RaceMedic

I admire your belief in unconditional love. I don't share it, nor do i believe in it. but thats just me Be Safe Race

I think having a fire engine respond to anything medical is a complete waste of resources and money they can't transport and what if a fire happens and there is a delay in an ambulance arrival??? they are stuck.. thats not what a fire engine is designed for so why use it as such. if they want to respond first responce buy an ambulance. I like having PD onscene. Kinda nice for crowd control. and i don't know about your dispatchers but ours can't see through the phone to make sure that its not the upset crazy person who just lost a person close to them and is blaming EMS for it and is going to take it out on who ever respondes to their 911 call. OR the family of a child that dies and takes it out on you on scene. Cops have a purpose, and guns, and tazers, and ASP's, and cuffs and lets not forget the most important of all.... The authority to use them. We are an ALS transport service so we do not have to deal with BLS and intercepts. but if we do need help we do have a crew on stand by tha responds to us so PD and SO can do their jobs and not worry about us... Be Safe Race

You have brought up a ppoint that i had not considered with the cancer PT's and violent crime references. The only thing i can respond to that at this point is maybe the lesson is not for the child or the families of these people. The lesson could be for the rest of us. Now please don't get me wrong, i am in no way a tree hugger environmentalist touchy feely everyone lives in hormony with nature with earth as our commune. I know and admit i have flaws in my thinking but that is what makes me, me. What i answered was my attempt at answering Micheals philosphical question with my attemt at an answer. I have no answer for you ray. Like i said you bring up points that i had not considered when typing this earlier. The lesson may be as simple as maybe we should enforce the laws we have in place now before making new ones to further limit our personal freedoms and lose our right to privacy, in the case of the violent crimes. In the case of the kids with CA. Maybe the parents should not have smoked around the baby as an infant. maybe mom should not have drank and did drugs through out the pregnancy. and to the rest of us.... Sometimes no matter what we do, how we act, or what we say we have to learn accept and realize that sometimes bad things happen. Be Safe Race

Hyper = ITK

I believe that all pain carries a lesson to it. Yes i agree as well that we learn from others mistakes, however i also believe that sometimes the lesson needs to be learned first hand, the person that learns something hurts or has the possibilty to cause pain maybe missing out on something they might really enjoy. For example, say your a young kid and a family member is hurt in a motorcycle wreck. You see the pain that is inflicted on your family. Your parents and others tell you " thats why you should never ride motorcycles" " all they do is cost money and hurt you" you have learned that motorcycles are bad. Are they really ? No. yes there is the possiblity that you could be hurt while riding one, but that holds true for cars and trucks as well. This is a stretch but i think it does make the point. Would i cause more pain to a PT to teach a lesson, or withhold pain management from them if it available to me? Of course not!!! I would try to, talk to them about it. What happened and such. Educate them on the use of safety devices and things of that nature. Sure, i think we all would and would agree that PT education when appropreite is our duty as well as the treatment is. Pain does have its place. whether it be physical or emotional. There is something that can be learned first or second handed from pain. What the lesson is depends on you and the situation your in when it happens. No Micheal your not wasting your time with this. We do provide first responce pre-hospital care primarily, your right. We are also to many that may or may not be hurt phyically a vision of strength and security that they need at that time. We not only have a impact on the physical healing of our PT's, we also in many cases encourage them emotionally and mentally to begin healing. Be Safe Race

If it is the NR test i believe you have two yrs from the date of the last day of you class. i could be wrong it may ony be a yr so .... Good luck dont let the test break you. Be Safe Race

Yea i agree overdrive pacing would have been good but this doesnt seem to be new to her as she knows what to expect. Secondly RVR? i am going to ASSume that you mean regular ventricular rhythm ? If that is the case i disagree if it is indeed a ventricular paced rhythm then it is an accelerated ventricular rhythm. but i doubt that as well all you are showing us is a single lead strip. ther other leads could be showing more of whats going on.. Is this off a life pack 10 ? just curious. my .02 cents anyway Be Safe Race

I agree Rid. in our new touchy feely lets feel good about everything society we have forgetten ( or at least the public has) that there are very real consiquences for their actions or lack there of. The kids today are not learning respect or personal accountability. all they seem to be learning is that if it doesn't feel good to them then they do not need to do it or worry about it. Be Safe Race

By posting what i posted i did not mean to imply that you were ignorant. I hope you did not take is as such. However after two yrs of schooling i prefer not to be called a stretcher person/ ambulance driver. thanks. As far as putting down the HoHo's and quitting smoking, well i don't know about the rest of you all but i don't eat many sweets nor do i smoke. i do go to the gym when im off of my 24 hr shift. My EMS dept's budget isn't near what our fire dept's is so we don't have an in house wieght and work out room like the fire service here does.

