Steven

Thanks

Hey Everyone, I long while back I was looking around online for different assessment products, and I found something I wanted to consider getting but can't find it anywhere now. They're booklets of self-adhesive patient assessment stickers you peel off and stick on your pant leg when arriving on-scene. You can log/write pretty much everything you do during BLS patient care on this sticker, and then transfer the information over to your medical care report later. That way you don't have to write stuff on a small tablet or use your glove. Has anyone seen these, and if so, can you remember what medical supply store sells them? I have been doing searches and can't figure out where in the world I saw the product at. Thanks everyone! -Steven

Just for clarification... the patient lived at another building in our facility, but was at a friends house playing cards. That's why I transported her home (to her house from her friends house). Her original set of vitals upon arrival were... BP 135/76 Resp Rate 16 SpO2 - 98% Pulse 75 Cold/Pale/Sweaty When she stood up and the symptoms/signs returned, I found the following: BP 138/78 Resp Rate 16 SpO2 - 99% on 3L O2 Pulse 82 Cool/Flushed/Sweaty One of the downfalls to the call and for her signing a refusal is due to her saying she was a registered nurse. While not a valid excuse, she was AOx3 and was capable of making the decision to refuse. We encouraged her to see her PCP the next day to get checked out. Upon onset, she was walking from an apartment into a hallway on the way to her vehicle. There were no environmental changes present that could have influenced her condition. Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate your help! -Steven

I have a question about a patient I saw the other day. I was dispatched on a 81yo sick patient. Upon arrival she complained of being weak, dizzy, and sweating. She had no cardiac history, no respiratory history, and took no medications. Her vitals were great, blood sugar at 112, and she had no medical history. She was cold, extremely sweaty and pale when I got there. After sitting a while she felt better, then everything returned when she stood up. I had her sit back down and she felt fine again. ALS responded and found nothing irregular with the patient (by assessment and EKG), and the patient signed a refusal. I transported her home and she was fine, and was fine the next morning when I saw her. Can you all offer any advice on what could have been her problem? I was completely stumped and had no idea what needed to be done, aside from basic BLS skills. I expected to find something abnormal when assessing the patient, but nothing was present. Thanks for any help -Steven

Both schools have been community colleges. I see where you're coming from, and CE could prove beneficial for sure. My new employer handles CE in house, so I'm sure there will be plenty of situations to sign up for different classes. Everyone has excellent points, and I definitely appreciate the replies. Now it's time to figure out the next direction to go and get going. Again, thank you everyone, and I'll keep you posted on developments. -Steven

I'm in my second attempt at Paramedic school and can't seem to break out of a this downward spiral. My first attempt brought failure after getting kicked out because I didn't pass the Cardiology section of training with an 80% or better, which is a long story. So I changed colleges to attack Paramedic school again, yet find this new school to be very poor in their educational efforts. Now I've managed to get hung up on Pharmacology for some reason. I can't seem to retain all of this information we're supposed to memorize about drugs (Names, Class, Indications, Contraindications, Side Effects, Dose (Adult/Ped), Precautions). I'm not sure if I'm approaching this task the wrong way, or simply lacking in ability when it comes to choosing Paramedic as a field of interest. I feel lost on what to do honestly, since this is my second attempt and it's not going well either. I will admit that life has been bumpy this semester, with many distractions, and a job change, but I can't blame any of that on my success or failure. I've had my emt-b since December of 2005, yet never had the opportunity to actually work in the field until this week. I took a pay cut and accepted a job as an emt-b to gain field experience. That alone is presenting a challenge due to the time that has lapsed since completing the emt-b program at college. I'm working on putting pieces of my education together and trying to get the lights turned back on because I feel useless on-scene. Of course, maybe this is normal for a first emt-b job? I just know I want to be good at what I do, and something is missing. I don't freeze on scene, but little of my education surfaces in a timely fashion so I feel uncomfortable providing care. However, I will admit it is slowly getting better, which is a good sign. I just place patient safety and care as top priority, and want to be at 100% now instead of later! I know I'm rambling and really not going anywhere with this post. Maybe I just want someone to say that what I'm feeling is normal, or that Paramedic school is challenging enough without outside life distractions. I'm not sure what I need to hear, or what advice I want. I just know I feel dumb sometimes, and know I'm not. I love this new emt-b job I have, and it *feels* right, but I'm worried about not agressively leading on scene due to my feelings of doubt. Should I just attack these calls, then be proud enough to ask for help if I fall off track? Should I sit back and observe and work on being more confident with my skills before trying to lead a call? What a mess, but maybe someone can piece together what I'm feeling and try to offer some kind of opinion, advice, or encouragement? I know this is what I want to do, but I don't understand why I'm having such a difficult time achieving the goal. Thanks everyone and I apologize for the long post and if it doesn't make sense. It did help to vent my thoughts though. --Steven

