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So we responded to a patient that was almost unconsciousness and it was determined that he had taken 2 doses of prescribed nitro after he had been experiencing chest pain after taking a Viagra earlier during the night. We attempted to VERY AGGRESSIVELY maintain a BP with fluid bolus and epi, placed in tredelenberg, and rushed him to the hospital. I don't know what happened to the patient, but what is there to do in a situation like this? We are taught to not administer nitro to patients on erectile dysfunction meds but not how to treat if the patient has taken the mix themselves. Is there anything that can be done at the prehospital level?

short update... just got off the phone with my instructer and she said it should be updated in a few days, I guess they were waiting on me passing the written part of the test to verify the practical portion. So i guess I will know in a few days if everything is going according to plan. Also I had taken the practicals the second week in June. *edit* Thanks for the encouragment Dwyane; and I plan on lurking about this website a bit, I had been looking for a good EMS forum and somehow I hadn't found this website until tonight. Also about the two month thing, the instructor was telling me that my state liscensure would take that long. Apperently they only send those out on the 10th of every month and I most likely missed the August deadline. So my state lisence wouldn't get sent out till September 10th. She said it is due to a backlog at the state level and them being understaffed aswell. Also my instructer is certainly working with me and gets back to me within a few hours of my calling. She told me that if it hadn't updated by thursday to call her and she would make sure it got sorted. I will be making calls periodically to the state once everything gets in, because from what I've learned in other experiences if you're a pain in the ass things will get done quicker.

Hey everybody, I took the NREMT-B test and got cut off at question 70 or 71. Was a bit nervous but found out earlier today that i passed! Now here comes my question, when I read under where it says the NREMT exam is scored it says this... "Examination Scored Show All Congratulations on passing the NREMT National EMS Certification cognitive examination. Your passing results on the cognitive examination will remain valid for up to one year (twelve [12] months) from the date in which you took the examination, provided all other entry requirements of the NREMT are met. If you do not successfully complete both the psychomotor and cognitive examinations within 2 years of your EMT-Basic education, you will be required to repeat another, entire, state-approved EMT-Basic course and retake both the cognitive and psychomotor examinations. Perhaps you did not obtain NREMT's National EMS Certification because your psychomotor examination performance has not been reported to the NREMT by an appropriate agent or your passing results on the psychomotor examination are beyond the one year time limit. If you recently passed the state-approved psychomotor (practical) examination, your success must be reported to the NREMT by an appropriate agent. The instructor of your course will know the agent responsible to report your psychomotor examination success. If you know you passed the psychomotor examination, please contact him/her to expedite reporting of your results to the NREMT. If you were unsuccessful by either failing or needing to retest the psychomotor examination, you should contact your instructor to find an appropriate site to complete the psychomotor examination. Psychomotor examination sites must be approved by your state and can vary according to state policy. Only an approved agent can report the success of your psychomotor examination to the NREMT. All NREMT National EMS Certification materials will be mailed to your address of record found on your NREMT account after you pass both the cognitive and psychomotor examinations. You are responsible for keeping all NREMT account information current." Now my question here is, it doesn't specifically say they are sending out my NREMT certification in the mail like it has for others. It seems like it's saying I'm missing my pracitcals (though I have passed those and they should have that information.) Not sure if I'm just being paranoid but hoping someone who recently passed could give me some information on what the NREMT site said for them when they passed the cognitive exam. Thanks for any information, Alex

Hey guys. Last time I was on here 2 months ago I was in a downward spiral after a bad ending of a relationship and the stress of paramedic classes. Well good news is I have put back most of the pieces together and im ready to re enter to forum with productive posts. So Im back to stay. And in less than five weeks I will be sitting for my national registry at the paramedic level and be starting pre nursing for my BSN to gear me up for med school.

