lemming12

This is similar to how i started. I am from Las Cruces, NM which is about 1 hr southwest of Alamogordo. In Las Cruces, public high schools have AP courses, which allow you to earn college credit from a class you take in high school. At the time there was one biology teacher who had several classes to allow juniors and seniors to begin in the health field; health and nutrition classes, anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, first responder, and a health club that got to go on field trips to Albuquerque and see the cadaver labs. I took several AP classes, and my senior year i needed one credit to graduate, but to even out my schedule, i needed to take two classes, so i took my AP European History and the first responder course. I finished my first responder course and the spring semester of my senior year i took my EMT Basic course at the local college (the public schools also have a program where you can take college classes for free while still in high school). Before i turned 19 i was a licensed EMT Basic starting college. Unfortunately at the same time that instructor died of severe cancer and the classes were discontinued. now the staff of the college EMS program rotate one semester to every high school to do first responder classes. But it was a great way to get people involved. In NM if you are under the age of 18 you have to be affiliated with a service to get an endorsement to sit for licensing session. So these young students were all also becoming volunteer firefighters so they could be licensed, then their departments were sponsoring them through their intermediates as well. So it has been progressively introducing some young blood into the system. Excellent. Since young high school and college students can afford the health and time to do things like volunteer. And by the time the get out of school they're so hooked they wouldn't be able to leave if they wanted to!

I was confused between the two since when we learned ACLS, all of our scenarios included amiodarone, but in all our class scenarios and in the field, we only use lido. I asked my instructor once why we don't use amiodarone in our area, and he said while it is extremely effective, it is very expensive, but also pt's who receive amiodarone in a resuscitative situation are stuck taking it for the rest of their life. As expensive it is, and also the fact that being dependent on the drug for the rest of your life is just kinda inconvenient; i suppose that is not a very desirable outcome. I have never been able to research it for more details, it seems kinda interesting that amiodarone has such an impact and works in such a way. I wonder just what it screws up.

I spit apple all over my computer when i read that!!! :laughing5: :laughing5: :notworthy: :notworthy:

I took all my Medic prereq's while i was in pre nursing, so all of my stuff was designed for nursing students towards a bachelor's degree, which were a lot more in depth than the A&P for EMS at the 2 year college that was the required class. Another class that i found helped a lot, and it really stems off of Psych and Sociology is human growth/development. It has really helped me in my techniques with dealing with patients from different age or developmental stages, to people with different backgrounds and cultures. It has really helped with how i deal with the pediatrics or scared, frightened, or just plain resistive patients. It was amazing how much that class taught me that i now notice in people, and how to work with it at the same time so I can help the patient can come to their own acceptable decision and be happy about it. @};-

Well said @};-

What i have always believed is that taking your own life is unacceptable. It should never be considered an option. But it happens, and when it does you know that those individuals went through some pretty tough doo-doo to get to the point where they actually thought taking their life would be a viable solution. I also think it's pretty pathetic that their families and friends that are oh-so-close could have tried to do somehting about it, and they most often didnt. Now just because i believe its wrong doesnt mean i can't understand how they got to this point or even why they did this. I can understand how the fmaily and friends must feel. Not only can i understand these things, i can treat these things as well. I always consider EMS as the first line of defense so to speak. We are the first counselors, advisors, educators, helpers to arrive - we show up to the very time and place that their lives are falling apart. Usually it is the treatment of the crew to the pateitn and family that makes or breaks how they recover from the incident. We have a professional obligation, not to mention an ethical and moral one to show respect and empathy no matter what our personal opinions. Sure, I might laugh at how a guy can put a gun in his mouth, pull the trigger, and MISS! later, but i'll still go in and treat him and his bystanders with the utmost dignity decorum and respect i can. I think anyone who belongs in this profession knows how to separate the incident from the patient as an individual human being with a heart and a soul and a mind and emotions. If you don't know how to separate it, and even laugh about it at the right place and time, you do not belong in EMS. We need to empathize, not necessarily sympathize. Sure i can understand why a person felt so hopeless, doesn't mean i think that it warranted suicide. But also i think that still we can't afford to take everything so seriously- we should lagh at the idiocy and ironies we come across, or we would be so weighed down from all the sorrow we encounter we would probably want to kill ourselves as well! -Mel @};-