crotchitymedic1986

And generally speaking; smoking or chewing tobacco on-duty is not professional -- so does that make those medics part of the problem as well. I mean choosing to have the smell of smoke all over your clothes, or having a spitcup/bottle in the truck is very disgusting.

I dont know, i smell a double standard here --- if you can watch a sex act on tv and then go in the bathroom and finish the act alone -- then I dont see why me and a female cant go in the same bathroom and make each other happy. And although you may see it as gross, i see it as passion. I would rather have sex in the bunkroom while the hosemonkeys are on a structure fire, then risk doing it on a bed at the local Days Inn --- where thousands of people have had sex, and the non-english speaking employees have a different standard for what is clean.

But I do agree with you on the large bore needle as punishment -- that is patient abuse, and those medics should be fired.

Hows the view from that high horse wendy ? Just messing with you, dont get too mad. Do you have any idea how many doctors and nurses (and nurses and paramedics) get it on every day at the hospital ?Making love is a beautiful thing, and the way I prefaced it was in a "private" manner, which is how you defended taking matters into your own hands in the bathroom --- if you are allowed to satisfy yourself in the bathroom, then I should be allowed to also (youall are just trying to keep the black man down --LOL) I see nothing wrong with it as long as it is kept private and it is between consenting adults with no coersion.

If you have had a strange call volume week, blame it on the alignment of the planets. The two bright objects just below the moon this week are the planets Venus and Jupiter. Trade your stethoscope for a telescope.

Sounds interesting, how is Alaska EMS different from regular old US EMS ?

Shooting up heroin is illegal, and alters the mind to where you cant perform your duties. As far as I know, as long as the sex is between consenting adults and done privately, it is not a crime. And although sex is great, I doubt that it would keep someone from being able to perform their duties (if you know someone that good, please forward her phone number). And not to take this down a totally disgusting path, but i would be willing to bet that 90% of firemen and EMS employees have masturbated while onduty

(probably right after they watched the nudity on tv --maybe not the women), so if sex for one is OK, sex for two should be perfectly fine --- as a matter of fact, if masturbation is ok, then i think it is discriminatory to deny me my rights to sex -- get me a lawyer ---LOL

OK, wasnt there a long thread on here just a few weeks ago, where everyone thought it was OK to watch sex acts on TV while onduty. If that is professional, then surely a sex act between two consenting adults wouldnt be unprofessional, as long as they kept it private.

I did my ems in the USA, not in it anymore. But feel free to lobby canada for the same.

And this generation of medics isnt nearly as professional as my generation, we didnt:

dress like landscapers

use the same sheet all day for every patient

text and talk on cell phones in front of patients

call out sick monthly

play the stereo when patient loaded

Please, professional and sex have no relationship --- usually the more "professional" a person is, the more perverse they are sexually. An unprofessional person is the least likely to get laid at work. Think about the most unprofessional person at your workplace, would you sleep with them ?

How about this instead -- lets lobby medicare for a new billing rate: BLS, ALS1, ALS2, and FA. FA will be the fatass charge we get to charge any patient who is in excess of 300lbs. Then we could also add the FA2 charge which would be for a fatass that lives on a floor higher than the ground floor. The medics and firemen who run the call get to split the FA and FA2 charges.

The reason you make double in Alaska is the same as those who are making double in Iraq -- no one wants to go there, so they have to pay a premium. The same would happen everywhere if medics quit working 100 hours per week --- our pay is a supply and demand equation, we just wont let the true lack of supply be seen, so our pay stays stagnant.

Being against the law is news to me ---- its usually because many EMS agencies are private or not government based, and since we are a younger industry, we dont have the traditions that fire departments do. But i have seen EMS bodies transported via ambulance, with the long ambulance procession, reading of the "Last Call", and playing of amazing grace or other songs via bagpipes.

Dont be a EMTCITY STALKER, hiding in the bushes, come out and play. And most of those people who criticize others dont know their ass from a hole in the ground. Thats how they boost their pitiful egos, by trying to be superior and by putting others down. Its like how you can always spot the worst medic on a mass casualty scene -- its the one that is yelling and screaming at everyone else. So when the so-called intellectuals bite your head off in here, just realized that they are lonely, miserable, people. Feel sorry for them, dont let them chase you off.

