JPINFV

Ok, it's posted on ABC's website now.

You know, I was going to post the following, and depending on how the comments comes out I still might just. I don't think that airing the industries dirty laundry is always a good thing, but sometimes it is just the only way to instigate change. "Look, if the people in our profession can't even use the correct terms to describe it's members (most states and the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians use the term Emergency Medical Technician as a base title for everyone, from basic to paramedic), how can you expect a news program to know the difference. There are two major facts to be considered. First, someone HAS to drive the ambulance. Who do you think drives the ambulance in systems that utilize dual paramedics instead of a basic/paramedic setup (I wonder how many people unfamiliar with EMS are popping 2 aspirins right now after reading that question)? Second, until we become a true profession which requires a college education and move past the 120 hour first aid course known as the EMT-Basic curriculum and the 9 month paramedic curriculum (to, say, a 2 year college degree as a minimum), EMS will never have the respect it deserves inside the medical field to even consider attempting to educate the public, much less yell at them for a simple mistake. We need to clean our own house before we decide to take it to the street. "

So is the emergency medical physician from Podunk Hospital ER any better or worse than the emergency medical physician from St. Community Hospital ER?

A person in public have no right to expect privacy. I don't see any of the photographers going to jail because they were taking picture of Britney Spears being loaded into the ambulance in 4 point restraints (you can see a soft restraint on her leg in one of the pictures). There are are three problems with this that I see. First, you only need so many pictures for "educational" use. They don't need to be necessarily the last accident to happen. So, unless there was something completely special about this specific accident then there was no reason to take the pictures. Second, he emailed them out. Emailed pictures have a way of making it online. A perfect example would be an accident that happened in Southern California a few years ago (link goes to Snopes article and local newspaper article on the fallout of the pictures being leaked). The accident itself was rather nasty (18 year old + daddy's Porsh (without his permission and which she had never driven before) + 100+MPH + toll booth = funeral) and someone from the high way patrol (which, rather understandably TOOK pictures as part of the investigation) leaked the pictures illegally. It might be understandable if he wasn't a member of an emergency response agency, since this was in public, but he is. Now that he has released those pictures to other agencies, his ability to control said pictures is essentially nil. Third, while we are involved in the medical field and should be able to stifle that giggle over seeing a a nipple, society might not. For the sake of the patient's dignity, he should have at least tried to blur the nipple.

I thought I'd share one of the resources the anatomy course that I'm taking is using. It's a website built around cross section pictures from the visible Human Project. The cross sections pages are set up so that there are 3 different pages for the same picture, one without any labels at all, one with labels (A, B, C, D, etc), and one with labels and a label key. http://iris3.med.tufts.edu/medgross/gross.html

People are just taking the path of least resistance. It is easier to say, "We can use this piece of equipment for this type of patient, just tell me what to set the gages to" than "Teach me how this machine works, not just how to operate it." Similarly, it is easier to ask "why take the longer, harder, more expensive route to x cert when I can do Y program and be treated the same as everyone else?" I find it disheartening that our governmental and industrial leaders are not stepping up to require higher standards.

Um, exactly when were medics required to get a 12 lead before defibrillating and/or where are novices with no medical training allowed to electrocardiovert? I honestly think that comparing 12 leads to manual defibrillations to using an AED is a non-sequitur. You're right, technology is here to stay and it is about patient safety and care. So tell me, what part of an EMT-Basic's education prepares them to interpret or even make use of the information provided by a 12 lead ECG?

If he's willing to volunteer with one emergency service, why not help out another (provided such assistance is welcomed)?

[devil's advocate with a pinch of sarcasm] Well, there was a positive mechanism so everyone gets full c-spine precautions. Gurney+attendant=not that much space to move around. By opening up the door by any means necessary that allows a provider access to the front of the patient care compartment, which includes, at the very least, the head of the patient. This allows a provider to give manual in-line stabilization pending a backboard, head bed, and c-collar. [/devils advocate] Of course there doesn't appear to be any damage to either side of that door, so it could simply be that no one decided to try the door handle. Ockham's razor was seen crying in the back seat of the hit fire truck after the accident.

FTFY (fixed that for you) http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=147132#147132

fixed.

So you can't get hired because the market is flooded and it is the people who don't want to pay taxes' fault? Oh, and before anyone tells me that they are "cutting taxes for the rich," let me say, "Of course they are." You have to pay taxes to get a tax cut and the top 50% pay over 96% of all tax income while the top 10% of income earners pay almost 66% of all tax income.

I would concur that that post does appear to be loaded with sarcasm. Some might even say dripping.

This is the only reason to even contemplate going to RCC. Play with sound. [note: this is a warm up video before championships, not an actual competition performance]

Have you heard about these wonderful things called sentences?

Dust, I think you've just signed the death warrant on at least half of the ambulance services in the country.

Ok, you really need to take the Maddox site with a rather large grain of salt. While I don't know if Crocs are comfortable or not, they do look like the type of shoe worn in places and at times where comfort takes priority over look.

Working for an interfacility transport company, I rarely dealt with trauma calls besides the LOLFDGB (little old lady fall down, go boom) calls (yes, Grandma Jane who fell 30 minutes ago, exhibited no change in activity, isn't complaining about pain, and is now happily sitting in the dinning room eating dinner probably doesn't need to go to the hospital, but you call, we haul). The flip side was that we had a fair amount of nursing home -> ER calls besides the normal routine of dialysis, doctor's office, hospital discharge calls. My old company also had a rather robust CCT program utilizing RNs and RTs as needed for interfacility transports. I can see an argument that many of our providers became "medical junkies." It wasn't about that biker that went down and got messed up. Instead, it was about walking into a nursing home room and seeing a patient barely responsive to pain (alert/talking yesterday) with a blood pressure of 60/20. I believe, to some extent, all emergency providers enjoy the adrenaline rush. The problem is that some providers forget that there's more to this then that 1 in a 100 major trauma or major medical problem.

Orange County, CA has a similar DNR protocol as Mobey's given his post. Resuscitation is started until a valid DNR is produced. Once a valid DNR is produced then resuscitation can be stopped without contacting medical control. In addition, we have a few nice quirks. 1. Family can override a DNR order at anytime. 2. Immediate family (adult children, siblings, spouse, parents, domestic partner) can request that EMS withhold/withdraw resuscitation at any time. (page 3, section E, subsection 3 of the link at the end of the post). 3. Any disagreement among family, concern about who is family, or concern about DNR validity results is resuscitative measures pending base hospital contact. DNR protocol, PDF format. http://www.ochealthinfo.com/docs/medical/e...mp;P/330.51.pdf

Well, saline locks are useful for administering medications, which it doesn't look that the OP will be doing given the post. Umm, not really much besides that, hence the EMS tongue-in-cheek term "magic IV of life."

Just wondering, does the fire department get extra money for riding along on the call or are you talking about the fire department using EMS to justify additional government funding (not insurance/medicare reimbursement) by duplicating services. If they do get a cut of any insurance payment, who has the final say if a fire medic rides along during a transport?

Well, I imagine that it doesn't take an hour to get to a hospital in Philly.

That's because it was britt207 who originally stated that new hires should have to do special "tasks."