krumel

In my former region (Greater Munich) the air-ambulances both carry cameras for "vehicle-photos" to explain the MOI and educational purpose. Some services do enforce a strict "no photos" rule, others don't. In my current region we have our own "photographer". Got his own pager and decides if a call "needs him"...then he will show up on scene, take a few photos (which some will be sent to the press after controlled by a supervisor), handle all other media on scene.... The photos will be "uploaded" to a secure server from a mobile device. So when we're at the hospital we can access the photos from the hospitals PC and show the doc the MOI if needed. LE and FD sometimes use those photos as well when they don't bring their own photographer on scene.

Any updates on the project so far?

There's still some truth in what he said... The physician based systems in Germany, France and Austria have huge problems finding enough qualified personel. In Germany there we're cases that during nights a area comparable to the hole state of Rhode island had only one physician available. As the scope of practice varies widly amongst the diffrent regions in this case it means: No ALS care (including NO i.V.'s, NO pain reduction, NO Airway) for everyone who didn't get the doc... But back to topic: I just wanted to add another european point of view to this discussion. In Switzerland most EMS are hospital based.In the smaller hospitals the Paramedics usually rotate thru the anaesthesia department, the ER and the ICU beside doing the normal "roadside" work. This gives us the opportunity to train certain skills (intubation, RSI, etc.) and makes it easier to get a "broader" expierence. On the other hand the anaesthesia and ER nurses work with us on the ambulances and do their "own" rotation as well.... So they are pretty used to the "roadside problems"...

The really hard ones don't work at the Festival grounds where cops and backup is always near... We work in the areas surrounding the festival ground.....Where people are more drunken, the corners are darker and backup is far away... 5 years working there, from the first day to the last day, From 7 a.m to 11 p.m. (or later.... ).... Hell, I miss it! :punk: Favorite guy during the octoberfest: (in 2008) 38 year old male, US Soldier, just back from Iraq.... Felt down some stair and was skilled enough in falling down to fracture both his ankles and rotate both his feet in a very interesting way...Both feets were showing in a totally "wrong" direction, rotated 180° (accompanied by severe tissue damage of course).... But this did not stop him from standing up and trying to walk down the street. He made it for about 20m then he again feelt and broke his nose...THIS made him and his friend calling an ambulance.... We took him to the ER, they took him to OR a few hours later..And the patient? Well, he fleed from hospital the second day after the operation....And was seen at the octoberfest using a wheelchair....

By the way: Please do not transfer your experience from St.John's in other states to St.John's Ambulance Western Australia.... And note that in WA almost all (and for sure all newly hired) "paid paramedics" are used in the perth metro region...

If you need any advice or help regarding the application process with SJAA send me a Message, I just signed my contract with them. Finally

I disagree with Herbie. I worked a few years for the so called "care team", a group of volunteer health care providers specialised in providing psychological support in those "hard" cases . Our first rule always was "let them come". Every person has it's own way of dealing with the shock and the grief they feel. Some people are simply denying the situation or even the existence. I remember a child-CPR with an 8 year old girl in an public swimming pool. Air ambulance and medics did really everything they could but the child never came back. During the ongoing CPR the mother asked us "Have the parents of this poor little girl notified what happend? Where is the girls mother?"... For us this sounds irrational and maybe insane. But for the patient the denying of the situation is the only way to deal with the situation right now. In such a situation you will harm your "patient" more than it will help when you try to occupy her with some tasks, especially when those tasks destroy the "shield of denying". One of the major reasons for psychological traumas are described as the "loss of situation control". By "forcing" our help to someone we boost this problem. I know a few services who have a strict rule that parents must not be present during the CPR...and I know a few where the provider should bring them in always...Both are doing harm in some cases.... When a parent wants to be with his child - it's okay-...but i case that he or she doesn't want it... let it be... Just to make my point clear, I'm not saying you should do nothing. Always offer your help. Introduce yourself, tell them that you are here to help them and offer them an "easy way" to contact you, i.e. offer them to bring them something to drink, a handkerchief or simply a hand to hold. When youre getting more expierenced you will notice the moment when they want your help (it will come for sure) and know what to do and tell then.

St. John's ambulance western australia, the main operator of ambulance services within WA is currently recruiting...A few medics from the US already managed to get there.

Hi bernhard, sorry for bringing bad news, but as a few colleagues (POM-Paramedics) tried the same a few weeks ago I have some bad news for your friends: Currently Ambulance NSW management will not allow any "guests" to take part in their operations, even unpaid. They have become very strict after some arguments with the union about their recruitment policy which led to the closure of the foreign medics program. Paid internships are also quite impossible to find as most services do only employ people with an PR (permanent resident) visa. The only exception is SJAA (Western Australia) which is currently employing medics on a 457 Visa (temporary work visa) (and BTW: is currently recruiting). With an "WHV"Visa you have no chance to work in the industry, the only exception is for nurses (who have to registert in their board first).... I can't find the source but I vaguely remember that most territory have strict rules about foreigners working in healthcare... Greetings, Philipp

R.I.P. Rob..... This has become a sad day...One of the few "great Persons" in our Profession passed away. A very black day for the hole industry

Thanks! As far I can see there's no real difference in Handling, right?

