paraloco

Acadian just started offering 20k sign-on bonuses for paramedics.

we use our airway management protocol. first a jaw thrust (it doesn't feel good, but meets a legitimate clinical need) then a NPA/OPA, then intubation. easily defended actions

MedicAR, here's my 2 cents. No HR Dept. is going to tolerate harassment of any kind anymore. Yes, at one time,(before the proliferation of lawsuits, empowerment, etc.) you could treat a newbie like dirt. It was expected. If the person had the fortitude to be the kind of co-worker you wanted around when the spit hit the fan, they'd take the abuse. But another factor came into play (I saw it). The abuse/harassment was not handed down indiscriminately. A guy with connections/boss's relative/member of a protected group gets hired. The rank & file see them get treated differently, ie. like a human being worthy of respect. That rankled. If someone did make the mistake of trampling on the wrong newbie, they got stomped on by HR. Discrimination can be a good thing. We want our bomber pilots to be discriminatory in their target selection. But all employees have to be treated the same. Any lawyer or HR professional would tell you that. HR folks have a career path, a lot of them know each other, they communicate on listservs like this one. There's not gonna be alot of contours in that terrain. The harassment issue is also a safety issue. Its fairly frequently that we hear of workplace shootings in the news. Hmm, what could cause someone to be bitter? Feeling picked on, 'disempowered' maybe? Eliminating harassment was a step to curb that phenomenon. I my workplace, discrimination that is reported gets a standard procedure, which means it gets dealt with at the convenience of management. Harassment gets an immediate investigation from HR, and they ain't playin'.

need a quick trach? cut a 10gtt/cc drip chamber in half. thats 15mm, and it fits an ambu bag. you've got a sterile tip. make your incision and stick it in

I don;t mind patients or calls. Thats what we are here for. I have frustrations about many things. Mechanics, broken/missing equipment, dispatchers who don't know their butt from a hole in the ground. Posting, hate that, though I admit I don't hafta do it as often as before. Swapping into another truck. I really hate that. I dislike working MVA's in the rain. It would be nice if I did not have to work a 2nd job or work all the OT (a kid with psych problems is expensive, just PM me if ya wanna know how expensive), but I can't blame that on my job. I resent co-workers with more seniority, who glom up all the holidays for vacation time, then trade them off for days they really want. (just put in for the days you want!) I could go on. supper time. later folks

I pick up alot of folks with minor problems who call 911, thinking that they will get a bed faster if they come in by med unit. We give report over the radio, as usual. when we get there, they see the triage nurse, then the charge nurse decides where they go. If they can go to triage, the triage nurse's name is in my PCR. If they can't go to triage, we frequently ride the wall for however long it takes to get a bed. It's gotten better. the 3 hour waits haven't happened for a few months. We finish our electronic PCR's then return later to the transfer office to print. I doubt the ER ever sees the report.

Many cities are set up on a grid. Common sense would tell you that the 9800 block of Whatever Road is not going to be downtown. Like some of the others posted, learn major thoroughfares first. then memorize at what block number other arteries cross it. Some dispatchers will give you a cross street. If they are using CAD, they should give you 2 cross streets. If the city is divided in to response zones for the firemonkeys, get a zone map from them. So, if you get dispatched with Engine 4, you have an idea what part of the city the call is in, because you can locate their territory on the map. Another thing. I was working my part time job a few weeks ago with a rookie partner. We had a call in a part of the county that was unfamiliar to me. His cell phone/blackberry/whatever had turn by turn GPS directions. You could always try that.

In recent years there were some assaults at the Walmarts down here. There were none at 2 that I went to. I was getting off duty when they opened up on Friday. I had to buy 2 tires before driving a couple of hours to meet up with my family at my in-laws. I figured on a short wait ( how many are gonna be lined up in the automotive center) I was right. The employees commented on how civil the morning had been. About halfway to my destination, I felt a wobble in the back end. I pulled over at a Supercenter to have them check it. They too, commented that there had been no cussing, shoving, or assaults there. We do go there just about every shift on a fall. They might save money if they offered everyone a powered chair, a crash helmet and c-collar, and a shopping assistant to pick up everything. And made them sign a refusal if they didn't want it. Of course then, there be MVA's inside the Walmart. never mind

Early in my career, the helicopters were usually staffed by 2 rn's, sometimes an rn and a medic. The RN's were BSRN's with years of experience prior to their flight jobs. The medics were handpicked, underwent vigorous training. When they landed, you knew you were handing a patient over to a homerun hitter. Those folks are gone, they moved on to other things. The flight crews now are mostly field medics who got tired of the grind on the street, or medics who got their Excelsior RN and didn't like working in the hospital. They attend the same CE's, have the same or very similar protocols. WHere I work, we very rarely need a helicopter, due to short transport times. The only time we do anymore is for critical burns. We send those straight to a burn center. The incidents I alluded to in my post were from about 10 years ago, in a town about 30 minutes by ground from a large medical center in a very large city. In my area, we don't look up to the crews like we did 20 years ago. Cuz they are us. In your area, it may be different. If I offended anyone, I apologize. If you want particulars about why I posted what I did, PM me.

