medicgirl05

I took my EMT-B during my senior year of high school and had no problem. I was also working 30 hours a week at a grocery store. It depends on what you can handle and how motivated you are.

I am amazed how short some of the clinical times were for you guys! I had 48 hours on the ambulance(24 as 911 and 24 as transfer), 24 hours in the ER, and 4 hours with respiratory care. I think I benefited more from the respiratory care than any other department.

Yep. I remember seeing it and looking at your facebook pics. I understand, you've been busy being a proud papa. Congrats!!!

Hey I actually knew that word.

And Yes...BUMMER!!!

I completely understand your position of newbie. I have been here 6 years now and from the beginning I noticed things that could be improved on or fixed. While others here recognize that problems exist they resent the idea of a new person trying to fix it.

HLPP suggested you just change it then present it to management, while that may work in some places it did not work for me. I was met with much resistance and rather than changing anything I spent lots of work on nothing.

Good luck to you. Don't get so centered on what you could do to better things that it causes you to burn out.

Just my 2 cents.

My step father hung himself a few years ago. It was the most traumatic experience for my mom...I hated the man from the first time I met him. I knew he had something off. After he did what he did everything made so much more sense. People are sick. He planned killing himself for at least 2 years that we could track. I know that things are bad in your life, but I don't understand how it can get to the point where you don't care what your family and friends would go through. Is it ever really that bad?

I have seen suicides where a terminally ill patient wheels themselves outside with their oxygen tubing trailing and shoots themselves. At least in that scenario you can see a bigger picture... but I can not wrap my head around a young-middle aged healthy person actually ending their life. I just don't understand it.

We don't have a policy about it but I learned my lesson one morning while we were working a code at the nursing home. In the middle of trying to get the tube my alarm went off with the song "I'm Here For The Party." I was mortified. Thank goodness there wasn't anyone in the room but EMS personnel. I have since learned to use actual alarm sounds for my alarm. It aggravates me when someone I'm working with has an obnoxious ringtone and I wish we had a policy in place to deal with it.

I also work for a rural 911 service. We have at least a 30 minute wait for mutual aid. We had a MVA with 3 adult patients, one of which I deemed critical. We took out the stretcher mounts, tossed 2 BBs on the floor, one on the bench. EMERGENCY situations require different methods than nonemergency IFT. I had my partner drive as we were down a long,curvy, gravel road. I had a first responder assist me in the back. Extra pair of eyes/hands is always good, especially if you trust the brain behind them. Only time I've ever done that but I saw no alternative at the time. My medical director backed my desicion.

When you work rural you have to sometimes do things out of the box. You have to weigh risk Vs. benefit.

You men are just jealous because "Everything is BIGGER in Texas!" :-P

I have learned so much from my patients. That is one of my favorite parts of EMS. Most elderly people will spill their life stories if they think you care, and most are rather interesting. We have 30< minute transfers so I get to learn a lot! I have been invited to patient's birthday parties but I am afraid of becoming too attached as there is a fair chance that I will work on these people when they die. Maybe a weakness of mine...

So two questions you still refuse to answer:

If you have no proof that a patient has been injured or killed while riding the ambulance floor, how can you say it is a "RISK" at all ? Using that logic, I could demand that all of you can never use a cell phone again because I believe it poses a risk to you.

If the "risky behavior" can result in death, why would you ever choose to do it, and what other deadly situations do you allow to occur ? There was a whole thread where you guys argued against putting your life at risk for most calls, why would you not treat your patients the same way ?

Question number 1-How can you say it is not a risk? There is always a risk of a traffic accident wether the ambulance driver is at fault or not. Failing to properly secure a patient increases the chance of injury to said patient. Common sense is the source for that knowledge.

Question number 2- I am not risking my patient or my safety in order to transfer a perfectly stable patient to a facility that is for long term care. There are situations when you take risks, when there is no alternative, when it is likely that your patient will die if you don't transfer them as in an emergency transfer.

HLPP what point are you trying to make? Or is there a point? The availability of a bariatric stretcher doesn't change anything in the presented scenario,

As far as I am aware that is correct.

I was only referring to private as I am unsure of the 911 capabilities in the area. Sorry for not clarifying. There are 4 privates in the immediate area.

The private service I work for doesn't have a bariatric stretcher. There is only one bariatric stretcher in my area.

The stretcher is secured by 2 2inch bolts through a piece of 3/4 inch plywood in every ambulance made. Your studies are not accurate as there is no one that requires that ambulance services record stretcher failures, nor is there a governing body to report such incidents too. I am not 24, I made up a date when I created my profile, I am 40, and have 22 years of experience. I have personally seen 4 ambulances that have been involved in major crashes, and the stretcher and plexi glass gave way in all 4. Sure if you have a fender bender it will hold, but anything above 40 miles an hour, it will come loose.

