BEorP

Thanks guys. It's always interesting to hear different ways of doing things.

Congratulations! That is wonderful. It is great when people in EMS are able to advance their education (in any field), especially if you might be able to use some downtime at work to do some uni work!

Hey Dwayne... just curious since you and Mike both mentioned it, do you never wear gloves in the cab? Dirty gloves is obviously a no no, but what about on the way to the call? (with gloves that are hopefully new and clean) Or do you guys wait until you get there? Probably seems like a bit of a stupid question, but it seems like how we do it is one of those (many) things in EMS that is very strong in the various organizational cultures.

I don't know what it is like in the US, but in Canada and Australia you'll have a very difficult time renting a car under 21 so I'd imagine that that is somewhat of a magic number for insurance companies.

Welcome to the forum! From what we see on the forums, it certainly seems like regardless of age the job market in CA can be challenging. As the other responses mentioned, it may be that 21 is the magic number for insurance. So I guess the question now is what you do if you're not able to find an EMT job. Do you want to have a career in EMS? If so, many people on the forum would recommend taking some college anatomy and physiology (if not a whole AS or even BS) and then going on to EMT-P. If you do some digging around on the forums, you should be able to find some of the past discussion on this type of thing (hopefully we don't need to rehash any of those debates in this thread). If you're dead set against further education or it isn't feasible for you for whatever reason, then I guess it would be time to move. Even moving somewhere else though, it won't be a walk in the park to find an EMT-B job at your age. The other option, of course, would be to find a job that isn't in EMS and wait it out. I don't know that that is really the best option. Your ability to put together a polite and coherent post obviously shows that you're not like a lot of the people who show up on these forums so I'm sure that you will figure something out. Personally, I would strongly advocate for going the education route. The other reason that education is important (aside from being a good provider) is that EMS careers do not usually last to retirement at 65. Many of us don't even last to 35! You need to enter EMS with a plan on what you will do if (when?) someday you can't do front-line EMS. If you want to transition into something like management, education, or research, having a college degree will be quite helpful. Best of luck with the job searching and decision making! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

I enjoyed the video. I especially liked how multiple times it was mentioned that doctors supported paramedics and taught then rather than just giving them a set of protocols.

Respect for your chain of command is one thing, but it could also be argued that respect for your colleagues should be equally important. It would seem that part of this respect would involve letting them being to take responsibility for their actions and be the ones to inform their superiors. (Unless of course there is some specific reason not to, such as they were going to be showing up for a shift that night and had not gone through whatever proper channels exist to inform the employer or anything else like that.)

I did get a tour and what a facility it is! It seems like you guys got lucky with getting the perfect site for all of the fun things you can run there. I went down to Cincinnati and Kentucky for the rest of the day, so it was not a wasted trip entirely. If you feel bad though, all I would ask for to make it up to me is a spot in your emergency medicine residency program in a few years.

Setting aside HIPAA because I know almost nothing about it, I don't think that the "hypothetical" actions of the crew were appropriate. Surely there must be some formal channel for the department to be informed of criminal issues of one of its members (even if it is that the member is to report it). I would consider even revealing the identity of a patient to a supervisor to be a breach of confidentiality (especially when that is someone who is known to the supervisor). The fact that they could look it up themselves in the patient report or that "everyone knows" since it is a small community has nothing to do with it.

Well done! That is not a waste of time at all. We need managers who have been educated in management. If someone makes you feel like it was a waste of time, it is probably just because they wish that they had done it! Keep us updated on how your career progresses. Maybe I'll come work for you in a few years when you're a manager!

Good choice! It looks like you got good advice here and came in with a good perspective. Just some unsolicited advice since it seems like you'd be receptive. Make sure that if you don't have formal management training, that you start to get some if you're going to be in a management position. ACP is clinical education, not management training, yet for some reason we often seem to require ACP as a prerequisite for management positions rather than formal training in management. There are a number of options for online diplomas and certificates, depending on how far you want to go with it. This may even be something that you could work towards online while working rural to help keep you busy at work. Just to throw two options out there that were the first to come to mind: http://xweb.algonquincollege.com/woodroffe/program.aspx?query=6040X07PWO http://www.dal.ca/academics/programs/diploma/ehsm.html

Yeah, they were using 7.5% and published their results in 2010: http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/304/13/1455.long

Especially as a student, I do not think that you should be sharing your own personal beliefs on any topic with patients. If your friend understands this, then she can go on thinking whatever she wants as long as she sticks to science when speaking with patients. If she seems to think otherwise, then maybe it would to give her a tactful reminder if you are good friends and think that it will be in her best interests (and the reminder doesn't necessarily need to focus on religious beliefs).

