Medic_Kidd

I searched this topic, but didn't find anything, so I apologize if this has already been asked somewhere.... My question: We are graduating Paramedic class in a week, and having a pinning ceremony. I am looking for some nice pins fairly cheap and was wondering if anybody had anywhere in particular that they have had good experience with. I know there are plenty of sites out there, but that's the problem I'm running into, narrowing it down to just one site. Any help is greatly appreciated! Hope everyone is ready for Christmas! :-) Thanks again!

Sorry. I was just sharing something that happened in class. I in no way meant to offend anyone or make anyone mad, was actually just trying to show that he was making a point that we all have to start out somewhere, that's all. I'm very sorry and now regret ever posting this topic. So I ask that this be closed and done with. Again, sorry.

The other day in class, one of our fellow Paramedic student's pager went off for a wreck on the interstate. He had forgotten to turn it off before he got to class. One of our classmates thought he was gonna skip out on class. She piped up and said "What are you gonna do when you get there? You're just an EMT!". The instructor looked at her like she had 3 heads and had a very interesting response to her comment... It went a lil something like this. "Wait a minute." Then he wrote 4 letters on the board... E, M, T, and P... "There are 4 letters there. Each letter equals 25%. EMT=75%. P=25%. That makes up 100%. You are only as good as your Basic skills. So if you take away the first 3 letters, you are left with P. You've lost 75%. Without E-M-T, you're just P... And Pee should be left in the urinal." With that, the room was dead silent. It was pretty wild. And at 8 am, that sure woke us up for the day.

You're not alone, man. I've done this on a daily basis. Not necessarily on calls, but just in general. I don't know why it is, but it's always the name that I miss. Just as long as you don't forget your own name, then I think you'll be alright... lol.

Yeah, I pretty much stink at math, but have gotten a little better since our instructor drills us constantly with drug calculations. Sometimes we get to use a formula sheet and calculator... sometimes not. When we do drip sets, she makes up random numbers for us to calculate. So we end up with 29,076 gtts/min. I don't know about you, but wouldn't that be a steady flow from a garden hose running into them? Best of luck with your math in class. Hopefully it won't be too bad. Luckily I am getting better at it, so it all worked out for me so far.

We are using the Brady 5 Volume Set of Paramedic Care plus the 5 workbooks for each. We also had a Brady A&P book and workbook. Just between those, it cost us approximately $500... no joke... And we still have Cardiology and BTLS books to buy. I find it funny that our instructor picked Brady as the book of choice because "Brady-" means decreased, aka "slow".... lol. So is she trying to tell our class something? I agree, sometimes we are definitely a slow class, but so far we aren't riding in short ambulances, so we must be doing alright! lol... Just kidding... That was in no way meant to offend anyone by the short ambulance comment.

I am currently in Paramedic School as well. I will try to make this as simple and painless as possible... lol. Length: October 2006 - December 2007 Here's what we have done so far: A&P portion (10/2006 - 12/2006), Pharamacology, Venous Access and Med Admin, Airway Management and Ventilation, Patient Assessment, Rescue Awareness (which included a full day, 8 am - 5 pm, of car extrication in full turnout gear with wrecked cars, rescue tools, patients in the cars, ambulances, rescue truck, etc to run full scenarios... it was a lot of fun and good training), Hemorrhage and shock, Burns, Spinal Trauma, Helicopter Safety Training... UNC AirCare landed in our campus parking lot and we learned how to set up a LZ, went over the helicopter, and practiced cold and hot loads... I will be doing a fly-along within the next few weeks with them. Next we will be doing BTLS, Pulmonary, and Cardiology extensively. We have already started clinicals. Overall we will have to do: EMS Clinicals (304 hours total): 100 hours - Alamance County EMS 100 hours - Durham County EMS 100 hours - Forsyth County EMS 4 hours - CComm Hospital Clinicals (200 hours total): 104 hours - Emergency Dept. 4 hours - Cath Lab 16 hours - CCU 24 hours - Respiratory 16 hours - Labor and Delivery 24 hours - Peds and NICU 4 hours - Dialysis Center 8 hours - OR For our skills checklist, we have to do: 20 Medication Administrations 5 Tracheal Intubations 25 IVs 25 Venipuncture 20 Ventilations of unintubated patients (BVM) 30 Pediatric Assessments 50 Adult Assessments 30 Geriatric Assessments 25 EKG Interpretations 25 12-Lead Interpretations 5 Foley Caths 10 Obstetric Assessments 40 Trauma Assessments 20 Psychiatric Assessments 50 Team Leader Skills Alright, so that is a rundown.... Clinicals are awesome so far and I've had some really good Preceptors lately. I hope everybody else has been having a good experience so far. Good luck and keep each other posted! :-) Just always remember that air goes in and out, and blood goes around and around.... Any variation to that is BAD!

The Paramedic program that I am in started in October 2006 and will run until December 2007. I haven't heard of a Paramedic program anywhere around here that is any shorter than that. Honestly, I would be concerned with a program that offers Paramedic certification in lengths shorter than that. But then again, I could be completely wrong. I just know that we are already halfway done with our class time, but we still have a loooong way to go. Best of luck in finding a program that suits you.

i'll trade ya!

I have a pair of Bates boots..... But I would recommend getting some with a zipper..... they are a pain to lace up and tie each time.... Definately not a smart choice on my part for emergency footwear..... "Excuse me, I'll be ready to go in 15 minutes.... Let me just finish lacing up my boots.... Go ahead and crank the truck and tell dispatch to tell that pt to try not to die in the meantime."...... Yeah, not so much.....

yeah, some other medics said that they used to have to practice on each other........ i just dont like that idea, i dont know...... but oh well, i am thankful that we get to learn it...... i mean, yeah its not the most pleasant thing to do, but its to our advantage to know how to do it, should the need arise........ so yeah, im glad that our program teaches it to us....... but some classmates i just dont want to get that close to..... lol.....

high^5 and rock on! :(/ however, =; we should always remember that although ABC may not be our friend, ABCs are always our friend..... airway, breathing, circulation......... :wav:

yes, we did IVs in our EMT-Intermediate class and again in Paramedic class...... then we did foley's in our Paramedic class........ I've helped with a few in the ER when we had to do our hospital rotations, but never done one by myself on anyone except our fake genitalia dummies..... lol.... talk about some looks from the people walking by our classroom....... im scared to know what your first foley was on...... lol....... is it beyond anyone's realm of imagination? lol

we practiced on the fake arm one time each, then the instructor told us to grab a partner and start an IV...... we had to do 10 successful IVs on classmates, 10 subs, and 10 IMs within a week........... it was pretty crazy....... but the instructor said we could only take IVs in one arm per class in case we got into an accident or something on the way home and needed an IV...... then the next class we would take them in the other arm....... we just started foleys last week...... thank goodness we dont have to start THOSE on each other...... i think i would be finding another school! :shock: good luck! i agree with :laughing3: .... start me a line of mountain dew anyday! ~Kelli