For some reason this subject is painful to think about and I am not sure where I will go with my ideas at this point. In a weird kind of way I see merit in both arguments and agree somewhat with both philosophies. First I have to say that at least for me, animals do not rank in the same class as humans and bring a degree of imperfection to the argument by diluting the idea of the sanctity of human life. I say this is I affectionately pet my dog. I don't despise animals but only consider them valuable in the measure that they provide pleasure and well being to humans. That said, I am writting without having read the article so that my thoughts are not mired by a single argument but to approach the subject generally speaking. I think one of the difficulties of physician assisted suicide is deciding who gets to go and who still has the chance to live. ie; How much pain would a person have to be in? What would our litmus test be? What would the threshold for living and dying become? This argument is terrifying in the sense that these societal evolutions never cease to progress. It would begin with a patient decision and progress into a family decision and then the Dr. or hospital board calling the shots. The ultimate loss of freedom would be the Government deciding through mandated health insurance who lives or dies. This aspect of the issue scares the crap out of me. Oddly enough the very thing which we would initially perceived as the ultimate expression of freedom would very possibly turned into the ultimate loss of liberty. Broad legislation would not be an answer as each case would have to be considered individually. I agree with cbare's original comment only to the point that we can ascertain that the Dr. is an ethical person and not a psycho out to kill people. The dichotomous nature of the assisted suicide line of action and the balance between ethics and humanity are the basis of our conundrum. Even so it is very clear to me that there are situations that are immensely worse than death. From a Hippocratic point of view we would have to redefine death as the not being the ultimate harm in order to "do no harm" defining the loss of quality of life as the ultimate harm and death as a cure or solution. The more I write the more I realize that I am not intelligent enough to come up with an answer. From spiritual point of view I have a different perspective. God decides the time of each of our deaths not to imply the this does not involve free will. So the conundrum continues. I think I would have to love someone very much to agree to help them die.

i had noticed you had dropped out and an glad that you are back again. congratulations on your scholastic advancement. i hope you do well on your nremt test. it is good to see you. EDIT: I had noticed that you had dropped out and am glad that you are back again. Congratulations on your scholastic advancement! I hope you do well on your NREMT test. It is good to see you.

There are some websites available that you can use to become familiar with the testing format, practice your question answering ability and, of course, reinforce your knowledge. I have heard that JBlearning is a good site to practice on although i have never used it. After talking to lots of people that have both passed and failed the NREMT I have come to a personal conclusion that first you have to know the material in detail as well as understand the practical application. One of the constants in the NREMT test (in my experience) is that the test relies heavily on the order of the skill sheets you learned for your practicals, The Patient assessment / Management - Basic Trauma skill sheet was Particularly useful. Memorize your skill sheets well, understand the physiology of the human body and remember all the details possible and you should be fine.

Congrats on passing the exam, like others above have pointed out, ya gotta stay on top of it !! Good luck with it, hope to hear all worked out for you..

Welcome and thanks for keeping your guys healthy in Afghanistan. Military medics are rock stars in my book. I am studying Paramedic online with PERCOM that is associated with Kilgore College in Texas http://percomonline.com/percom/. There are several Medics taking the course that are serving in Afghanistan. They also have special financing considerations for active service members. Here is a link to a thread where we discussed the program and has a rare note from the Program Director responding to some of the comments from regular posters. I hope that this is helpful to you. EDIT: I have no personal or financial interest in PERCOM online.

Ahhhh, capitalisation. The difference between "I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse." and "I helped my uncle jack off a horse."

I nearly had my arm broken by a guy on PCP. I didn't file charges, because he was on PCP. This reminds me of a patient I had way back in the dark days when I first started working, doing an inter facility transport for a 16 year old with seizures. They called 911, the police responded first. When they arrived, he was post-ictal and kicked one of them. You could say the officers used more force than necessary in restraining him. You could also say they beat the living shit of him. If you can't manage an AMS patient, find another job.

I would definitely call National Registry first and foremost. Sounds to me like they have not received your pyschomotor skills test results yet. Verify it with NREMT then if that is the case contact the folks that gave you the pyschomotor test and ask about when they will have the results submitted to NREMT.

Thanks for that, I plan on calling my instructer tomorrow. I just didn't know if anyone else had a similar situation to this. I talked to my instructer earlier today and they had said it was all just now waiting on the state to get my nremt stuff and then I will be state certified in a month or two. However reading the NREMT site it seems as though they are waiting to send my results to the state because they haven't recieved my psychomotor test yet. I didn't know if this hinges on the state and it's something that will get updated later or if there is a hold up at the NREMT and the state won't be sent any information till that is resolved. I live in CT btw. Agian just wanted to throw this out there as it's stressing me out a bit and just want to be able to get an EMT job/volunteering asap.

Dwayne, why'd you change your avatar pic? I liked that one of your wife and son.

he could even get a tail lift ... if he is into that sort of thing