P_Instructor

Be very cautious with online paramedic classes. Tis better to have classroom style to gain the information/perspective needed to be a success in this field. If you are talking strictly EMT-Basic, then there are some Anatomy/Physiology, Medical Terminology, Applied Math, and other ancillary classes that you could benefit from. Proper searches may yield good programs/classes. Good luck!

Ask the TSA agents for I'm sure they wouldn't have a clue. If the gloves can ignite, then I would believe no. They would probably think it's some sort of explosive plastic.

Welcome to the surf and turf......surf for the knowledge and protect your turf. Hope you gain invaluable insight from the great posters here.

Isn't that what Paramedic Students are used for? Heck, they need the money for the beer and the books. I think it would be a great slogan......."BEE STINGS FOR BEER!"

This is why you should be looking at your patient while giving a radio report and not just looking at what is written on some form. Either way, who knows if the medic had enough time to grab the patient or notice the unbuckling to hinder the deathly egress.

Hey, git off your keester and develop/market this stuff for all the arthritis sufferers. You could bee-come a millionaire!

Thanks, I kind of thought so. I've actually heard of instances where someone that was embalmed but did not have their pacemaker turned off and the deceased exploded due to the decomposed gases that were emitted and the pacer set these off. One instance where the deceased was in a mosuleum and nearly blew it apart. Whoops.

I'm not sure what they do in other nations, but wouldn't you think that since he is already in a coffin, the person has been embalmed? If so, how can the body function? Just curious.

Looks like the conversion is 101.3 F.

All I can say here is "Lock and Load, baby!"

Tried to get the subdued ones to cover up the skid marks from those crappy calls, but alas, no joy!!!

September 10th, 1979: EMT-Basic transferring 93 y/o female nursing home patient from hospital back to nursing home, post illness. Also first call for partner in back, Ambulance Director driving. Transfer of 40 miles. Patient slept for 90% of trip. Both of us nervous as heck, Director listening to AM/FM. Routine transfer except I got to drive back to base. All went well except I drove down the only one way street in this small burg the wrong way. Never did live this down from the director.

Are the bigeminal PVC's perfusing? Are you assessing the monitor (fail) for HR of 63 or the patient?

Yeah, usually you follow the departmental policies on patch placement. I've seen everything placed everywhere. Watch out for those sew it on their underwear!

On the fun side, going 'submarine mode' really erks the Comm Center. As for the serious side, each medic carries an 800mhz portable that has an emergency button located on it, which I believe can be tracked. Also, they will provide status checks every 20 minutes dependant on the situation that the crew was called for.

Wie schreibt Sie Englisch? Comment-ce que vous avez saisi anglais ? Hur du stava engelska? ¿Cómo deletrear inglés? Как правописания английский? 어떻게 영어 철자 할? Come digitati inglese? All above ask the same question. Give them the test in their native language, but IMHO, they should all be able to speak the English language.

Is a nice thing, but as the devil - has each patient given the permission to be on camera? Are some rights being violated? Are waivers provided to the patients?

I remember and that was 'classic'!

Sorry, it should be 'dope' instead of 'dupe' on my end. My apologies, I guess I must have missed the previous. To all, again, my apologies. Thanks Rav.

Agree with Spenac......Start on the education, but if feasible, try to get whatever experience along with the schooling, whether volunteer or part-time. School and full-time may be difficult, but if you get hired at the right place, they may make schedule provisions to do both.

