Just Plain Ruff

I think Julia is a bot,  honestly, she never responds to any of us when we ask her a question.  I think she's a bot.  

I found shitville on the map,  it's between nowheresville and upthecreekville, it's also known as Uptheshitcreekwithoutapaddleville

Julia,  I think you can stop responding to this thread.  The original poster is long gone.  

Just who are you responding to?  

Great news everyone he's going to be a PCP, but I have an issue with one thing,  I didn't work in a city and I didn't consider where I worked "shitville".  You win the contest for most insulting comment for your first post.    

I don't know about the Canada thing but you will need to get your National Registry in the USA to work here as a medic.  

Plus, AWESOME user name, and yes that was sarcasm.  

cut and paste the entire link into a new web browser page.  It works.  The survey actually reads like an advertisement for a bandaging company.  

http://narrative.ly/every-emt-has-one-day-that-changed-their-life-this-was-mine/

Once in a career save!!  Right place, right time.  

There is always more to meets the eye.  He could have said something that made the guy mad and he told the guy to go back to his country of origen.  

After thinking about this, I said to myself, self, are we sure that this is a racist thing, or is this a guy who told the guy to just get out of his country?  I mean,  first glance makes you think that it's racist, American telling an obviously arab named person to GTFO of my country, well that sounds racist but was he just telling the guy to get out and go back to his country of origen but not pulling race into it?  

We don't have much information to go on with this screenshot other than what was said by the emt dude.  No context given prior to the EMT comment.  

I'm retracting my original statement (post) until there is more information given that corroborates the racial message other than our own preconcieved notions of what the guy meant.  i suspect we won't get any further evidence since it's a screen print and no link other than a link to the guys  Linked in profile is given.  

his sex crime could be a benign as peeing in public and getting nailed by a cop and charged with indecent exposure.  That would give him a sex crime charge, which to me is just utter bullshit.  But there could be more to the history on this poster as well.  It could also be statutory rape as well by a 13 year old having sex with a 12 year old and getting caught and charged as well.  

Without more information from the OP, which I am NOT in any way asking for him to expand on his so called "crimes", we won't know for sure if he would be ineligible for hire at any of our services.  

So before we dismiss this guy out of hand for employment at any of our services, he would need to in his interview process with any service, explain the circumstances surrounding the sex crime.  

NOW caveat, if the sex crime involved a 3 year old or a 8 year old or what not, or it was forceable rape or any number of other crimes other than what I outlined in my first paragraph, then that is a WHOLE other panacea that would of course in my mind, EXCLUDE him from working with any job that my service would have.  Child porn is another.  

I think this is the longest post/thread of the entire site.  Who started this thread? 

Spenac,  it had to be spenac, and he's not here anymore.  

OK, not trying to be critical but ALL CAPS, really?  At least your website does you better representation professionally than this post does. 

And don't use the excuse that this is considered social media and it's acceptable to type like a middle school kid because, it is not, this is a professional forum.  

But that being said, if I was in California, I'd check this group out just to see what they offered.  Sounds like a fun group.    

Ruff

What do you mean by screwed up bad enough that colleges would laugh at you?  

So it's October 21, the OP posted here on July 12.  That's 3 months ago.  If he hasn't retaken the test by now, well he should have.  If he has and he didn't pass, then he should be in a refresher class and also a how to overcome test anxiety class or seminar.  

he should have come back and updated us but I'm thinking the worst but hoping for the best.  

I think we can consider this a dead horse and this dead horse does not need anyone beating it anymore.  

You could hire EMT's to be your first responders.  they should be under a medical director's supervision, approach the local ER or Clinic to see if there are any physician's willing to do this.  

If you cannot find a physician to lead the charge so to speak, I would only hire someone for first aid, and first aid only.  Anything more than a cut or a bruise gets EMS called.  Have the first aider initially look at the patient but EMS should be called.  

You should not put the level of responsibility of making a decision on allowing a child to return to a game after they have been hurt to a EMT, sorry emt's out there, but seriously, this is not your purveyance.  

If the local sports organization isn't willing to fork out money for a higher trained person on site than an EMT then they need to NOT have anyone and just call 911 to get EMS there.  But EMS should not be the ones to make the decision to let the child return to the game, that's why you pay someone of a higher level of care like a trainer or a physician or even a nurse.  

