NC college EMS

[neugie]

Hi Folks,

I've been lurking around the city for some time now, so I figured I'd join up and start engaging in the conversation. I'm Ross, a first year at the UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC. Originally from Stamford, CT as I came of age to take advantage of the NREMT, I began studying for my EMT-B cert at Stamford Hospital in CT. I'd had an interest in prehospital care for a couple years, and I tore into the course, enjoyed every minute of it. I finished up my certification testing as the end of summer rolled around, and got it in time to get one ride-along with the local career service before I shipped out to NC. Down here at school, the campus has no options for student involvement with emergency medical response, so I've been sitting idle.

You may notice my interests list "Film Lighting" next to EMS. My main career, aside from being a student, has been working as a motion picture lighting technician for the past three years. I've had the fortune of working on small student films to indie blockbusters to union television. It's a great industry not unlike EMS for the "lots of waiting and sheer moments of terror and awesomeness," but also is a very accident prone work environment between the steel rigging, high amperage and voltages of electricity and the conditions that actors and crew will submit themselves to in the name of film. I always bring my training and a small bit of PPE/dressings/mouth-to-mask in my back pocket to set, which I've had to pull out here.

While this school takes safety seriously, the extent of the medical preparedness is carrying a first aid kit and throwing first aid procedures into a 100 page safety manual, containing other content on school safety regulation, electrical safety, etc, on which students are loosely tested every year. While it is a good precedent, the test does not specifically target the medical knowledge and the average joe college kid cannot realistically access that knowledge and act in a first responder capacity by reviewing a list of procedures once. It seems like there is merit to organize, equip, and manage a group of student volunteers, certified to the EMR or EMT-B standard, placing them on sets, at performances and in shop facilities. I'm currently doing some research on call volume and response time by the local services to our campus, and collecting data on location medical emergencies to statistically demonstrate need for this proposed solution. I've read some of the national collegiate ems foundation documentation, and intend to at least propose a quick response service on campus. It's a state school so it'll have to be a tight proposal in these tough financial times.

Until I can create the campus service or build ties to the local service to start riding regularly, my greatest concern is the depreciation of my skills and knowledge. I did well in my course but I have very little practical experience that I feel would lock in that knowledge. I try to review my course textbook every once in a while, but I look forward to engaging in the scenarios as not to mindlessly memorize. I'm doing a writeup on the set emergency I encountered, hopefully to pose as a scenario, but the extent of my assessment was limited as I could not complete my vitals set with a BP reading. I don't have all the information as care was transferred with a Hx of the event and the baseline vitals I took when the ALS unit arrived, but I'd like to run it through as far as I can.

i look forward to the discussions and knowledge to be gained ahead! Hopefully I can start working towards gaining some more experience in the near future.

Regards,

Ross Neugeboren

[Mateo_1387]

So what are your findings of the EMS system's response to your college campus?

Forsyth County EMS is one of the more highly regarded one's in NC. You sure there is no reinvention of the wheel? With the system and local hospital, its a good place to get hurt. Besides, how often are there injuries necessitating EMS services?

Not trying to bust your bubble, as you seem to be intelligent, trying to write proper proposals with financial constraints and statistical analysis included, but, I get the impression that you are looking for an outlet to play EMT, so those skillz won't depreciate and become stale. With such an obvious intelligence about yourself, as well as your interest in EMS, are you sure set lighting is your calling?

[neugie]

Hey Mateo,

Thanks for the response. I'm worried there's reinvention of the wheel, and I definitely am looking to stay in the game so I can take my book knowledge and sculpt it into actionable field knowledge. At the moment, I don't have a car down here so I'm not even approaching FCEMS to see if I can ride-along, knowing I couldn't be reliable without a good way to get to the station. I've had my head under water with so much schoolwork that I haven't had time to even pull the statistics, and while I suspect that FCEMS has got it covered I'm not going to call the horse dead, yet...

In regard to the career choice, my ideal life as of this writing would be about 2/3 set lighting and 1/3 EMS. At least until I graduate from being a newbie with too little practical experience to handle myself in the field, I can't really make a call on how far this path will go. I'm definitely going to stay in the game and fish it out. I did pretty well in my course, my instructor had "no worries" about me and I kept her class' reputation in good standing during my clinical rotations in the ED, but I blanked on some stuff on my first ride along with the local service (though I did some 5 lead placement and put the pt on an NC successfully.) I've been reading to try and keep myself involved, JEMS and have reviewed the NCOEMS policy book, but I'm working on making it all stick when it comes down to it in the field. I'm looking to ride more, learn more, make and learn from some mistakes (hopefully without affecting patient care), and I know I'll enjoy it.

Out of curiosity, where in NC are you located? When I get some wheels down here it'd be great to sit down sometime and talk EMS.

Thanks,

Ross Neugeboren