911 non-emergencies a growing problem nationwide As more non-life-threatening calls are received from the poor and chronically ill, some areas make system changes.By Karen Auge The Denver PostPosted: 12/29/2009 01:00:00 AM MSTUpdated: 12/29/2009 05:58:42 AM MST var requestedWidth = 0; if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; } The 911 call came in as "ankle pain." So Denver paramedics headed out onto frozen streets and brought Debra Neaves to the hospital. With that trip, those emergency providers became makeshift patches in the frayed health care safety net, providing services they were never intended to provide — at enormous cost to health systems, taxpayers and everybody with health insurance. Sitting in a wheelchair inside Denver Health Medical Center's emergency room, Neaves teared up as she recited a list of the health problems that tumble through her life: diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, a crushed ankle. A doctor visit was weeks away, and the pain was worse every day. On this morning, "I stepped out of bed, and it was just so bad, I couldn't walk." Neaves is on Medicaid, the taxpayer-funded medical coverage that in Colorado assists poor children and disabled adults. The program provides transportation, but Neaves said, "You need three days' notice for a taxi to take you to a doctor." So she called 911. Paramedics and emergency medical technicians here and around the country say a substantial number of emergency calls aren't emergencies at all but medical situations best handled in a doctor's office. "It's a problem, and it's getting worse," said Jerry Johnston, who just ended his term as president of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians and is an Iowa EMT. It's costly — an average ambulance call is $300 to $400 — and it's potentially dangerous, Johnston said. "It becomes frustrating because we could be tied up taking someone to the emergency department who, A, doesn't need to go to the hospital and, B, doesn't need an ambulance," and in the meantime, there is a pileup on a highway and no available paramedics. He's not talking about the goofball 911 calls that occasionally make news: the woman who needs advice on how to cook her turkey; the guy who wants to know whether it will snow tomorrow. Those calls may be irritating, but they are easily dispensed with. The non-emergency medical calls are another matter. Some of these calls are from people gaming the system, such as a woman well-known to Fort Worth, Texas, EMTs, who gets drunk every Friday and then calls 911 and asks to be taken to the hospital a few yards from her apartment. Then there are those who are just plain impatient, said Dr. David Ross, medical director of Colorado Springs AMR, which is that city's ambulance provider. "There are a small percentage of patients who will use the ambulance systems to try and get bumped up on the be-seen list" in the emergency room, Ross said. But many non-emergency calls are made out of frustration, said Dr. Christopher Colwell, interim director of emergency medicine at Denver Health and medical director of the paramedic division. "They have nowhere else to go," he said. "They deal and deal and deal until it reaches a stage where they can't deal anymore, and they can't go anywhere else." Duty to respond Even if they could see a doctor, the chronically ill and the poor often have no way to get there, Colwell said. "It often boils down to, do they need treatment or do they need a ride?" Often, it's a ride they cannot pay for. Denver Health gets paid for about 28 percent of ambulance rides, which is one reason the paramedic division lost $1.6 million last year. There are no solid numbers on non-emergency medical calls to 911, mainly because nobody tracks them. Anecdotally, emergency providers agree that non-emergencies constitute a substantial amount of an EMT's or paramedic's workday. One gauge is that of the 84,837 emergency calls to Denver paramedics last year, about 30 percent didn't result in anyone being taken to a hospital. In Colorado Springs, it is roughly 28 percent, Ross said. There are a couple of reasons why an ambulance will go out and not come back to a hospital with a patient, said Dee Martinez, Denver Health spokeswoman. The first is that people refuse ambulance transportation. "The other is that we get on a scene and determine there is no need to transport," she said. Sometimes, that might seem obvious from the moment a dispatcher picks up the call. But emergency systems have a duty to respond, said Johnston. "If you're a system that responds to 911 calls, you must respond to every call." That's why the woman in Fort Worth is so well-known to EMTs there. And she is one reason emergency providers in that city devised a novel program that they say saves money and better serves those who need care. "We identified our 21 most frequent fliers and then looked to see whether there is anything in common among them," said Matt Zavadsky, assistant director of operations for Fort Worth's paramedics. Turned out, there was. Many had chronic health problems, others had mental-health problems and some just wanted someone to talk to. So, the city of about 720,000 created "community health paramedics" who are specially trained to respond to non-emergency medical calls and regularly visit patients to check blood sugar, blood pressure, etc. "We wanted to make our frequent fliers healthier and decompress the system to make more ambulances available for other types of calls," Zavadsky said. The results exceeded everybody's expectations, he said. "We reduced 911 calls by 52 percent and saved our system $560,000 in the first six months," he said. Paramedics in western Eagle County are working on a similar program to address unique health care problems facing people in rural areas. Christopher Montera, chief of western Eagle County's ambulance district, and Anne Robinson of the county health department want to deliver health care to people in their homes, through something they are calling the community paramedic pilot program. As Montera and Robinson envision it, paramedics would visit patients regularly after they've been released from the hospital. The result, they hope, would be fewer people needing to go back to the hospital. Common thread The program could save everyone — hospitals, taxpayers, insurance companies — in the long run, he said. A common thread ties what Montera is trying to accomplish to the issue that drives overuse of 911 in cities: access to health care. "In health care reform, we need to have this discussion, and we're not," Johnston said. In the meantime, people with upset stomachs, low blood sugar and nausea will continue calling 911. And paramedics will respond. "We tend to be the safety net within the safety net," said James Azuero, assistant communications chief for Denver's paramedic division. "If you call 911, someone will answer, and if you want, someone will show up," he said. Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14084125#ixzz0cJy4T5Rd What does everyone think? Just looking for opinions again............P_I

Vagals were attempted without success of even slowing down the rhythm. Just double the time factor per box. Try it sometime. No imbalance. No fever/illness/surgery. Absolutely no symtoms other that being hyped up from argument, but not starting to relax. Medical Control got on line while 2nd 12 Lead being received. Concurred with what I thought. Forget the cardioversion, not needed as of now. Requested the Amio over 10 and MC confirmed that would be what he wanted and granted the order. Patient only slowed down to 146 range, always asymptomatic, oxygen and transport. No other changes during transport and upon arrival ER. Workup produced only minimal findings, however, there were records of previous hx. AF. Thanks for the comments, ideas, opinions. Just a little fun to see what others thought.

Question......If this patient is already on pain meds with booster, isn't anyone thinking about why all of a sudden the pain has increased in such a short time span? Is this an exacerbation of existing problem, or is there something else going on? The belly has got a bunch of things in it people! Gee, sounds like the other post......do we palpate the abdomen? Let us know what the outcome was.

Will try the scanning, but don't hold your breath. Further, since there was the LBBB, whether the QRS was slightly widened or not, and the faster heart rate, what would you do? Option to look at the worst of the evils, the potential of significantly wide QRS and fast (VT) and the defibrillator going off. Would adenosine actually work in this case if there were reciprocal pathway causing the tachycardia? Could adenosine slow the rate down enough to realize the true underlying rhythm? Should antiarrythmic medications be given to stave of potential VT? Which med: Lido, Amio, or another??? How about doing the smart thing and running the EKG and 12 Lead at 50mm instead of 25mm standard? Ah haaaaa..............

The whole 'have to wear what we tell ya' is a bunch of "Abundant Bovine Excretment". Let them wear what work for the individual as long as it matched the so called uniform requirement. They need to stick these boots up their ......... A loss of a good medic does not equal the cost of someones 'padded pocket' idea of what should be worn.