canuckEMT

Buckle straps here, 2 crossed over the chest, 2 crossed over the abdomen, two crossed over the legs and a triangular to tie the feet together. Pad any voids, tape the head by 3 strips of tape across the forehead with blanket roll in place and you are done. The only time I use spiders is when I have to carry a Pt out of a deep ditch or long treks in a back country incident. Oh ya and I'll second the motion that A) if someone doesn't roll 'em up properly or it is cold and snowy, the spiders are a royal pain in the A$$!

Well what a coincedence, I started my meic program in January as well. We are doing A&P, Neuro, Pharmo( that covers all administration routes ) and our medications we can administer as EMT's here in Alberta. We are also doing infection control, skills labs (refreshing our EMT skills). Then in April we will be starting our first of three ambulance practicums that will last 340 hours. This will take us until June and then we return in Aug for our second semester which will last until Dec '06 and we will be starting our advanced skills then and more indepth A&P on the oragan systems.

Also if the Pt is obviously presenting with obvious respiratory depression or tripoding, working to breathe etc, and there are family members there take them with you to answer Hx questions en-route. If the Pt is only able to speak in one to two word scentences you don't really want to make him/her speak anymore than necessary. If you have a protocol for a pharmocological intervention, then fine, initiate while you are loading the Pt on your stretcher and transport with a family member.

Here the most common certification is NAPD. Once you have it you never have to take the course agagin, but, most services have thier own EVOC refresher training in house.

Our EMT-P program has an A&P cirriculum that consists of 72 hours classtime learning combined with home study. There is also a pathophysiology segment included and a trip to the ME for an autopsy. It is quite indepth, if you were to take this course on its own it would be 26 weeks. The EMT-P program I am taking is an outreach cirriculum or accelerated learning modality that is geard to practitioners who have experiance in the field. I would not reccomend this program to someone fresh out of EMT school.

I would be interested as VS was in the age and gravida/para of the Pt as well. My wife had those same s/s when she was carrying our 3rd and 4th children, there was no complications and the GP said this was totally normal.

Sounds like there was significant mechanism there: Airbag deployment, passenger compartment intrusion ( 1) ETOH + = unreliable pt (2) Therefore 2 positive aspects according to ITLS and in my area the CCR for full spinal motion restriction. Just remember to keep the suction handy and if she spews, roll her towards your partner cause the cupboards in the unit are tougher to clean!!!

If he had no reflex on one side, and you were considering CVA, did you try an armdrift test? In people that I think are having an episode of ACT disorder, I like to put their arm above their face and let it go. If it misses their nose you can pretty much confirm a Dx of ACT disorder. The only problem is if they aren't ACTing you have to apologise for a negative test.

Just wondering as there is another difference in protocols that is different in another area. I just found it interesting that Glucagon would be given before an IV attempt and D50 which produce a faster response for low BS. I was not saying it was wrong or questioning your treating the Pt, just the order in which the protocol is written. Different Doc, different protocol.

I dont know Dust, from where I am looking it is a BLS call for me........ If I was the incoming EMS I would not question the Tx that you have initiated in the LTCF. Unless you were trying to give oral glucose to a Pt with decreased LOC (we ahd a call like that not too long ago). The only question I have is why would the Glucagon be given before the D50? Our protocol calls for Glucagon to be admin after 2 failed IV attempts.

I totally agree with VS, if you want Pt contact experiance work for the transfer service there. If you want money and are willing to submit the required paperwork to the College, then be my guest. But there is a drawback as well though, most of the industrial EMS work in Alberta is done in the winter when drilling in remote areas is at its highest. I also knew a girl from Ontario that came out here after her second year of PCP in Ontario and did not quallify for reciprocity. According to our illustrious college, we have a higher training level than the rest of Canada and it is very hard to get absolute transfer into Alberta.

EMR ( Emergency Medical Responder) in Alberta is basically the equivellent to an EMT-B in the US. Here they are ususally First Responders, although there are some municipal services that still hire them. Those are mostly northern rural services. As for doing industrial work (oilfield), yes there are positions for EMR's. Industrial though is basically sitting in a pickup (Mobile Treatment Centre MTC) for your 14 hours and also doing ERP's (Emerg Response Plans) for your drilling or sevice rigs. There are also times where you are working with a slashing crew that are doing right-a-way's for seismic operations or clearing leases. Call volume or actual Pt contact is usually very slim, mostly minor injuries but when the perverbial feces hits the air movement device, it is usually quite major. The wages for industrial are very good and it is a place where quite a few EMR's go to work to save for the EMT program and also EMT's do the same for EMT-P. As for reciprocity, you will have to check Alberta College of Paramedics, there is a process where the college has to approve your training from another province for equality. I have not known many people to come from another province and be able to gain status here without taking the EMR program and also doing the provincial registration exam.

