Dustdevil

What he said. If you are going to dump money on a high end scope, it's about utility, not quality. They are all equally "better". And even the best doesn't make you any better at using it. Littmann on a noob tends to scream out "I haven't been doing this long enough to have my priorities straight yet."

Saw plenty of that. Rare to see a female last a year because of it.

I lol'd

Pretty common for n00bs to give out during CPR. The adrenaline rush wears off, and you crash hard. With experience, you learn not to care, and can do it hours non-stop.

Never been a fan of encouraging students to memorise acronyms instead of understanding physiological and pharmacological concepts. It ends up encouraging them to just start working their way through the steps of a checklist instead of competently evaluating their patient and his or her needs. If your school leaves you needing acronyms just to do your job, then your school sucks.

I always wondered how this would work in a protocol-centric state like NY. 99.99 percent of all the patients you see will present with complaints outside of your scope of practice. Coughs, sore throats, headaches, nausea, vomiting, the sudden surprise of menarche. What are you going to do? If you don't have them transported to a medical facility, you are violating the law, subject to criminal and civil liability, not to mention the loss of your cert. If you do have them transported, you're going to be fired in the first 24 hours. Only an idiot would take this job without first getting strong guarantees from the state and the medical director of the camp.

To a great extent, I have to agree! When you dumb everything down for simplicity, you have to expect a dumb and simple result.

If so, I'm firing the medic for not being properly equipped in the first place. Firemonkeys are for carrying your equipment back to the ambulance, not to the patient. Yes. They know how to ask me for the key. They passed a civil service exam, so I give them that much credit. That's why you put Shatterguard film on the windows, just like in my car. Nobody will be getting in fast enough to not get caught (and shot).

Absolutely not. In fact, I am a proponent of only ME being armed. I don't trust anyone else. I was merely pointing out the obvious fallacy of North's theory.

Retiring. I highly recommend it.

Bullshyte. 100 percent of all medics who have been injured by on-scene violence will tell you that it was completely unexpected. There is no possible way for you to avoid all such situations. You're only avoiding the obvious ones. That only lulls you into a false sense of security. So when you get hurt, you can thank your woman's intuition.

Patients don't cause EMS abuse. EMS causes EMS abuse by giving the public one number to dial, and no options. Don't blame the public for the failure of YOUR system. Especially if you are doing nothing to fix it.

Tell them it's the law. Thanks to the news, most people are accustomed to there being legal limitations on professional drivers, pilots, train motormen, etc... They'll be glad you're being careful.

The BC accents on the bystanders is hilarious.

Because EMS is run by these people. But, ever notice that most of these incidents are with fire departments? Obviously there is an intelligence gap there.

Nah, that wasn't an accident. It was obviously suicide. I meant the S76 helo.

Big rep points for that excellent answer! That should be in the textbook! I was using tourniquets for a good 20 years before it became the latest fashion. And getting yelled at for it too, of course. But -- as usual -- I turned out to be right.

Well, the last BC air ambulance to crash had a female at the stick, so you never know what you are getting these days.

In 99.99 percent of the US, they never did. Not sure where you got your assumption from. It's hard enough keeping the crew and patient cool in an ambulance. Forget keeping blood safely refrigerated in one.

Chlorination. Fluoridation. We've got it all. That's why I only drink Fiji (even though our city water tastes fine).

I think air ambulances should carry semen.

My phone woke me up at noon today with alerts about this. Crazy! You never hear of anything going on in Norway. I figured frostbite was their biggest threat. But anyplace you have a "labour party" with "youth camps," you're bound to have problems. That's how the Nazis got started.

Not to bust your chops, but the OP doesn't live in the third world. There are no vollie departments here. Damn few EMT-B jobs too, as we are 100 percent ALS here. That's where you still are too. Nuff said.

Reporting is very rarely an issue for EMS. If it hasn't already been reported to police when we were dispatched (after all, 911 takes the calls for both of us), then the hospital will be notifying them when the patient arrives. I can't remember many times in 35 years that I actually had to pick up a phone to notify PD. If I did, it was usually because I needed cops on-scene ASAP, not because I felt some duty to spend a quarter. What I am saying is that, aside from some really unusual circumstances, it would be a relatively unbelievable scene for professional EMS to call and report a suspicion. Of course, "professional" does not include small-town volunteers, or other such whackers.

Yeah, that's the impression I get. Television overdose. Had I not lived 5 years in California, I never would have heard of RA either. It's just a firemonkey thing, just like Dallas FD calling their ambulances MICUs. They can't handle the truth.