Eydawn

Do *not* use the word midget to refer to a little person. You wouldn't call a dark skinned person a nigger- don't call a little person a midget. It is viewed the same way by little people as the aforementioned is viewed. It is a term of circus origin. Little person or dwarf is acceptable. Sorry, that one just pushes my buttons, and I try to educate as often as I possibly can... Wendy CO EMT-B As far as the original topic goes, I wholeheartedly agree that it is discrimination. Now, if it were phrased as employer PREFERENCE and given good reasons to back it up, it would be more acceptable. I have to say, the mixed gender crews that have come to pick up my patients lately have seemed more balanced and have provided better care than the single gender crews of EITHER gender. I will say that I far prefer to work with men than women, because that's just how my psyche likes to work... I don't play chick politics well in small confined spaces. Should it matter what gender you are? Nah. In practice, does it sometimes? You bet. What do you do, lament the world? Nah. Work around and through whatever the issue is as professionally as you can, and move on. Wendy CO EMT-B

Man, you just don't take a hint, do you. If you perpetuate name-calling, and insist that Paramedicmike was not civil in legitimately questioning your status, then you're kind of a lost cause... and while you may be replying to him only, there are others of us reading your posts, hence the more than kind tutorial I just gave you. If you're going to post multiple responses to multiple points within a quote dialogue box, as a courtesy to the entire forum, PLEASE use the techniques I just gave you. Have a good night. Wendy CO EMT-B

See, there you go again... *tsk* Mike is not a knucklehead. He simply chose to be more aggressive in his engagement with your topic. I don't know if we know each other. Does my writing style ring bells for you? See those nice B I U buttons up top? Write out your responses in the quote, then highlight them and click one of those to set your text apart. I'll give you an example: See what I mean? See how your responses are easier to see? Now you're making a little more sense with what you're presenting. I think you got your feathers all ruffled when Mike dropped on the table that you'd given no evidence that you are not a poseur... trust me, we've had folks in here trying to fake military experience, medical certs, you name it- so him honestly questioning your status was not meant to be an insult, but rather intended to protect those who truly hold the cred if you catch my drift. And then y'all turned this thread into monkey-ping-pong. I know why Mike did... but I'm not sure why you responded in kind, to be honest. Wendy CO EMT-B

Nice ink! Where'd you get it? Looks like some gorgeous lines in there, your artist was very skilled! I'm still trying to figure out a place to get my tattoo... I want an otter on my right ribcage (not tribal, actual textural work). With space for baby otters when I have kids, and possibly some flower vines around it... Wendy CO EMT-B

Hey, me too! 'Cept I get it every spring. Goes with the territory of being asthmatic, I think. I am so sorry you have bronchitis, it is so farking painful... Steroids making you feel weird at all? My heart races, I can't sit still, and I have super weird dreams... it's the worst when I've gotten IV solumedrol for asthma flares. Make sure you taper the prednisone off! So bad for your body if you don't. Some medic in this thread, who shall at present remain nameless, had himself a bronchospastic attack and got IV 'roids and then never filled his prednisone scrip... let's just say I spent a little time chewin' on him... I'm to the point where I've had it so frequently that I don't even bother going to the doc unless I hack up green fuzzies for more than 3 consecutive days... not worth the side effects of antibis unless it reaches that point. Though, I'm starting to wonder if I'm developing pleuritis again... have chest pain in the same place I had it before, and it's super nasty painful... only reason I'm not panicking about it being cardiac is it changes when I breathe and move... (it sent me in for a 12 lead a couple years back, had a syncopal episode with no warning signs and pain above my left breast back when I was in undergrad in MI.) Here is hoping you feel better soon! I find that pounding fluids, especially hot tea, and sitting in a hot shower really helps. --Wendy