I think one would have to see this system in person to get the understanding of how it works totally. I cannot relate to a system like this one where so many agencies are involved. I don't have a problem with Fire based EMS. What I do have a problem with ( and this is going to ruffle a few feathers here ) is Medics who think they should only attend on ALS level calls and never have to do any BLS. IMHO when you are a medic you now have the training to deal with any situation you come upon and should have the sound clinical assessment skills to treat and deal with such. Even if it is Grandpa with general malaise who needs a taxi transport to the ED. Maybe it is just from ignorance on how the EMS system works in other areas but having so many agencies in one area ( BLS, ALS, Fire EMS.....and so on) to me just opens the door for pandamonium. Maybe things here are just too simple, ALS unit does all calls and if the medic decides it is BLS then the EMT on the car attends. As for the Pt at the beginning of this post, I am leaning to the recurrance of pneumonia again due to the temp, tachypnea and presentation. I too would like to know what the lung sounds were and if he would have benefited from a neb Tx. Yes if it was only 10 min to the ED if I was on the BLS unit I would transport this Pt.

Out here our EMT students are required to do 48 hrs in the ER, 24 in the OR for BIAD's (mostly LMA's) and no less than 45 calls on ambulance practicum. And here it is not just riding 3rd and assisting, you have to be running the call unless you are with an ALS service and the calls requires a higher level of care. Then you tell the medic what you would do in the BLS areas and assistup to your scope (IV, Bagging etc).

I was wondering, taking a quick look at some of the replies here, it sounds like some of the stories of being on a board too long are hospital related. Now given we are the ones to make that decision if the person needed it or not. I have heard of services in my area that have c-spine clearance protocols, and I bellieve they are based on the CCR(CanadIan C spine Rule). My question is, for this to be proper in the field, what kind of criteria should be included in the clearance protocol? This has been disputed in many forums that I have read. If we don't have mobile xray capability in the unit (which isn't always good enough) then what should be added to the algorhythm? And should there not be better protocols in place in the hospital to get these Pt's off the board quicker and lessen the added pain involved from being on the board for extended periods of time? The hospitals in the city near me are now starting to take Pt's off the long board and put them into a bed via a transfer board( thinner plastic) and then keeping them still on the matress of the cot until they have been cleared.

Ours was pretty much the same as above we had to do 2 flights of stairs. Also we had to carry a Pt on A backboard around the Olympic Oval mezzanine in Calgary. That was freaking hard!!!!

:twisted: ( THUD ) drops to floor........uh oh excuse me there.......hehehe Hmmm ok ...... (composes self again).....The person below me had a blow out with an RN and won....!

Hmmmmm let's see the last good call..........???????? Ya I guess you're right!!!!! The person below me seen a girl in class take an OPA while fully concious.!!!!!!

heheheh If we would have had a call in the last 72 that MIGHT of happened........we'll have to see in the next 72.

Well you never know when you can use it. I have never said" geeze I wish I had a knife right now" since my kids got it for me 3 years ago. The person below me likes to antagonize frequent pshyc Pt's just to see the reaction of the Doc in the ER!!!!

I love a challenge........... What do you call a blonde in a tree witha briefcase??????? A: Branch manager......... :roll: The person below me thought " Loading the dishwasher" meant getting his wife DRUNK!!!!!!

I have gone to Firefox as well, but I am finding that the Adobe Reader Plug in has it's share of bugs. Some PDF files won't load in Firefox but they will in IE. Overall though, I prefer Firefox and will use it for a long time to come.

Dust, that is one thing that most of us do not want to admit though. Burnout is a misnomer in this profession as we are all Alpha personalities and hate to admit defeat. I have noticed though that I have been getting more iritable lately and short tempered, but it has more to do with my home life than my work life. Another case of needing a release from EMS and not having one except rebuilding my basement and being the referee between my wife and pre teenage daughter.

Kev, thank you for the reply and explanation of the term. Joel, that Doc there had a bit of an EGO problem, and with the report given by the attending Medic, I think he should have been able to properly assess the Pt's pain. I was recently involved in a teleconference in-service in the Calgary health region about STEMI's and criteria for direct transport to the cath lab. The head of the Cath lab was stating he is in favor of Fibronolytics being administered by EMS where transport to the cath lab was greater than 90 min. And also stating that EMS should keep the Pt as comfortable as possible during transport. If all fails, treat according to your local protocols and advise recieving Doc of such a fact. Tell him he is more than welcome to call one of his colleagues a MORON for developing that said protocol......

We don't even carry MAST here anymore and have opted for Fluid Resuss. Even though that is coming under scrutiny now. As far as pelvic Fx's we usually tie a pillow over the top of the pelvis to keep stable, or use a KED as well.