They say that there's no such thing as a free lunch and that just may be true! I arrived at Calamityville this morning to find the parking lot strangely empty. Apparently the course was cancelled last week, but that message didn't quite make it to up to the Great White North. I got a nice tour of the facility at least and since I'm here I'm going to spend some time exploring this lovely state of Ohio. Thanks for the invite anyway, 'zilla. Too bad it didn't work out this time!

Thanks guys... at least it isn't just me who doesn't know what is going on! I'm hoping that when it (if?) if does finally arrive then it will make things easier for me to get my foreign certification recognised since I can deal with the registration body and then try to get a casual position. I don't think QAS is eager to bring someone through their current equivalency process to just work casually!

Just to add to this or echo what you are saying... there are still some schools that value health care experience, but more and more the focus is just on a good undergrad GPA with some token volunteering in a hospital or shadowing a PA. If the OP volunteered in a hospital once a week during undergrad, that would probably make them eligible (in terms of HCE) for a number of PA programs. It seems like it is some of the older programs that still value "high quality HCE" (e.g. EMT-P, RN, RT), but that is becoming more the exception than the rule. The best resource for PA info online is: http://www.physicianassistantforum.com/ Be warned though that a lot of them are a bit old school in their view of the PA profession and they would rather not see people without real HCE entering the PA profession so this new breed of pre-PAs don't always get the warmest welcome. Even just to read though, there is lots of good info.

Hey guys, I was just wondering whether anyone has any concrete information on when National Registration will be coming. There was a lot of talk about 2012 being the year, but I can't find a whole lot of information online and I haven't gotten much of a response from Paramedics Australasia. Thanks!

No doot aboot it, I do speak English! I didn't have any trouble last summer at the amusement park! ...but even if I did, I'd just find an adult!

Hopefully the grant funding does not specify anything about nationality! If not, I would love to attend at the second offering. Can you confirm the dates? It looks like the website lists the 19th and 20th (Thursday and Friday). Are we able to register online or is there a different process for us?

Are foreigners allowed to come?

To me, even threats often aren't that serious. Yes, if someone who was coherent said that, I would address it appropriately. But if someone who is high as a kite tells me they will kill me, but makes no attempt to do so at the time, I'm not worried. They certainly aren't going to waste their valuable drug money finding time trying to hunt down a paramedic who they may or may not remember meeting.

I wonder how they defined "verbal abuse" because if it just being yelled or cursed at, I am surprised that only two thirds of paramedics reported this. The bigger issue I think is whether this verbal "abuse" even matters. As the Windsor manager rightly points out, we deal with people who are in stressful situations or often have some underlying mental health or substance issues. Does anyone really get truly hurt by things patients say to them? I would certainly hope not. I expect that I will ruffle some feathers with this comment, but I think that this verbal "abuse" should just be an accepted part of the job. If a patient isn't physically attacking me, I'm not really concerned. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.

I agree as well that this patient's outcome wasn't likely affected (going to have to trust the docs on that...), but if you had a large number of similar patients and delayed transport to start an IV, less of them would survive. So I would say that it wouldn't have saved this girl to get to the hospital three minutes earlier, but it would have saved some. I agree as well that this patient's outcome wasn't likely affected (going to have to trust the docs on that...), but if you had a large number of similar patients and delayed transport to start an IV, less of them would survive. So I would say that it wouldn't have saved this girl to get to the hospital three minutes earlier, but it would have saved some. Thanks for bringing up the important point of defining, "delaying transport." To me, this means that you're ready to go, but you sit on scene to start the line (likely with the patient already loaded in the truck). If the patient is trapped and you start a line, then transport was not delayed. If the patient was so combative you could not transport them without sedation, then you did not delay transport either. Certainly there may be a subset of trauma patients who could benefit from an IV even if it delays transport, while the majority would not. It would be silly to think that we're able to pick out the ones who can benefit though. It surely can't be as easy as picking out the hypotensive ones. (Unless you are so confident in your skills that you know someones BP, SpO2, and ICP just by looking at them... see other thread.) So without knowing who might benefit if there is this small subset of patients, I wouldn't delay on scene for an IV in a serious trauma patient.

If they delayed transport to start an IV on a trauma patient, they were wrong. I don't mean to seem like I'm not open to a discussion, but I really don't see how there is much more to say on this. Prehospital IVs in trauma patients don't save lives. This type of patient is why the OPALS study showed that severe trauma patients treated by ACPs (likely getting IVs) had worse outcomes than patients treated by providers not certified in IV therapy. If the patient was trapped and they popped a line in then, it would not have been mentioned as a deviation from accepted practice since it would not have delayed them on scene. Despite her chances of survival being incredibly low, this girl needed a doctor, not an IV. This is not a lawsuit, it is a coroner's inquest. The jury is mainly trying to answer basic questions about the death and is also likely to make non-binding recommendations to prevent future deaths. More information here.

If you're saying this just to get a rise out of us, congratulations. If you're saying this because you believe it, please stop working in EMS.