Alright, hearing from some more people... still waiting on Fiznat, and a picture from UglyEMT. I present to you Mobey! I will be directly quoting him as well... he summed it up pretty nicely for me! "My real name is Marc Mobey (almost), I am 29 yrs old, and am married to my elementary sweetheart with 3 kids. I have literally been with my wife since I was 14! started in EMS back in 2004 while volunteering as a Fire Captain, and finding myself in the back of the ambulance helping out. Just seemed to fit. I took my PCP/EMT in Saskatchewan, and immediatly upgraded to Intermediate. Still not satisfied, I worked for a few years, saved up some cash and went to Paramedic school. 2+ years later.... here I am! I currently work at 2 remote stations doing mixed 911 calls, and IFT. Both stations are greater than 2 hrs from any major hospital giving me plenty of time to manage patients to the full extent of my knowledge. This also forces me into difficult ethical decisions, and lots of adapting since there is no backup out here. To be honest when I first started into EMS, it was a total adrenaline thing, however, I have found that having my intellect challenged and overcoming difficult scenarios with each call out here in the rural has completely taken over as my main drive. As corny as it may sound, I really do owe a thanks to a few here that have challenged me to be a better provider. I have always put pt advocacy as #1, however the meathods I initally used such as "following the leader" were quickly ended by Dust, Rid, Asys, Mike, and others. From these members I learned to never take info at face value, and to use science as a tool to better care for my patients no matter how hard the monkeys beat me. It is important to note that I have no Paramedic co-workers out here, so to the past, present and future cyber-friends who help me through some of my more difficult calls and challenge me to be better.... Thank You."

Mike's post was kind of snarky, but he made some valid points. I can't read your replies and differentiate, EMT12- so I really got lost in your reply. Can you fix the formatting with some text bolding or something? I will say, however, that insulting Mike's intelligence really isn't the brightest option... as he's extremely intelligent and very passionate, and a very experienced forum poster who DEFINITELY knows how to debate. He mentioned IGNORANCE, which is a lack of understanding or education, while you went for the "simple little brain" route, thereby implying STUPIDITY, which is an inherent quality that can't be fixed in most cases. Totally different worlds here... make sure you stay in the correct verbiage ring, or you may find yourself out-sparred. I really have to say here, that yes, it's good for someone to know how to extract themselves from a scene if it becomes violent, but that it should not be a primary training focus. We practice medicine and should focus on enhancing that practice, and while doing so we occasionally end up in scenes where we run the risk of getting our ass kicked. I can tell you from growing up in the ghetto that responding with use of force as your first thought is seldom the best answer, and will usually result in catastrophic results unless you are absolutely sure that you will win (and I am not sure of victory in any given situation, even when I'm armed with a firearm. I do have a concealed carry permit, FYI.) One of the biggest things I have taken away from my OWN self defense and concealed carry classes is the principle of de-escalation and escape as first priority. Ergo, use of force is your LAST RESORT. You say that you posed a question for debate, and yet when counter-opinions were offered, you simply re-iterated your own position. That's not a debate! It's really irritating, is what it is. Can you please explain, in detail, why you think use of force training should be imperative for EMS providers, and provide counters for the argument that de-escalation is your first priority? Step outside your "box" for a moment here- remember, the thinking that may be second nature for you as a martial artist is NOT the same kind of thinking that non-martial-artists have here, so you need to explain those thought processes so we can understand where you're coming from. Otherwise, no offense, you really sound like a broken record of "Hurp-da, scenes get unsafe, everyone should be able to kick ass. Because scenes get unsafe. Because training's a good idea." WHY should this kind of training be implemented? Reasoning? Statistics on personnel injury from violent situations comparing services choosing to provide training and those who don't would really lend you some credibility as well... to the Google-Fu, Peabody! You gotta make it worth our while in here... I will say this- my friend who is taking his final black belt test for Tae Kwon Do in June, who is a new EMT, has explicitly told me that does not go into a situation considering force as his first option. It's always in the back of his mind, sure, but he's going to opt to protect his team and facilitate escape way before engaging with someone who's gone whacko. And he can pretty much end any fight that someone starts (I've witnessed it and patched up the resulting damage afterwards). Mike- the pot shot of "you're new" was kind of a low blow... I'd retract that one... ;-) Wendy CO EMT-B Edit: PS-- editing your post to include some of what I just asked here, after I wrote, is kind of cheating ;-) New post please!

