JPINFV

1. Your "senior EMT" is an idiot for thinking that confusion!=stroke. It's not like there are a dozen or so other things that can cause a person to be confused besides a stroke. As much as I despise accronyms for simple stuff (cought SAMPLE, HAM, PENMAN, DCAPBTLS), some accronyms are decent to good. Remind him what AEIOUTIPS is. 2. Your "senior EMT" is stupid. Does he call for ALS on every call? If not, then he is making a decision on the patient's condition as to what the patient has and what the patient does have. Sometimes a patient presents with signs and symptoms of different diseases. The list of possible diseases is called a differential diagnosis. Work your way through the list as far as possible ruling things out. Start with the most life threatening. 3. Your "senior EMT" is stupid. Does he really have no faith in what his examination is showing, or does he just get off watching a paramedic puting a patient on a 3 lead and starting an IV? 4. Your company sucks. Age and experience does not equal ability. Do you really get promoted to senior EMT just by being 18 or older? 5. Your company and state sucks for letting people under the age of 18 ride on an ambulance and be the primary care giver for patients. I remember being 17 and thinking that I was hot shit for being 17 and knowing everything. I remember how it sucked not being able to do some things because some other punk 17 y/o couldn't get their life straight, so now I had to suffer for it [side note: Young male drivers who can't seem to drive correctly suck too. It's your fault my insurance costs so much], but that's life. Under 18 is a minor and thus should not be giving medical aid on an ambulance.

An ounce of protection...

Pot meet kettle. Kettle meet pot. :roll:

Fair enough. That's the same situation that I'm in most of the time.

Don't ya love the paperwork at assisted living places? Half filled out, hand written forms that's been copied a bajillion times. Anything else on the secondary (unequal grips, clubbing, edema, etc)? Lung sounds? Did you request an ALS intercept?

Maybe I'm a little fuzzy because I'm a 4th year Bio Sci undergrad, but please explain what situation where both solutions are under simular conditions (ex the hypertonic solution isn't under pressure) that a hypotonic solution would recieve solution across a gradient from a hypertonic solution. Solute? Yes. Solvent? No.

2 reasons. First, EMT-B's are really an ONIBP machine (Organic Non-Invasive Blood Pressure machine). Second, Basics save Paramedics from doing manual labor. That said, BLS does have it's places, just normally not on an ambulance, espacially alone (CCT cars would be a good example of a use). Oh, and before any noob basics get's their panties in a twist over this, I'm a basic too. You need to realize the limitations of your scope, and more importantly, your education.

^ Err, you're confusing osmosis and simple diffusion. Water goes from hypotonic to hypertonic while the solutes (if able to cross the membrane) goes from hypertonic to hypotonic. Your way would result in the hypertonic solution losing solvent, thus becoming more hypertonic.

I'll need a ski mask, some wire cutters, and a truck. The hospitals won't miss them.

Well, people are stupid then because you're supposed to look behind you when you're going in reverse. Yes, check the sides like you normally would, but you should be turned in your seat looking back.

Don't remove the ring, remove the finger. You should have trauma shears, use them.

I'm not 100% sure how base hospital radios are connected, but the radios at our base stations are huge. . Besides the 3 channels for my company's dispatch, we also have a med10 channel and a med10tac channel.

I've had a car back into the side of my ambulance at a SNF before. Hit the left rear wheel area. No damage to either cars, but how can you miss seeing the side of a type 3?

Return of Spontaneous Circulation

Timmy, the list isn't nearly as important as the depth that it's covered in. We probably went over some basic IV thearapy and did a little intro into advance airways in my EMT-B class. It doesn't mean that we can use them or anything.

^^ I got 1/4 through that chunk of text and wondered when the paragraph was going to end. Paragraphs are our friends. They like to be used.

It's partly a West Coast American thing with fire based EMS. Fire runs the ALS show, but they contract out the actual transport to a private ambulance company in a lot of cities (i.e. call 911 in my county and a fire engine with paramedics and a private ambulance with EMT-Bs shows up). The private ambulance crews are generally stationed at motels with reserved parking for the ambulance.

