somedic

Oye Zipper: go to your happy place...NOW! and keep your manly pet kitty smudge from wandering down to that curry house near by.

In our system we have very few occaissons that a doctor wants to interfere with a job we are working. Our MC has given us expressed encouragement to dismiss anyone claiming to be a doctor and trying getting in the way. Most of the times if you do get a doctor on scene, its at public places and there is a crowd to impress. Nurses and those who claim to be nurses are the bigger embuggerance in our area. To make my point, I responded to a MVA half a block from a nursing school during lunch time...Every every nursing student and the instructors was on scene with stethoscopes and bright ideas on what to do. SOMEDIC

Scorpio: Thats a sad story but it points out why America is the best country on earth. Come to America. Gain citizenship. Gain State/local EMT certification. Go to work responding to fat, lazy,and ignorant Americans. You will always have a job in EMS in this country. Ive never heard of any similar situation than the one you are in. Thanks for sharing. SOMEDIC

Code words? I love that! LMAO! Thats the most effeminate tactic Ive seen in a while! Here is a code word you all might recognize: "MUSKRAT! MUSKRAT! MUSKRAT! Hey Dammit I said MUSKRAT..now drop the sryinge!"

Fiznip: I think you have generated an excellent subject here. I wish more ridealong students were as considerate as you. Here are some additional tips: I disagree with Scarmedic on studying the department's protocols unless you are going to work with that department or you are bored. No one should quiz you on protocols that you may not have to work under. FFPM41 gave you some good advise in his post. I would also recommend you help the crew you are riding with in doing shift chores such as washing the ambulance, clean up after calls, etc. Dont flirt with the nurses at any hospitals you go to. Unless you look like a greek god or have a bottle of love potion # 9...you wont impress them. Dont try to insert yourself into conversations between your ridealong crew. No practical jokes. Offer to pay for lunch. Carry money just in case. Dont make any suggestions to the medics you are trying to learn from. Dont make bodily noises because you might think that you are "cute/cool....yes you know what Im talking about and yes we had a medic student come to our fine department and do that! Keep your sexual exploits and any lurid details to yourself..yes I met a student one day that did not........ Remember that no one has to prove anything to you but you have EVERYTHING to prove to your preceptor. Good luck SOMEDIC

This all sounds like another good reason to continue eating at my favorite home town Thai restaurant while never entertaining the idea of actually visiting Thailand unless of course we invade them too...

Noahmedic: I think we get the point of your last post. You no longer drive an ambulance-you ride in a hangar queen......big deal. Im sure you offer autographs on those business cards too. Im glad to hear that "flight"medicine require so much more crap to carry in your flight suit than down to earth medicine most of us practice. Stethoscope? Do you actually try to auscultate in the aircraft? Or is that a PR tool to show off with when you are not practicing "Flight" medicine? SOMEDIC

I remember some paramedics back when I first got into EMS saying that they used rotating tourniquets with good outcomes. This thread regained my interest in the technique especially for disaster medicne scenarios SOMEDIC

A paramedic's version of hell? For me yes. There are some hospitals where EMS types integrate and work well with ER staff but I bet they are the exception and not the rule. The argument for or against EMTs/Paramedics working in a hospital ER is an old one. SOMEDIC

Despite any of the controversy, Id like to have rotating tourniquets as a contingency option when your normal meds are not available or have already been used on another patient.

Well Lets see what a field provider can expect: How about being made into a unglorified orderly ready to insert foleys, change colostomy bags and diapers, give bed baths, change out suction cannisters perform janitorial work, and be a nurse's gopher for 12 hours straight. What adaptions a field provider should make? Adapt to making no decisions of your own. Adapt to being told what ,when, and where to do everything. Adapt to not actually doing any EMS skills because of "hospital policy". Adapt to staying in one place for 12hours straight. Adapt to cleaning up your nurse in charge of you's mess. Adapt to getting proficient at urinal placement and operations failing that ,certification as a foley cath technician, solid waste removal and mitigation, running stat blood samples to the lab, lifting patients, performing rectal temps, emesis basin application and contents analysis, NG tube placements. Adapt to frequent personality changes from the nurses regardless of the time of month. Physicians yelling out orders like Dr.Mark Green on that stupid tv show"ER". Back stabbing. Gossip. Being written up for trying to be an EMS person in a non EMS world. Constantly being asked when you are moving UP to nursing. Try it you will see what I mean. SOMEDIC