Hi all, sorry this has taken me so long! Nursing school be crazy, yo! This may take several posts in the thread, so bear with me. I'm still waiting on more info from Mobey (other than his purty pic), and I'm waiting on pics from Ugly and Fiz. As soon as I get those, I'll get their bios up. For now, here's the first three! First off, we have Lone Star. His real name is Brett Lang. He's 46 years old. He's also FUGLY. (Just kidding.) Brett is currently an NREMT-I pursuing his paramedic degree. Since he worded things so nicely, I'm going to insert his exact biography to me in quotes. "I got into EMS initially by applying to a full time fire department in the Detroit area. After passing the Civil Service test, I met the Review Board and found out that I was going to be passed over because I didn't have at least an EMT-B license. One of the biggest challenges I've faced was recovering from a giant cerebral aneurysm. In EMS, I feel that we need to increase the educational requirements for entry level positions to help weed out the 'lowest common denominator' and advance EMS to a recognized profession. When I started my EMS education journey, I was introduced to Michael Everett, who was by far the best EMS Instructor/Coordinator I've ever had. He actually cared more about the student than he did about his pass rate. Because of this approach, he had one of the highest pass rates in the state of Michigan. After joining EMT City, I've met a great number of fantastic people and outstanding providers who have continually pushed me to not only increase my educational levels, but have pushed me to be able to defend my positions with more logic and less emotion. I'd like to thank each and every one of the EMTs, Medics and Doctors who have taken the time to answer all of my inane, goofy and otherwise aggrivating endless barrage of questions, technical advice and for sharing their wealth of medical knowledge." It will probably take me a couple days to get all the posts up... so folks, please refrain from replying to this thread until I get em' all up, k? Next, we have Bieber! Oh lord, folks, he wasn't kidding when he told us how he got the nickname. His real name is Justin Sleffel. He didn't tell me how old he is, but as I recall he's somewhere in the 24ish range (right in with me!) Justin, feel free to put your correct age in here later. He also sent me his bio already very nicely written, so I'm going to quote it below: "I'm a nationally registered Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic and a Mobile Intensive Care Technician in the state of Kansas since January 2011. I should be getting my Associate's in Applied Science this spring as part of my paramedic program (currently degree eligible, just waiting for graduation) and I'm also a student at the local university studying Biology and I'm planning on bridging to get my RN at the start of next year. Before EMS I studied Spanish language (which I'm fluent in), and I got into EMS because about halfway through my Spanish degree I somehow got it into my head that I wanted to go to medical school. A classmate of mine in one of my Spanish classes was an EMT and suggested I become one to get a "taste" of medicine before I made the big commitment of trying to get into medical school, which I did in the fall of 2007. In 2008 I got my EMT-Intermediate and spent the rest of the year preparing to enter the paramedic program, which I did in the fall of 2009. I completed schooling at the end of 2010 and, like I said, got certified at the beginning of this year. I'm currently working part time for a busy urban EMS service and seeking part time employment as a lab assistant for my former EMS program. Probably my biggest challenge in EMS has been just trusting my own knowledge and instincts and to really "own" my calls. I'd like to give a shout out to Dwayne and everyone else on these forums for their continual support, guidance, and even criticism. You guys help me grow more each day as a paramedic and your feedback and advice is invaluable." Moving on to Chbare; His real name is Chris Bare. He neglected to tell me his age. We'll go with "seasoned" Chris was also kind enough to send me a complete, well written bio! Thanks, Chris! Quoted below: "I became involved in EMS back in 1995 when I took a first responder class. In 1996, I joined the Army National Guard as a medical specialist. In 1997, I received national and state credentials as an EMT-Basic. From 1996-1999 I worked as a CNA at a long term care facility and also worked as a basic EMT for a private EMS service. In 1999, I started college and eventually graduated with a certificate of completion in practical nursing and sat for the NCLEX-PN in 2001. I worked as a LPN in a long term facility while continuing to work as a basic EMT from 2001-2002 while completing a degree in nursing. I graduated nursing school in 2002 and sat for the NCLEX-RN. Shortly after graduation I started working in an emergency room in New Mexico. I worked as an ER nurse and a part time transport nurse for a private EMS service from 2002 to 2006. In 2006, I began working as a flight nurse and also obtained national credentials as an EMT-I. From 2006-2008 I worked as a flight nurse and did some ER travel nursing on the side. I also obtained CCEMTP, CEN and CFRN credentials during that time. From 2008-2009 I worked as a private contractor in Afghanistan performing medical evacuations and providing austere medicine and first aid training. I also ran a few special projects such as immunization clinics. After coming back to the United States in 2009, I returned to part time flight nursing and also began teaching for a community college based paramedic program. I was also accepted into a respiratory therapy program at that time. My personality is one that tends to focus on details and this includes the technical and scientific aspect of health care. I am a big advocate of using the study of physical science to better understand our role as providers. To this end, I am very pro-active about integrating principles of chemistry and physics into my lectures. One of my biggest goals is to push for formal integration of science based course work into the paramedic curriculum. The biggest challenge that I have faced and continue to face is a tendency for people to stagnate and hold onto old thoughts, ideas and concepts, treating them like axioms. The pursuit of teaching correct ideas that are based on best available evidence along with instilling a sense of skepticism in providers so that they will always challenge the current conventions with the newest and best evidence has been great challenge that I have always faced. Some of my biggest role models include my wife and mother, two people who have succeeded in spite of facing overwhelming odds. My wife has also been instrumental in instilling humility into my personality that is sometimes less than humble. I would also say that my military experience was pivotal in instilling a sense of discipline, maturity and motivation in me that was lacking before I joined. There are too many mentors and people who inspired me to name from the military."

