flamingemt2011

True, he is just too far left for me. Sitting within our own borders and hoping no one attacks us is not what i call defense

Salary should be based on supply and demand alone, busy/slow, rural/urban, white shirt/blue shirt shouldnt matter. If the rural service has a harder time attracting medics it should pay more, if urban services have a harder time attracting medics, they should pay more.

I fully understand the reasons why we would not tell on ourselves, but if it was your family member, what would you want ? And no, I am not talking about pushing atropine instead of Epi on an arrest, I mean a serious error that could or did impact the patient. When car makers make a design mistake, they have to admit it to us, perform a recall, and fix the problem at their expense. Is our profession less important that an auto manufacturer ? I am not proud of the errors that I did not report, but now that I am more mature, I can say that ALL errors should be reported to the patient, if we are truly professional and are patient advocates. To not do so is unprofessional and makes you like the cook who drops your food on a nasty floor, and serves it to you anyway. MY error: Chest pain patient in Bigeminy, started Lidocaine and Lidocaine drip, opened line wide open to check flow, patient vomited, got side tracked, left the Lidocaine wide open by mistake, patient had a seizure a few minutes later, looked up, Lidocaine drip bag empty. Patient lived, but I never told a sole (hung second bad of Lidocaine, told partner I contaminated the first.

Ron Paul ? Seriously ? Joking Right ?

what is M&M ?

Not biased, if anything I would say I am part of the problem if I were honest. I have watched many errors be swept under the rug in medicine generally throughout my career: Wrong diagnosis, wrong treatment, lack of treatment, medication errors, failure to treat. I am sure I am not the only one who has witnessed this problem.

I mean god assassinated his son after all for the same reasons...so the precedent has been set, no? Cant argue with that one lol.

Like the physician staffed ambulance that killed Princess Diana ?

OK, I should not have put religion in the topic, but generally, assasination is wrong, yes or no ?

I found this story today and it made me wonder what the rest of your services did: http://web.orange.co.uk/article/news/widow_accuses_nhs_over_paramedic_treatment I always reported medication errors to the receiving nurses, but I know many that did not (especially if there was no harm to patient --- gave atrovent instead of albuterol). But over the years I would occassionally hear a rumor that so and so was suspended after a review of treatment on a particular call, but I do not think the patient or patient's family was ever told of the mistakes. What do you think, should all errors be reported to the patient regardless of how insignificant, or should it be swept under the rug like in the above article ?

Everyone was all in an uproar last week when it was discovered that Iran had created an assasination plot to kill some of their "perceived enemies" on foreign soil. This week we assasinate Kadafi (our enemy) on foreign soil, and we are celebrating. You can argue that no US person actually pulled the trigger, but it was our drones and intel that located him, the same as it was not going to be an Iranian solder that pulled the trigger or set off the bombs. I wonder, WWJD ?

There. I am not pitching a tantrum, just wondered why my avatar is being questioned ? I believe someone on here has a "Congressman Weiner" avatar, I have not seen anyone ask if he is a child molester, or why he feels the need to use that avatar ? To say that my avatar must reflect every view or opinon that I have is silly. The fact that we are even discussing avatars is silly.

I do not know any 97 year old that is on one med. I would like to know all of the meds, as this could easily be a phenothiazine reaction as well. Often times, one normal dose of benadryl is not enough, especially one P.O. dose. I would have tried that first, followed by a lower dose of subq epi and a steroid. I am all for trying to be "House" and figure out the weirdest, most obscure, reason that it could be, but you have an airway that is swelling shut. I vote be aggressive, and let the ICU doc ween her off the ventilator when Dr House figures out that it was beet juice that she had a reaction to.

I am sorry, I did not know I had to go through you, the avatar police, to get approval for whatever I chose to represent myself. As I look through the site, I see various avatars in use --- some use their pic (in their uniform or otherwise), some use cartoon characters, some use their children, some use movie characters, but I have not seen you chastise them for their choice.You know there was a study done where men were asked to watch gay porn. The ones who were the most upset tended to be the closet homosexuals who were pretending to be straight. I think thee protests too much.

I am sure there are jokes, but I cant quote any off the top of my head, got lots of gay and black jokes in my head though. Can anyone quote a funny white joke off the top of your head ? Found some, but not very funny : http://www.free-funny-jokes.com/white-jokes.html

The others have failed you as they have only quoted their hourly rate, not their yearly salary. The statements about EMTs having a hard time finding jobs is true. But what the others failed to mention is that you usually have built in overtime in your normal schedule, and then overtime or the ability to work a second job (especially if you work a 24/48 schedule -- work one 24 hour shift, off for 48). So let's compare the fast food worker to EMT: Fast food $8/hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 16,640 per year EMT 24/48 (averages 56 hours/week -- works 48,48, then 72, then repeat; average of 16 hours/week of overtime). So the EMT makes the same 16640 for the 40 hours/week x 52 weeks, but then makes $12/hour x 16 hours x 52 = another 9984/year, grand total = 26,624. Realize that the EMT still has 4-5 days off per week to work another job to add to that income. Now in all fairness I must say that the 24/48 schedule is dying a slow death as it is too brutal for most, but in rural/slow areas it will probably last for several more years. This is a great job, especially for a young person.

Here is one person who believes you do have a duty to act, take it for what it is worth: http://www.ems1.com/...S-Professional/ Key excerpt: EMS professionals, on the other hand, owe a much greater duty to the community while on or off the job. Providers have the duty to act as would a “prudent, reasonable EMS provider with the same level of training, in the same community, and under similar circumstances.” That’s the legal description. So if in that county they have a bunch of volunteer yahoos who stop on the side of the road, you may be found negligent for failure to assist (open to interpretation, but if the plantiff had a good lawyer, and your only defense is I was off-duty, not sure you would win). And of course there is the EMT Oath and Code from National Registry: http://www.naemt.org...us/emtoath.aspx AND ER DOC is right, ABC always comes first before c-spine, only a small percentage of trauma patients have c-spine fractures, cant tell you how many times i found some volunteer holding c-spine on an apneic trauma patient, instead of bagging them.

Must be pretty uptight where you work paramedic mike, are you allowed to tell jokes, or watch TV ?

How is having an avatar "shoving" stuff down your throat ?

Hmmmm Dwayne, I will split the cost of the trip with you. Naked dudes and beer, that is heaven.

I use a gay avatar to promote my lifestyle because I am proud of it. I will not hide in the closet as the homophobes would have me do. Mind your own business. And if you wonder if you are a homophobe, here is a test:</p> http://helloquizzy.o...homophobic-test

Anyone that utters any gay jokes or anti gay statements should be fired on the spot. I am tired of straight people turning a blind eye to this type of BS.

NO they are not, it is the Physicians and Pharmacist who should be doing this "education"

But its ok for half of our workforce to be taking Lortab or be zoned out on antidepressants. It would take a whole lot of wine to put someone over the edge.

Get in school, there are few jobs in the world where you go to school for a few months, work awhile, go back to school, work awhile, go back to school, work awhile. Most schools produce educated employees that are green for whatever field they are going into (Accountant, RN, Lawyer, Teacher, etc....). But if you are truly concerned that you may not like the job, then I would vote as the others and continue working while taking some core classes, then go to Paramedic school when you are sure. And don't listen to all the "burn-outs" who try to talk you into going to nursing school instead.