Intubation FAIL

[rock_shoes]

If you are asking me if we should continue to allow people that cannot intubate properly to do so, I'll let you be the judge.

My full answer is too much for this particular thread but I'll try to make a long story short. Minimum of a bachelor's degree for paramedic with a larger scope of practice. Required internship similar to what doctors go through. National standards to be set up by governing bodies similar to what physicians have. Those with previous experience can be grandfathered in assuming they can pass the qualifying exams.

Thank-you for saying what needed to be said. This is far and away the best solution. Grandfather those who can meet the required competencies and all new providers would be subject to an education with internship. If people don't like getting an education appropriate for the job then they should look for a different job. Professional respect, competence, and pay scales all improved dramatically for nursing when RN programs became bacheloreate degrees. Why would it be any different in paramedicine? It's time too take that step forward.

[kohlerrf]

So is this good or bad? whats your opinion? I dont think they will cross intubation off the list

of Things to do before reaching the Hospital?

Intubation is the gold standard of airway management in the pre hospital setting. It is a short sighted medic who is only concerned with ventilation. The real reason you intubate is to protect the airway! Pre hospital patients are not generally NPO before needing an ambulance. Bagging a pt might ventilate adequately however you will most surely spill some air into the stomach and eventually that air is coming back up and now we have real problems. Barring surgical procedures ET tubes are the way to seal off the airway from any vomit or other objects and maintain it.

The king airway, obturators , combitubes I guess might be an alternative but they are cumbersome with more junk on them. More importantly they don’t address the problem. The problem is PARAMEDICS that are inept. Force MEDICS to learn the skill and be responsible and maybe the industry will move forward instead of backward.

[ERDoc]

It looks like this topic is also being discussed on SDN...

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=657436