Oldmedic: Who cares if people laugh at you for carrying a Leatherman tool! You must work with a bunch of idiots. I carry a "tactical sexy" black leatherman Charge Xti and I never leave home without it. And like yourself, I've used that thing numerous times. SOMEDIC

Niffty: Is this on each ambualnce or fire apparatus you are referring to? Thanks SOMDEIC

Hello Kalipay: You can get Paracetamol here in the US. Americans call it TYLENOL I bet you can find that some where near by. Cheers! SOMEDIC

Twoleads: Thats a good story! I know some numbn*ts in my department that would probably panic on the elevator unfortunately. Did you get my PM?

Timmy: A "radiation pager" is basically a pager type personal detector that alarms you when you are close to certain types of radiation mainly Gamma radiation. they vary in cost and complexity. Scaramedic: Radiation pagers are another sign of this post 9-11 world we live in. Most EMS systems aound here will never have "gamma" pagers, not even a service I'm familiar with that has a big Nuclear power plant in their back yard carries them. They would not know what to do any way but panic

OK Mr Hijacker: What difference does it make about testing nerves?What are you going to do with the results of your nerve test? The BEST nerve NOT to test is your more senior partner's NERVE by wanting useless information like that neither back at your station or "prehospitally"

Does anyone here carry radiation/Gamma pagers while working EMS? Im not interested in compromising you or your Deps security. Im only looking for what you may carry and if its the whole Department or certain personnel Thanks for any help SOMEDIC

DustDevil : Look back on most of those countries you mentioned and you will see that Britian oppressed them like they did us. British terms still abound in these countries.

What kind of Hazmat suit and "breathing equipment" do they issue to you down there?

Come one ZippyRN: Most people on here besides myself dont know what Paracetamol is. (The British version of Acetaminophen) I take Anadin brand after Ive had late nights on the piss in your country. But your use of ammonia inhalants is good for the same type of patients here too mate! Cheers! SOMEDIC

Dusty: Well written and so very true! EXCELLENT post. MY department got SCREWED by a now closed company calling itself "Mission First". I told my boss that I had serious doubts about the staff teaching this "Tactical medic" class. The primary instructor started the class by saying he was a Ranger in the Blackhawk Down mission in 1993 but will not talk about it...(why bring it up then? first untruth he told.) Another instructor claimed to actually be be an operator in the very same unit Im in!....One phone call confirmed that he turned out to be a pathological liar. We also had a " Navy SEAL" and some other bad asses. The medicine we learned: 1.Drag a patient on a poleless litter. 2.Dont try to intubate with a laryngoscope -light might give you away( TC3 was not mentioned in this course) 3. Try to perform a full exam under fire and in darkness (we actually practiced this with instructors firing blanks and yelling "hurry up" so dramatic! (again TC3 not applied) The rest of the day and 1/2 was spent learning how to move in a stack (tactical formation). Oh and they did drop a flash bang in front of us to let us get a feel for how it works...what ever. We learned nothing and actually found out we were better medics than the people trying to teach us. Im very cynical about tactical medicine in the civilian world. There are some agencies that do have it together. But like Dustdevil said true medicine remains the same whether you call yourself a TEMT-P, Tactical medic, testicular medic or what ever. The true TACTICAL MEDICS have been or will be deployed to OIF and OEF and future GWOT operations. SOMEDIC

Anthony and dusty: GLOCK??s Id really be impressed with a bad ass fanny pack man if he carried a .45 customized by a well respected unit armorer. You dont know my mind set. If I saw you with a fanny pack and I knew you had a Glock, Id screw with you for carrying both. There is nothing wrong with trying to be high speed.....Just go through the pain of getting there

IM STILL STUCK ON THE FANNY PACK!!! The only people that wear FANNY PACKs down here are the obnoxious yankee tourists polluting our beautiful beachs all summer long. The same tourists are usually wearing white socks with sandals. They all seemt to be named Gus or Madge (marge)

Come on! do you really carry a FANNY pack? How much sh*t do you get for that.