BEorP

Sounds like someone just wanted to do an ECG on his 18 year old female student. Maybe Dust should go over there to find out if she is hot.

You are my favourite member with one post. Exactly what I said in my post... a significant amount of water will not be aspirated.

I believe there was a cop there as this was happening. There was also the pt's cousin who was trying to get them to help her as they literally stood around. The pt ended up in the ICU and on a vent I think it said on the show. Wonder if it would have gone any differently if they took her to the hospital when she was conscious.

Ok so I had just started watching it so I don't know all of the details but on the A&E show "Intervention" tonight there was one of the subjects who took a bunch of trazodone. Apparently she had also been drinking. The producer called 911 and the medics showed up but said they could not touch her until she gave consent or went unconscious. They actually waited until she went unconscious and then began treatment (and I believe she regained consciousness but then they told her she could not refuse). I do not know what area/state this was in. I will say again that I am not positive on all of the details, but are there areas that you would actually need to accept a refusal from someone who has been drinking and has taken a bottle of pills in an attempt to end their own life?

Let's just make a list of different arguments we have here so we can just take turns using them for threads that need to be longer: - volunteer vs. professional - training vs. education - EMT-B vs. more than just FA training - EMT-A, EMT-B, EMT-C, ..., EMT-Y, EMT-Z vs. just two levels But anyway I will actually make a comment on the thread and I need to say that (big surprise) I agree with Dust. Why would anyone even consider going to court for a profession that they only even want to use as a hobby? And in response to the golf comparison... this is even less of a hobby because it's not a hobby, it's a profession (or at least it should be).

I think it's important that we keep in mind that there are big differences in the online sites mentioned by the OP and the big carib schools...

You make an excellent point. The reason I am looking at master's first is because when it comes to university graduates (or fourth year university students as I am now), I am fairly young. I don't know what I want to do with my life and know that I would like to pursue a doctoral degree at some point but I couldn't say 100% in what. A master's will be one or two years and hopefully allow me to mature as a student as a person so I can make the right choice for further education. Then the question of why not just take some time off school might come up. The reason for this is that I truly enjoy education.

In case anyone would like to provide their opinion on the Disaster Medicine and Management program the site to read more about it is here: http://www.philau.edu/disastermed/

I don't have anything to link to to back this up and don't have time to search for more info right now, but I believe I have read somewhere that nitro for AMI will not usually actually dilate coronary arteries due to plaque build up.

I guess if you don't like being resuscitated, it would have sucked to have gotten up front CPR before the release of the official guidelines in December 2005.

How long is a semester in the US? If it were 18 weeks long that only adds up to 108 hours... but I guess if you add on one ambulance shift then you get to 120.

You make a very good point, I wasn't considering how some might be assessing a pt for a reason to give ASA rather than for possible cardiac issues.

10-4 :wink:

Ok, so yes in happy happy land we will all have pts who are amazing historians and able to provide us with every little bit of information we need to decide on cardiac or not. Oh and we can also do 12 leads on them too. In this happy happy land the only people who get ASA are those who actually seem to be having something cardiac going on. As nice as happy happy land sounds, we're not there. Pts often have problems explaining exactly what they are feeling and often don't even know their medical history but can then sometimes confirm things that you can deduce from their meds. Plus many medics are not able to do 12 leads yet. Since we are not in happy happy land I think it only makes sense that sometimes we will give ASA on a hunch to someone who seems possibly cardiac. If there are no contraindications to it, why not give it? Yes, I know it is a drug like any other, but let's be reasonable.

To become a PA I would first need to have healthcare experience and also as far as I know there are no distance ed PA programs. Thank you for the suggestion though.

I know that there have been a number of threads on master's opportunities for medics, but this one is a bit different from any that I was able to dig up. What I am specifically looking for is a master's program that I could enter immediately after completing my BSc (no significant EMS work experience) that would be completed mainly through distance education. One program that I initially read about on here was Philadelphia University's Disaster Medicine and Management program that seems very interesting. I particularly like the set up of the Philadelphia program because it does include a tiny bit of time to do hands on stuff on campus. I'm open to options of any master's programs but disaster management and public health seem like they are interesting fields. And before someone calls me out on not having my life planned out... No, I am not looking at this from a career directed point of view at this point. I will also add that one field that interests me as a possible PhD opportunity would be cardiac arrest resuscitation research so if there is a master's program that can be done through distance ed that would contribute in some way to pursing that I would be interested to hear about it. Thanks for any input.

You could still find a way to follow your protocols. Don't you remember, you were actually out of the house when he died and the family did not tell you? I'm not saying for sure that that is what I would do if I were stuck working in a system like that, but I think it's worth considering. Regardless of the legal validity of the DNR, they didn't want a resus attempt so why do it? And don't say because your protocols say so.

Why does Toronto Fire have City News follow them around? PR. (I know this is not the only reason for it, but it is a great one from my perspective)

I'm sure many people are wondering what exactly happened. Someone forget to ask about chest pain? :wink:

1. How many hours was your EMT-B course that you call yourself "educated"? 2. Welcome to EMT City. The attitude that is prevalent here is not one of hating EMT-Bs but rather one of wanting to advance the profession by increasing education of all providers. Please do not take any of this personally. 3. Can you please tell me about a time when you made a critical decision and what specific education (e.g. patho knowledge) helped you to make this decision.

What traction splint do you use? I don't see the ankle strap of the sager going so great around a fractured ankle.

It wasn't the OP who tried to cancel ALS on the AMI.

This argument came up in another thread and I have the same response... if a truck goes out on a call then there should be another to cover their area. This way I can sleep well knowing my family will be alright.

It makes complete sense to me, Dust. She broke the law. None of us have ever broken a law. Since we're perfect and she's not we shouldn't take her or her kid to the hospital.