hatelilpeepees

Not sure if this is what flamer intende, but here goes. what do you think of this person ? occupation, rich/poor, intelligent or dumb ?

Yes, I watched its implementation. EMTB was created because of the perceived shortage of Paramedics and EMTs in rural areas, Fire Departments pushed for it, as they no longer wanted to send their employees to EMTI school as it was too long, they wanted a quick-course so they could say they had trained first responders on their engines. EMTI is the foundation of the EMS House, EMTB was the fourth bedroom that was added on 40 years later.

Get a part-time job in an ER, preferrably a specialty or teaching hospital, it will greatly increase your assessment skills.

I will play, I am not scared. #2 I think is probably an ex-con, the jeans look cheap, the boots are kind of weird, but the bike doesnt look cheap, so I am not sure. #3, my first guess would be homeless, but it looks like he is sitting on someone's porch, the shirt looks to be in good shape for a homeless person, so I am not sure.

I see the correlation, if you think you are going to work in a prison as a nurse, then criminology courses are appropriate even though not required by the Nursing School, just as A&P is related to EMTB, but not required by the school. Mike, if you are talking about enrichment of the individual then you are right, all education is a good thing. But when it comes to real-life career advice, in this economy, I think you have to be more pragmatic. If I were 18 and your daughter, would you recommend that I look at residential construction or real estate sales as a career right now ? Yes, taking a real estate course may make me smarter about home sales, but it would not be a wise career move. I don't think most of the posters are saying education is a bad thing or that it is not necessary, I think they are just saying that NOW is not the time for her to take the class.

Hmmmm, I am seeing it differently. I think they are probably part of a militant group of some kind. They are obviously not "hunting" as the two kids have hand guns, and the look of the younger male makes me think skinhead. I am going to guess they are from the north due to that. As far as the vehicle, that could put them north or south since it could be a 4 wheel drive vehicle. The don't have a tan, so I dont see them as southern rednecks that hunt, as most of our people who hunt are big outdoorsmen, and usually have a tan.

Unfortunately Ruff, I think you just made the case for the other two by disclosing your history. Imagine when you were THINKING of becoming a cop, and you went to "copcity.com" and asked for advice, and someone told you that if you are going to get into law enforcement, you have to have a masters in criminology, and you did that. Years later, and a few job transitions, it is obvious that some IT courses would have been better than those criminology courses. The criminology courses have absolutely no use to you in the IT field. And whoever said EMTB is the foundation of EMS ---- sorry, nowhere close. EMTB is a bandaid that was forced on our industry so Fire Departments could get in EMS at the lowest cost possible. It is an abomination to our industry. It would be like creating a course to become a Doctor that is one year in length, because there are not enough Doctors.

No, because most of the classes you listed are what are considered core courses that are needed for any degree, so it does not hurt you if you take it and then change majors. Unfortunately A&P is pretty much limited to healthcare, so I have to agree with flamer on that one. Once she gets through EMTB and passes, then she should take other health care courses.

I dont see where flamer has insighted or instigated any problems

Why ? lets say a patient has sickle cell, and you treat them for thier pain appropriately, why is it necessary to document that they were black or white ? The same is true of a patient has hypoglycemia and you give some D50, why does it matter that they were white, black, asian, or hispanic ?

The problem is, if they were capable of admitting they needed help, they wouldn't need the help.

I agree with what you all are saying, but I see a difference here. What we are talking about is "stereotypical behavior" of gays. Every group has a "sterotypical behavior", but it is accepted by most. The typical gay male is not "flaming", that is the stereo-type. An example of what I am trying to say: If you had a black guy report to duty at your fire station with dreads, gold in his mouth, listening to rap music on his IPOD, grabbing his crotch, with baggy jeans hanging off his ass, talking "street", nothing would be said as long as he is in proper uniform at the start of his shift. Drama queen white chic walks in dressed like a stripper, loudly argueing with boyfriend on cellphone, while applying her make-up, talking like a dumb blonde (like you know) nothing said. Gay guy sasheas (sorry had no idea how to spell it) in, flaming, snapping his fingers, singing YMCA, and talking super sweet, eyes will roll.

I disagree that we can not change the statistics in out of hospital cardiac arrest, look at what is going on in North Carolina and Seattle: http://www2.nbc17.com/news/wake-county/2011/may/17/w-ar-1042367/ If they can get their survival rates up to 40%, surely we can get ours above 10%.

Well said again Dwayne, but I have to point out that in my neck of the woods, when the redneck firemen gather at our "state training facility", they often sing (country songs), wear clothing that I would say is inappropriate for a training session (tshirt), and often engage in behaviors I hate like chewing and spitting tobacco into a cup or on the ground. I am starting to see what flaming is trying to say. Imagine a loud redneck in his camo baseball cap, stained t-shirt, worn out blue jeans, and cowboy boots, who is spitting tobacco juice all over the place, and showing off his third grade education through his ignorant speech. Isn't that behavior worse than what you described from the gay guy you encountered ? You have to admit it is similar. And I have been in many a public place where I wanted to suggest that a hetero-couple go get a hotel room, because of the level they are making out at in public.