Well, the medics stay at the fire house. The private ambulance crews that are contracted to provide transport get the local motel provided by their company. When I think of hospitals, I think of doctors and nurses, not EMS. All the education in the world won't fix anything if you aren't going to pay enough to attract people to this career. If you plan on using tax dollars, then you need to show the public that a professional and educated service is needed and beneficial. If that means that we need to pull out the dog and pony show every so often, then it's the price that needs to be paid. So, your city's management isn't professional? Your local water district/sanitation district engineers aren't professionals? It sounds like your saying that there are no professionals involved with government services. Sure, the employees that you're most likely to encounter aren't professionals, but I'm sure there is someone that is considered a professional above them. Medicine is a government service for a lot of places. In fact, you could argue that EMS IS a government mandated service under EMTALA since true emergencies [MI=emergency. Stubbed toe=not an emergency] are treated without regard to the patient's ability to pay. Unfortunately, this is why a lot of ERs are full. Unlike police, fire, other healthcare fields [RN, MD/DO], law, politics, etc, EMS is not a field that jumps out towards college students. If you want college educated paramedics, then you can't just rely on people looking at EMS as a high school student. With out its own identity, EMS will never be able to attract the grads and the undecided/undeclared demographics like it needs too.

3rd government agency that combines interfacility (gotta pay for it somehow, and the less tax dollars used, the better) and 911 response. Interfacility would be done primarily out of van's without lights or sirens on it (staffed by basics). All private ER calls would be in an ambulance with at least an EMT-I on board [this also provides a buffer for call surges and mass casualties). All 911 calls would be handled by a minimum of a paramedic. Paramedic education would be at least an associates degree. Working with local colleges and universities, a program would be developed up through a masters at least. Higher levels would be used for education, management, and field treatment programs [i.e. treat and release, or treat and refer to urgent care] and have an advanced scope of practice (not necessarily the same degree for each program) . Bridge programs would be developed for non-degreed paramedics and for entry degrees for non-EMS college graduates. Actual stations would be used (i.e. not motel rooms or posting) to give more of a public presence. I'm envisioning that this system would take care of several current problems. First and foremost, public education. By having more of a permanent presence in the community (ex. fire stations) and increased involvement in the community, the public becomes more aware of what we do, and what we're capable of. The investment in EMS becomes worth it. Public awareness would also increase the amount of people interested in entering EMS. Degree requirements would weed out some people, but also increase the amount of people interested in joining by tapping into the large pool of college students who have no clue what they want to do yet, or become interested part way into college. By increasing and diversifying the services provided into medical transportation, you increase the revenue stream which will let you increase pay. As with public perception, a higher pay means larger applicant pool, which means more high end applicants in the end (as well as more low end applicants). Yes, interfacility transport might suck, but no career is all fun and no work.

Yes, there is a difference, and it's an explorer post if anything. Venturing is for high adventure (i.e. rock climbing, long distance/high altitude hiking. So, umm, you're a part of a group that you don't even know what it is?

Beer barn? Beer tastes like urine. In-N-Out would kick Beer Barn's butt any day of the week.

^ Naw, 2+2=5 is double plus good. I wonder what would happen if I start writing my narritives in newspeak? Oh, and if you don't get this post, you need to read some more.

Stupid Brits and their weird spelling. What do they know about English? /sarcasm (just in case)

Well, it's good to know that the constricting bandage has gone the way of shared body heat for hypothermia. /me remembers both from Boy Scouts. //The "skin to your skippies" hypothermia treatment was changed before I left.

I wonder if it's some sort of portable EEG machine. If so, I hope it's easier to set up then the one's used in hospitals. I'm currently doing undergraduate research on sensory gating in bipolar and schizophrenia patients and we only use 9 leads right now. Of them, only 4 of them are acually gathering useful data (CS, CZ, C3, and C4. The others measure baseline [ground] and blinks). I couldn't imagine setting it up on an actual patient and trouble shooting it (bad lead, bad ground, etc) in the field.