Hey folks, as I'm currently trying to persuade my medical director to give me a letter of my scope of practice for migrating to Australia i found the following abbreviation within a list (section "patient moving"): NIEJ I googled a bit and can only find that this might be a similar device to the kedrick's extraction device... But they have a own field for this on the list.... So what the heck is NIEJ?

Also voting for EZIO. For the transport respirator i would vote for Draegers oxylog 3000. Fine piece of technology and pretty easy to use. I really like it. I would also like to have two syringe pumps on the rig when facing your transport times....

As I'm thinking about moving to NZ or Australia myself a question to you folks out there: Did anyone ever hear of an Medic from one of the german speaking countries moving sucessfuly to NZ or Australia? I'm asking cause I'm currently reading in a lot of forums and found some (old) posts of Germans wheren't accepted...But I'm not sure if this is "up-to-date" and true.... Would be glad if anyone heared something. Thanks, folks, Phil

Hey, sorry for deleting the pics, but I've got fired a few weeks ago and tomorrow will be my last day with an job. I was fired for sueing my company for not paying my salary as they must by law, not paying my salary while being ill (as they must by law), not giving me the chance of having payed vacation (which is a right guaranteed by law) and hindering us installing an so called "Betriebsrat" (kind of the workers committee... also a right guaranteed by law). During the last weeks we (my partner, my GF and me) gut bullied by the company.... Anonymous emails and calls, etc... But, after all, it's not to bad, I started studying "business administration and health care managment" a few month ago and will now focus on that.

Hmm. I'm searching more for an backpack which keeps my stuff organized, maybe a more specialized one for our branch. Though of any Combat-Medic backs or so.

Hi Guys, I'm searching for an new backpack... As the products did not fit, I'm starting to search the american/UK Market for an fitting one... Can someone recommend on product? My criteria: - Backpack - Big enough for an complete EMT-P Equipment without an oxygen bottle (means: Diagnostics -BP,Small SpO2, Temp, Stethoscope, etc., i.V. Set,Bag valve mask, manual suction,Intubation Set, one adult Cervical collar,dressing material..) - Must be available in Black - As rugged as possible (Must survive being an Air-France piece of luggage...) - Not an Bagpack with just one big "pocket", I need some "outside-pockets" Any Tips for me?

A friend of mine works in Switzerland, they changed their complete fleed to Lifepak15 recently. He reports that it only has some "smaller" changes in the menu, that the SpO2 is a bit better, but not too many "big changes". His resumee was: "When you like the LP12, you will like the 15, if you didn't like the 12 you won't like the 15 as well"

In rural Germany most counties have so called "SEG" (Schnelleinsatzgruppe = Fast Response Units). These units are made for smaller"mass casulty incidents" (MANV => Massenanfall von Verletzten =Massive occurrence of injured people), for example MVA'S with 4-20 Patients, burning houses, etc. They are volunteer based and mostly operated by the German Red Cross. Their members get alarmed by pagers or cellular. http://www.schnelleinsatzgruppe.de/segesslingen/index.htm (Some Photos of an SEG in South western Germany - German page, but the photos are quite good)

Well, we can get about 50 ALS-Ambos within half an hour, 6 helicopters, about 100 Patient-transport/BLS Ambulances and about 1000 men of the mass casualty units...so...well... Normally we have enough room for everyone;)

A ride with the train can be cheap? Damm it, i f*** hate them... If my application to the german customs will be accepted I'ill have to get to "munster" (northwest germany) often... I just figured out that travelling by plane might be four times cheaper than using the train....

If you weren't married I would suggest: "Get an Lufthansa stewardess. Their spouses can fly for ca. 100$ business class".

Well, might be as long as you can handle my terrible english;) And BTW: I think "drunkish" is a language spoken worldwide;) So you might just undertand our patients (at least most of them) very good;)

@Dominion: I'm very sorry to hear that you expirienced those problems. If you ever come back to Bavaria, feel free to mail me. It should be no problem visit a Station. Maybe we even get the chance to invite you to an few shifts on my rig. (I can't guarantee that, but it seems "possible"). @Quakefire: Yeah, the stretcher is on a "loading box". This makes it possible to directly "drive in" the "loading box". There the stretcher is secured automatically. Then you can lift the stretcher in the rig electronically.

But normally you could stop everyone from bringing his scanners to an EMS Activity (here the "insurance" thing might help: If he falls and the scanners break into pieces he might the insurance might not pay or anything like that). Additonally you could try a "basic CPR test" and make him fail it missarable. The test is performed only twice a year and of course without the CPR Test he's not allowed to work... That's another way to try to get rid of him.