Ok Dwayne, not trying to put you on the spot, but to help me understand, can you give me an example of when you used race in your documentation to help explain or justify your treatment plan.

I would have to argue that EMTBs are not medical providers, but are really first responders. I am not sure what flamer meant, but I know that there were just as many dumb asses in the old days are there are today, but the difference was that in the old days, you had to call for all orders including starting an IV, and you were denied 60% of the time. Today, EMS people are pretty free to do what they need to do, within reason, so there is a greater opportunity to screw up. It is kind of like if you work on an automotive assembly line, and its your job to put the knobs on the am/fm radio in the old days. But today, its your son's job to run the wires from the radio, to the blue-tooth, and make sure the synch-voice commands work. It is totally different ---- but I am sure the 40 year vet would say all the new people on the line are dumbasses.

If I am going to be honest, I have to admit that I would rather not explain to my children why Adam and Steve are sucking face, but at the same time I realize this is my short-coming, not the gay guys. Strange that in this society, two men french kissing in public is considered abnormal, but watching someone get ax-murdered on TV or in a movie is normal. But let me ask everyone this, this is the time of year that alot of fire departments do boot drives for various charities, or may even participate in things like Relay for Life, special olympics, or some type of camp for disabled kids, while wearing your department's uniform. If the same people wore their uniform to a gay pride rally, would they be fired ???? Most definitely.

I would have to ask (and not being a smart ass) what diagnostic tool you would use to determine that dizziness is vertigo, ear infection, a CVA/TIA, electrolyte imbalance, or a brain tumor ? I do not see "vertigo" as something that needs immediate treatment in the field, unless you are trying to do something to treat and release, but again, you do not have the tools to determine if the patient can be left at home.

The general answer is NO, with exceptions. Every state has different requirements, so you will need to check with that state's EMS office. Some only require that you fill out a little paperwork and pay a fee, some require you to jump through several hoops. In GA for instance, they pretty much just need you to fill out an application, pay your fees, and show your credentials. But I hear that in North Carolina, you have to get approved to work in each and every county.

I cant see that I have ever seen it lead to trouble in writing. I guess as long as you can prove that you document the race of every patient, including whites, it shouldn't be a problem. I guess, I am against it because of a call I ran. There was a 2 car MVC on the interstate, in one car there were 2 white people, basically walking wounded, in the other car there were two african americans in a vehicle that rolled over 4 times (they had a seatbelt on and had minor injuries). When the officer on scene gave radio report to medical control (the closest hospital), he gave the race of all patients. Medical control advised him to send the two african american patients to the trauma center in the hood, but they didnt say trauma center, they just said the name of the facility, and advised them they could bring the two white patients to their facility. One of the african american patients overheard this, and raised holy hell because he was sent to the hood hospital because he was black, in his opinion, although we all knew it was due to mechanism of injury. Big stink !! Since then, I have never mentioned or documented race.

Not the same thing but sort of ....................... For two years 1998-1999, a few times per month, I would look at a clock and see that it was 9:11. It was freaky that something drew my eyes to a clock at 9:11. Got kind of freaky the more it happened, I was sure I was going to be shot or be in an accident at 9:11, but in 2001 I figured it out.

Yes I have responded to several people who were wearing monitors for 24-72 hours to try to capture whatever was going on with them. I remember we were called to an "arrest", but the patient met us at the door with phone in hand. The monitor folks were on the phone, and had noted that the patient had 6 pauses greater than 8 seconds, but that was 5 days after he dropped the monitor off at the Doctor's office. Think what could have happened, my question would be do these hand-helds store any data, and if so for how long ? P.S, answered my own question, the top one records for 30 seconds when you push the button, signaling an event.

I must admit that I have had trouble intubating patients that are on the floor or ground due to the size of my stomach and breasts. If you actually put in a mental and physical agility test, who would be left to hire in this new generation. Remember they never played outside and all of them have ADHD or some form of depression.

1 cc syringes are great, and I would advise to think about "super concentrating" some drugs so that can push less fluid on live patients. When I worked at a pediatric hospital, they would put the usual dose of a drug in a 50 or 100cc IV bag, or put 3-5 times the normal dose of a drug in a 250cc bag, so that they could deliver less fluid. The downside of that is you really need to have drugs like that on a pump, but we in EMS are too cheap or are too indifferent to be concerned enough to invest in pumps.

I get documenting in the data field, although I think that is dumb too, but there is no reason to document it in the narrative, especially since you have probably documented it in the data box. How is race important to any disease process ? How is black hypertension different from white hypertension ? Even if your patient has sickle cell, is there a reason to document the patient is black ?