JEMS article regarding Medics and intubation

[CBEMT]

True enough. ...Although I did post seven studies. Are ALL of those medics undertrained?

Six of the seven were conducted in some of the worst EMS systems in America, so.... yeah, very likely.

[Spock]

Well this topic got hot and heavy pretty quickly. I won't claim to have read every post completely but I did skim slowly over them and would like to offer my opinion.

1. I don't know how old Henry Wang is but I have had several conversations with him and I am confident that he is younger than me although you can't always be sure about Asian-Americans because they don't seem to age much. Must be clean living.

2. PA paramedics averaged 2 intubations per year in 2005 according to Wang in Critical Care Medicine August 2005. With 2 per year nobody can maintain proficiency including ED doctors.

3. I had an ED resident in the OR the other day bragging that he had done 4 intubations the previous month and he really didn't need my input or advice. The departmental chairman threw him out and he won't be allowed to return.

4. Paramedics really need to police themselves and upgrade their standards. My medical director (he covers 10 services) doesn't have any idea how many tubes his medics get nor their success rates. I think he is to busy because I wouldn't want to accuse him of not caring.

5. I think medics should be allowed to intubate but I'm not sure all of them are capable. I can teach a monkey how to intubate but not when and if the monkey doesn't do it often he will never maintain proficiency. Unfortunately we don't know how many tubes it takes to be proficient.

Good comments by all and it shows how excited the folks on the City can be. Keep up the good work.

Live long and prosper.

Spock

[JPINFV]

3. I had an ED resident in the OR the other day bragging that he had done 4 intubations the previous month and he really didn't need my input or advice. The departmental chairman threw him out and he won't be allowed to return.

Is it wrong that I laughed at this?

Rule number 1: Don't be an arse, especially in off service rotations.

[fiznat]

Just to clarify something, the studies I posted don't really comment on the ability of a paramedic to GET the tube, but rather how patients fare after they have been successfully intubated.

[Dustdevil]

We cannot point to the bad behavior of other professions to justify our own problems.

Plus 10 for an excellent point, that I do not believe has ever been made here before! :thumbright:

Along those same lines, I wholeheartedly believe that we can point to the successes of other professions to both guide and justify our progress.