That's true... I guess I didn't think much about how I study because I've never had a problem in the past. I've always had a 3.4+ GPA, and finished with 90%+ in FR and EMT-B. Guess it kinda caught me a little off guard is all. Paramedic is a different entity compared to FR and EMT-B, I know, but I thought I'd handle it better than that. Thanks for the advice and opinions so far... I appreciate it!

As some of you know, I was in Paramedic school and having a few probs. Anyway... I didn't pass my Cardiology Final Exam with an 80% as required in our program. So I had 1 retake attempt, and ended up with a 74% (needed an 80%)... needless to say I got booted out of the program for that. To make things worse, I had an overall grade after that final of approx. 80% in the class, but since I didn't pass the Final Exam, they said they have to give me an F in the class for the first half of the semester. It's written in the policies for the program that way. Well, this was a 10 credit hour class, and that F is going to destroy my 3.48 GPA I had, obviously. My question is if any of you have ever heard of a Paramedic program doing this, and is there anything I could possibly do? This whole experience at this college has *almost* turned me off to EMS, but I won't let them win like that. What irritates me is I went to the Dean of our department, two of my instructors, and 2 or 3 of the lab assistants trying to get help and advice on how to make it through Cardiology. The dean told me he wasn't sure what I could do, and to go talk to my instructor or talk to the college student services. My teacher said to just keep studying and memorizing everything, and the lab assistants just gave some good pointers on how to approach the material. I feel like I studied my tail off, made extensive efforts to discuss my situation with the department, yet they did nothing to help me out (just kept pointing me to other people or telling me useless information), then booted me from the program, and destroyed my GPA. I'm not trying to push the blame off on them, as it was my duty to know the material. So I'm not sure if I'm being a punk about the whole thing, or if I have a legitimate concern? Anyway... I know I presented a lot of info.. but would like to hear from replies about it. Thanks in advance, -S

I agree, I'm not quite sure what idea was trying to be expressed. I definitely appreciate Rid and the comments/suggestions made. I will say that after a LONG night of studying and cramming, I did have a slightly better day at class. Granted, I met a lab instructor that understood my learning style, because she learns the same way. She was able to provide good ideas and techniques that I can try to get a better handle on some of the concepts we're learning. Next time I see her, I think I'll ask if she may have time outside of class to help me out as a tutor and continue to help me in putting things together. I'm trying to hang in there, and so far so good. The true test will be Friday when we have our Cardiology final exam. *weew* Thanks to everyone for giving your views on my comment/questions. I really appreciate it!

That's a good idea... I'll try talking to them again and seeing if there's any way they can go over some of the material. Part of our issue is the pace... they seem to HAVE TO MOVE ON to the next subject to stay on schedule. For instance, we have a Cardiology quiz Monday morning, then have our final exam this coming Friday. If we don't get 80% on the on final, we get 1 retake, and if we don't get 80% on the retake, they kick you out of the program. So I may not have a whole lot of time to get things on the right track, but I'll definitely be on the warpath trying to get something done. I know I definitely want to do this and be successful, but I also don't want to sail through a program and miss something critical that could kill a patient because they taught it too fast.

