boeingb13

CCEMT-P is a good course, I took it in preparation for taking the FP-C, only thing is alot of it won't make sense until after you have not only been a paramedic for a while but have worked in the prehospital transport field. Its alot of flight based paramedicine.

Here in North East Florida, we are doing the F.I.T.H. Filed Induced Therapeutic Hypothermia. Which includes Vecuronium at 0.1 mg/kg, 2 1000cc bags of chilled saline which we keep in the rescues fridge, dopamine to raise the mean arterial pressure to or above 90, as well as ice packs. We only start after we get a return of spontaneous circulation ROSC. The we take our rescue pod ( ETD device ) off the bvm and just bag them regularly. We have 5 major hospitals in the area that are now on board to comtinue the care. With all this you have 2 large bore lines in the ac's and a IO. 1 saline 2 dopamine 3 in case you converted on lido and need to hang a drip.

Alls you need is your school books and a site called rescueexams www. .com its a free site you sign up and it goes through the emt book by the chapter giving you test after test so you can find your weak points. Its got a great fire side to if you ever go fire rescue. Let me know if it helps.

What I have come to find is after you've been through the schooling, EMT-B and Paramedic. You dont look at scenes as you would if you never went to school, instead of seeing a bloody mess, you see blood pooling in the lower areas of the body. You notice the the transitions the body goes through after death, as opposed to the horror of it. Maybe its just me but after school I never looked at scenes the same as say, people riding by or friends/family who found a deceased family member.

That was a really good story, I enjoyed reading that.

How many of you carry printed Vial of Life papers to pass out to anyone who comes to your station, or stops your ambulance if you stage in different places. Theres so many people that dont know about these sheets that not only make our jobs easier but they can prevent possible mistakes from being made due to the pt being unable to speak for whatever reason, or a mother who is losing it and cant tell you what is wrong with her child. Something to think about. Get them printed and get them out there, its a free 1 page print of the vial of life website.

Me and my crew follow the same line on and off duty, if theres a few of you, have one person go and pull bystanders to the side and get the info from whoever saw anything and from anyone who intervened. This of course is all for comparison once you get the story from the pt, it also comes into play if before you can get a good history the pt passes out. The more info the better Taking the people/person to the side and explaining to them to calm down and recall as much as possible I think is key.

If you've ever been around the people who smoke a pack or so a day, they always have that smell on them, though gum may mask the breath, you cant mask the smell all over your clothes. I would think in the pt with minor illness or injury, they would rather have someone who doesn't smell like a ashtray

Seems odd im asked to stick to the thread yet others sway off to put in their personal opinion, doesn't matter. As far as the thread goes, there is no reason for any service to have a EMS board to follow under and be QA'd under. Every report I write is read by 2 people in our QA dept, our medical director frequently stops by the stations to talk to the people and see where they are in their skills and knowledge. The one thing I have noticed that among all the people who post and post and read every article posted on every ems site, is why do I never hear anyone mention that there are a large majority of dual role dept's where you go either combat or rescue. The days of forcing people on ambulances is coming to an end, what kind of care will you get from someone who hates his job? Why do they want to be exempt?, I would guess because they are not ready to be a true ems provider, doesn't make alot of sense having no checks and balances when lawyers are behind you every move you make. I ask though, how many examples out there of this exact type of incident are out there, where are these incident most commonly located in the country (state). How new are the fire services, are they a volunteer service trying to go paid, were they volunteer fire and paid ems trying to combine into a fire rescue service. It doesn't make sense for them to want to do pt care with no one watching over them, this is 2010 not 1954. I would love to know the history behind this specific dept, and I will try my best to find it. Phil and Dwayne you guys feel free to message me with comments an complaints.

Good question ruff, I dont have much input being, and as you know, my area has been fire rescue for a long time.

It always amuses me how many of you "paramedics" blast the fire service, i'd like to see all of you " Top Notch " medics come down to the states where the service is combined. Unless im mistaken Miami/Dade, St Johns County and several other Florida cities/counties are doing more than most of the country, most of the firefighter/paramedics are the people on the helicopters as well as the local pvt ambulance ( which is a glorified geriatric transport truck ). But yet were firemonkeys, seems to me I work on a rescue in the fire dept, or a "ambulance" for those who are not familiar with our terminology. Those of us who care about our roles in this dual profession dont sit here and whine and complain and think of what negative thing to say to or about all of you who still work in single role depts, whose days are limited, fire/rescue is spreading like a wildfire. It does not matter why, it is happening everyday though. I saw someone post to fire half the firefighters, how about adding rescues and sending them through paramedic school, or doing like many here are doing, making you sign a contract stating you will go with in your first 3 years of service, which has been working to weed out the people who are single minded and think this is still the 80's where we had lots of fire, and medical was separate. Long story short, some of us work dual role, some of us care, just as it is racist to lump a whole race into one foul word, it is the same to lump us together.