You dont have to respond to any post, but it would be nice if you would post something from time to time. Just reading and not contibuting is like being one of the oooohhhh--aaaaahhhhh bystanders on a scene, or the firefighter that sits in the truck when everyone else is working.

I agree with you ltchick, this number is completely backwards from what i expected. Maybe times have changed ????? Nah, I think some people are lying cause their spouse reads here too.

Aeortic Aneurysm (higher up) or left sided heart failure

Sorry, not trying to insult anyone's intelligence or skill level with my "rules of transport", it is just that it is these patients that medics typically get in trouble with (rookies and veterans) due to the absence of the ability to do x-rays or labs. Almost every horror story of the patient that should have been transported and wasnt, falls into one of those groups. And lets face it, in alot of systems the new guy gets put with the asshole no one else can work with (after orientation), who is likely to be lazy and not transport patients that they should. Its a bad situation to be the rookie medic and new employee who is questioning the crusty veteran who has been doing this for 5-20 years.

And arizona gave you a good pointer there about a deep breath -- I would only add, when intubating, suctioning, or bagging a patient, dont forget to hold your breath until you have ventilated them. Patients dont get brain damage because medics fail to intubate them, they get brain damage because medics fail to ventilate them. If you hold your breath every second that a patient isnt being ventilated, it will remind you to get back to bagging (rookie medics tend to dig around in the airway for 2-3 minutes before they remember to ventilate the patient again).

As someone who is almost always told that I talk too much (I resemble that remark!), sometimes I don't speak, as I may not have anything to contribute.

All the reasons for reading but not responding are all true, besides, didn't our parents, and some grandparents, advise us all we have 2 eyes, 2 ears, and one mouth for a reason?

BUT YOU HAVE 10 FINGERS, so you should type 5x as much as you read ---LOL . All answers posted so far are valid, but to me, it seems like there are about 25 regular posters of topics and hundreds of readers. I am not advocating that you respond to every post, but rather I would like to see some of these readers get off of the bench, and put some good topics on here.

You dont have to live in a rundown house cynical. How much are your car payments ? You only have to look back at your grandparents and parents --- most didnt have a new car or a mortgage until they were in their 30's. But we have to have a 250k house and 600/month in car payments before the age of 25 now. Other things you might waste money on, that many see as necessities:

How many EMS folks have:

1. A cell phone bill that is over $100.00 per month (along with a home line that is 50-100/month)

2. An internet bill of $20-50/month

3. A cable/satellite bill of $50-100/month

4. A huge expenditure on meals at work, instead of brown-bagging it.

5. $20-50/week tobacco habit (or more).

6. $ 5 /day at starbucks.

7. A house that is way to big or expensive for their family --- When the foreclosure mess first hit, i remember seeing a teacher on CNN who was bitching cause she was loosing her house that she mortgaged for $370k, when her and her husband had only $72k in yearly income --- DUUUUUHHHHH

I am not saying it is easy to live off of $40k, but most families do -- you just might have to wait on buying the biggest and the best until you have saved money.

With what has been presented, I would rule out in this order:

1. MI or AAA

2. Left sided Heart Failure

3. PE (already semi-ruled out)

4. Spontaneous Pneumo (maybe 10-15% at this point, so still satting well)

5. Pleurisy / Pneumonia / Lung CA or GI event

Post after post, i see that 200 people have read it, but only a handful ever type a response. Look down the line of all the current threads --- very few responses, but lots of reads. I know it is better to stay quiet and let them wonder if you are stupid, versus speaking up and proving you are stupid, but there is supposed to be some dialogue here. Speak UP !! Opinions are like buttholes, everybody has one.

Used both, prefer Phillips for 911. Cant get the wavy baseline out of zoll, Medtronic to bulky. Prefer Zoll for transport service

Good choice, and by the way, how the hell did it get to be our job to weigh dialysis patients ? I dont need a weight, i say lets revolt and tell them to weigh their own damn patients.

I would be very careful about what you ask for, as federal regulation of any industry has rarely resulted in a positive outcome. Look at education, DOT as it relates to truckers, VA Health Care, Medicare, Airlines. Can you name any program that the Feds have improved ?

I think taking local control away would be very dangerous.