medicgirl05

A patient crapped on me last night while I was in bed with him after he rolled his electric wheelchair over my partners foot. I love my job?!

Happy new year to all!!! I will be at work until the 2nd so I hope people don't do too much partying. I have heard the Q word twice already today though and that is never a good sign!

There's no way we can go that far. We don't have the resources to keep a truck out of service that long. I guess it might be a nice thought but it is unrealistic. I have spoken with our medical director numerous times but the outcome is usually that long term psych care is not my concern. I'm supposed to treat the lifelthreatening emergency but that's the end of my responsibility according to my superiors.

No, unfortunately we don't have protocols to help with these patients. I have spent years trying to find a solution but I am not exactly in a position to really DO anything. Is this a problem that other services have?

Cherish that passion you have. I still enjoy my job, but I miss the enthususiasm level I had when I first started. It sounds like you have that and hopefully you can hold onto it for a while!

We can't bypass local facilities. The psych places are out of our transport range unfortunately.

In my area we have no inpatient psych facilities. The closest one is about 100 miles away. As a result of this we have repeat patients with underlying problems that aren't being evaluated. I am at a loss for how to help these patients. One example is one particular patient repeatedly tried to harm himself as a result of a known psych disorder. We would transport this patient sometimes twice a week to an ER and then after being treated for the immediate life threat was sent home to try again. Law enforcement can get an emergency committal but it usually takes about an hour to get the paper signed by a judge, and the paper must be complete before the patient is under a physician's care otherwise it won't work. The issue with that is that in most of these circumstances sitting on scene with the patient that long is unrealistic. After they get to the ER it doesn't matter what we tell the ER doc, as long as the patient says they don't intend to hurt themselves or others they don't get a psych hold. I'm curious if other agencies are having this problem, and if so what is being done?

The coloring book helped me also. Another suggestion is a medical terminology course. It may be offered through your high school, if not you could take an online college version possibly. If neither of those options are available I'd find a book and try to understand some of the terms before class starts. That would definetely give you a running start.

My EMT-B course was a few years ago, I was 17 when I started it. The EMT-B course is pretty simple. It is mostly common sense first aid. I'd say don't be overly confident going in, be willing to learn, and don't be afraid to ask when you have a question. I'm curious if your age has been addressed? It is a pretty big liability to have someone under 18 on a truck. In Texas you can't even get certified until you are 18. Most agencies won't insure you to drive until you are 21. I think your eagerness is exciting but is it realistic? Hopefully you have already thought these things through...

The semen was in her vaginal area I think. The nurse was having trouble placing a foley because of it. I'm not sure what is not to buy out of the story. It sounds like a crappy situation where the EMS provider will lose regardless of what actions are taken. We have to report all possible rapes in my area to local deputies. That might be an option...or maybe CPS?

First of all try not to stress too much. You get three attempts, so even if you fail the first one at least the second time you are better prepared going in. Jon Puryear gives excellent classes and he has audio files to download. I listened to him in the car all the time. He gave helpful antecdotes with the information that was amusing and extremely helpful at test time. Good luck

all right stop, collaborate, and listen Ice is back with a brand new invention...

I did a little research on the mass shootings. With the exception of Columbine the shooters have had diagnosed mental illness. We need to push to re-evaluate our mental health system. We need to educate the public in recognizing symptoms of a psychotic break and hold people accountable for their actions even when they are mentally ill. Some of these mental illnesses are dangerous, but since it is so shunned for someone to have a mental illness we keep it quiet and pretend they don't exist. We need some kind of measures to ensure that people with mental illness are getting treatment and taking their meds. Just because the mentally ill don't have access to guns doesn't mean these things will stop, then they will resort to other means of destruction(bombs).

I'm still stuck on the fact that there are firefighters here...

What level are you in clinicals for? I haven't ever known anyone that failed clinicals. Usually if you don't know the material it will show up on the test. I think the more important question is how do you feel? Are you comfortable with your skills? Do you feel like you need more ride time? Are there particular skills you are having trouble with? Maybe get some fellow students to run scenarios with you, or ask a preceptor to help you outside of the ambulance with your skills. As you are waiting for a call to drop work on whatever skills you are uncomfortable with.

We have a truck that does that. It scans all license plates with the hopes of finding stolen vehicles. We have a lot of illegals in my area and the truck is supposed to help identify vehicles that could be carrying them. Usually the off duty dispatchers drive it around and if anything pops up they send a deputy.

