Timmy

I just got a Littman Master Classic 2 for uni

So applying Ice to a # is standard first aid over there?

lol!

Ice on fracture = punch to head. Seriously, only time I put ice on a fracture the dude nearly cleaned me up. I find that ice will only cause a lot more pain. I have no idea why, maybe something to do with nerves? Besides, we use airsplints (can’t put ice on once you’ve got one of those on) or Fracboards which go soggy. Ice isn’t even mentioned on our clinical guidelines for fractures. Otherwise I have no answer to your question, sorry.

I’m one to freak out about disease transmission! I always wear gloves but don’t often wear goggles. The new trend with my service is wearing your goggles on your head/hat like sunglasses, which proved extremely beneficial at a recent rave party I attended when you could pretty much call our first aid room the vomatorium. Even with gloves on your still not 100% safe because of the microscopic holes. I agree, lack of education! I’m always weary of things like HIV after a scare with a football player (I was in the clear) TB is pretty rare but always a possibility. I keep up to date with my immunizations. I’ve caught the flu off a patient and touch wood it never gets any worse than that! I guess transmission from needle stick injury is a major one. The thing with standby, if your out in the middle of a Motocross track you really don’t have access to hand washing facilities unless you pour a bottle of water over your hands. My service swears by anti bacterial hand gel (you pour a bit in your hands, rub it around and it dries smells like alcohol). Also isowipes. Are these products beneficial? To be truthful, I don’t wash my hands after every call, but most of the time I don’t have access unless I go into a public toilet. I guess you could ask if anyone working in EMS has caught anything from a patient?

Just an interesting law I came across in Northern Territory, Australia: "In the NT it is a criminal offence, punishable by up to 7 years imprisonment for a person, who is able to provide "rescue, resuscitation, medical treatment, firstaid or succour of anykind" to "callously" fail to provide that treatment or assistance when it is required. This obligation is not a general obligation to assist anyone in need. It is it is limited to cases where the person in need is suffering from a potential or actual life threatening injury" It must be shown that anyone committing this offence was physically and mentally capable of rendering assistance, they where sufficiently close enough to provide assistance and that they knew the person was in need of assistance" Criminal code (NT) s 155

Glad we’ve established the fact that the patient is human!

Take my calculator away and I’d be no help at all! Seriously, I couldn’t tell you something as easy as a 6th grade math question… Just in case you think I’m joking, I’m not… I can do basic math like adding and subtracting but anymore than 3 numbers it’s becoming difficult! This is because my states education system is up S#%t creek without a paddle. Calculators were used in EVERY math class and it was suggested that you take a calculator to exams (because without it the teachers know we’d all fail and they’d look bad and maybe get a pay cut). There was no need to work it out in your head. I’ve got a mate who’s going into a 2nd year accounting degree, at football he uses a calculator to work out change from someone buying a pie at the canteen! Yet he got top marks in Advanced Math because he had a calculator… Teachers just assume all kids have a sound knowledge of basic math, which is the biggest load of crap! Most people I know would be able to draw you up a Linear graph or work out a Pythagoras theorem but wouldn’t have the first clue when it came to basic multiplication, division, fractions ect… Every year I did Math in high school, without a doubt we’d spend the first few weeks going through the ‘introduction to calculators’ chapter. I’d say keep the basic stuff in there! I know it’s going to take a lot of work to bring my math skills to an acceptable level!

I was recently at one of those MVCs were you can’t tell what sort of car it was… Within 10 minutes of the incident happening the police had the highway blocked. I find the police are normally really good here, if you want the road closed consider it done. Failing this the firefighters may take a traffic pole thing and slow the traffic 300 meters each side of the incident. Australia is currently trying to pass a law, if you see red/blue flashing lights it’s an automatic slow to 40kmh or face a big fine. We normally park the fire trucks to shield the incident. I feel pretty safe at most incidents. If you’re in your POV I normally park about 200 meters away from the incident, if possible 6 meters from the road, right out of the way.