My 2 cents about the intubation thing. If he had to jam that hard he was either in the wrong place (did not have good visualization of the cords or had mistaken another part of the anatomy for the cords) or had way to large of a tube. Just a thought. I had never heard of this happening before. Be Safe Race

Hmmmm sounds like you haven't read all the posts. This is nothing more than a venting post and nothing more. yes people have offered ideas as to how to remedy the problems they are having ... but the next time a firefighter with ZERO experiance pushes me out of the way to carry the backboard. thinking thats thier job and the DROPS said PT beacuse they arent sure where the cot is and they just let go hoping it is under the board. Yes it has happened to me and has happened more times than i care to count with the same crew of firemen. They do not run first responce and i DO NOT call them for lifting assistence EVER. they only respond with EMS to MVC's and industrail accidents. They have the oppertunity to train with us they choose not to. So yes i have the right to bitch and being as i am also a firefighter on the Fire dept. Gives me even more of a right to bitch about my dept. Be Safe Race

Hmmmm sounds like you haven't read all the posts. This is nothing more than a venting post and nothing more. yes people have offered ideas as to how to remedy the problems they are having ... but the next time a firefighter with ZERO experiance pushes me out of the way to carry the backboard. thinking thats thier job and the DROPS said PT beacuse they arent sure where the cot is and they just let go hoping it is under the board. Yes it has happened to me and has happened more times than i care to count with the same crew of firemen. They do not run first responce and i DO NOT call them for lifting assistence EVER. they only respond with EMS to MVC's and industrail accidents. They have the oppertunity to train with us they choose not to. So yes i have the right to bitch and being as i am also a firefighter on the Fire dept. Gives me even more of a right to bitch about my dept. Be Safe Race

Hmmmm sounds like you haven't read all the posts. This is nothing more than a venting post and nothing more. yes people have offered ideas as to how to remedy the problems they are having ... but the next time a firefighter with ZERO experiance pushes me out of the way to carry the backboard. thinking thats thier job and the DROPS said PT beacuse they arent sure where the cot is and they just let go hoping it is under the board. Yes it has happened to me and has happened more times than i care to count with the same crew of firemen. They do not run first responce and i DO NOT call them for lifting assistence EVER. they only respond with EMS to MVC's and industrail accidents. They have the oppertunity to train with us they choose not to. So yes i have the right to bitch and being as i am also a firefighter on the Fire dept. Gives me even more of a right to bitch about my dept. Be Safe Race

The dicussion of ALS vs BLS transports does not always apply. In my service you call 911 for an ambulance you get ALS thats it. We have NO BLS responce nor will we ever have BLS responce. We employ only Paramedics full time and that will never change. We do have EMT-B's and I's on our part time staff however they only work with medics and never transport with out a medic. thats just the way it is here where i am. Be Safe Race

I don't want to put out there that i do not care about my students. I take great pride in my teaching and all but beg the students in my classes to be honest and truthful in filling out my evals. that is the only way we can learn to better serve our students and give them what they need outside of what we present and the way we present it. I have worked my butt off to get to where i am and it is only right that those that follow me have to do the same. As Dust pointed out, and i agree the importance to teaching is students remembering what was presented by us as instructers and it being properly implimented in the field or in everyday life. I do teach to that end. My goal is to promote further education and understanding of what is being taught. I have and continue to ask lay people to leave my classes and attend a full 8 hour course to get the proper initial education. I do also teach full 8 hour courses for the local Community college here. I do take the full 8 hrs. i do use the video and i go futher indepth in to the subject matter i want my students to know and be confident enought that if they need to use the skills out in the public and at work that they will with out hesitation. after they have the proper baseline education that the classes can be modified to fit the classes as they form from there. If i have presented myself otherwise that is my fault. I hope this clears up my stance on education. Dust i know you and i have discussed these issues in depth and am not to worried about that. Be Safe Race

