JPINFV

A few points. 1. Umm, does Philly not have mutual aid? I'm sure that there are private ambulance companies in/around Philly and a ride to the hospital with most IFT crews is better than waiting on scene for an hour with the fire department. 2. At what time should the fire department just say "fuck it" and transport themselves. "Not supposed to" and "can't" are two different words. My car isn't supposed to go past 65 on the freeway, that doesn't, thankfully, mean it can't. I imagine that the liability is a bit less transporting a SOB in a fire truck than waiting on scene for over an hour for an ambulance.

Since nurses operate outside of the hospital (camp nurse, school nurse, doctor's office, etc) as well as in critical care transports, wouldn't it be possible for her departments medical director to write up some standing orders for her at the RN level? I know this is oversimplifying it a bit, but to a point I fail to see how standing orders would work for 1 provider and not another.

It's a convenient and useful misunderstanding. Technically speaking, L/S driving is a demand for the right of way, or else failing to yield to emergency vehicles wouldn't be a traffic violation. That said, the emergency vehicle operator is not relieved from driving with "due regard" for motor vehicles and pedestrians when engaged in emergency operations and in the end, physics doesn't care who had the right of way. Therefore, given the average level of maturity shown by EMS providers, calling it a request is beneficial, albeit incorrect.

What sort of tasks do you believe that a new hire should have to perform to be considered a "full member?"

Trying to stir the pot a bit here. Do you (people against all non-student/non-certified riders) also disagree with programs such as Discovery Channel's Paramedic series?

Congrats on the acceptance. What school are you going to?

I guess my problem with uniforms is that I will almost always fail to see how a uniform enhances an educational experience. I can understand uniforms in a military or paramilitary environment where a strict chain of command is necessary for numerous reasons, but I do not believe that EMS should be paramilitary in style. I will admit that my exposure to different post secondary educational institutes is limited. I've only taken one course (EMT-B refresher) at a community college and the only two problems (apathy from the students, stupidity from the instructor) could not be fixed by uniforms. Similarly, at my undergraduate (University of California, Irvine), the one wardrobe problem that I can remember was a streaker in O-Chem. Again, uniforms would not have fixed that. To me, uniforms only signify an unwarranted expense and an attempt to further the hero culture ("see, my epaulets are this color because I'm in a paramedic program"). I don't buy the respect issue that is thrown around from time to time either. After all, all those PhDs must hate all the disrespect from teaching a 300+ person lecture hall full of kids wearing blue jeans and t-shirts.

The answer to that depends on if you believe that poor quality EMS providers is due to a lack of experience or the poor state of EMS education. Personally, I feel that no amount of experience, either before or after the education and training required for a specific level, can make up for poor educational standards. If the "real" schooling happens only after a student leaves a program, then that program leaves a lot to be desired for. Unfortunately, this seems to be the exception, not the rule.

How does what someone else wears in a classroom affect how you work with them? I can see the necessity for uniforms during clinicals, but if you (generic "you" now, not Dirty Black Socks) can't dress appropriately (personally, it takes effort to dress inappropriately for a classroom in my mind) with the guidance, at most, of a dress code, than you probably aren't qualified for much more than asking "Would you like fries with that?" Edit: Just to clarify for people not from California. The "EMT-I" mentioned on the website is "EMT-1," better known as EMT-Basic. It is not EMT-Intermediate.

Just wondering, have you tried simply explaining your situation and asking for a wavier? But RCC has one hell of a marching band and winter indoor percussion ensemble.

Well, it is a more accurate description of what they do than fire based EMS.

I think there's two major factors. 1. Where are you? (Southern California is essentially limited to EMS based fire suppression in most urban areas) 2. Are you interested in fire suppression or medicine?

I agree with the above posters. What sort of uncertified people are we talking about? Ride alongs (students, people interested in the field, documentary crews (Discovery Channel's Paramedics, for example) or stake holders (government officials)? Non-EMT drivers (provided they can legally drive the ambulance)? The owner's non-certified crew chief son? That's nice. That 14 year old would be sitting on the side of the road waiting for her parents if she pulled that crud with me.

Just to get this out of the way, but this is a good reason why EMS should not be combined with the fire department. Ok, that said, if the department insists on EMS based fire suppression, then this is fully understandable. It's simply not fair to have only a fraction of the department's employees handle the majority of the calls for no better reason than some people can't hack the department's additional responsibilities. I can foresee discontent by the non-paramedics as a wage gap opens and I can foresee discontent on the side of the fire-medics when they're constantly running while Jim-Bob the certified first responder firefighter sits on the couch all day long watching Dr. Phil.

I wouldn't worry about getting a composite letter provided you can get letters of rec from your professors (2 science, 1 non-science seems to be the common advice. DO schools generally want a LOR from a DO as well). There are a lot of major universities that do not offer composite LORs. As far as post-bach programs, there are a wide variety of them. The current "flavor of the month" programs are the "Special Masters Program" (SMP). SMPs generally follow the first year medical school program and have their students take the same courses. How those courses are taught vary from school to school though. For example, Drexel simulcasts their medical school courses to their master students whereas Tufts University's program (new this year and the program that I'm in) has the professor teach the course at a different time to the master's students in most cases (for example, the medical students might have a biochemistry lecture at 8 am and the master students will have the lecture at 1pm. The exams in these courses are the same between the master and medical program and given at the same time. Some courses are simulcasted though). These programs generally have the same admissions requirements as medical school. There are also programs out there (post bach and masters) for students wishing to apply to medical school who didn't complete the prereqs during their undergrad. I suggest hitting up the postbach forum on www.studentdoctor.net . Take any advice there, and especially anyone spitting out stats (GPA, MCAT) with a grain of salt. There are plenty of 4.0 and 45 trolls there.

I know that, at least in California, the number of certified basics is huge. I'm not sure, though, if they would fall into the inclusion criteria of this survey, especially since California has a strong EMS based fire suppression service.

Ah, "Code" phrases (ex code blue) are another lovely little area of piece meal that hospital organizations are trying to standardize. Code Green was a request for security at both a local psych hospital as well as at the hospital that I used to volunteer at (before it was changed for standardization).

While I'm not one to usually play grammar nazi (Godwin?), provided the post is at least readable and moderately coherent (i.e. shows some sort of sentence structure and isn't a wall of text (paragraphs)), this picture is for you.

To clarify a bit here. Are you talking about completely forgetting to, say, splint an arm on a non-critical trauma, or, say, failing because of some of the lame things that NREMT expects (example: NRB=12 LPM or more, NC=6LPM and only when NRB isn't tolerated)? I believe that's more commentary of the sad state of EMS education than commentary on the "right way to do things."

Manual labor. game, set, and match. 8) :twisted: :hello1:

PAN PAN PAN is a non-life threatening bad situation (ex: you're in a ship that broke down, but you're not going to crash into anything). This is in contrast to MAYDAY, which is used when an immediate life/vessel threatening emergency exists.

When my old company got rid of 10-codes they retained one 10-code for use as a request for assistance. I have no clue, though, what procedures were in place for if anyone ever used it. I do know that the red "emergency button" on our mobile data terminals were useless.

Aww, they've disabled comments so I can't post on youtube about the ingeniousness seen at 47 seconds of releasing manual stabilization in order to move the patient's hair out of the way.

Better tip. Don't work until you've started school and truly understand the workload required by school.

Just wondering, how much education and training do you believe should be added to the EMT-Basic course to make them able to understand the what, when, and when not of your suggested additions to the EMT-Basic treatment and evaluation options? Please consider that the current level of education provided to basics is woefully inadequate, especially in terms of anatomy and physiology.