Have you asked your parents if there are any physicians out there who might be willing to volunteer to be the medical person if something were to come up in a given situation?  You might find that you have more doc's and nurses in the group than you realize who will volunteer one game day each to make sure that all the kids are safe.  Something to think about.  

10 minutes ago, Off Label said:

No, he's not.

My opinion as well but I wanted to add a scenario.  

I can say that if my football team had an EMT giving permission to return to play I would seriously be questioning the thought process of the leadership of that program.  

I think that a paramedic is stretching it for this level of decision as well.  

You mean making the decision to let a head injured or possibly concussed player return to the game?  I would say yes you would be acting above your pay grade.  

Let me ask you this,  do you feel qualified to make this decision based on this scenario

Player is hit really hard, knocked out on the field,  comes to about 25 or so seconds later and is helped off the field by you and the coach.  Player answers your questions somewhat appropriately but not immediately.  He finally answers the questions and acts fully normal after two full sets of 4 downs.  

The coach comes to you and says, I want Joe Football player back in the game.  The player wants to play.  The player's folks want him in the game.  The player is their star running back and he's in line for a full ride to Clemson or Notre Dame so he needs all the playing time he can get.  So the pressure is on.  

He says "Come on doc, I'm fine, I feel fine"  

Do you feel qualified based on his LOC now, his LOC previously to make that decision to allow him back on the field?  

Think long and hard on this, as both his health and your licensure are on the line here.  

not busting your balls or anything here, just giving you a scenario that plays out at hundreds of high school football games every single season.  

Ok, this is what I did,  I realized that I had some back injuries that were leading me down the road to permanent disability.  bulging disks in L4 and L5 as well as some neck injuries.  Plus what some could construe as PTSD as well.  

So what did I do?  I went back to school and got my masters in project management and then went into work as a Consultant for Cerner corp putting EMR systems in huge hospital systems in the Emergency rooms.  On starting my consulting career with Cerner I got a 8K raise from EMS.  I worked for 2.5 years at Cerner and then became a travelling consultant which saw my income increase by 2.5x what it was at Cerner.  I travelled and worked at some of the top hospitals in the country, flew out monday morning and came home thursday nights.  Had weekends off to pursue my love of EMS on a one or two shift a week basis.  Or I didn't have work EMS at all because I made enough money to not have to do that.  

I finally stopped working EMS all together about 3 or so years ago, and am looking to get back into it, but I make enough money to not have to do that.  

There is no shame in saying that your full time EMS time is up and it's time to move on to other things.  I sure am not.  It was the natural progression in my career and long term goals.  In fact, I have incorporated a lot of EMS systems into the ED's (cerner system) so they have the ability to see where their patients are going in the ED or the hospital and often do not have to stop and see a nurse.  they just look at the screen as they come out of the elevator and they see the room number and they go to the room.  Easy peasy.  

If you want to discuss this career path, my phone is always on.  I guarantee it's a new adventure for you if you choose it.  And you will never have to pay for another vacation after about 8 months on the job.  More about that when we talk.  

Plus, I can also with nearly 97% certainty, guarantee no additional back injuries being a consultant.  

23 hours ago, RafaelS said:

The state exam was August 18. The CIC contacted me 3 weeks after the exam telling me that I have passed. According to the state's website 4-6 weeks ..it's been 8 weeks and counting ..recently called the school where I took the course to find out if anybody else got the results ..same response "no one got it " ..called the state ..was giving different time frames when the results were sent to the us ...was wondering ...is it normal to for the state to take their time like this ..

Well they are a government agency so that would not surprise me, but maybe another phone call requesting to speak to someone a little higher than the one you talked to the first time.  

how long ago is recent?  

less than a week, have patience grasshopper

More than a month, be worried and call the state.  

Offlabel, I hate to say it but I bet it wasn't a typo, I'll bet it was a question to make him critically think.  I am seeing a lot of these types of questions on test banks of my project management practice exams.  they are wanting me to take out the extraneous crap and just get the meat of the matter and answer the base underlying question.  When you do just that, the question is simple, to the point and the answer is right there staring you right in the face.  