Welcome back, old friend. Been thinking about you lately, wondering where you were and how things were going. Glad to see you posting again! Of course you pissed me off. More times than I could count. But it was good for me! Hope you stick around for a while... **HUGS** Wendy CO EMT-B

Welcome back Rob!! We missed you! --Wendy

Are we talking a year long program or a 12 week program?! Hang on here... so confused. Wendy CO EMT-B

Are we talking a year long program or a 12 week program?! Hang on here... so confused. Wendy CO EMT-B

We got divided into groups of 4. Each group was given a cultural group. The info we were given about each group consisted of 4-5 bullet points. Factoids, if you will. We had to come up with a skit in a "clinical setting" where some of us pretended to be from that cultural group (Jewish, Islamic, Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese, Anglo, African American, Native American) while others pretended to be clinical personnel. Based on the skit, the REST of the class had to guess which cultural group we were. It was basically a giant stereotype-fest... as all the info we had was our base knowledge (not much for most) and our bullet points. For example, the "Islamic man" yelled "Don't touch my wife" at people and the "wife" was wrapped up in scarves... It got worse than that... what I want to know is how this could have possibly seemed like a good idea from an educational standpoint. Nobody learned anything! And, to boot, we enacted and reinforced stereotypes! Wendy CO EMT-B

Our goal is treatment and transport of the ill and injured. Not fighting with people. Training in appropriate restraints to be used sparingly, yes, absolutely. Training in martial arts? No... gotta agree with Mobey here, if you're needing that frequently you may want to re-evaluate your scene-safety criteria. Yes, occasionally you may need to extract yourself from a sticky situation. Will you have the advantage if you have martial arts training? Totally depends on the situation. Wendy CO EMT-B

So, today was our religious and cultural awareness day in my nursing fundamentals class. Love that they're trying to increase our awareness of cultural considerations when teaching patients. That's always a good thing! However, then they divvied us up into groups of 4 and gave each group of us a "cultural group" to represent, with only 5-6 bullet points of information per group to work from. We had to perform skits, and the rest of the class had to guess which cultural group we were based on the skit. We're a class of 37 white people. 2 white guys, and 3 Asian women. These skits were basically a reinforcement of stereotypes based on the bullet point information. For example of the bullet points... music and family were really important, but time was not important hardly at all to African Americans. I was incredibly uncomfortable with how they decided to "teach" this. Basically, the ignorant teaching the ignorant and repeating ignorance. I was pretty offended, actually, and I'm fairly easy going. Thoughts on this? Especially from you instructor types? I feel that this was not an appropriate way to gain better understanding of cultures at all... if anything, it only widened the understanding gap and reinforced the paltry level of knowledge as "great" because my primary instructor and the head of the program thought the skits were "wonderful." Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Wendy CO EMT-B

