Eydawn

So another question for debate here... is a 14 year old who comes to work with mom for "take your daughter/son to work day" somehow in more danger than the same 14 year old riding with someone else at a different agency? I assume that to bring one's offspring to a highly dangerous work environment, there's paperwork involved because agencies love CYA.... I agree that nobody under the age of 14 should be on an ambulance except as a patient or the rare "we can't leave them all alone" situation. But how is it different if you have a 14 year old kid who has been around EMS their entire life in the back of the rig, vs the brand new 14 year old first responder with no EMS experience whatsoever? Who is in more danger? Is it equivalent? How is it different? NOT advocating taking one's kids to work... just trying to see what people think. Wendy CO EMT-B

Meh, the thing about them getting reviewed by the net authority was pretty entertaining... the drunken rambling "fatwa" video kinda sucked. I've seen much more entertaining drunks! Wendy CO EMT-B

Timmy's list sounds spot on to me. Here are a few of the things I would add to think about... Are you there with an agency? If not, who is your medical director and how are you covered legally should something fubar? How many of you are staffing this? What's the weather supposed to be like? Plan accordingly for yourselves and your patients. What will your outside transporting agency be should the need arise? Do you and they know how communication is going to work? Do you have a transportation mechanism set up, either a good offroad worthy vehicle (that fits a backboard, with restraint capabilities for you and the patient) or a really good foot team with a vehicle rendezvous point nearby? Water source? Restrooms? Who is feeding you? How many people are you prepared to treat with what you have, and what will you do if those limits get exceeded quickly? Climate controlled area available for hypothermia/heat exhaustion/allergy issues? If not, how will you compensate? Got enough O2 equipment to treat respiratory/cardiac problems should they arise? Since this is an endurance thing, make sure you have plenty of ace bandages or the like for sprained ankles, access to ice packs of some sort (coolers full of ice and a box of ziplocs will work wonders...) and good blister treating supplies. If you like moleskin, you want some of that. If you don't (like me) then some good nonstick gauze and some creative taping skills. Duct tape works well for "hot spots." Make sure you can talk to your team members and to the race officials- whether it's cell phones, radios or pagers. Make sure it WORKS, the second you get to the event, so you can adjust if something isn't working right. Good luck! Let us know how it all turns out. These kind of things can be super fun to do med support at. Wendy CO EMT-B

Ok... as another ramification of this... how do you guys feel about 14-15 year old first responders riding as 3rd rider observers? My venture crew has been doing this with an agency in the Denver area for a long time. They all ride with one specific EMT (one of our crew's adult advisors), and their parents must sign liability forms. The riders themselves must sign several forms, including a confidentiality form. Still children... yes, at 15 you are still a child.. but barred from ever riding or experiencing the EMS world as an observer with parental permission? I don't think it is an awful idea, nor a wonderful idea. I liked it, and the smarter folks do much better with processing everything... Wendy CO EMT-B

Learned it the hard way again at camp this summer.... didn't drink enough water, didn't take enough downtime, and didn't pay attention to those fuzzy dark circles that encroach upon your vision prior to an oncoming syncopal episode. The worst part? I was in the medical lodge helping a coworker (and very good friend) with another patient who was dehydrated from vomiting. Passed out, woke up looking up at my friend, and my fiancee... so I ended up getting the IV bag I had spiked and the tape I had torn for the other chick, and my friend had to use my own gloves on me since I was the only one with non-latex gloves. Moral of the story... if you don't want your best friend playing "cold arm... warm arm" with the flow rates, drink more water during the summer! Wendy CO EMT-B

Goddess Tripsalot Bookishchick!

Inability to void can really suck! Depends on how long the gal has not been able to pee... just food for thought...

Sigh that is what I get for going on hiatus for a while... lol! Thanks.

Ok that was not always the case as far as this gal can remember. Guess it will have to get flagged to Admin.

Mea culpa if paragod was the offending word... but you know exactly the mentality I was trying to show with that term since it is one we are all familiar with. And basics are guilty of that sort of behavior too... not meaning to only paint the EMT-P folks on this site. Perhaps I should have sad know-it-all, or arrogant healthcare provider instead? That is really what I was going for... but anyway. As to the spacing... usually I can break up my posts with my enter key... but it and the k and i keys are dying on me here! Backspace died a long time ago lol .