Rid, i agree we do lecture to much .. thats the main thing i have shortened in my approach. i do lecture but very breifly. My classes are taught on the floor and tables and where ever thay need to be. I prefer hands on, keeps the class awake and interested in whats being taught and demonstrated. I have recently earned my Training Officer II and will be assisting in medic and basic courses. I feel like i have proven my worth as a "canned" course instructor now i will be attempting the meatier classes if you will. Be Safe Race

Cynic, Thanks for the compliments. Dust you are right most people all they want is out of class early and want the card for work. i understand this but i also know that if you have a class of full time nurses, Doc's and Medics that do what i am teaching for a living (ok im streching it with the docs. LOL ) But you get the picture. you have to agree that sitting for 4 hours watching the same video that gives the same information and nothing new is very redundant and not conducive to education. I should have included that after verification that the students understand and can perform the basics, i like to include personal experiance and run scenario's with the students. For example if the class is made mainly of nursing home employees i will tailor the class to fit what they do. Yes i admit i am ussually done with the class anywhere from 1 to 2 hrs early. The class always remarks that they have learned something new and potentally useful to them and their work. I know i did not outline this before. Not to mention that i also teach the hospital recert courses and they are strictly limited to 2 hrs. I to believe that increased education is the key to furthering EMS as a profession, as you have pointed out. But i can also recognize the need to streamline certain areas of the educational process. Be Safe Race

it keeps getting funnier every time i see it Be Safe Race

personally no i have never seen a bad reaction from glucogon. I have given it many times in the field when i could not get a line for D50. If the medical director figures that EMT-B's can do an IM then who am i to argue, Its their licence in the balance not mine. My personal feelings about B's and I's giving meds. If you want to give meds when your workin with me, then go get yourself and education take a medic course and come back to see me. Be Safe Race

Agreed ... take out your A&P book, read it ... then read it again... then repete. the more you understand how the body works the better you will be at helping it to repair itself.

Thanks Tech.

Agreed... super should have his ass removed!!!! you were in the right and EMS should have been notified on first contact and c/o chest pain.

NS you bring up good points. Being a firefighter myself i work well with our local dept. It's like they feel like i am one of them even though i am a volunteer even though they are full time career firefighters and don't like volunteers. And the same holds true for us on the EMS side ( fire is city and EMS is county run.) feel like the firemen that fill our reserve squad ( as EMT-I's and B's) belong here. they work well with us and do an awesome job. However it is the rest of the Fire Dept. that was forced to become EMT-B's with in a yr of hire that have little to no intrest in the job we do while they are being taught only to find out that when they get to an accident scene they think they know something... only to find out that they only learned enough to really screw things up then get pissed off at us medic when we tell them what they are doing wrong. They always pull the " i know the job im certified " BS line. We have always had an open invitation to come and ride whenever they want to, to date we have 4 active firefighter/EMT-B's. The rest all sit in there stations and bitch that we block them from running medical calls with us. Last thing i want on a medical is a Fire engine blocking any and all available access points to the scene and 4 to 5 firemen standing with their thumbs in their butts because they have no equipment or even O2 on the truck to help. as it is they bitch when we get our own vitals on PT's after arriving on scene after them( thats rare but does happen). Even after it is explained that we even do that when we pick up PT's from the ER for transfers. They even caused our county commission to investigate our response times. That back fired on them as it pointed out that our in-service times were under two minutes on average and on-scene times were averaging less than 4 minutes. where theres were not so impressive. Everyone has posted something that we all have had to deal with. The attitude that a lot of us deal with is that EMS would not be here if it wasn't for Fire. To that i say they are only half right. Yes fire has helped in the advancement of EMS, right up until they figured out that EMS runs 10 times the calls. Then it took the turn that we are the redheaded step children that are used to justify the Multi-million dollar budgets fire dept's have based on run volume that would not be there if EMS was not attached, so they can buy that new Ladder truck or pumper that looks so good in the parade. Even here where we are third service and not attached in any way to the fire dept. they want our run volume to get more money. Now again i am also a Firefighter, but im a Paramedic/Firefighter not the other way around. PT care comes before glory or property. sorry for the rant Be Safe Race

Unfortunately or fortunately i am not able to enjoy the pleasures and general anesthetic properties of ETOH. Actually it is a good thing. I did like to drink i won't lie however i do know that i could easily slip in to that drowning your sorrows bit if i could, but it has nothing to do with work. Be Safe Race

Yea i know all too well... And yes it does no matter what we do to prevent it. Be Safe Race