Matt87

Just wondering--I read an article the other day that mentioned that one day the future of EMS may be with RN's providing the care on an ambulance! The reasons they listed were that the Board of Nursing has their stuff together and could easily dominate the field of prehospital medicine if they wanted to! I know there is always that debate over the who's who of emergency medicine, RN vs Paramedic, but I never thought that RN's would want to start working the EMS system. I know that they are involved in flight care right now, and that they have the ASTNA (Air and Surface Transport Nurse Association), but do you think it will stop there? Are they going to remain the hospital? And if they choose to work in the field as a street medic (not critical care) will they be performing as a medic, or will they allow an RN an expanded scope? I think that the profession should continue to grow. Paramedics and EMT's are prehospital providers, RN's are hosptial based providers. Any thoughts on this?

Just a question.... I recently read an article online that was written by a Parameic. The article was about pre-hospital care reports and the format that this particular medic uses. They made the comment that on your report, you need to be as brief but accurate as possible. I find it very hard to be brief on my care reports, because when I write my reports, I try to be as detail oriented as possible. I think that paints more of a picture of what is really going on, versus just putting the information that I think is important at the time. If during my exam of a trauma patient I only find injury to the left arm, I will note that injury, but I will also note that all other extremities are without injury. This leaves no question as to whether or not a thorough assessment of the patient was performed. This is just an example, of course, but you get the picture. To be brief, in my opinion, leaves too much to be determined by the reader. Any opinions?

I would have been just as embarassed to be a part of that as I am sure you were. One thing that EMS needs to remember is that if we want the occupation to grow and become more respected, we need to start carrying ourselves in a professional manner. It is not professional to make the patient feel as though they are an inconvenience to us. The fact is...if they didn't have emergencies, we wouldn't have jobs!

Would never do it. I try to live by the rule that I would not want to have myself or my family laying on someone else's dirty sheets, so why would I do it to them? Also, it relays a sense of professionalism as well. Imagine what you would think if you got to the receiving facility and saw the housekeeper just flip the sheets in the room that they assigned your patient to. Would you be a patient advocate and speak up? Or would you just walk away and leave your patient in a dirty room? Never did it myself, nor would I. There is a point though, EMS is a small community, so if you do report it, chances are that they will find out.