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emtmoira

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Everything posted by emtmoira

  1. If my basic was a RN or a doc that had IV skills in another setting MAYBE I'd let them but letting just a basic start an IV which mind you is an INVASIVE PROCEDURE WITH A HUGE INFECTION RISK IF NOT DONE PROPERLY that's just moronic. I'd rather have them push the prepackaged drugs that stick a needle in someone. That's not breaking protocols that's risking patient's safety!
  2. Seen this before makes me laugh every time!
  3. Between rescue, attempting to occasionally work and my seven classes I'm taking in order to graduate on time I try really hard to read when I have the rare free time but generally I end up falling asleep wherever I am (usually my couch).
  4. I'm a new CSI addict, I can't get enough of it and I watch the reruns every time I'm near a TV to watch them, I like the Vegas ones just because but I love this show in addition to my Law and Order addiction.
  5. Never used the paddles we only have pads around here on ambulances as far as I know. It would be cool to learn to use the paddles but hey a girl can wish she wasn't in rural backwoods EMS, at least we don't just jump people off car batteries (j/k never happened as far as I know)
  6. I don't really break them persay but I've been known to have someone on my crew who is not and EMT-I (which are the ones around here who can do glucometer) but is a diabetic or a significant other of a diabetic do a finger stick on someone if I have like 10 other things to do. I don't really break protocols exactly just a little bit sometimes maybe perhaps.
  7. Most of the people that I run rescue with I would trust with my life, but there are definitely a few that I would never let touch me. There's also this little joke being one of the younger (and somewhat attractive) females in our area that anyone that picked me up in an ambulance would find a way to utilize trauma shears!
  8. Volunteer and full time undergrad student...my life's nice and busy. When asked my major I say technically it's biology but really it's rescue!
  9. While people do need to learn I think that it can be more general when recertifying. Although I'm not ACLS or anything I just think that it's necessary to review in depth but not necessarily relearn everything. Of course I'm not speaking from experience it's just how I feel about recerting various certs.
  10. We just got opticoms on our ambulance and we only have a few lights around our area that have the system in place.
  11. I love them all but I think the "here's your sign" of Bill Engval is just so relevant to so many people!
  12. It's sad to hear a fellow human being has passed away but I feel relieved that this struggle for this woman is over. I hope that this case makes a lot of people rethink the ways that they go about things and encourages people to make their requests known in writing. Rest in peace Terri and I pray for all who have similar situations.
  13. I remember being taught how to use them and I remember being told the specific cases in which to use them but I'm pretty sure no one around here has used them in a long long time. I think they would qualify as the least used piece of equipment on the truck.
  14. Most people say that a profession is something that you have to go to college for for several years and have a degree and yadda yadda. Well I'm about finished with a four year undergrad degree in biology and low and behold I'm planning on staying in EMS as my profession for a few years before I move on and try to get an RN or something. To me a profession is something that requires hours or training a special skill. I've worked many jobs running cash registers and folding clothes and just about anyone can really do those but with EMS you have to be the right type of person. I'd like to consider being an EMT a profession because it's more than just something that can be taught it takes the right person to really understand it. The skills can be learned by almost anyone, the way to work with patients and deal with high stress situations has to be almost innate and then developed from there.
  15. I definitely need to work out. Because I'm 5' 9" and about 145 lbs I look like I'm healthy because I'm fairly skinny but when I walk up a long set of stairs with bags on my shoulder I definitely get winded. It's hard to stay in shape when all your time is spent in classes or on duty. One of the things I do is I can take dance classes for credit and that definitely helps me get back into shape a bit. Once I graduate in May I'm planning on doing a lot more outdoor activities to get in better shape, especially because I want to be a firefighter and I need to work on my endurance. So I think my point here is that even if you're not overweight or have the "EMS-spread" you can still be out of shape, because I sure am!
  16. Absolutely tunnelrat, I have many friends in the local rural fire departments and a lot of them are smokers and I yell at them when they finish their fire call and stand around smoking after it. I'll never understand it that's for sure.
  17. We are 100% volunteer and proud of it, also we're full time students. Our fire department is a battalion of another local fire department that is also volunteer.
  18. emtmoira

    Capnography

    I know what capnography is but it is definitely not used up in my neck of the woods rural VT. Maybe other parts of the state, but we don't intubate in my district so it's not used.
  19. We do not have any specialized bariatric 911 transport units in my area, but I can say that I definitely utilize the local firefighters and police to help lift when there's a heavier patient. It's really sad that we have to specially equip ambulances for this type of patient, it just shows how much our society is changing.
  20. I'm gonna go with none here although the occasional half of a cigar while drinking but generally no tobacco here and I hate it when I see health care workers especially at the hospital gathered outside for a smoke, health care workers should be setting the example.
  21. In order to maintain our CE hours my squad holds weekly mandatory trainings on sunday nights, unless it's a school vacation (we're a college squad excluding summer break because we're all here) and nights that we have our meetings. I think sunday nights work really well because most people I know use sundays as a relaxed kind of day and if you go away on the weekend usually you're back by 1800 Sunday night so attendence can be sure to be higher. Just a suggestion based on what my squad does. Also it helps to do seasonal type trainings, summer's around the corner there's common traumas then just like different holidays and seasons have their more common traumas. Also it's always good to review pediatrics because everyone forgets those often. And because drugs and ODs are more and more common everywhere try and get someone from your local poison control center to teach a training on that.
  22. Generally I talk it out with a good friend or friends sometimes over a drink. I also tend to have severe lack of sleep being a full time student and a full time volunteer EMT so I sleep when I get stress because then I can relax my body too.
  23. We actaully discussed this case in my Christian Healthcare Ethics class last semester so with it in the news I feel very informed in saying that congress had no right in deciding life or death for critically ill people. I think that Terry should be allowed to die, I'm not for killing people but I think that in this case it's inhumane to let her "live" like this. It makes me as a 21 year old want to write out a living will even though I've told friends and family my wishes how do I know that this wouldn't happen to me. Although I applaud the advances in medicine I think there's a point where it goes too far and we rely on it to "save" people that maybe weren't meant to be saved. I know this may sound wrong with me being in healthcare but I think that we want to extend people's lives so much that we can't accept that sometimes death needs to happen. It scares me that this decision has gone to congress and the supreme court because it's just another step towards our lives being completely controlled including how and when we die. As much as I don't like seeing people die I think that it's her time, and that in fact her time was long ago.
  24. I drive a ghetto 92 Saturn, I want a Jeep but alas I got the car for free from my parents and it gets me around. It's decked out with a license plate topper and then I've got my stethoscope on the rearview mirror for reasons I can't remember.
  25. We usually wear navy blue jumpsuits but during the summer we also can wear our EMS tech pants and navy blue polo shirts with our squad's emblem We also have a variety of jackets and vests that we can buy and wear as uniform or just around. We have nice dress shirts that we wear with our tech pants but we borrow them from our chief's stockpile because we're a college squad with a four year turnover rate.
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