RuralKSEMS

We can make our own decision as to letting a family member ride with a pt. They ride only in the front unless its a minor then I will let a parent ride with the child. I will not let non-family members ride in the rig with a pt. Our only policy states that it is allowed ONLY if the crew agrees and that it will not cause an unsafe situation.

Each child is different so I would do what works best for the situation and the pt's needs. My 11 year old daughter is asthmatic, she does okay with somethings on her face and not with others. When she had nasal surgery 2 years ago, she freaked out so bad with the NRB, that they had to take me back to recovery to calm her down. I think we all need to be adaptable to the situation and do what is right at the time of treatment. If a four year old can tolerate a NRB, then use one

Welcome to you from another KS AEMT!

I sew. Both quilts and clothes for my daughter. Do you know how hard it is to find cute clothes for a little girl that don't show everything? And I read. Lots.

I live in northern Kansas and we got around 6 inches. They closed all sorts of stuff ahead of the storm. We were expected to get 8-15 inches. Now it's supposed to snow again Sunday into Monday and they're forcasting the same.

It looks really good!

In our service, we are not allowed to give nitro unless we have obtained a 15 lead per medical direction. According to our AEMT instructor (service director as well); there are studies that have proven that one instance of hypotensive blood pressure greatly increases the risk of mortality in an MI.

We are a rural service also. We, however, are lucky that our director and medical director both allow us to travel to the nearest appropriate facility for the pt. If it's the hospital 10 minutes away or 2 hours away. If the pt is unstable, then it's nearest facility and we transfer from there in the appropriate manner (helicopter called in or one of our 3 ambulances in our service). We do have two part time paramedics that can sedate as needed but they can also be treated in the local hospital before transport. We are also allowed to restrain for our protection or that of others if we have the okay by online medical protocol or we can have a police officer ride with us.

We transitioned here in Kansas (I think it was 128 hours, plus 30 hours in the field under a paramedic). I'm not sure what the National registry requirments are as we didn't have to do any testing. All of our testing was done in the transition class. Just study. Be confident in yourself and ask questions if you to.

If you wash your hands before going to the bathroom “Quiet” is worse than any 4-letter word These, big time. Seeing as how I work in healthcare (besides the ambulance, I work at an assisted living facility) the "Q" word is hated in both areas and I always wash my hands before I use the bathroom at work and while I'm doing anything on the ambulance. In fact, I've been the relative shit attractor here lately.

OMG I about died laughing and my husband remembers seeing this on "In Living Color"

We're mandatory reporters of abuse or SUSPECTED abuse in minors and elders.

Loved both of those shows! Was sad to see them go!

Car repairs and the money they cost suck. So does you 9 year old son having migraines that last a day even with the tylenol 3. On the other hand, in a few days, I will have a safer van in which to drive my children. And I always try to remember things can get worse. I have it relatively easy. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, just one of those craptastic days!

Transported one the other day that was 650 syrum levels, 7.1 pH, 6.5 potassium levels. Needless to say, he went from a rural hospital to a CCU in the larger city.

fa-la-la-lala-la-laa-la-la I earned the coveted "shit magnet" award this weekend combined with the first weekend of last month, lol.

Congrats!

I've always tried to treat the pt and their family with respect. Probably the biggest thing is to continue to do so and to try harder not to jump to conclusions or make assumptions. And that high fevers really can cause altered loc's and hallucinations. Up to this point, I'd never seen anybody with a temp higher then 102. It hits higher then that, and they get a little loopy. My son has very little memory of what happend when he was in the local hospital (good thing too since they had to give him rectal tylenol) and not much of a memory of riding in the ambulance. The only real thing he remembers from the hospital when he was out of it was all the "blood draws" he got. It took a total of three attempts for the IV and then he ended up getting four more sticks for blood work in less then 24 hours.

I haven't been here long but I'd like to wish you luck with what ever you endevor to accomplish in the future!

I got I/O access the first time this last week on a cardiac arrest so I could give epi. We have the EZ IO. Very easy to place and not at all difficult to do. VERY fast and easy to place.

I had a code over the weekend as well. Only my second in 6 years in EMS and my the first that I ran as a new AEMT. The gentleman was older. We did get ROSC, 3 times total during the run. He was a witnessed arrest (minutes after we walked in the house, I took enough time to upgrade our paramedic assist and then went to work). He coded for the last time at the hospital. Wife was in the house the whole time we worked on him there. Daughter came in while in the OR and we were working on him. We stayed and helped the nursing staff work the code at the hospital until the wife got there and said it was okay to stop. I'd seen him around town (I live in a town of 500) but I didn't know him. Strange enough, I wasn't affected either. I think it helps knowing we did every thing we could to get his heart going again but he also had a host of health problems. The worst part was seeing his wife come in the room. I had to turn my head so she didn't see me tear up but other then that, i didn't really bother me.

Yep, I was able to give the PCP/nurses at the local hospital and the doctors at the large hospital a detailed list of his vitals (w/o bp because I don't have a cuff that small or SPO2), all his meds, and his exact symptoms in their terms. In fact, I was on call that night so I had my EMS shirt on. When we walked into the larger hospital, the nurses/ doc was asking where his parents were because they saw my shirt and thought I was part of the transporting crew. I had to tell them I was the mom, lol.

Not just you, that's for sure. It was weird asking where I was allowed to sit in the ambulance (front or back). I didn't want to step on toes. I did keep an eye on his vitals for my own piece of mind. It helped that the nurse that ran (we have nurses with our service) was also my husband's cousin and had been in the room when my son was born (she was going through nursing school at the time) and the attendant driving was her mother. They kept me pretty calm. Bad thing is I was supposed to be on call when I figured out that my son needed to go to the hospital so when we got to the larger hospital the nurses were asking where the parent was, lol.

I don't like being on the pt side of things! Or rather the parent of said pt. My son had to be transported by ambulance to a larger hospital Tuesday. Spiked a fever of 104.5 ON Tylenol (he can't take Motrin due to an allergy), chills, shakes, headache, sore throat, dizzy, sleepy and not eating, barely drinking, and not in the best mental state. They thought he might of had viral menengitis and he tested positive for both influenza A and B. Scared the crap out of me even though I'm an AEMT. Worried the heck out of the doctor and the nurses. Glad to say that it's nothing bacterial, (TONS of blood work confirmed that). They were going to do a spinal but decided that since all of his blood work came back normal, that it wasn't bacterial and if he did/does have viral menengitis, there was nothing they'd do different except supportive care. He's home, nearly fever free, with a slight headache and a lingering sore throat. Drinking and trying to eat. Being told by two different doctors that if it was bacterial menengitis he would be dead and if it was bacterial at all he'd be a lot worse then he is now was scary shit. Needless to say, I'm hugging him and his sister a lot closer today and thanking the big man above that it wasn't worse. Odd thing is, his test here at the local hospital was positive for influenza and the swab test AND the nasophryangeal wash testing they did at the larger hospital was negative for influenza.

We've got an EZ IO. Use the tibia if you can. We can also use a humeral site and a site above the ankle if need be.