Asys, you know that is not what I am getting at. Sorry about there not being spacing... and yes, many of our threads integrate opinions from many levels of medical care... but how do we teach noobs to wade through the Bullschit that permeates every thread in here? How do we teach people to ask intelligent questions and how the hell do we expect folks to participate and learn if automatically they receive a -you suck- response? If you will notice, those noobs who are responded to with a little tact and or kindness tend to stick around and become contributors. I just don't get the post to interact... how dare you post like that didn't you search first... don't get mad at ME cycle. What gives? We keep coming back to the fact that education is the key to solving some of these problems... but then we refuse to educate (which includes altering teaching style as necessary to reach someone...) and get on high horses about how well we spell and post. You know me in here guys... you know what I am trying to ask. If you really want this stuff to change you wll do something more than jump at the noob and bitch about how bad they all are. Just my opinion as always...

Figured you didnt... but on that note, how about editing the post and deleting that second comic?

Couldnt be related to CO poisoning by any chance? With him being more sensitive to it than her?

Ok... can someone please clarify something for me here? 1. You are supposed to search before you post and read every other post on that subject before venturing to add to an old thread or create a new one. You lose points for not having searched first. 2. If the subject of interest happens to only have a thread that is older than 6 months you get ragged for resurrecting an ancient thread. If you start a new thread due to that fact you get in trouble for not adding to the older thread. 3. Participation in the forums is how you establish credibility and enter our other form of dialogue-- the chatroom. You must post... and perhaps you want to ask a realtime question in the chatroom, but are new to forums as a mode of communication. So what do you do? Post something redundant or inane to be able to access the chatroom! 4. Then you get accused of being a: troll, post whore, stupid, inept at using the search function. Then you leave because everyone jumped on you. 5. Final point here... so how exactly are we supposed to educate newer members who could offer valuable input to our community, reach the population we most desperately need to reach, and keep active members in the City who don't go away saying that it was just another paragod club? Wendy, CO EMT-B

I will agree with Dwayne (for the most part) on this one. You are paying money to be educated. It is your responsibility to determine how to modify your environment so that you can adequately master the material and become proficient at *whatever* you are studying. Now, I am not saying you automatically throw a fit when you get a less than optimal partner, nor that you neglect trying to help them while you are forced to work with them... but if it comes down to someone not stepping up to their half of the bargain, distracting me and making it difficult for me to learn, I am definitely going to bail on you and ask for another partner. This is *my* future career, *my* money and *my* time. If an instructor asks me to stay with someone to help them and agrees to help me compensate for lost time etc., then I will do so. I will *not* just go along with the instructor and stay with a loser if I am not asked to do so, for the reasons stated above. I don't play those games. Again, I apologize for the apostrophe and enter keys... stupid laptop! -Wendy; CO EMT-B

Top one is funny. Bottom one is f#&*!ng sick. If I were you I'd pull it... especially considering what's going on with one of our members here. Wendy CO EMT-B

Ok... not seeing anything associated with midwives sign on google... not to mention that my enter and apostrophe keys on the laptop have gone kaput! Someone post it in here for us? I am dying to know what it is! Wendy CO EMT-B

Did any of you stop to consider that maybe she's not absotively posilutely sure she wants to go to medical school as an end career? Just a thought.... Parents can be 100% supportive of one's choices, which often includes allowing someone to figure things out for themselves instead of TELLING them what to do. She's not going to end all hope of ever going to medical school if she becomes a paramedic... if that's where she really wants to go, she'll get there. Might take her longer and she might find it harder than if she chose to enter med school right away, but if she REALLY wants to be a doctor, she'll figure it out and choose the right path. Oh, and by the way, my parents are 100% supportive of MY career goals but certainly aren't able to financially cover the burden that full time college is. That's why I work! If it wasn't for loans and scholarships, the only thing I'd have right now is my EMT-cert and I'd probably be working BLS transfers as a career. I thought I wanted to go to med school for a while. Then I figured out that I just don't like academia enough to commit to 7 more years of it. And that's AFTER being homeschooled and circumventing 8 years of traditional schooling... I can't imagine what it's like for someone who started with preschool. But that's me. As for the knees... look into what kind of compensatory lifting techniques you can learn. I've got a bad hip, touchy knee and bad ankle- all on my right side. I have yet to be unable to help lift someone or something when required. Again, each person is different.. but if you want to make it work, you can find a way. My fiancee's EMS instructor is an active paramedic who suffered spinal meningitis at the age of (I think) 14 months... he walks very strangely and doesn't have quite as much strength as most. He's still a very good medic. Look for braces, talk to another PT (go in for a consult if you need to) and find a way if you really want to do this. Same with medical school. If you want to do it now, as many are advising, look for loans and scholarships. They give out scholarships for having brown eyes for crying out loud... there is always something you can find if you are determined enough to. Also, the federal government helps considerably with need based loans and scholarships if your parents don't make much money and can't contribute a whole lot. Oh, by the way... I'm an EMT... and I don't think it's deterred me from going to nursing school at all. But maybe I had an advantage by attending college in pursuit of my bachelor's BEFORE I went to EMT school. Just another thought. Whatever you decide, make sure it's what you really want to do. Life is a lot more than school, and school affects what happens in your life later much more than you think it will. Talk it over with your folks, and feel free to ask questions here. Just don't commit yourself to either EMS or medical school if something doesn't feel right about it.. you will burn out and waste time. Good luck! Wendy CO EMT-B

