JPINFV

I neither think that it falls under 1st amendment protectionnor that it is something that the government should regulate. Tasteless and tactless? Definitely. Offensive? Sure. However I don't expect the government to protect me from things that are tasteless and/or offensive.

[tongue in cheek] I fully support Councilman Stokes view point and I would like to wish Councilman Stokes the best of luck finding an ambulance company who is willing to send crews into violent scenes sans police. Pending finding a new company who is willing to meet that demand (dont hold your breath), I believe that the response policy should be changed to stage until either Councilman Stokes OR the police arrive. [removes tongue from cheek] [tongue in cheek] I fully support Councilman Stokes view point and I would like to wish Councilman Stokes the best of luck finding an ambulance company who is willing to send crews into violent scenes sans police. Pending finding a new company who is willing to meet that demand (dont hold your breath), I believe that the response policy should be changed to stage until either Councilman Stokes OR the police arrive. [removes tongue from cheek]

Oxygen doesn't combust on it's own. It's a requirement for fire, but it isn't the only requirement.

Something else to keep in mind is that treatment and health care operations are both permitted uses of health care information and are not limited by HIPAA. Treatment is defined as the following. "Treatment is the provision, coordination, or management of health care and related services for an individual by one or more health care providers..." As such, I would argue that disclosing that a frequent flier has a communicable disease and, in the past, has spat on crew members is an important piece of information for providing and coordinating health care and related services. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html

Meh, 95 isn't too bad to be honest. That 95 is going to include your IV mixtures, oxygen, oral glucose, and a bunch of other ones that aren't really considered "drugs" in common discussion (not saying oxygen and IV solutions aren't drugs, but just not the first thing that pops into mind when looking at a number like that). One thing, though, is to try to group drugs by their mechanism of action. By doing that you've provided a framework to learn the drugs. For example, drugs ending in -dipine are calcium channel blockers specific for smooth muscle (vasodilators) and used for treatment of HTN. Now, you can learn the side effects of the group, of which memory aids are helpful. Side-effects of the -dipines? (say to the tune of "heads, shoulders, knees, and toes) "Headache, facial flushing, feet (pedal edema) and floor (syncope) (feet and floor). The big thing with drugs is to work on them every day. You don't necessarily need to spend a drastic amount of time every day (even 15-30 minutes) or get all of your drug cards done in 1 day, but by continually spending time on it you'll learn with less effort than trying to cram them.

I think you're confusing the TSA with anything more than security theater.

Do you get worked up about every other commercial that parodies a profession or trade in order to sell their products? Does the 7/11 commercial poking fun at the cops/donut stereotype rub you the wrong way? What about the NFL commercial where a bunch of office workers take over the office to watch football since they have to work on the weekend?

Congrats!

...which is exactly my point. It is wrong to say that emergency vehicles have to follow normal traffic laws since they are explicitly exempt (some conditional exemptions, some full exemptions) from several normal traffic laws. Hence my contention with the line, "Regardless of the incident, ambulances still have to obey ALL TRAFFIC LAWS even if they are driving around or responding/transporting," as they don't have to obey all traffic laws when operating emergently.

It's 2 am. You come to a red light in your POV. You're the only one at the intersection. Is it legal to proceed against the red light even though you're the only one there? If it is not, then proceeding through a red light, even though only after ascertaining that nearby cars are granting the right of way demanded under penalty of law, is still an exemption to the rules of the road granted to emergency vehicle when operating in emergent situations.

When possible, get anatomy, physiology, and general chemistry out of the way at the college level. Algebra if you did take it in high school. Bonus points for pathology, pharmacology, histology, and a potential handful of others. Get into paramedic school ASAP after completing those. There really isn't any reason to stay at the EMT level. If you are considering other health care fields (nursing medicine, etc) explore those options too. If you want to, for example, go to medical school, go to medical school and don't play around in EMS (numerous reasons for this. For medical school, for example, one reason is that you don't want to be mid to late 20s when you decide to start knocking out pre-reqs. Everyone suffers in medical school, but non-traditional applications suffer in unique ways.). Among other books, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales (ISBN-10: 0684853949) and The House of God: The Classic Novel of Life and Death in an American Hospital (ISBN-10: 0440133688) are both good reads.

Short of the fact that they haven't been privatized yet, what, exactly, is the problem with this again?

Yep... my Cardio 3 came with a study guide and CD for heart sounds.