So how many times on scene do you have someone telling you they don't have a pulse but they have a BP or they don't have a pulse nor a BP but the patient is breathing?  I've had it happen more than once and you have to go back to the beginning and start over.  Take out all the distracting items and pull in the things that make sense or most correct.  So in this instance,  you take out the BP and Respiratory rate and answer the question.  What medication would you give to a patient who did not have a pulse???  Answer that question and you have the correct answer?  

Jeremy and Stealth,  My advice to start would be to take at least a month off before you start to study again.  Let your brain take a break.  

Then do what Offlabel says and get evaluated for the LD.  

Then do a search on my posts for a recent list of suggestions that I posted about this exact topic and how to prepare for this test.  I'm not a expert in it but I've taken a masters level project management program and I have my masters in Project management and am currently in my test prep for my Project Management professional certification that to me is harder than my paramedic NR exam ever was.  

Good luck and I wish you the best.  

Well take out the thought process of you cannot have a patient with a bp without a pulse and if those 4 meds were the 4 answers you had to work with, the what would your answer be? 

It's my understanding that they want you to answer the question with what you have.  Take away all the extraneous stuff and just answer the question - you have a patient without a pulse.  What's the most appropriate drug to give to someone without a pulse and the only 4 answers are the meds listed?  

Get away from the thought process of thinking - he has a BP and RR of 18 so I wouldn't give him any drugs,  they want you to give him a drug for being pulseless so which one would you give??  

Now answer the question with that thought process!!!

Which one would you give.  

Good to have you here.  step on up to the plate and jump right in with both feet.  

16 hours ago, billdob1 said:

In my station I'm the only gay man there. Everyone knows, and I know it makes some providers uncomfortable, but they've never outright done anything to me. There's always a rumormill going about, and I often come up in it, but it's just what happens when you're in a small town and you're the only gay emt in the district. My line officer frequently mentions and talks behind my back to other providers, but it's whatever. I'm a solid provider, and he's never outright disrespectful. When I'm on duty, we talk, make jokes, he is just old fashioned. My partner (at work) is cool with it, and he routinely helps me out with any problems I have at home, he's been user for dinner several times. It depends on the squad, I guess. 

Your line officer talks behind  your back and frequently mentions you.  You realize that's a hostile work environment issue there and should NOT be tolerated.   It's not the good old boy network anymore, it's about being professional and your line officer is being unprofessional.  But it's up to you how you want to deal with things in your station but I for one would not tolerate it.  

What have you done so far?

What kind of EMS related business?

How much money do you have available to start your business?

Let's start there!

ok,  how long do you have till you no longer have a chance to take the test?  Is there a time cut off for you?

If you do not have a drop dead date then this is what I would do if I was in your shoes.  

1.  I would first take off at least two weeks from doing anything school related.  Dont' open a book, don't read a journal don't do anything EMT/EMS related.  This might just break the cycle or log jam in your head.  Don't even look at facebook posts relating to EMS. 

2.  Take each of your test results and look at what you failed - is there a pattern?  Or did you fail at different things each different test.  

Now take what you passed and do a cursory review of those items, make sure you know those well.  If you consistently passed those items, then you should(I say should but you never know) be good there.  

Now take what you failed,  did you fail one category or multiple.  

Tackle each category until you know it backwards and forwards.  

On the 24 hours prior to the test, do not open a book, do not study, don't think you can add one more thing to your knowledge base,  take that day off and just chill with friends, go to a movie, have a great dinner but don't get drunk if you drink.  Just relax the day before the test.  

One caveat, if you consistently failed multiple categories each test, then there may be more to your knowledgebase than you want to admit to.  Not saying this to bust your chops but most people who fail the test multiple times fail it for two reasons I've found.  One, critical test anxiety and they just freak out on the test and do horribly OR - their knowledge base is horrible and they didn't learn the basics of what they should have.  NOT saying this is you, but here is one suggestion if you fall into the category of consistently failing multiple categories on the test  Look into a EMT refresher class prior to taking the test for the final time.  It might be the best money you ever spent.  Just some friendly advice.  Not saying this applies to your situation but it might.