paramedicmike

Please. They think they have a pretty good idea of what happened. It's just an embarrassing subject for the family. Washington post story.

If she wants to work for Philly Fire, then yes. She'll have to be a FF, too. If she wants to work some random transport gig, then she won't have to be a FF. If she is, in fact, an RN, and is licensed as an RN in PA, Pennsylvania has a provider level call the Pre-hospital RN (PHRN). There are several places in and around the city to take the required classes (not usually more than an EMT class) in order to complete the requirements for testing. Successful completion of the PHRN process and certification at that level will allow a nurse to function as an ALS provider in the Commonwealth of PA. I have previously worked with several RNs who were PHRNs in PA. I believe, if I remember correctly, several of them took their PHRN class at JeffStat (affiliated with Jefferson Hospital/University). If she decides to go the PHRN route the only opportunities she'll have in the city are transport gigs. The surrounding counties, however, may have 911 spots available. -be safe

Perhaps. You're in LA, right? That $100,000 in LA is lost to the cost of living. In fact, every cost of living calculator I tried (all easily found via Google) indicated that in order to maintain the same standard of living in the greater LAX metro area one would need to earn up to $35,000 LESS in, say, Atlantic City, NJ. You can tout your $100,000 a year if you like. But one can earn less and live much better in other places in the country. Never mind not having to deal with traffic, congestion, pollution, crappy public safety departments and Governor Terminator. Besides, California and New Jersey do have something in common. The vast majority of people who know better are waiting for the earthquake to hit and send each state to the bottom of their respective oceans.

Paramedics are hospital employees. So protocols vary by hospital as far as I'm aware. Again, depends on who you work for. Not enough to make living and working in New Jersey worth it. Depends on where you work. Depends on where you work. Pennsylvania isn't too far west. Try there. But if you (or your wife) insist on living in this area, you're going to want to look at AtlantiCare. They operate two hospitals in the Atlantic City area (one Level 2 trauma center and another community hospital) and they recently took over a community hospital in Hammonton. They also operate both 911 and a lot of ground IFT in the Atlantic and Cape May county region. Again, depends on where you are. Camden, Trenton and Newark may have more the knife and gun club. Other areas in NJ with which I am (unfortunately) familiar have a steady mix. Summer brings more of everything with the influx of all the tourists and shore traffic. Part of why this site is here is for this very reason. No need to apologize at all! That being said, and please don't take this the wrong way, if you're interested in a serious EMS gig, NJ is NOT the place to look. I realize this may not be very helpful to you but NJ is not a great place for EMS of any kind. If you're going to be stuck there (for whatever reason), especially the Atlantic City area, you're best bet is to look at AtlantiCare and see if they will be a good fit for you. Otherwise, Pennsylvania (which is only marginally better) is straight west on the Atlantic City Expressway. Good luck. -be safe

There are dozens of threads discussion this very topic. Please search the forums and you'll find the answers to these particular questions. And I think you'll be surprised at what you read. -be safe

Or not. Considering there's nothing there.

While there is a business aspect to NR, there is no scam involved. Every business needs money to operate. Every organization that offers any kind of certification charges for exams. This is true not only in medicine but in other industries as well. To follow your argument any organization that charges a fee to take their certification exam is a scam. Do you honestly believe that? Seventy five percent of the students in this particular group failed some portion of the practical exam and it's the fault of NR? That kind of failure rate points more towards inept training and student preparation than it does to problems with an exam. This isn't a state issue. This is an education issue. If students take and fail the exam this isn't the fault of the state or the examiners or the exam. It's the fault of the student and/or the fault of the educational facility. Failure on behalf of the student reflects poor or inadequate preparation that can be traced to either the individual student or the educational facility. Did you blame your grade school or high school teachers because you didn't pass a test they administered in class? I didn't think so. Funny. I think it points to the lousy educational preparation provided to candidates preparing for the certification exam. How is it the fault of the test if a candidate fails? I can't quite grasp this pass the buck mentality. Funny, now you CAN get copies of the skills sheets and yet your friend still failed. What does this say about the preparation of your friend? The information was right there and easily accessible. Not only do they tell you what you need to do but they tell you what NOT to do. How difficult a concept is this? And to what secrecy are you referring? The secrecy that you don't get to see the exam either before or after it's administered? That's how they maintain the integrity of the exam. It wouldn't be much of a test if they gave it back for review. There have been several excellent explanations offered as to why things are they way they are. And I don't quite understand why people in EMS feel the need to blame the testing agency for their own shortcomings (either through study/preparation or the quality of instruction they received). I don't see this in any other industry. And I certainly didn't see it when I worked for a (non-EMS) professional certification granting organization. Firefighters and cops are recognized differently than EMS providers for a variety of reasons. One is that they "have a better union" (so to speak). Another is that they have that whole public safety thing behind them. There's just not a lot of glamour to medical care when there are strict limitations on what you can say or share so as not to violate patient privacy. It's understandable to be upset if one fails a test or a part of a test. It's not only not understandable but completely wrong to blame anyone but the test taker for that particular failure. -be safe