I follow the FDNY and DCFD closely for family reasons, I have family on them, and it pisses me off hearing of the station closures up there.

Heres my story for you. A couple of years ago I was just getting into paramedic school, and just like fire school and emt school I found myself up late every night trying to study and really take in as much as possible, but I kept coming acroos things that I just wasn't understanding and at 1am its not like you can just call someone. So I did a search for a ems related chat room or site, and low and behold I found this one. On that first night I joined and went into the chat and asked for a explanation on whatever it was I was studying at the time. Akflightmedic happened to be in there and he explained it perfectly on a level I understood, so for months after that any time it was late and I needed help I would log in and minimize the screen and check periodically to see if he had come in so I could ask what ever question was puzzling me. Never once was I told I was stupid or made fun of for not being on the same level, I got straight forward answers that were broken down if I didnt understand them. Then eventually I actually started meeting people in the room and becoming friends. And to attatch a side note to this. This reason alone is why I am not a fan of making the chat a pay site, im sure there are several people out there who like myself couldn't work much through medic school and had enough to eat and pay bills, and though 20$ isnt much money when you dont have it, it is. I understand and have read all the why's as to the reason it is pay now, ive just always been a big fan of knowledge is free when you ask questions. To wrap it up, thats why I stayed on here for as long as I did, there was one person who always had a answer when I needed it, and that is one person whom I have alot of respect for.

Heres another topic to promote conversation. With the money that was available for fire and ems recently, did your department recieve any of it and if so what did they spend it on, personnel, training, apparatus,etc. I'll start, my fire/rescue dept is using a portion of what they recieved to build a new station at what I believe is 2.2 million dollars.which is average around this area for a new station, while on the other hand, a dept not to far from me used a large portion of theres to hire 90 people this year, now the state of Florida requires by law that each dept turn in a balanced budget, and after searching through this dept's budget I found they had only planned to hire 5 this year, as per their 5 year plan, in comes the money and more hiring. Now that the money is gone and those positions were not budgeted for, the mayor is teloling the public next year there will be a financial short fall of approx 69 million, and stating if he can not raise taxes he will have to layoff firefighter/paramedics. Now im not one for anyone losing their job but give me a break, why does the public get a guilt trip and almost guaranteed tax raises for the mistake of a mayor, who comes from a millionaire family mind you. It just amazes me the stuff these people do once their in office.

The problem people could run into is this, your transporting get into a wreck the first thing the dept tries to do is not take blame but blame you, so they say, its in our policy that this person is to drive with or witout L/S. Our rule is all transports are to be run without unless a rapid transport calls for otherwise. We also have the rule that you stop at all intersections even when the light is green, though this one is not always followed, the lights and siren rule is. But I understand that policy changes from dept to dept.

Im posing a simple question that will have several personal views. Here we go. This is for everyone, city, rural, private 911 ambulance, volunteer, city and county. In these times we are in where many fire/rescue, and ems only services are having to deal with many shortfalls financially, why is it some communities are 100% behind their providers while others are only looking at the bottom line as far as possible tax increases to maintain the current level of care. There are many companies / departments looking at station closures, and layoffs. Aside from great patient care what do you all think services / departments should be doing to be out in the public letting them know you are valuable. Because as you and I know "I'm never going to need you so why should I pay for you to sit around" and then something happens and they are your biggest supporter. May of you ma work in stations like mine that are fairly busy, the thing is though even with a good call volume how many of them are frequent patients, I say this because with the frequents your not actually seeing that many new people. So what should emt's paramedics and firefighters be doing to raise awareness in the areas where there is a lack of support in the financial crisis the ems service is experiencing? I welcome any ideas, such as every 3rd Saturday baby seat installation or everyday at your station, or monthly passing out W.H.A.L.E. stickers, the We have a little emergency stickers for first responders to know there is usually a child in the vehicle.

If you have it you can challenge the Florida test, if not you have to go through the school all over again.

When we get on scene there is almost always a manual taken, every call is a minimum of 5 people so theres almost never one missed, in saying that the pressures are usually pretty close unless there is something going on that would cause drastic pressure drops or raises. Either way you almost always get both, with the manual being first. Every dept is different.

Though it may of already been said, after reading so many peoples "personal" beliefs on the subject, the fact is your dept/company, whatever sets the sop's, sog's or what have you. When they say they come on they do. And for a good read, research Jacksonville Fire Rescue and sherrifs office, A officer from each is facing serious jail time from not having one or the other on while on a call.

This is the best site you will ever find, though it will probably be deleted, take 3 w's then just behind them type the words rescueexams then and only then place a nice little ( . )dot, and you never want to forget the com that is a great end to it all, sign up its free tests it will show you where your strong and weak points are, it also has a great section for minimum standards.

I read all to often about racism in the fire service, though when I ask what does color have to do with a 3 sided pull up or correct size up, or any of the other thousand things that are a part of fire ground tactics. Everyone takes the same test and has the same books to study.

Good deal, im running low as it is. I hope theres no limit.