owley medic

Do not let this sound like I support the BC Gov, but with H1N1 and the Olympics coming it was bound to happen. I think that it was the governments plan in any case.

CANADA NEWS

** A Maniwaki, Quebec paramedic has been killed in a crash with a stolen vehicle near Bouchette. Le Journal de Montreal (August 3) said the accident, which occurred early yesterday morning, was a head-on collision. The EMS worker has been identified as Marilou Dubois. Extrication crews took one hour to remove Dubois from the wreckage;she died a short time later at Maniwaki Hospital. Responding crews, who knew Dubois, are receiving counselling support. PNN will keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Hi Gang;

I thought this would be the best place for this discussion.

I am an EMS Instructor and we are reviewing the various EMS Texts out there. I am interested in what present and past EMS students thing of the texts they are using or have used in the past. I am mainly interested in the main texts, but if you wish to give comments on other books, A&P, Medical Terminology, that you have used during your EMS education please feel free to do so.

If you are going to comment on a particular book please give pros, cons and the name and publisher of the text in question. I look forward to the comments.

Owley

Ian

ER Nurse's

This is not a joke but all you can do is laugh at it.

I am sure many of you have experienced situations that make you shake your head in disbelief.

I am refering to the times when someone (Usuallu anorther health care provider) states things like "The Ambulance Drivers Are Here !!!"

or

Asks " Do You Have Oxygen On The Ambulance? "

But today I was asked a question by a, I assume educated, Recovery Room RN,

"Do you take Vital Signs?”

This is realy not a joke,but it is so rediculious you have to laugh.

I am sure the look on my face expressed my absolute "disgust" at the RN's ignorance about what we do. In my 20 +++ years of working in EMS I have never heard of such a ridiculous question. It would be just as ridiculous for me to ask this RN "Are you allowed to empty that catheter bag?"[/b]

:evil: :roll: :x

Owley (and I Do Mean OWLEY)

Again an assumption it was "intentional" you should know me better then that so I will ask for it to be removed, less i offend anyone else.

Not everyone reads every group. Sorry if I offended you

Interesting studt, worth a look at.

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStorie...ramedics_070523

I agree with CC, In the big picture, "A" comes before Pacemaker...

Owley

I have just posted the Patch worn in NS Canada.

Thanks Pal

What have yoiu been up to anyway??

ian

Has any one taken an CCEMTP Course. I am paticulary interested in anyone who has done the one at Center For Emergency Medicine in Pitsburgh. I would like to know any information on what you thought of the course.

Owley

any new takers on patch trading???????????????

finzat:

I stand corrected, I did in fact have it mixed up, I was speaking off the top of my (Empty) head. LOL But you are right. After i posted that I looked into it further , today at work, and inlightened myself. I did have it mixed up. I knew the atropine issue and mistakenly thought that it MIGHT be as i mentioned. Thank you for clearing that up for me. (us)

I think it is because Calcium channel blockers work directly in the heart on the cardiac muscle it self where as Bata blockers work on the sympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve which is disconnected in transplant patients. Has the same effect as atropine for brady cardia we do not give it for transplant patients with brady cardia. This is a bit of a guess on my part but i will look further into it.

Ian

Hay Dust,

good to see you have arrived there OK. Be safe man and keep in touch.

This is a article that appeared in recent news papers. I thought it might be of interest.

Owley

=========== =========

Paramedics more likely to suffer post-traumatic stress, says Canadian study

The Canadian Press(CP)

Copyright 2006 Press News Limited

DARTMOUTH, N.S.- Paramedics are at an increased risk of suffering from post-traumatic stress, but not enough is known about how best to help them cope, an emergency medical services conference heard Friday.

The first phase of a three-year study into the stress of first-responders was presented at the Emergency Medical Services Chiefs of Canada conference in Dartmouth, N.S., on Friday.

The study is looking at prevention and management of post-traumatic stress disorder.

While post-traumatic stress affects seven to eight per cent of the general population, it's up to three times more likely among paramedics, lead researcher Vince Savoia said.

The Tema Conter Memorial Trust called for and funded the study, now entering its second year.

Little information has been available on the best course of treatment for acute and long-term emergency personnel stress, said Savoia, who is also the trust's founder and executive director.

And suggestions for coping are often questioned.

For example, Savoia said there is little agreement over whether it's better to immediately debrief a responding medic or if doing so would simply serve to repeat the trauma.

Savoia, a former paramedic, said one bad call can stay with you for life.

"It's a reality of the industry and of the profession," Graham McAllister of Nova Scotia's Emergency Health Services said of on-the-job stress.

"I think all responders, when they respond to these tragic types of incidents, suffer from post-traumatic stress every day. It's a matter how you manage that stress and how you cope."

McAllister, a 20-year paramedic, manages the service's critical incident stress management program.

The peer-support program helps responders deal with the trauma of being involved with other people's traumas all day, he said.

"A lot of times people will assume because you're a paramedic in emergency services, 'Well, you deal with that; that's just what you do; so it shouldn't affect you,' but the reality is that we're all just human beings just like anyone else," McAllister said.

"It's a normal reaction by normal people to an abnormal situation."

The first phase of the study used Toronto paramedics for its sample, but Savoia said the work would be applicable for any part of the country.

Research co-ordinator Paulette Brazeau hopes to expand the sample with a web-based questionnaire and produce results for a general standard of intervention across Canada by the end of 2007.

For now, she said, emergency medical personnel need to be aware of how common stress is and how important it is to deal with it immediately.

The Illin' Backbreaker!

Hummm

Hammer would get my vote too

My real name would be: Posco Sandybanks

My Nick name: Marmadas Goldworthy of Michel Delving

Hello and welcome to the psychiatric hot-line.

If you are obsessive compulsive, please press one, repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.