Everything I can think of has already been said. Document, document, document. Get a good lawyer. Both of which you're doing. Just wanted to say hang in there and good luck! I hope you "stick" it to your employer that will ensure that they don't endanger either other employees or patients again. While trying to find the silver lining, if they fire you you can then add wrongful termination to your lawsuit. That's maybe worth something? Good luck! -be safe

Every presidential candidate since Truman has said this in some way, shape or form. And every president has selectively applied this in practice. But how does that play with this situation? It doesn't. He didn't try to shift blame. He just didn't fire Caldera fast enough. Every new president does this. There is nothing new or unusual in this. It would be political suicide to leave a previously appointed cabinet in place. So the president is responsible for the mistakes made by anyone who works anywhere in his administration? Interesting. Even when the president isn't involved in the activity at all and knows nothing about it? Do you really want a president who micromanages to that extent? -be safe

Since I'm only speaking for me, I didn't blame Bush for everything bad that happened under his administration. If Bush was at fault, then I'd blame Bush. Otherwise, blame, such as it is, goes to the individual(s) responsible for the error. The same goes here. Obama wasn't at fault for the event taking place. His handling after the fact deserves a palm-to-forehead-smack. But you can't blame him for this particular event as he had nothing to do with it. If others maintain a double standard then that's on them. -be safe

Well, let's be fair. Both Republicans and Democrats have plenty of examples of people who prove to be an embarrassment to themselves and their party. There are tax evaders, pedophiles, criminals, cheats, liars and worse in both parties. Each party also handles issues the same way. Some are a little more public than others. Both sides "circle the wagons" and try to keep things quiet. Both sides run people out on a rail when it does go public. Both sides consider themselves untouchable. Generalizations about one side or another can be shot down with plenty of examples of poor behaviour from either side. -be safe

It's not really an issue of being poorly vetted. Caldera just made a series of poor decisions that resulted in a lot of people being unnecessarily scared out of their gourd. I guess if you're going to go, go big. With regards to Obama surrounding himself with "dumbasses" like Caldera, keep in mind that Caldera's primary role was logistics and not advisory. His wasn't a cabinet level post. This isn't a matter of advising the President on matters of national or international policy. The Military Office provides military support to the White House and not military advising on matters of national security. That being said, I don't think you can realistically blame Obama for this event. Sure, sure. He's the President. The buck stops with him. He could've handled the *aftermath* better. But unless you want another Jimmy Carter who micromanages everything, you can't blame Obama for the actions of others especially when it was done without the President's knowledge. People will do stupid things. It happens. Lastly, I wasn't attempting to defend Obama or Caldera with regards to this incident. Nor was there any attempt to pwn! anyone. My political views are neither important to this conversation nor will they be shared here. My posting was more an attempt to point out demonstrated inability to formulate an original thought and the folly of blind acceptance of blatantly wrong information as true. I realize it's easier to let others think for you. But really, it just causes bigger problems down the road. -be safe