Dwayne had a giant case of open mouth, insert foot where you were concerned, 11outof10. He tends to do that sometimes. He made an inference he shouldn't'a made. Hopefully he'll man up and apologize. (GIANT HINT, DWAYNE...) He already struck out the statement in his original post with a footnote... but hopefully he'll come back and really apologize. He doesn't take pleasure from sniping n00bs, he actually has a passionate investment in making sure people actually learn. Gets a little excited and shoots off before he thinks sometimes. As far as his age old battle with Spenac, just ignore the side show there... really, there's a long history there and it's really just good for entertainment and not much else at this point. He comes on strong, but he posts a lot that's worth reading. Trust me- just because you're broke and feel pressed for time is not a good reason to skimp on your education. These are the building blocks for your CAREER, not just some fancy letters to put behind your name, hence why some feel so strongly about this issue. Look at some adult learning theories- it is impossible to really absorb and be able to critically think about the material you are covering if you are doing 12 hour class days and 12 hour clinical days with no "down" time to let your brain do what it is supposed to do. There is learning that occurs when you are NOT COVERING the material, and to deprive yourself of that and force yourself just to regurgitate to pass the test is not a great idea. You *are* going to lose a lot more of the material than if you give yourself the time to really absorb it and be able to work with it in the field under pressure. You want to be a GREAT medic, not just a mediocre one, right? Then do yourself the favor of allowing yourself the time to learn. You will be glad you did. There are ways to finance school and afford a good program. Medicine is more than remembering drug calculations and physical skills... it's about critical thinking and that only comes with time and deep understanding of the material you are working with. Wendy CO EMT-B

Hit the nail on the head here, Dwayne. I have to applaud you. And I agree... even when a baby is made, it's not the end of the world. If people would learn that, life would be so much better for so many people... Wendy CO EMT-B

I didn't defend it. I simply tried to show that people were missing elements contained inthe article itself that are relevant to the discussion. Heaven forbid I should let someone misinterpret further from a fubar mess of writing... I merely highlighted the parts indicating monitor presence and presence of ALS providers. That doesn't mean I wholly support the article and I really wonder how you managed to infer that. Your tone read very pissy. Which is where the "if I pissed you off" phrase came from. If I go into everything that is wrong with journalism and most mainstream journalistic writing we are going to need a new thread. Seriously. This article was interesting in concept if not in fact and is really not worth getting panties in a bunch over. Nobody is going yay us hero worship that I can see so not sure where you got that idea... Perhaps it is ill phrased to say that I chose not to question it. A better phrasing is that it wasn't worth my time to really take a hard look because I have a lot of other way more important shit I should be doing. I read it with mild interest and tried to point out where it was being misread. Note to self, heaven forbid I should only engage with something in a cursory fashion because the forum police along with everyone else in my life at the moment will smack me as hard as possible given the first opportunity. I have enough of that thanks very much. Wendy CO EMT-B

Let me clarify, Dwayne. I see no reason to doubt this story as presented, because there's simply not enough to go on and it was obviously not written by a health professional. However, one can deduce that there were 2 paramedics on scene, and this call was very weird for them and they thought this patient was SOL and were really really surprised that what they did worked. Ergo, there is value in reading this story. Do I automatically suspend my critical thinking because someone I trust posts? No. When I'm tired, and don't want to have to hyper-analyze every aspect of another damn thing that has incomplete info (really burnt on testing questions right now), will I tend to accept something more readily if someone I trust posted it? Yes. Sorry if that pissed you off. Hope you know you're one of those posters that I will more readily accept, Dwayne... so you better never screw up ;-) I just accepted the story for what it was, because in the grand scheme of things, patients all over the globe are still going to die today despite good CPR and good paramedicine, or they will survive despite poor CPR and shitty paramedicine. I didn't feel a need to analyze it like a journal article, because that's simply not what it was. I did feel a need to highlight elements of it that demonstrated that this wasn't just a bunch of laypeople doing compressions with a couple johnny first responder types driving the ambulance... which is how some were choosing to portray it. Wendy CO EMT-B

Mm, I meant the agency nurses would not leave their agency position to be hired on by the hospital to permanently replace the striking nurses. Saw how that was kind of poorly worded there... make more sense this way? Of course, agency will flock to a strike- it means work available. Will they quit the agency and work for the company being pressured by the strike? Nopes. Wendy CO EMT-B