nope, and I don't have an axe to grind either. They're people, just like us, and have an important function. I know all of their crews. Heck, most of them worked with us, before getting tired of frequent flyers and the grind of our schedule.

a helicopter is an ambulance. If I have to call one, I call them for a specific patient. They are not going to land, then re-triage. I called you here to take this guy. Load him and leave. the only thing you have to offer is speed. so offer it. I actually had this problem with flight crews from a prominent service in the Houston area. we corrected the problem.

I've seen housekeeping doing compressions in a pinch. Security too.

If you are a lifer, a fire-based system will be more likely to have a real career ladder than a 3rd service. They have a better retirement system too. A fire-based or 3rd service is more likely to be 911 only. It all depends on what you want, what your goals are. A private will be more flexible in scheduling, which could be useful if you are still going to school.

Let me clarify. A person who accidently kicks a chair and stub his little toe, then calls 911 has a complaint, however minor. A person who calls for transport to fill prescriptions, for help doing ADL's (can you help him to the bathroom, and then back to bed?), or because he was stupid enough to take a nap in full view of passersby (who call 911) does not have a complaint, and is not considered a patient. gotta take kids to school, to be continued.

It doesn't cost me anything to transport. It might cost me alot not to. If a patient or their family asks me "What would you do if he was a member of your family?" My reply is, "I'm not going there. You will never hear me or anyone else in one of these blue shirts tell someone that they don't need to go to the hospital. " I also rarely clue them in that they will likely go to triage. That could be construed that I was trying to get them to refuse. I make the charge nurse the bad guy if they get mad, which is frequently, especially for pain-med seekers now that the gov't is starting to crack down on the candy stores, I mean pain management clinics.

first call as a paid medic was a hyperbaric transfer, I think.

City of Beaumont, Texas Dept. of Public Health EMS immediate openings. TMRS retirement for every dollar you put in ( a set percentage) the city puts in 2. 90/10 BCBS insurance, I pay 81/pay period for wife & 3 kids. dental, vision, cafeteria plan (medical spending account) full vesting in five years, your military time counts toward that. ICMA investments (basically a 401K) City of Baytown Health Dept. EMS 3rd service under health dept. Tex. Municipal Retirement System City of LaPorte, Texas. Hays County EMS, Williamson County EMS (alot of Austin medics make the switch, I'm told) Austin COunty EMS (not to be confused with Austin(cityof)/Travis COunty EMS, alluded to in the previous post) While you are looking, check out East Baton Rouge Parish EMS, in Louisiana

Gays are just another protected group along with all the others. There will be more. If you are not in a protected group, you are fair game for anything anyone wants to do to you. You can be held to standards of behavior and performance. Its hardly worth it to write up a member of a protected group. You will be accused of harassment or discrimination. You cannot be harassed or discriminated against. Its going on at my workplace right now. There are NO members of an unprotected group in our HR dept. About the only way standards can be enforced is if the enforcer is a member of a protected group also ( I'm more of a minority than you are, ha ha). Makes me think of a non-funny version of the movie PCU.

Acadian also has in-house classes, set up as the National EMS Academy.

this sounds crazy. The firemonkey medics treat, then call a private to transport? Does the private then have to document everything the fireguys did? I know of tiered systems where a paramedic responder makes the determination if the patient requires paramedic level care, and rides in if the answer is yes. This sounds like they just turf the patient after they've played for a bit. tell me if I'm wrong

check out Baytown EMS. 3rd service under the health department. TMRS retirement, good benefits. no transfers, you take trauma straight to the medical center, at least we did in 99 when I left. Another is Harris County ESD #1. they pay really well. LaPorte EMS is part of the fire dept., I think, maybe a civilian division of it.

This is the reason hiring should be an HR only function. The only plus side to the popularity contest is that you can weed out the dumbf#@ks who you know did or continue to do really stupid things where they are currently employed. ( you find out if they are stupid or just poorly trained in the interview) When I tried to get on where I am now 19 years ago, they flat out told me that they didn't know me well enough.

I like 3 x 5 cards. They go bye bye afterward. only one record of the call, nothing to get subpoenaed. Now, I usually upload vitals from the lp12, but I still jot down the blood glucose and temp.

We use the jaw thrust for painful stimuli. It is painful, but it also meets a legitimate clinical need.

Well, if I had studied more of my school work instead of finding out how drunk I could get every weekend, ( and sometimes in the middle of it, in class) I would have likely had a military career. If that had not lasted long, I would have sought work in my field of study, geology. I was gonna go find oil under the oceans. Geology still facinates me, especially the effects of glaciation.