Fender

Darnit Lone, I already did that one! Take it back! Wendy CO EMT-B

You don't save a partner or correct their mistake *by virtue of being an EMT-Basic*. You save your partner by being an alert human being with some grasp of how medicine should be performed. The further your education has gone and the better grasp you have of medicine, the more likely you are to spot the subtle (but still potentially detrimental or lethal) mistakes that your partner may be making. Many people catch the big stuff. It's the little stuff that can kill you.... Incompetence exists at all levels of training, experience and education. Plenty of medics correct their basic partners and their fellow medic partners, just as much as basics correct other basics and medics. And yes, as stunning as it may seem, there may be instances in which an EMT-Basic may have a little bit more information than an EMT-Paramedic about something. I don't think it is the rule by any means, but anything is possible and can happen --don't we all know that by now? Doesn't mean it is the rule concerning Basic/Paramedic teams. Basics need to accept their limited scope of practice, and if they are frustrated with it, they need to pursue further education instead of insisting that their scope be widened. Further ability comes with further understanding and education. At least, that is the way it is supposed to work... right? I am personally ok with being a basic right now. And I do have some good anat/phys to help me out with that, so I am slightly ahead of the curve. I wouldn't dare touch the medic's drug box except to help grab something and help verify the 5 R's of administration-- I know better. It's way easier to kill people than to "save" them.... and until I know more about what I'm doing, I'm ok with being a cot fetcher and splinter puller extraordinaire because that is what I have been trained to do. Wendy CO EMT-B

Don't you mean the VAGUS nerve? The VEGAS nerve is the one that makes you sweat when you're playing blackjack in Vegas, right? The vagus nerve: 10th cranial nerve originating in the brainstem, specifically the medulla oblongata, extending through the jugular foramen. Descends from the spinal cord in the carotid sheath, dipping inferiorly behind the left bronchus. The vagus nerve carries motor parasympathetic fibers to all organs excluding the adrenals, as well as innervating some specific skeletal muscles. It is partially responsible for regulating heart rate, peristalsis, sweating, some mouth motor movements, and maintaining an open larynx during speech/breathing. It also receives some sensation from the outer ear via the Auricular branch. -most taken from Wikipedia. Next word: Medulla Oblongata Wendy CO EMT-B

Oh come on... dog isn't actually biting the guy. Getting ready to though... would make any guy nervous. Looks like they were playing and the dog is frustrated... so there's the whole open mouthed rest... anyone ever try to raise a teething coonhound? Lol... Wendy CO EMT-B

Please do not leave the City! If you leave, you remove part of the dialogue that does not necessarily think that BLS and volunteering are detrimental to our profession. As for why many of our older and wiser heads are currently on a no EMT-B, no volly kick: Think about how many other professions *(other than firefighting)* have 1 semester certification courses. Now think about how many professions encourage people to work for free in order to gain experience... I am not talking about internships or research assistantships here, even though a lot of those are unpaid or minimally paid. I am talking operating at the full capacity of your certification, doing the same work that other people do for a living-- for free. No one in here will argue with the fact that EMS is underpaid and often mistreated by other medical factions. After a lot of discussion, many of our older folks have decided that a large portion of the reason we are treated this way is because we allow people to operate with minimal training and education, and we do not demand equal pay because we have just accepted that the half paid, half volley system is the way things are. That is what they are trying to change- they are trying to figure out how to improve EMS and reduce burnout. They are also trying to figure out how to better educate providers so that we have people operating on logic and reasoning rather than referring to a protocol book for every action. They don't hate you, I promise! Stick around and see if you can add to the dialogue. And it is perfectly fine to disagree with people.. just be prepared to catch some flak every now and again. My enter key is busted! lol.... Wendy, CO EMT-B

Mythbusters busted the unfortunate scuba diver myth, lol... but it is still good for a laugh. Gotta say I loved the seal one... there's life for you! Wendy CO EMT-B