dwayne

They were both pretty funny... I liked the Paramedic Rap alot!! That was creative and a lot of work went into it...good on them. Dwayne

You can only edit for....hmmm....and hour or so I think? I'm not sure. It may be half an hour for regular members and 90 minutes for paid members? The reason being is that people used to give an opinion, people would respond, the person would feel foolish and go back and change their opinion thus making all the posts that followed look foolish or completely nonsensical. Welcome, it's good to have you here! Dwayne

Congo, yeah man, in that context I get what you mean exactly. Is this a paid service? My apologies for my misrepresenting your intentions. But, the flip side is that I will bet you dollars to donuts that the next 10 people that come in with a like question will be firemen pissed off at the new testing standards of their new fathead buttsniffing medical director. But that's not excuse for not giving you the benefit of the doubt. Other than that, I'm afraid you're already finding the answers to your questions, right? Can a doc do an awesome job as an EMS leader? Of course. Does it look like your doc is going to? Unfortunately, not so far..but it's early in the game yet! Welcome brother, keep your chin up. Dwayne

How old are you? Male or female? What have you done for work before? If you're smokin' hot add +5 points towards getting hired. If you're a lesbian, add another +5 points. :-) (EDIT: Smokin' hot lesbian is not my bias but that of EMS. I just wanted to make that clear. If you're smart, mentally strong, committed to EMS and education you can work with me anytime...easily...as there's really not a very long line of people waiting to work with me..ok, none...just sayin'.) Lets start here and then there are many here that can help. Dwayne

Yeah, but you're a dork...your rules don't apply to normal people. Just sayin'... :-)

Though it sounds as if you come here with an ax to grind, it is an interesting question. I've not heard of that situation occurring. I can't imagine why a physician would have any desire to be an EMS manager but I can't see any reason why s/he shouldn't be able to manage it very well. I'm wondering if someone might have their nose bent out of shape due to some new oversight and training requirements. When you say 'department' would you mean fire department by any chance? Dwayne

Those are actually great questions! And absolutely correct answers. But I'm curious, what prompted you to ask them? Are you in an EMS class, or help out, or is EMS just a curiosity/hobby for you? No right answer here brother, just curious what your perspective is... And tcripp, you're rockin' that medic uniform!! Dwayne

Welcome to the City! I just don't have what it takes to type out my presentation lecture for the 4th or 5th time today, so please see nearly every other thread posted today. As Fire says, to really GET something out of this site you really do need to particpate. Jump it, ask questions, answer questions when you can, have a good time, but remember that this is a professional forum, where we help each other to succeed... Have a great day! Dwayne

Yeah, the difference is significant in most places, but if you're looking to be an EMT or medic then I won't tell you it's wrong of course. Only that I know very, very few medics that don't wish that they would have spent their school time on a nursing degree instead of medic. Better career options, better pay, benefits, retirement, hot chicks to work around most times...completely different. But you will fail in either profession if you don't begin right now, today, practicing to write and present your thoughts and ideas as an adult instead of a child. Truly my friend, I know you've run across many, many threads that have stressed the importance of presentation. EMS is very documentation heavy, and you simply can not succeed if you try and write a report the way you've done above. You need to choose to have enough self respect to force yourself to write and speak well. Presenting yourself as a professional is a skill like any other. It needs to be practiced. Start here with your posting, OK? Write your post, reread it, spell check it, reread, then post. (At which time I often find typos that I missed before and have to go in and edit them out.) Simple and it only takes a few extra minutes. Wait and see if it doesn't change many things in your life. Good on you for having the balls/ovaries to participate! I would hate to chase you away, but this point is so vital that it just can't be ignored. Have a great day! Dwayne Edited to fix the post posting typo mentioned above.