I've been looking all over for the total hours and I can't find it anywhere... grr But it's full-time I'd say.. We're in class Mon-Wed-Fri from 9am-4:30pm, then have open Labs on Tuesday from 9am-12pm, and next month start our 12-24 hour rotation shifts on the ambulance, and then start hospital rotations in the summer through fall of 8-12 hr shifts. Is that what you're looking for? But yea, I've talked to the instructors and they seem to resort to telling us.. "just keep studying, re-studying, and studying some more and it will all gel together." hehe

Perhaps I should clarify my program and why it may seem I'm hitting a wall. My Paramedic program started January 3, 2006 and ends on December 19, 2006, so it's less than a year. We're cramming all of our lecture and book work into the 1st 16 weeks, and spend the summer and fall semesters in clinical rotation, ride-alongs, and class labs. When I say I feel like I'm hitting a wall, I just mean that I'm stumped on how to memorize the vast amount of information being presented in such a short period of time. Since January 3rd we've covered: 1) Professionalism, Roles & Responsibilities 2) 39 drug formulary (Memorizing Names & class, Actions, Indications, Contraindications and Dosages for all) 3) Cellular Systems 4) Cell Injury & Disease 5) Renal Systems, Fluids & Electrolytes 6) Respiratory System 7) Acid Base 8) Airway/Respiratory Assessments 9) BSL Airway Management 10) Nervous System 11) Cardiovascular System 12) Autonomic Nervous System 13) Pathopsysiology of Hypoperfusion 14) Pharmacology & Pharmacodynamics 15) Initial, focused assessments & Physical Exams + Vital Signs 16) EMS Communications & Documentation 17) Techniques of Administration 18) Drug Dose Calculations 19) Advance Airway Management 20) Electrophysiology of the Heart 21) Mechanisms of Cardiac Medications 22) Rate & Rhythms, Sinus rhythms 23) Acute Coronary Syndrome 24) Cardiogenic Shock, CHF, & Pulmonary Edema 25) Atrial Rhythms 26) Junctional rhythms 27) AV Blocks 28) Ventricular Arrest rhythms 29) Symptomactic Bradycardias 30) Electrical Therapies 31) 12 lead interpretation 32) Cardiac Emergencies 33) Infarct Imposters 34) Memorizing all Algorithms Plus we've of course had our labs and learned IV's, Intubation and all that good stuff. Maybe that's the normal pace for Paramedic school, I have no idea. It just seems a bit agressive for a student to actually absorb everything adequately. I feel like I'm not getting a good handle on vital knowledge a paramedic should know. That's what I was getting at when I said I'm hitting a wall. My head is kind of spinning. :-) Does this sound like a normal pace for paramedic school?? -Steven

Hey Everyone, If I overlooked an answer to my question during my search, please let me know. Anyway, my question/concern is this. Last summer (2005) I started First Responder, did the state and NREMT testing, then started and completed EMT-B in December 2005. I went back and did my state and NREMT testing for that as well. I decided to jump right into Paramedic school in Jan. 2006, and I feel like I'm hitting a wall. I've never REALLY had any field experience as a First Responder or EMT-B, and almost feel like it's crucial I experience that before attempting to become a Paramedic. Maybe I'm completely off???? I'm hoping some of you might be able to shed some light on why I may feel this way? I also never took Cardiology, and find that to be a challenge because we had to cram a semester worth of study into 2 1/2 weeks. It seems a chunk of knowledge is missing. Mainly, I just wonder if I'm trying to pound my way through to be a Paramedic, when I should be taking time to gain valuable hands-on experiences, then taking that into Paramedic training once I've done that? Thanks for any support or help you can offer! -Steven