It is not that I am unwilling to listen to you, it is just that my life experience is opposite of what you people with no experience in these type of transports are preaching. No we do not do this all of the time, I would say that we probably do it 4-6 times per year. I am in the State of GA, there are no laws/rules regarding the transport of obese patients (all rules are on the state web site, feel free to check).

OP, if you have a stryker or ferno stretcher made in the last 10 years it should be rated for 750lbs. You might want to check your equipment.

Thank you for insulting my intelligence. The stretcher on the ambulance was rated for 550lbs but I am unsure what model it is. I know it is not exactly new and it probably isn't on the Stryker website. Just to disprove your statement I looked on the stryker website. I am providing you with links to 2 stretchers that they currently sell that are rated for less than 750lbs. There are more however that don't rate at your 750 mark. Next time you try to insult someone elses intelligence make sure you know what you are talking about.

http://www.ems.stryk...detail.jsp?id=1

http://www.ems.stryk...tail2.jsp?id=10

Also, why would you present yourself as younger than you are? Between that and your name you don't present yourself in a very good light. Just my opinion.

Somebody asked about the patients response to the situation. Can't find the question to quote it but here is the answer.

In the beginning she just wanted us to make it work. She even offered suggestions. After I made my desicion to not transport and explained my reasoning to her, she said she understood and she thanked me because nobody had ever thought about her well-being before. She said usually the private services just cram her in without any thought.

I know I made the right desicion for the patient. I just know that my supervisor doesn't see it like that. She lost $150 ya know!

In the scenario I presented the patient didn't weigh 1000 pounds. She weighed a little over 600 which would easily fit on a bariatric stretcher rated for 750.

I saw it completely opposite, the patient was still injured even though he was restrained properly to the stretcher. If the ambulance wrecks, I promise a lawsuit is coming no matter what.

In that case, wouldn't you prefer to be able to say that you restrained and did everything you could to keep the patient safe? Or would you be ok saying the patient was on the floor of your ambulance completely unrestrained?

I have had that scared/nervous feeling...at some point it stops being a problem and just becomes normal. At least it did for me.

I remember thinking how cold the people involved in my first code were too, but after a while you learn that the joking and laughing is just how many people learn to deal with such things. Now that should NEVER be done with family around...

I have had a few students tell me they couldn't wait to see someone die, or couldnt wait to feel the ribs break. Those students concern me far more than a student who is nervous/scared.

The dead body issue is something that hopefully will pass with time. You realize that it is just a body, there is no person in there anymore. It is just their earthly core.

If you are really concerned find an instuctor or preceptor that you trust and talk to them about it.

I'll echo what the others have said, and will only add this: By the time you get out of your EMT class, you WILL know all of your classmates more intimately than you know most of your friends, because you WILL be putting your hands on their bodies, and they in turn will be putting theirs on you.

This is NOT the time to be 'shy', and be sure you've got clean underwear on!

I had to laugh. One of my first things in basic class was using the traction splint. It was so awkward in the beginning because everyone was afraid of touching another persons groin, but by the time that class was over we were all laughing so hard. It was one of the best classes I had in basic class because that was when we started to be friends.

I wouldn't buy any uniforms or shoes until the program tells you what they require.

I can't think of anything extremely helpful about the class itself, sorry.

Try to make a study group. It was helpful to me to be around people with similar interests who cloud answer questions I had.

I am currently taking Anatomy and Physiology and I highly recomend taking it before advancing in EMS. It is not required but allows you to understand some things much better.

Welcome to the City!

The Texas EMS conference will be held November 20-23 in Austin. I was wondering if any of you from the city will be attending? If so maybe we could get together one night. It'd be great to put faces to some of the names on here.

We are provided with our navy blue polos. They have our county logo and our name embroidered on them. We are issued 2 at a time and we must turn in our old ones to receive new ones. We are usually issued them when we "need" them. Mine right now are in poor condition and I started asking for new ones about 6 months ago. One of them was sprayed with some kind of hot liquid out of the rescue tools the firemen were operating(yes, I thanked them for that). The liquid left a dark stain over most of the front of the shirt and it has drops on the sleeves also. Unfortunately things don't happen very fast around here.

Even if I say I completely belive you about the useless seatbelts in a wreck I still have to point out that there would still be a huge legal issue in taking a patient on the floor. Every report I write I put "Patient is resrained with #seatbelts". I think not having any at all would be a lawyers field day.

I have put a second backboard on the bench seat on multiple occasions. ALWAYS secured with three seatbelts. The difference is that the backboarded patients are out of MVCs. The 911 service I work for has NO other service within a 30 mile radius. So it is often deemed that the benefit outweighs the risk in such a scenario.

Very cute. Congrats to you and your wife!