Kyle reread that and ask yourself if that is truly how you want the EMT City world to view you and your level of intelligence. Inteldawg brought up a good point that I haven't thought about in a long time. Adrenaline is not your friend when resting. It also makes it really hard to think clearly. Relax brother, if you've seen two strokes and two MIs then you're way ahead of the game when compared to many in their clinicals. Have a great day, and really consider your presentation here. It will make a world of difference to your experience both here and in EMS. Dwayne

Hey test, Welcome to the City! Spell check may sound a little harsh, but punctuation, spelling, grammar, and capitalization is going to have a really big impact on the experience that you have here. And I do have some suggestions! You have to participate. EMS is a hands on, in your face kind of career, use the forums to practice your presentation, you debate skills, your interactions with others that have a different opinion than yours, it really does help. Learn, teach, ask questions, and answer others to the best of your ability, but it's vital that you don't stay silent and just read if you want to really benefit from the board. Have a great day! Good to have you! Dwayne

I agree with you both.... I love these guys... Also Bill Bryson , his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything is amazing.. He describes in this book things like why we know how much the earth weighs, and hold long before the sun burns out and such. When he describes the size of the universe, he does it so well that it actually made me a little light headed to envision the scope...Amazing. Dwayne

For thoughts like, this , and this. Dwayne

Man, it really sounds like you're coming to paramedic medicine to make it better! You're my hero! Just a suggestion. If you're medic class didn't require college level anatomy and physiology (BIO 201/202) you should take it on your own. It's invaluable as a medic. Good to have you here brother... Dwayne

LOL..Yeah man, that's awesome... Dwayne

I'm not really sure what you mean here...I thought bagging hot students was the main motivation for teaching the classes? Nurses aren't whores, EMS instructors don't screw their students...you know, this whole EMS thing is beginning to be one huge disappointment.. On the flip side, I just reread this thread top to bottom and it friggin' rocks! Awesome, focused advice from a bunch of smart, kind folks. This is the best of what we do I think. We don't always hit home runs, but when we do it's a really cool thing. Thanks to all for participating. Dwayne

I created my thoughts from there. What part did I take out of context? Your ejaculation may not have been premature, but it's clear that an orgasm is your primary driving force here. Paramedic medicine is a calm, professional, educated endeavor...there should be no sprayin' going on at all. Again, I'm unclear which part of my post was ill advised, and I believe the judgmental TV comment was reasonably supported. I'll be more than happy to discuss this and/or explain my reasoning but I'm going to need you to be more specific if you can. Having been a member of this forum for a few days longer than you I'm confident that I almost always remember what it's about. What it's not is a coffee house, a volly fire house where we share bullshit stories of glorious heroism, or a place where we try and encourage new members to get started off with misconceptions. My post was intended to help you, and it's unfortunate if it offended you, but you should also know that above all else EMS is a profession of introspection and hard truths. Truly, all due respect to you as well. Dwayne

I think that often people assume that I bag on the spelling and grammar issues because I'm just so friggin' good at....Not the case. I bagged on someone's spelling once years ago and Eydawn chased me around these forums correcting every....friggin'......typo.......I swear to God it sucked! But, God bless her for allowing me to be less of an idiot today than I was yesterday. Go back and read some of my early posts. Follow them and look at the beatings I took for being an ignorant tool. I was blessed that many here would not allow me to represent myself in that manner and though it hurt my feelings sometimes, I'm so grateful that I now make every attempt to present myself in a more intelligent, professional manner, though of course I often don't succeed. So to our original poster. Superiority over you is not what a single person here is chasing. It's your career success that we're trying to shore up, not our egos. You truly can't succeed with the impression that you make here, and you can not succeed by allowing yourself to believe that you are a victim of your bad presentation instead of the author of it. That is the message here. You're ideas? Awesome! That is why you have a ton of really smart people in this thread, myself excluded, took time out of their days to counsel you. Don't be pissed. Don't run away. Reread your original post and decide if that is truly the way you want to be perceived. I don't believe it is. Dwayne Edited for typo. No significant changes made.