Dsmittty911

Hey Dust Your age is showing LOL. Couldn't resist.

If your head is in the right spot when you roll on call you will be too busy to notice the blood and gore. If you take time to notice then your patient is not getting all of the attention they should be getting. There are a lot of things about working EMS that can gross you out but you will learn ways to deal with it and keep telling yourself that even after seeing all of that and patient survives then you're really doing something awesome. Keep your eyes on the end result you hope to accompolish not what you have to wade through to get there. Good Luck

Taser= sparked my interest. Thought that was pretty obvious. Guess no sense of humor LOL(J-k)

"Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop thatsparked my interest." Htat's pretty darn funny. Why don't you save yourself trouble and go play with a light socket. About the same result and you don't have to tell everyone you got zapped by a couple of AAA batteries LOL. That's almost like admitting you got your butt whipped by a 90 pound woman.(no offense intended Ladies.) Hope you learned your lesson and glad to hear you left the cat alone. Cat'd prolly never look at you again.

Texas uses NR test and then does their own checks and fees for license. Tx does not have it's own test anymore.

Gee Some of those sound pretty familiar I've used a few of them more than once. Let's see #'s 4, 5, 12 and 13. My favorites were 4 and 13.

The one thing that I haven't heard mentioned here is working on rig doing bls stuff while in school learning the als stuff. I don't know about any of you but I have wife and 2 kids to support. I can't afford to just go to school. I have bills to pay. I'm not in medic school yet (working on getting back in) but I'm in process of finding bls job that I can work while I'm learning. Honestly to me that really seems the way to go. Also if you get good partner they will help you by showing you the bls ways of doing things and how it will be different with your als skills. That's my 2 cents worth. Take it for what it's worth.

For my basic class the instructor would ask questions around the class before class just to see what the knowlege level was. After class he asked same question to see how many were grasping the information he presented. Sometimes it got pretty funny and if student didn't understand example or something then some of us might figure another example. It worked very well and we had awesome class. The instructor for pharmacology would do pop quiz on info supposed to be read before class. If he asked question and you weren't even close he'd ask if you read material. If you said yes you got different question. If you said no or missed 2nd question you were sent home and told to read info before you'd be allowed into class. several people missed 2nd or 3rd nites of class due to not reading. This same teacher also gave pretty good reviews for test. He'd tell you what drug and you'd have to figure dosage etc.(different levels on test but same type of drug). It was pretty interesting and I learned a lot

I agree with Nate on Tx rules on DNR's It's either all or nothing, but in clinical we had one who had DR and actually changed mind right before he coded on us. It didn't really affect us because we were pulling into the ED when he coded. It was worked as full code and he survived. We all had to write short documentation of what pt said just to play CYA. Living will is whole different ball game. Hey Nate or Dust, I heard something about rules for Living Will gonna change in Tx. Don't know if it was true or BS. Could you let me know if you hear anything about that. Thx

The school that I'm attending REQUIRES (these are minimum requirements) 48 hours Ambo( or 40 and 8 with fire rig who are first responders here) 40 in ED and 8 Labor and Delivery( Must witness at least one natural childbirth or redo shift) Like I said these are just minimum requirements. They really would like you to do more if you are able. We also have to document ALL pt contact, mentor surveys, student evals, you must also do skills check offs. (vitals, bandaging splinting, CPR, 02 admin NRB BVM etc. You must conduct Equipment check of rig you are riding in. They make us carry notebook to document all of this. If you don't get enough ride time, ED time etc. they will make you repeat clinicals portion of next class. Some of the precepts make you really do it. Some prefer you to watch and some tell you that when you ready to handle get in and show em what you've got. They want us to give Pt reports to ED staff. Make Pt reports on radio show you can use 911 mapbook. My preceptor even had me get equipment ready enroute to call. Lifepack, airway bag, drug box etc. Whatever I thought we'd need. I was only wrong once and it was because I picked up one thing he didn't think we'd need. It's not easy but it was well worth it. I feel like every student from Basic to medic should do a lot more rideout time. I learned a bunch. It's also a chance to see what you've got if you've got jitters you've got someone there to take over if you lose it.

What state are you in? Regulations and education vary somewhat from state to state.

Noah I'm not sure about the type of trucks they run there but here they run ALS with EMT-B / EMT-P teams on every truck. Hope that helps.

Ok Nate Confession is good for the soul. That part about "penis pain" is a quote of a run sheet done on yourself. SHAME SHAME LOL

So i've heard. There's one other Doc at Hermann that's supposed to be awesome and keeps his dog in his office. He's trauma surgeon I believe but I can't remember his name.

Hey flight I've heard of him. I think i've transported a pt or 2 of his when I was doing clinicals. I've never heard anything but good about him here. Dr Duke is pretty awesome too. Hope things are ok with him. I'll say an extra prayer tonite.

