JPINFV

At least he didn't call me on the subject-verb agreement problem I had in the header. I actually had NHTSA spelled out, I just forgot to throw in the (NHTSA) after I used it.

How NOT to insert a NPA: At the very least, Rid and Vent has seen this already.

Watch list+roll back power=safety. Besides, that's why there's over 50 references (at least 1 for each state).

EMS, so easy a ditch digger can do it?

Do you know which state to avoid because they still have an Advanced First Aid Ambulance level? Wonder where you can move to that still honors that EMT-I/85? Want to know where you can be a paramedic with an EMT-I/99? Where exactly is it you can be an EMT-Intermediate: Drips and Pumps? Consult the newly completed EMT Levels by State list on Wikipedia. Complete with 51 references to state documents showing just what levels there are (except Delaware because their state website sucks). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Med...Levels_by_State

Is there anyone here from Montana that can tell us exactly how much the sub-level endorsements are used? (There are 3 endorsements for first responder, 6 for EMT-Basic, 4 for EMT-Intermediate, and 4 for EMT-Paramedic). Also, is there anyone from Delaware that can link me to a page on their state website that talks about their levels? (6 states, including Delaware, left to complete the list...)

Well, it would be great if there was some sort of uniform educational standards that applied to advanced care.

Weren't used/stocked at the service I worked for.

But if the machine can interpret the rhythm, then why do we need to train the providers to do it? [/sarcasm] Unfortunately, major EMS systems really do believe it.

Isn't the statistic somewhere around only 40% of MI patients present with "typical" chest pain?

That's so true. I tried talking to some of my classmates about EMS and the low standards. The response was basically, "Yea? So what, all they're supposed to do is drive people to the hospital, they don't have to understand all that much." It's so nice knowing how ignorant some of the future physicians are going to be of prehospital medicine.

Oh, as I'm going through and compiling the EMT level list I'm seeing all sorts of fun. Alaska has 6 levels of provider including 3 levels of intermediates (defibrillator tech, EMT-2, EMT-3). Indiana has a level called EMT-Basic Advanced (oxymoron?) as an EMT-I/85 and another level called EMT-Intermediate. Kansas has 3 levels of intermediate, EMT-Defibrillator, EMT-I/85, and EMT-I/Defibrillator. Maine refuses, apparently, to end their old levels (5 levels with Ambulance Attendant and EMT-Critical Care not having new certs issued). Heck, we can't even get our naming conventions to be the same. One state has EMT-Basic, another state uses just "EMT," a few others use EMT-I (one) and another state has EMT-Ambulance. Is EMT-I/85 an Advanced EMT (Idaho), EMT-Specialist (Michigan), EMT-2 (Alaska, maybe California...), or EMT-Intermediate? Are paramedics EMT-Paramedic, Paramedic Specialist (Iowa), Licensed Paramedic (Texas) [ok, ok, special case with their howdy toady degrees), Mobile Intensive Care Technician (Kansas) or just plain Paramedic? I've said it before, would I really be misleading by calling myself an EMT-I? After all, that is the nomenclature used by my state (California) for EMT-Basics.

If it makes you feel any better, Iowa calls their EMT-I/99s "EMT-Paramedic."

I actually started compiling a list on Wikipedia today about it since people always seem to be wondering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Med...Levels_by_State

There were people in California calling for tougher EMT-Basic standards? Even with the amount of EMS based fire suppression that's in that state?

Oregon EMS should be aware that not all big bellied men are necessarily obese. Some of these patients deliver.

California uses them (EMT-Is), but there are less than 200 state wide because a system has to prove that they aren't using them to replace paramedic service in order to use them.

Meh, I'd rather be at a Qualcomm (main 2007 California wild fire shelter for San Diego county) shelter. You know you're at the right shelter when there's a rock band playing for the evacuees*. *My parents live in the area and were lucky enough to not have to evacuate. They were on the border of the voluntary evac zone, though. One of the small fires was about 5 minutes away from them, but that one was put out quickly.

To bad that a kick to the head by Norris also cures the disease of life.

I actually did the math on a light set and came up with a cost of something around $1600 for the entire fit out. For that much money, the owner could have gone to paramedic school or got upwards of 70 community college units according to the prices of programs in Southern California.

One of the things I did in my undergrad physio lab was a bunch of stuff (monitor force with varying frequency of shocks, preload, afterload, etc) with a frog's leg muscle (Gastrocnemius). Of course we removed said muscle from a live, but anesthetized, frog so it was a pretty fresh muscle.

The colored light system is used, at least, by Horton. In the 2 Horton type 3s that I've worked in, the colored light was converted into text (patient condition 1, 2, 3 [G, Y, R]) up front. My experience is that Wheeled Coach (Crusader [type 2], Citimedic, and Custom series [both type 3s]) are not equipped with them.

We were replying to someone else who confused a Valsalva maneuver [blowing up a glove or blowing through a straw] with rebreathing to increase PaCO2.