TheOldMan

Oh, about 12 years ago when I took my first EMT-B class, we were practicing our trauma patient assessment, and our instructor would throw some 'interesting' mechanisms of injury on us. Mine was a 42 year old man, who was shot 3 times, stabbed 5 times in the back, and thrown off a 5 story building and sexually assaulted on the way down. About a year later I landed my first job on a hospital based ambulance service, and we were dispatched to one of our 'better parts of town' for a 23 YOM with a toothache. As I was radioing my assessment in, the MedBase operator was my EMT instructor, I reported, "We are inbound to XYZ hospital with a 42 year old male, no local physician, who was reportedly shot 3 times, stabbed 5 times in the back, and thrown off a 5 story building, and sexually assaulted on the way down, requesting Med Channel, ETA 9 minutes." There was about 15 seconds of dead silence, then "Go to Med 8, " I switched to 8, Then I heard, "No, for real, what do you have". I thought it was funny at the time

What are you saying? Should I forget my weekends on the Riviera? I thought everyone made a ton of money in EMS. All those long hours, and lifting heavy patients, out in the heat, rain, cold (insert your climate here), and stupid drivers that can't just seem to figure out 'right for lights'..Want Fries with that???

Thank you all. I spent 11 years as an EMT-Basic on an ALS squad, so I have pretty much a decent idea as to what goes on. When we took our practicals we had a chalk board that everybody wrote atleast one thing on to ' break the ice ', there were such humorous remarks like 'driving isn't that bad', 'remember if all else fails, Want fries with that?', 'the three cardiac basics, too fast, too slow, or none at all'. It was a good way to relax for a bit. I was one of the first to take the CBT from our class, and everyone wants to know what is on the test, I tell them, could be anything, because the test bank is so extensive, so if anyone is going to test soon, brush up on cardiac, resp. and MCI..

Passed!

O.K. Let me start by saying, I am doing the typing on my iPhone so if I forget a comma, I will blame my phone. I have been in EMS for about 11 years, and about 2 years ago started in a local paramedic program, had about two thousand dollars of education shoved up my butt one nickel at a time. I finished all semesters on the Dean's list. I really didn't have a problem with the practicals, my trauma assessment was in front of our Medical Director, so that was uncomfortable, but passed first try. Then I scheduled the CBT, reviewed for hours. I tested this morning, just started and lightning knocked the power out for a bit, no worries, test came back right where I left off, my test stopped at 80/82 somewhere in that area. So, I am waiting. The only information I can give to those who are going to test is cardiology, resp., MCI, I had 3 drug calculations and one drip rate question. So wish me luck.