Ah yes... the CAPSAR fire explorer kid. full of vim and vigor.... The problem with CAP and explorer programs is that they fill you with a false sense of assurance and "experience." I know- I speak from experience. I got my start as a First Responder with a Venturing Crew (Boy Scouts of America). Yes, you have gotten some exposure to a variety of things which is very cool, and yes, you probably have a little bit more life experience compared to your donut-eating peers, but you are nowhere NEAR the level that many here on the forum are. You haven't worked WITH these military divisions you reference; you've been given an opportunity to have brief exposure and side-along training. That is a far cry from actually working with them and understanding what is actually going on. And being an officer in CAP is excellent; kudos to you. I was secretary, scribe, and lead FTO for my Venture Crew before I was 18. Guess what that meant in real life? Jack diddly nil-point-zippity shit. It was cool to put on college apps, and useless where employment was concerned. I have some targeted questions for you. I think you came across as exactly what you are- someone who is very excited, passionate, and who has done some research and is filled with all the possibilities that lie before you. 1. What is it about the military that appeals to you? What aspects of your personality make you a good military medic candidate? This isn't an interview question where I want to hear the "right" answer- I want you to soul search and really think about this. If you already know, I want you to convey it to us here in the written word so that we understand without a doubt where you are coming from. Prepare to be grilled, and don't take it as negative, but rather a chance to save you from your own impetuousness in case you haven't thought this through at the level that we, as outsiders, are capable of doing. 2. What aspects of your personality make you a poor military candidate? I want you to give as much thought as you did to the above question, and be ruthless on your self critique. Show us that you can evaluate both your positive and negative qualities. 3. What about medicine appeals to you? You mentioned detail oriented work- why medicine and not tech or intel? 4. Do you understand what the differences in practice (in civilian life) between RN and EMT-P really are? Do you understand the different approaches, ethical perspectives, limitations and what relationship to the overall picture of care for each is? Explain it to us, in your words. Answer these questions, and we can tailor our guidance to you. If you know it all and know all the differences between military medical specialties and are convinced that's what you're going to do, posting here was kinda pointless. If you truly want some guidance from those who have been there and want to achieve "peer" status with those of us in the working world, then answer these questions and we'll go forth. Wendy CO EMT-B

Yes. Agency nurses are just that- nurses who work for a contract based agency. Someone's got to provide care to the patients, and not allowing agency nurses to cross the line while you are protesting would be unethical. Let me tell you- Agency costs a metric CRAP TON. I know we pay out almost double, sometimes more for care providers and nurses at my facility when we have to use pool instead of covering gaps in-house... using agency nurses is a stopgap at best. And, most agency nurses, seeing the conditions and employer, would not step up to replace the nurses who were striking, would be my bet... Wendy CO EMT-B

Quote: "During the course of the emergency, first responders shocked Snitzer a dozen times to jolt his heart out of its abnormal rhythm, or ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation occurs when the heart's electrical circuits begin firing randomly, so the heart quivers and can't pump blood." Quote: "Goodman and Mary Svoboda also gave Snitzer intravenous drugs to try to restore his heartbeat to normal. When he didn't respond, he called Mayo cardiac-arrest expert Roger White on his cellphone for guidance. Ultimately, they agreed to try a calculated overdose of a heart drug, amiodarone. It worked." Looks like there were some legitimate cardiac issues here. Looks like they had a monitor or AED... and the following below kind of indicates to me that there was probably a monitor. Quote: "Goodman and Svoboda began administering drugs: epinephrine, lidocaine, atropine and amiodarone, which they hoped would restore Snitzer's normal heart rhythm... 'Many things were going through my head at that point', [Goodman] says. 'This gentleman has not had a pulse for over an hour. He's unlikely to survive even if we can get a rhythm. Is this something we should call off?'" Sounds like Goodman and Svoboda were paramedics, not just first responders, as they were pushing some first line cardiac meds. The first responders appeared to have been providing the compressions. I see no reason to doubt this story as presented, which is why I think Mike posted it... he's usually a lot more critical than I am of stuff and it seemed to pass muster for him. Wendy CO EMT-B

First: Crotchity is a troll. Yet again. Try working as a floor nurse and having to actually stay on top of the 15 million things that you are responsible for on any given shift. Good luck... Second: Is it ethical for these nurses to strike? I guess the better question is whether striking is an ethical means by which to attempt to gain resolution to workplace issues. If striking is ethical, then yes, a nursing strike is also ethical. Workplace abuse is wrong, no matter what field it occurs in, and workers have the right to attempt to speak up for themselves. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Wendy CO EMT-B