afd1307

Not medical, but my favorite by far... CHAOS--- Chief Has Arrived On Scene

One of the hospitals we do IFT's to has an office that faces the hospital entrance doors. The people in the office, the wonderful TEMSIS people, push a button as you walk by that opens the doors. I like this idea as it helps when carrying folders, patient belongings, etc.

New hires on my service are watched for the first 6 months via a probationary status. During the 6 months, the new hires are watched by their fellow crew members and reports are written by the more senior crew members as to the new hires abilities. After 6 months, the new hire is either hired or let go. Also, for each level a certain number of IV sticks, EKG rhythms, and other level specific tasks must be completed and signed off by their crew member. This system appears to work pretty good, but there is a lack of ems professionals in the area, so my service sometimes has to hold onto some people that they normally wouldn't, so that they can cover shifts.

My apologies for posting back to back, but now that I think about it, a side loading ambulance might be a little safer. Bare with me as I flesh this out. Pulling up to an accident scene on the side of the highway. The patient would be covered from traffic as long as the accident was on the same side as the door. This would get rid of the need to put the patient in the way of traffic. On MCI's the ambulances could park much closer together, taking up less space and allowing quicker load and go situations. The need for backing up would nearly be eliminated (except for backing into the station) as pulling up to the ambulance bay would not require backing up to the loading dock, but instead driving up to it. These are just a few things that I thought about. The interior is a completely different thing that could be discussed. Also, everything would need to be redesigned for it to work. Hindsight is always 20/20, as maybe we should have gone to side load ambulances at the start, yet were taking over hearses and cadillacs for ambulances before the boxes were introduced.

my service uses 2 brauns along with 2 pl customs. i love the brauns. i know this is a little off topic, but those sliding side doors are awesome. it also works well when going into narrow streets. if what my boss told me is correct, the sliding door was originally used in san francisco because of their narrow streets.

I volunteer on the campus rescue team at my college and one night I heard a call go out for the fire department to respnd to the dorm next to mine for fire watch because the fire alarms had been shut off because they weren't working properly. As an aside, no one responded, and the Resident Assistants had to do it. Can't say I blame the firefighters for not showing up at 11pm till 7am.

I say no because it all depends on what the ends are and what the means of getting there are. My answer would be a "depends" but that is not a choice.

Just took a CERT( Community Emergency Response Team) class for a volly department back home and they were talking about ambulances and what this CERT needs to call them. They mentioned calling them bus' as that is what the EMS professionals call them. I balked at this and was a little astonished that they would use this. I hate it when people call it a bus. I know this is gonna make people laugh at firemonkeys, but, in wildland firefighting, if you ask for a tanker in Maine you get a truck holding about 2 to 3 thousand gallons of water, if you ask for a tanker out west, you'll get an airplane... We need to have a specific name that we call everything to minimize any confusion. Asking for a bus on an MCI would get me a big yellow one not an ambulance.

The Globe gear posted a couple posts before me is what my service uses. We have dark blue jackets and pants, a blue helmet, extrication gloves, goggles, and fire fighter style boots. The boots are too bulky, I prefer my Rocky boots. We are required to wear the jacket or a vest on accident scenes, and all gear when in active extrication. When doing patient care inside the vehicle, I do not wear the extrication gloves, seems common sense to me. We do keep the patient in mind during extrication and will cover them with a heavy duty thick blanket or a fire fighters jacket that is not in active extrication activities. We keep our gear in the station as we do not do active patroling. We sit at the station and wait for calls to come in and grab the gear when needed. This works well for us as our crews change sometimes per call. I do think we should carry it on all calls just in case we come across something or get called to another call when back in service after a call.

I remember my first code like it was yesterday. I was effected by that for a couple days, but by far the worst, was working a code on my grandmother. That was by far the toughest thing to do. That was just over a month ago. For my sake, I wont go into the details, but has anyone else had an experience with working on a family member?

we deny it until they wont give in and then use the money to buy teddy bears for either kids that we transport or for christmas donations

thanks, you are so helpful.

the class is for my college. we have a group of students, around 200, that go on 'spring break alternative' trips across the country. basic first aid meaning what they can do as lay people to help out if something happens with their group. very minimal traumas, allergic reactions, etc. Im thinking less than an hour class. So very very basic.

Im not sure where to put this, figure this topic will do. Im teaching a very down and dirty basic first aid class tomorrow night. Is there anything you all can offer up for suggestions to include?

20$ in canada is last i checked pretty much 20$ in the U.S as far as exchange rates go. If thats not what you wanted to know, my apologies

New Hampshire allows this at the BLS level, and there are talks about this happening in Maine as well. I work in both states. I have issues with both so my answer is yes and no. Helping medics on difficult calls is always a plus so that would be a pro. The con is that all we can do to help is give standard glucagon if they are conscious. Sure we can give BLS unites these tools, but what matters is the education that they receive before they use them.

Might want to read the rest of what the sentence that you quoted says.

heres my point. Dont say that basics shouldnt be able to use this tool in the field without looking into it more and going from what you have heard. My main point with the comment about all of us being EMT's, but just at different levels is this: I was trained as an EMT-B in this state to use King LTD's, therefore I can use them, as were EMT-I's trained to start lines, and EMT-P's trained to push drugs etc etc. (Im not going into great depth as this is just a quick point.) Now, we are all trained to do things that people on other levels of training can or can't do. So, because I have received the training, I can use them. No matter what level we are at, some states will be more liberal and allow EMT's of different levels to do things. Saying that EMT-B's shouldnt use something that they are trained on makes no sense. That is my point. Is this any clearer, or do I need to explain further?

I encourage anyone that has no experience working with King LTD's to do some research into the success rates with them. Because of these success rates one of the states that I work in has said that NREMT-Basics are able to put these in patients. Many clinical studies have been done with King LTD's and their success rates at all levels has been extremely high, from hospital situations to EMS. Now for the personal attacks just because I work in a state that allows NREMT-Basics to work with the King LTD's. A little criticism never hurt anyone. And finding out that you might not be the master on the subject shouldn't start a big fuss. Also, someone asking for a little clerification isn't always playing silly little word games.

what are you referring to in Texas? And you might want to rethink that young boy comment. Not sure where you come from, but Im not a young boy.

reaper, do your research. It's one of the benefits of the King. Dustdevil, you said that EMT's shouldnt use these ALS devices. So you mean that you shouldn't use them either?? Since last I checked the levels are EMT-Basic, EMT-Intermediate, and EMT-Paramedic???

Where I work, King LTD are protocol for EMT Basics. I find them very successful, with almost 0 failures, and if we as a BLS unit can establish them, then the paramedics or intermediates can place an ET tube with what we call a tube changer( skinny blue thing)

In reference to the Good Samaritan Law, just going to point out that I never said it keeps you from getting sued. I disagree when you say that if you proclaim that you are an EMT you are exempt from the Good Samaritan Law. Maybe explain a little more because I see that if you start working on an unconcious patient and you don't say you are an EMT, a bystander will have no way of knowing that you should be doing what you are doing. I wonder how many court cases are filed against EMS professionals on duty vs. off duty for providing medical treatment.

In the U.S there is the Good Samaritan Law which covers people for helping when they are off duty.

havent run into anything quite that bad, but we have a patient we consistently bring in for random illnesses, shes 104. Last time I brought her in I gave my report to the hospital by radio and one of my coworkers heard the call in the hospital as he was there doing paperwork from an earlier call and he said that they laughed when I said she was a 104 y.o female pt of doctor so-so and thought that I was mixing up age and pulse. Nurses looked pretty shocked when they looked at my paperwork.