If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5, and 6.

If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Please stay on the line, as we trace your call.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are manic-depressive, it does not’t matter which number you press, no one will answer.

Thank-you.

Spelling error corrected, Now are you satisfied???

[align=center:7b08a23fef]EMS DEDICATION

This is dedicated to the Men and Women of the Emergency Medical Services.

No job is more stressful, frustrating, physically demanding or emotional draining then working in EMS.

But, then again, no job is more rewarding then seeing a person walk away from hospital free from the effects of a spinal injury, watching the colour return to the face of a non breathing child or participating in the miracle of birth.

[/align:7b08a23fef]

[align=center]The First Law of EMS:

All emergency calls will wait until you begin to eat, regardless of the time.

Corollary 1 - Fewer accidents would occur if EMS personnel would never eat.

Corollary 2 - Always order food "to go".

The Paramedical Laws of Time:

1 - There is absolutely no relationship between the time at

which you are supposed to get off shift and the time at which you will get off shift.

2 - Given the following equation: T + 1 Minute = Relief Time,

"T" will always be the time of the last call of your shift.

E.g., If you are supposed to get off shift at 1900, your last run will come in at 1859.

The Paramedical Law of Gravity:

Any instrument, when dropped, will always come to

rest in the least accessible place possible.

The Paramedical Law of Time and Distance:

The distance of the call from the hospital

increases as the time to shift change decreases.

Corollary 1 - The shortest distance between the station

and the scene is under construction.

The Paramedical Rule of Random Simultaneity:

Emergency calls will randomly come in all at once.

The Rule of Respiratory Arrest:

All patients, for whom Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation must be provided,

will have just completed a large meal of barbecue and onions, garlic pizza,

and pickled herring, which was washed down with at least three cans of beer.

The Axiom of Late-Night Runs:

If you respond to any motor vehicle accident call after

midnight and do not find a drunk on the scene, keep looking - somebody is still missing.

The Law of Options:

Any patient, when given the option of either going to jail or going

to the hospital by a police officer, will always be inside the ambulance before you are.

Corollary 1 - Any patient who chooses to go to jail

instead of the hospital probably knows your driver.

The First Rule of Equipment:

Any piece of lifesaving equipment will never malfunction or fail until:

1-You need it to save a life.

2-The salesman leaves.

The Second Rule of Equipment:

Interchangeable parts don't, leak proof seals will, and self-starters won't.

The First Law of Ambulance Driving:

No matter how fast you drive the ambulance when responding to a call,

it will never be fast enough, unless you pass a police cruiser,

at which point it will be entirely too fast.

Paramedical Rules of the Bathroom:

If a call is received between 0500 and 0700,

the location of the call will always be in a bathroom.

If you have just gone to the bathroom, no call will be received.

If you have not just gone to the bathroom, you will soon regret it.

The probability of receiving a run increases proportionally

to the time elapsed since last going to the bathroom.

The Basic Principle for Dispatchers:

Assume that all field personnel are idiots until their actions prove your assumption.

Basic Assumption About Dispatchers:

Given the opportunity, any dispatcher will be only too happy to tell you where to go,

regardless of whether or not (s)he actually knows where that may be.

Corollary 1 - The existence or nonexistence of any given location

is of only minor importance to the dispatcher.

Corollary 2 - Any street designated as a "cross-street" by a dispatcher probably isn't.

Corollary 3 - If a street name CAN be mispronounced,

a dispatcher WILL mispronounce it.

Corollary 4 - If a street name CANNOT be mispronounced,

a dispatcher WILL mispronounce it.

Corollary 5 - A Dispatcher will always refer to a given location in the

most obscure manner as possible

(e.g., "Stumpy Brown's Cabbage Field" is now covered by a shopping center)

The First Principle of Triage:

In any accident, the degree of injury suffered

by a patient is inversely

proportional to the amount and volume of agonized

screaming produced by that patient. /align]

When the Lord made Paramedics, he was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order? A paramedic has to be able to carry an injured person up a wet, grassy hill in the dark, dodge stray bullets to reach a dying child unarmed, enter homes the health inspector wouldn't touch, and not wrinkle his uniform."

" He has to be able to lift 3 times his own weight, crawl into wrecked cars with barely enough room to move, and console a grieving mother as he is doing CPR on a baby he knows will never breath again."

"He has to be in top mental condition at all times, running on no sleep, black coffee and half-eaten meals. And he has to have six pairs of hands."

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way."

"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord, "It's the three pairs of eyes a medic has to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees open sores as he's drawing blood and asks the patient they may be HIV positive, " (When he already knows and wishes he'd taken that accounting job.) "Another pair here in the side of his head for his partners' safety. And another pair of eyes here in front that can look reassuringly at a bleeding victim and say, "You'll be all right ma'am when he knows it isn't so."

"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't," said the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk a 250 pound drunk out from behind a steering wheel without incident and feed a family of five on a private service paycheck."

The angel circled the model of the paramedic very slowly,

"Can it think?" she asked.

"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the symptoms of 100 illnesses; recite drug calculations in it's sleep; intubate, defibrillate, medicate, and continue CPR nonstop over terrain that any doctor would fear...and still it keeps it's sense of humor.

This medic also has phenomenal personal control. He can deal with a multi-victim trauma, coax a frightened elderly person to unlock their door, comfort a murder victim's family, and then read in the daily paper how paramedics were unable to locate a house quickly enough, allowing the person to die. A house which had no street sign, no house numbers, no phone to call back."

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the paramedic. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."

"That's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."

"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's for bottled-up emotions, for patients they've tried in vain to save, for commitment to that hope that they will make a difference in a person's chance to survive, for life."

"You're a genius," said the angel. The Lord looked somber. "I didn't put it there,"