Do you have some sort of duty to generate runs for the local EMS service?

Actually, if they require it, they should provide proper training to fully utilize it, which includes knowing how to determine S3, S4, gallops, rubs, murmurs, etc. After all, what good is buying top of the line if you can't use it to its full potential?

For example, the location of a laceration could be described as, "The patient has a 1.5 inch laceration on the anterior forearm beginning approximately 2 inches distal to the cubital fossa. This is where a good anatomy and physiology comes into place. It's nice to know that the high number is systolic and the low number is diastolic, but what do those terms really mean in conjunction with the heart contracting and the rest of how the body works? Resp. rate is simply counting the number of inhalation/exhalation cycles in 60 seconds, or a shorter period (15 seconds or 30 seconds is most common, however you could also do 20 seconds) and muliply by how much needed to reach 60 seconds (so a patient breathing 7 times in 30 seconds is 14 respiration per 60 seconds). For a blood pressure, you place the cuff on the upper arm, inflate to, generally, 150-160 mmHg (might need higher depending on the patient), and then slowly release pressure while listening with a stethoscope to the brachial artery at the cubital fossa. When you hear the beating (korotkoff sounds), the pressure represents the systolic pressure. When the beating goes away, the pressure represents the diastolic pressure. Liters and grams are different forms of measurement in the metric system and can be used and are useful at all levels of health care.

http://www.emtcity.com/index.php/topic/5190-emt-city-book-club/

http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/vehicle_code/chapter31.pdf Emphasis added. In other words, an ambulance in PA can, when responding to an emergency, proceed against a red light, park or stand where ever it needs, and disregard rules governing turns and direction of traffic. When transporting, they can proceed against red lights, and I imagine that the rules governing direction of traffic isn't enforced. All of these are against the law for vehicles not engaged in an emergency response or transport. Otherwise, at 2 am I wouldn't have to wait for a green light if no on coming traffic was coming. Edit: I should also state that, at least in California, there is no specific regulation of ambulances separate from other emergency vehicles, and those regulations is merely a list of the traffic code that emergency vehicles are exempt from provided they display a forward facing burning red lamp while sounding a siren as needed.

So... what state are you in again?

Sigh. No, they don't. In general lights and sirens provides exemptions to most, if not all traffic laws while essentially placing blame for any accidents on the emergency vehicle operator under the concept of due regard. If ambulances had to obey all traffic laws, then there is no reason to even have more than amber lights to mark when an ambulance is parked on a roadway. Also, how many people here slow down and stop at green lights in their POV?

I was in 10th grade at the time and living on the West Coast, when I woke up just before the second tower was hit. I vaguely remember watching it on TV before heading off to get my portable radio from my father's self storage unit (he was working on a walking stick out of there. The walking stick never picked up for a variety of reasons). One of the things, though, that will stick in my mind about that specific day was sitting in first period (Algebra 2/Trig) listening to news updates, in part, because there's also a World Trade Center in Long Beach. Also, one of the eeriest things was the sheer lack of sound over the next few days. I lived under the flight path for two major airports (John Wayne Airport (SNA) where the planes come in from the ocean before joining the main approach and Long Beach Airport (LGB) at about the area where the planes lower their gear). While the planes themselves aren't low enough to cause any noise problems, you'll almost always see 2-3 planes at a time when in the backyard. However, the amount they add to the ambient noise isn't really appreciable except when it's gone, like the few days after the attacks when almost all aircraft were grounded. Similarly, hearing 2 military jets in the dead of night when you haven't heard any aircraft for days is unnerving.

However, last time I checked the internment camps aren't exactly viewed as a shining moment of our history to be proud of. 70 years from now are we going to look back with shame over the discussion about a community center as we look back with shame at the internment camps where we imprisoned innocent citizens for no better reason than where their ancestors came from?

Put an orange piece of paper into the copier and you won't have to worry about whether the copier is black and white or color.

So what do you say if family requests resuscitation while on scene? For consistency, shouldn't you disregard the family in this case as well?

I'm trying to figure out how a commander asking a church (You can request anything you want, doesn't mean you're going to get it) not to burn a religious book and saying that the government can't ban a religious house of worship for no better reason than the religion represented is the same thing. Oh, wait, it's OK to burn the Quran, but the outrage would be enormous if anyone decided to burn the Bible or Torah. [sarcasm]Quick... let's burn the Bible and Torah at the steps of the White House and see what happens![/sarcasm]