This was an event orchestrated and executed without the knowledge of either the President or top brass at the Pentagon. If you're going to blame Obama for what you perceive to be a waste of money then you also have to level equal blame at Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, USAF Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz and any number of high ranking USAF officials at the Pentagon (most of whom, it seems, were equally ignorant of this event until they saw it on the news). It's interesting that you failed to level the same amount of blame at the latter and chose to single out the former. The head of the White House Office of Military Affairs, the guy responsible for all of this, has already resigned from this poorly handled event. It was said before and I think it bears repeating. Check your facts. Look here. If you're going to gripe about the President, and there will be many things that many will gripe about over the next three and a half years, at least make it an intelligent, well thought out and fact checked gripe. I still think it's a pretty cool picture. -be safe

Not a very diplomatic statement. If you really want to see your organization succeed I strongly suggest you work on your diplomacy skills. And don't tell people "I'm done with you". In your position, you never know when you might need that very person you just told off. Some thicker skin may do you some good, too. If you'd taken the time to read through the site and learn a little about the people with whom you're dealing (not a bad thing to do with your organization, too), then the context of it all may have been a little more clear to you. But seriously, what did you expect? Did you expect people to fawn all over you and your ambitions to create this organization? Did you not expect criticism? Dust raises many valid points. It seems you failed to consider any of them. And this failure to consider any of them only reinforces the idea that you'll be done with two years. So, work on those diplomacy skills and growing some thicker skin. You'll see better success there than you will by maligning a much respected member of this community. -be safe

Did you seriously just post your phone number? Seriously? For the record, when your phone starts ringing non-stop at 3AM it's not me. I have better things to do with my time. -be safe

Vent pretty much hit it head on. Votech type training, in many cases, won't leave the student with anything that will transfer on into either another field or into a college level educational program. Also, a college level program that requires pre-requisites such as Anatomy & Physiology, math, psychology, english, rhetoric and writing, history and more helps round out the educational foundation that will allow your son/daughter to better integrate with the people they'll both be working with and treating. You didn't say where you're from, but if you're from Oregon then your son/daughter will be required to have a college degree. Take that for what that's worth. Going to a more traditional college (community or four year) may not get your son/daughter to the end goal (i.e. certification) as fast as s/he may like. But it will benefit him/her in ways that may not be immediately evident. With any luck it will also foster the idea that this segment of medicine is a never ending process of learning. The more one learns the better a provider one becomes. The patients treated are the ones who will most benefit from this. And that's who it's really all about. Good luck! -be safe

Finding an accredited school is your first step. Look here to see if either of the ones you listed are accredited. If neither is listed, please seriously consider attending a school that is. -be safe

Whatever happened to: Although I do like the facepalm demotivational posters. -be safe

Dude! Why are you looking for them? Just get them made up on your own and start selling them. You'd probably do pretty well for your trouble. Just an idea. -be safe

You can all thank AussiePhil for this. And gasundheit. Don't forget to wash your hands. Sneeze game -be safe

Or is it more that your medical command docs don't expect it to be used in anything but a cardiac arrest situation? Which would be a shame... -be safe

It is the manufacturer's recommendation to flush with lidocaine. You really shouldn't be infusing anything through these things unless you flush with lidocaine first. Now, with that being said, even with lidocaine there will be some discomfort on initial fluid infusion. There will also be some discomfort with continued infusion. It won't be nearly as uncomfortable/painful (in most patients) if you use lidocaine as the initial flush. If we flush without lidocaine we get a sit-down with the medical director. It is also the manufacturer's recommendation that, if you plan to infuse fluids, those fluids need to be hung with a pressure bag. As far as care at the placement site, I haven't heard anything different from what people would be told about an IV site. Keep it clean and put a band-aid on it if needed. I work with a Vidacare rep. We go over these things all the time. If you have other questions and I can't answer them here I can get the answers for you. -be safe

Not enough of them. -be safe

I'm sorry. Did you just really type this out? Do you honestly believe we should abdicate our Constitutionally protected rights? Do you honestly believe this? Seriously? Just throw them away? That's what you think he should have done? Wow. -be safe

Perhaps this thread will help provide some perspective. There's some interesting discussion, there, too. Please don't confuse the two different threads or discussions. -be safe