It’s perfectly normal! I do the same thing when I go to MVAs with Fire. I stand there with my charged line pointing at the engine watching the medics work (fire isn’t ems based here) wanting to jump in and help. This excitement you deliberate about is just an adrenaline rush, you’ll get over it once you’ve got some experience. As for stopping and helping, can’t hurt. Make sure you speak with the medic OIC and get their permission. When you say 2 cars completely wreaked and one medic truck that may be a signal for help, they may very well have 6 pts and only 2 of them.

Since I’ve been doing this since I was a lill tacker Mum use to drive me around to all the standbys and training/courses and sometimes having to wait around. She was the treasurer and decided to become operational.

If people cant tell who you then I dunno....

Seriously who cares? I find this all very pedantic… I mean what’s the first question the public ask “do you get to drive the ambulance” followed by “That’s so awesome, do you get to speed? Can you turn the lights on” The general public don’t care what were called; they just want someone to fix them up. In Australia if you said EMT or EMS to a member of general public they would give you a funny look. The equivalent to EMT B has the official title of volunteer first aid. If you said ‘ambo’ everyone knows exactly what you’re on about. Even paramedic is a pretty new term to Australia; sometimes people debate the name because ‘para’ means two… A lot of skin clinics also go by the name of paramedical because in skin talk it has some relevance to something. Do we not drive the ambulance? Yes, well one would hope anyway. You could debate about the garbage collectors/garbage man/garbos because here there real title is environmental officer, do you see them mopping round about it? I don’t think so, they happily get up at 4am and collect your trash. Or the dog catcher, why don’t we call him animal protection officer? If I ever become a paramedic I’d happily go by the title of ambulance driver.

So..... Your an emt and use your car to do police work? How is traffic control even EMS's problem?

Although it doesn’t surprise me… Why are first aid doing ECG in the first place? Clearly ECG is not a first aid procedure… At least they were trying to do something, some of the people I work with will just stand there and scream for help over the radio…

:shock:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wZ1zk5z-RZ0

Wow… Do they at least pay for your fuel?

Oh I missed this! Sorry for the late reply, it was just brought to my attention! Moving to Oz ay… It’s a good place, really! If you like heat… I’m not sure what sort of requirement you need to meet in regards to VISA or anything like that because I’ve never been out of the country! Its state based government funded EMS so each state has one service. Depending on what state you want to live in will depend on your clinical scope will be. It ranges from off the street diplomas to bachelor degrees, post graduate degrees and masters. My state Victoria, you must have a 3 year Emergency Health Bachelor degree then like a 2 year on road internship till your considered an Advanced life support paramedic. Places like Western Australia will take American paramedics, put you through a orientation type course ect… Every state is different in regards to clinical scope and unfortunately there is no site that has good information on scopes. The some services have doctors but the highest you can go in EMS is a MICA flight paramedic which is basically a level below doctor. Pay isn’t that bad again depending on what state you live in. So if you pick a state I’ll be able to give you more specific info!

Question, if there’s a need to have members respond in POV then why doesn’t the service provide there members with like a marked sedan that’s owned by the service and is insurance and equipped as an emergency vehicle?

We have Code 5, Code Red or Urgent. If you call Code Red you’ll normally get every man and his dog running towards you. I guess the good thing about working standby is there’s normally security or police around, if not there’s always a crowd of people where ever you go. The only time I’ve been threatened I just yelled out “help” and within 5 seconds about 10 fat security men jumped on him I think we have a red panic button on the radio in the trucks but I’ve never tried it…

Happy Birthday

Are you serious man!

You’ll find that a lot of patients with fractures especially arms are more than happy to support it with the other hand. A lot of people are just happy with a pillow for support. Although if it’s a confirmed fracture and considering they were being transfer they should have at least applyed a back slab. Was your doctor an intern? A history should have been sort upon triage…

In EMS you really couldn’t diagnose something like that could you? A cause: Exposure to stuff like nitrates/local anesthetics can speed up the rate of formation of methemoglobin, this might overwhelm protective enzymes and increase something? You through me off the track when I asked about allergic or any sort of reactions to meds and you didn’t say!!!