Referring to standing orders/protocols on a call?

[akroeze]

And really those protocols are guidelines. If you want to be more aggressive, just give your doc a ring to do it.

[spenac]

And really those protocols are guidelines. If you want to be more aggressive, just give your doc a ring to do it.

My new service 90%+ of the time that is possible. My old service maybe 10% of the time possible. Rural EMS is not as easy as picking up the phone.

[akroeze]

My new service 90%+ of the time that is possible. My old service maybe 10% of the time possible. Rural EMS is not as easy as picking up the phone.

Do you not have radio contact with your physician? I used to work rural EMS as well and we had radio contact and failing that SAT phone.

[spenac]

Do you not have radio contact with your physician? I used to work rural EMS as well and we had radio contact and failing that SAT phone.

Radio contact was only available about last 10 miles of 90 mile transport, not enough repeaters. Sat phone if you pulled over on a high spot. To often in the canyons and mountains could not maintain sat contact.

[captainstandup]

I finally believe I understand where Dust is coming from. I agree we should never practice "cookbook medicine" Let's see what were we supposed to do after chest decompression? hmmmm .

In a situation like spenac works in, 90 mile transport he I could read war and peace, why not take a look to make sure you have covered all of the bases? I certainly wouldn't be opposed to looking up a dosage for a critical care med that we rarely administer.

[spenac]

I finally believe I understand where Dust is coming from. I agree we should never practice "cookbook medicine" Let's see what were we supposed to do after chest decompression? hmmmm .

In a situation like spenac works in, 90 mile transport he I could read war and peace, why not take a look to make sure you have covered all of the bases? I certainly wouldn't be opposed to looking up a dosage for a critical care med that we rarely administer.

I always hate forgetting my psp, portable dvd, etc. Get bored so gotta read something. :twisted:

[JPINFV]

If only you could use this on your patient

[AnthonyM83]

I always hate forgetting my psp, portable dvd, etc. Get bored so gotta read something. :twisted:

Be sure to bring two-player games, so your patient won't get bored...

[spenac]

Be sure to bring two-player games, so your patient won't get bored...

Thats where dvd player comes in. Show dvd's of gross surgical procedures or for first time OB's videos of how gross and painful delivery can be. Just so they can relax since they know what to expect. :twisted:

[jjones1418]

I agree with dust, that you shouldn't have to look up protocols when you're taking care of patients. You should know those backwards and forwards. I agree with him in that he denotes drug dosages as not being protocols. I checked a dose for a Levophed drip last shift. We change at least 1 page in our protocols every month. Some times it's the starting point for a drip or something specific about how often you can increase it, etc. Such was the case with our Levophed, as I remembered a change about the starting dose for it. We used to be able to start at 2 mcg/min, but recently it changed to 0.5 mcg/min. I checked it and made sure. The drip ended up at 8 mcg/min anyways, so it didn't really matter, but on paper, we followed protocol.