Listening to all of these comments about preceptors leads me to believe that we have a pretty good system in place here. After each ride out or ER rotation the preceptor (even if worked with before) fills out a survey on our performance. ( Skills, attitude towards pt's, Basically everything we do.) We also fill out pt report for each pt and document EVERYTHING we did(except personal identification info so as not to violate HIPPA) At the end of the shift and without showing the preceptor we do a critique of how they did teaching us.(answers questions, attitude towards student, etc etc.) I had a lot of great preceptors and was actually told if i had time left and come ride with them some more. They stated that they liked the way I dealt with my pt's. I told them my name and that I am a student but I would be provided the main treatment and /or monitoring while they were in our care and then I introduced the medic/basic who was riding on transport with me.(unless it was trauma call) The patient is only in your care for a very short time and that extra little bit of kindness is definately remembered by the pt. It also makes you feel good for making a difference. You can tell in reactions from pt. I only had one preceptor that I had problem with, she was charge nurse in ED. We had been on shift since 2400hrs and were scheduled til 1200. Anything and everything that could be done (linens, cleaning transports upstairs, equipment checked and she sent word to us that "Students don't need to be standing around!" We sent word back to her that EVERYTHING was done. When she told us again I decided to call it a nite because it was dead that morning. My partner (fellow student) had to get his paperwork and time sheet signed off. She looked at his reports and said "You haven't done all of this this morning." He said very observant but if you'll look at the times actually we did. Most of the times were between 2400 and about 0500. She signed off on them and the next day got a call from her boss because he got a copy of report I wrote to EMS Dept head at my school. She got suspended 3 days because it wasn't the first time she had attitude prob with students. She tried to use them as slave labor instead of teaching them.. Anyway good luck on getting all of this straightened out.

This actually sounds like a "panic attack" it was stated in report that pt was involved in family disturbance. Some people just respond better to stress than others or simple throw an odd sort of physical fit to make everyone feel sorry for them. This is just more severe with the tongue droop. I think it was an overstated physical response to stress from pt. Prolly mostly BS.

The only way you'll get to see anything on that site is to pay them. Too bad you can't copy the stories in here from the site instead of linking to the site.

I'm still trying to get a job in the field. I'd be in heaven at 9.50/hr. The 2 services here pay CRAP $6.75/hr. The very sad thing is this. The service here owns EMSA in Tulsa and OK City. The governing group for that company is called Paramedics Plus. It's sad that right now I work on cars all day long in a fast lube and make more than an EMT-B who within reason has a part in life or death actions for patients. (whether it be driving rig or cpr or whatever.) I'd have to take 3.50/hr paycut to start here.

I know when I was doing my clinical rotations I was talking to the charge nurse on my L and D rotation. I'd been up for 16 hours working a rotation in the ER and then went to L & D. She stated that if I were paid employee she would have to send me home at 20 hours for that day. She stated that it was a law no more than 20 hours in one day. She said as it was if I observed my objective for that rotation (observe natural birth) then she was sending me packing and would give me credit for rest of time. As far as on the bus the service here has several different shifts. Anything from 8 to 48 hour shifts. I was riding on 12 hour night shifts 1730 to 0530. If not on run we could sleep as long as radio woke us up (which seemed to happen very regularly LOL)

You Are a Dreaming Soul Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul What Kind of Soul Are You? http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofsoulareyouquiz/

A brand of boot that wasn't mentioned is Hi-Tech. They make a good boot and pretty comfortable. www.galls.com has pretty good selection of boots to check out. Hope this helps.

Good Luck on your tests. If your memory is anything like your tenacity to make things right you will breeze through. Good Luck again and keep us informed.

I think a Reader's Digest column summed it up in it's title. Laughter the Best Medicine. The day that you lose your sense of humor you also lose your sanity.

SIGNIFICANT other. I think we all know what that means. EMS can be very crazy. Depending on your system you can run anything from basic transports to MCI's. 98% of this job means seeing people at their worst and eventually that will take a toll on any human being. The hours can be nuts. But we do it because we love helping people. It is hard for them to understand all that we go through and see on a daily basis, it can scare the crap out of them, or they get depressed for you. When you're home make sure the quality time is there, another idea is to have your significant other talk to spouses etc of friends at work who have good marriage. Sometimes hearing it from someone who's going through same thing does wonders you'd never be able to. But above all else COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE. I'm actually very lucky my wife doesn't always like the hours when I'm in school and my clinical times but she and the kids think that what I'm doing is pretty great. One night when I was off I saw my preceptor posting near my residence and he let the kids check out the back of the ambulance and see the jumpseat where I stayed while waiting on calls. It definately helped them feel better about it. Good Luck