'Real' Medical Journal Reading

[vs-eh?]

I am not aware of any M.S. or even Doctorate in EMS, there are M.S. & Doctorate in applied areas such the science or business area but not EMS. There can be research in EMS without physician participation although albeit not in patient care. When was the last time you seen an article of study of Paramedic Instructor education level, the best working habits and productivity of EMT's, or even cost containment of and risk prevention in EMS. How about the level of patient assessment we perform, as well theories of Paramedic care ? Yes, we have to have a physician to oversee medical research, we do not have a medical practice license and therefore cannot practice medicine officially. This should not stop us from looking into or developing and performing research in the medical aspects of EMS, under their guidance. True, there are VERY few EMT's and Paramedics that understand research process and procedures. This itself is a flaw in our profession.

http://www.michener.ca/ce/csu_paramedic.php

Not a Masters...but...

How many EMT's or paramedics here have a full university bachelors (i.e. 4 year) undergrad? How many have more?

Probably not many...Here though it is pretty common to have this as an ENTRY to the field. As I have said in past threads, a 4-year degree means very little now. People go back to school and do there 2-years of BLS..."to get a real, good paying job".

Yes, we get paid well here...

Even though I did not finish my undergrad, I took a number of 4th year courses (in 2nd and 3rd year) and submitted "long" (20+ pages with 30+ references) on a number of topics. Forensic osteology and evolutionary studies, man....I shoulda stayed in that....I could have been in Africa or something....

[Guest]

No doctorate levels in EMS, Maybe not. But whats wrong with being a Physician. They are Doctorate level aren't they ? i have seen many doctors with NREMT-P behind the DO or MD.

I understand what you are saying Rid and i do agree with you. My earlier post was written in the wrong frame of mind i admit that. But as i said earlier why not be a physician and a medic. you get to do it all then. Become a medical director of a service and run the training. That is a place to set a standard. It was like that here for years. We had the best MICT training in the state of KS, before the accreditation people came along and said"if you want to be accredited you have to be part of a two year degree tract." Well that's great but the local college here destroyed our program. We are now in the middle of rebuilding it. Off subject I'm sorry

But the theme here is the same. If you want a journal, Then start one. Make it the best you can. Contact people like Bledsoe in TX and McSwain where ever he might be now. McSwain is still a certified EMT-P. talk to these guys and get something started. I am new in my career in EMS. i am not yet ready to take on something like this. But instead of sitting and talking about how it used to be so good do something about whats wrong and make it good again.

[Ridryder 911]

I have several friends that are now physicians that was field medics for many years & yes many are still involved in EMS as medical director or advisory at local Paramedic programs. However; most agree to keep their license is futile and would be asinine. Physician level definitely supersedes the Paramedic level, similar to keeping LPN when you receive an RN....hmmm maybe we should consider this as a Paramedic with removing the EMT recognition ( okay we have discussed this before).

Norman, has his EMT/P for many reasons since he has been on the NREMT board since it concept & followed in his fathers footsteps 30 years ago.I believe this is a PR issue more than true level of performance. Be interesting to see when his last refresher was.... as a trauma surgeon I sure he does not include that title for reference in research etc...

As far as sitting around, I have been involved in trauma studies and EMS research for the past 25 years.. ( yes, some of us of worked in other areas than in the back of rigs) and yes I have been published. Again, until we have such publications we will not be considered or respected as a profession and rightfully so. I agree we need them but as others has stated probably very few would actually read or even be able to read such journals. Maybe we could contact JEMS publishing and ask if research & professional journal would be feasible. Surely there are enough that would make it marketable.

Whenever EMT's; want more than picture pages and learn how to actually read studies and interpret them we will have policy and protocol development based upon others telling us what to do and how to do it. Like as many other posts have describeduntil we have increased education level and teaching scientific methods, we will be considered in the technician phase of only knowing & performing procedural tasks.

Be safe,

Ridryder 911

[Dustdevil]

Ditto what Rid said in his last two posts. Thanks for saving me the time, Rid!

What happened to "Emergency" (aka. Emergency Product News) magazine anyhow? Did it die with DynaMed? It was a great mag in its day. But of course, it was about 75 percent an advertisement for DynaMed. But at least it got the ball started.

[SA_Medic]

Even though I did not finish my undergrad, I took a number of 4th year courses (in 2nd and 3rd year) and submitted "long" (20+ pages with 30+ references) on a number of topics. Forensic osteology and evolutionary studies, man....I shoulda stayed in that....I could have been in Africa or something....

Why on earth would have the regrets of not being here in africa ?????

Here, nothing happens every ten mintues and lasts for hours on end !!!

We have a degree program here, where you can actually go up to a doctorate. And we practise on our own license.

I suppose it is yet another thing we seem to be better off then....

Regards

S

[Ace844]

Come on guys.....This post was viewed over 200+ X's and there was ONLY 9 VOTES!!!???? Let's increase the sample abit and see if in our own little group of "working" providers if we as a "group" actually feel whether this and other "professional advancement type topics" are worthy of our time and attention or not.....

[Asysin2leads]

I rarely read JEMS or Firehouse or any of the others, if only because I shy away from magazines that want to be taken seriously but always seem to have an explosion of some sort on the front cover. I actually get more out things like NEJM (swipe 'em from the doctors lounge) or even magazines like Popular Mechanics or Consumer Reports (product recall, particularly) give me more vital info for work than the so called "trade magazines". The explosions on JEMS do look nifty, though.