Well my situation has improved at this point. I saw the surgeon(orthopedic spine specialist) again. I am going back to work tomorrow. This past week has been awesome. No pain or tingling. Apparently that was somewhat normal. They expect the first week after surgery to be good, then the nerve usually has some swelling the second week which calms down weeks 3 & 4. My case is being rushed a little because if I don't go back to work tomorrow I will lose my job. They usually require 6 weeks of no bending, lifting, or twisting but I am going back to work with a lumbar corset. The worst that can happen is I can reherniate the disc which is likely regardless when I go back.

I work for a county based 911 service and we have GREAT benefits and retirement plans. Health insurance-100% covered by employer with a 2500 dollar deductible. We also have a cancer policy and an ICU policy provided at no out of pocket cost. I have a life insurance policy that will pay out my last years salary plus 10 grand. They provide a reduced price dental and vision plan as well. The retirement plan is wonderful. The county pays 7% annual interest to what I put in and after 8 years of service I am vested meaning they match at 14% every year regardless of my employment status. I was recently on a budget commitee where we compared our county benefits and pay versus the other counties in the state and I must say our county does a great ob of providing for its employees. However, we are looking for ways to save money so who knows what will happen!

I am also very leary of basic students assigned to me that I haven't even met previously, I have them show me their skills in the station prior to touching a patient. We start out checking the truck together, I am surprised how many of them don't have a clue as to what some of the equipment is, much less how to use it. I have them take vitals of people in the station to ensure they are competent, then we do some splinting and run through some scenrios and what I expect of them on the truck. It may take your preceptor a few shifts to become comfortable with you. My advice is to ask questions when the time is appropriate. If you don't know how to do something just ask, we don't expect you to know everything. I would rather you ask than fumble aroud not knowing how to use something. Good luck! I did double the required clinical hours trying to get my calls. I know how frustrating it can be to have a slow day as a student.

Well my surgery was a little over two weeks ago, I'm not so sure I am happy anymore. A brief summary, some of my symptoms are gone...but some are much worse. I no longer have tingling, but I can't sit more than 15 minutes without pain in my butt. My doctor is about 3 hours away and after the trip up there and back Monday I was miserable!!! We stopped multiple times so I could walk, but the pain was almost unbearable when I got home. I was told before surgery that I could go back to work after 4 weeks with no questions, now the surgeon says he doesn't even allow people to start physical therapy until 6 weeks after surgery. I'm so upset after seeing th surgeon for my follow-up. He also said that is could take up to a year for the lingering symptoms to get better, I was under the impression it would just take a few weeks, or maybe a month. I hope you have a better experience and be sure you go in knowing what you are getting into, I obviously didn't. I plan on writing a blog because there are even more issues but I can't sit here any longer. I have a new understanding of back pain these days!

I'm not a big fan of online programs, but TechPro has put some of their students with me for clinicald and the students I've seen seem to be pretty well informed. You have to get your basic before paramedic school.

Well, my surgery was 5 days ago and I already feel much better! I woke up with unbearable muscle spasms in the recovery room, but those were relieved in recovery with meds. My surgery was at 8AM and I left the hospital around 2PM. The first 2 days weren't great and I stayed medicated and slept most of the time. Today was the first day that I felt good enough to leave my house. I have been walking without pain since day one. My numbness and tingling were completely gone when I woke up and have stayed gone. My problems now are that I can't sit for more than about 15 minutes without starting to hurt, which is normal. Also, I have some tightness around the incision probably cause by swelling of the tissues. All in all I am very happy with the sugery and anticipate a quick recovery.

Pulse was in the 30's when we made contact. I made the desicion to move him to the truck which took maybe 2 minutes. At that time I instructed my partner to put the patient on the monitor. When I looed up from trying to oxygenate the patient, my partner had put him on the 4Ld rather than the paddles. During the time it took to put the pads on, the patient went into asystole. I didn't have an initial BP as there were more important matters to attend to. The reason no IO was started was that the patient had decent veins, it just takes a little time to hang a bag and start the line. Starting an IO would have taken either the same amount of time or more. Plus our protocols don't support starting an IO without exhausting all efforts at a IV, which we didn't do. My partner stuck the patient once or twice with no success but on my first attempt I got access with an 18 at the AC. Patient didn't have increased ICP. I didn't diagnose the hepatic encephalopathy, the ER doctor did.