Racist

[Dustdevil]

That way you retain YOUR professionalism, while retaining the actual patient's description of their chief complaint.

O_RLY?

How would you do that with the patient I described on the previous page?

[Scaramedic]

Muwwahha I got Wendy to say "joint."

[Eydawn]

Easy enough. Describe what I'm seeing, then include what the patient is complaining about.

"Patient is displaying altered mental status as evidenced by behavior, dress and chief complaint. Patient is bare to the waist, moving in an agitated fashion, speaking rapidly and ingesting hot water and cold milk alternately. When asked about why EMS had been called, patient stated "Let's go! I'm ready to go! I gots to go!... Can't you see the problem?... It's my dick!" At this point, patient disrobed and stated "My dick be all drawin' up and s***! And it's turnin' white too! Let's go! I gots to go!"

That answer your question? I'm a fan of comprehensive documentation. Brevity is appropriate when the situation is easily visualized and uncomplicated. Descriptive reporting is appropriate when the situation is complicated or difficult for someone not at the call to visualize. I want my medical director to see what *I* saw and know exactly why I rendered certain treatments. Oftentimes, this will justify what actions you had to take during the call.

C'mon, Dust, I thought you were all about being professional and making sure that your documentation is complete (including proper sentence structure, spelling and punctuation!)

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[Dustdevil]

Ah, okay. See, I thought you were saying that you could describe this patient's problem adequately without directly quoting him, which I maintain is impossible. But all you did was put lipstick on a pig. You just buried the offensive quote in verbosity. I'm not opposed to that, so long as you are enhancing the context with that extra information instead of obscuring it. I didn't say the patient's quote was the only thing you should chart. I just said it was one necessary ingredient.

What I thought you were going to do was change it to something like, "Pt c/o acute penile retractions...", which would have totally changed the picture, and left the reader believing that this guy really had a problem with his penis instead of just being a crackhead.

[Eydawn]

But that wasn't the patient's problem. :roll: There is a distinct difference between altering the chief complaint via language use and describing it in a different fashion...

Let's put it this way. You describe what you see, but you don't put it in your report as "Patient looks like a crackhead to me and doesn't understand that cold weather makes things shrink... quote from patient 'etc.' " Your language should always be professional, and if your patient's language is vulgar or vague, it is up to you to fill in that blank with what you see...

For example if you had a psych case screaming "F*** YOU F*** THE WORLD F*** THE PRESIDENT THE F***** ALIENS ARE HERE TO KILL ME AGAIN OH F***" you don't put that as the chief complaint... you describe the situation.

"Patient is a 20 y/o male with altered mental status as evidenced by shouting, use of profanity and description of attacking aliens."

Well, Dust... *shrugs* you document it how you want to, I'll document it how I always do, and we'll both try to dodge the lawyers, lol!

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[AnthonyM83]

But all you did was put lipstick on a pig.

Ah, but Dust, it's so much funnier to read, when you think it's going to be a 100% serious report, then in the middle you get the patient quotes

[Dustdevil]

Dude, you're twisted.

So anyhow, about this whole racism thing, here is a nice illustration of what we're talking about. The article doesn't mention it, but the family in the story is throwing around allegations of racism.

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/arti...x?storyid=67212

Family wants answers in drowning

By:

Tammie Fields

Palmetto, Florida – Wednesday night family members of 22-year-old Theodore "Theo" Thomas and 25-year-old Johnnie “Chubby” Schoolfield gathered for a question and answer session with Manatee County emergency workers. Thomas and Schoolfield drowned on October 31st when their SUV crashed through two fences and landed in a pond at 11th Street Court East late at night. Neighbors at the scene were visibly shaken and said paramedics did little to save their lives.

Danny Gutierrez, a witness who lives in the area, says “Nobody jumped in. Nobody jumped in. In the fire department, ambulance, all of them were right here. You could have given this guy another chance and nobody jumped in.”

But Wednesday night the head of Manatee County Emergency Services, Chief Mark Edenfield, as well as other public safety workers spoke candidly about the reason why paramedics did not jump in to save the pair.

Captain Larry Leinhauser says “Our EMS is emergency medical service. Fire rescue is fire rescue. In this county they're 2 separate entities. EMS doesn't possess the skills to do water rescues. We are capable of going in the water to get someone who is sick or injured but not someone who is flailing for life."

Chief Edenfield shared several emotional stories about the loss of life in his field explaining that many times his crews have to make life and death decisions in seconds. Edenfield says “Please don't lose faith in us. We are here to serve the entire community.” Edenfield says one of his crew members who were first on the scene is taking the loss of life hard. He says he cried that entire night. He also says he takes full responsibility for what happened on October 31st.

Still the explanations and personal experiences were not enough for some family members. The mother of one of the victims got so upset she walked out of the meeting still others wanted to speak. One woman asked why someone couldn't just tie a knot in a sheet and throw it in the water.

One official explained that the distance to the victim was too far away for that and yet another explained that there were no sheets or items like that available to pitch into the dark water.

Daren Coleman was the first paramedic on the scene. He answered questions too explaining to the mostly African-American crowd that this is not a case of racism. "I work for this system and I'll be damned if I'm going to have a system that says there's an issue with race and I'm on that scene. You're not going to play me like that." Coleman says when firefighters arrived on the scene they ran straight to the water which one official estimated was 15 feet deep.

China Smith, a member of the community, asked what can we do differently to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else no matter what color they are?

Captain Larry Leinhauser says the department is looking at making sure there are floatation devices in all their vehicles and they're looking at whether to offer EMS workers more training in the water.

Still for many of the grieving family members no amount of explanation or changes in policy will soothe their hearts. They are now preparing to bury their loved ones this weekend.

Meanwhile Florida Highway Patrol is still trying to figure out what caused the accident and who was behind the wheel. Autopsy results will determine whether alcohol was a factor.

Thursday night a candlelight vigil is planned for the victims at the accident scene at 6:30 PM. That's located at 11th Street Court East in Bradenton behind Southeast High School.

Both the community meeting and the candlelight vigil are being organized by Big Bro. Task Force.

Tammie Fields, Tampa Bay's 10 News

• I find it particularly amusing that all these bystander "witnesses," who stood around and did nothing, are criticising paramedics for standing around and doing nothing. I guess the bystanders must all be racists too!

[Scaramedic]

"Johnnie “Chubby” Schoolfield"

Where to start. Ah screw it.

[mrmeaner]

Still the explanations and personal experiences were not enough for some family members. The mother of one of the victims got so upset she walked out of the meeting still others wanted to speak. One woman asked why someone couldn't just tie a knot in a sheet and throw it in the water.

One official explained that the distance to the victim was too far away for that and yet another explained that there were no sheets or items like that available to pitch into the dark water.

If they had truly been racist they would have had plenty of white sheets, and probably a red one.

[Capman]

I find it particularly amusing that all these bystander "witnesses," who stood around and did nothing, are criticising paramedics for standing around and doing nothing. I guess the bystanders must all be racists too!

Yeah, as I see it this profession is a catch 22!

A few weeks ago I was reprimanded for excessive speed on a code 3 run as I was reported by a concerned citizen. Yesterday I got b!tched at for taking to long to arrive to a call.

If an EMT actually had jumped into that water and drowned in the process, I'll bet there would still be complaints that no other EMT's had gone in to carry on where he had left off.

Yeah, as I see it...

It's a catch 22!