Scaramedic

[align=center:f31e790adc]Meanwhile Mrs Santa and Mrs Santa's sister hang out in the heat.

[/align:f31e790adc]

Hey grandma the Paramedic's here to help you.

Yeah, the pay is the issue for me. I would love to move to the coast, say Long Beach (WA) or Astoria. Unfortunately the pay for Medics on the coast is pathetic. Yet these guy and gals are responding to some real remote areas. Forget streets or even paved roads. They are responding to logging roads that are one lane wide with log trucks rolling down them at high speed. They might be a good hour away from the city limits at times.

I don't know about where you work Spenac, but I don't work at a limited protocol mother may I system. In fact a lot of our protocols would be better used at some of the rural areas that have much more limited protocols.

This is part of the reason I am going to the dark side, Nurses get payed well everywhere for the most part.

I've gotten a lot of the papers together to try and convince the BC boards that I'm worthy of an ACP certification. I found out King County, Washington, won't recognize reciprocity, thank you very much you bunch of egotistical douchebags.

You'd think having a degree from an accreditied university in paramedicine would be enough to be at least considered for reciprocity, but ohhhh no, no, no, not there, they know best. ASSHOLES!

Think of it less as Paramedic school and more as a an academy for training the Medic One program. Many of the "trainees" are already Para's that have worked for other agencies. The pay and the beni's make it worth it, that is if you want to live in Seattle.

I love Seattle, it's a great place to visit, but the traffic gets old real quick. I have been stuck in stop and go traffic from Tacoma all the way to Seattle. I'm happy living just a couple hours away from the insanity, where you can buy home for under 500k. But the NW is great, I haven't seen a part of the lower 48 that is as beautiful.

Also, are you sure you want to give up the Yankees to come to Mariners country. Just for the record we REALLY hate the Yankees here. Not Boston hate, but close.

Oh as far as scope goes you will not believe the difference. Here the scope includes such things as surgical crics and pericardiocentisis.

Real Tactical Medics where thongs into battle...

...

Look in Timmy's defense he might have been confused by Chuck Norris's new movie...

Nothing but the best for the volley departments on Long Island. You should see some of their firehouses.

Their VOLUNTEERS!!!!

Jesus, I've worked paid most of my career and never worked for a company with it's own boat, and ATV's s.

Oh and by the way, they might want to check out the KKK standards...

3.16.4 EMBLEMS AND MARKINGS.

C. Top markings

A “Star of Life”, of not less than 81 cm (32 in.) (size D) in blue, die cut style,

conforming to Figure 4 (may be without the white Staff of Aesculapius), shall be

provided on the ambulance rooftop.

:wink:

Go big, yadda, yadda, yadda

At least you have a good reason. You could always become a member here. Check out those flack jackets and quads. Volley whackers if I ever saw one.

You have got to check out their website.

I have never seen such a nice website for a company with only five units.

...but all this about nursing education being well structured and held to the highest of standards is a myth.

Considering the current state of most Paramedic programs I would consider even the worst Nursing program a Gold standard.

Nursing isn't for everyone and it's definitely not for me.

For all nurses and Future Nurses (in my case), thank you.

Academically, it would be a breeze and I also have a two year old so I already know how to wipe an ass, I just don't want to get paid for it.

Saying that Nursing is about wiping asses is about as intelligent as saying being a Paramedic is just about driving an ambulance.

Nor obviously do you want to get paid for having a greater knowledge of anatomy, physiology, psychology, algebra, chemistry, biochemistry, sociology, statistics, microbiology, and nutrition. All of which are just the pre-reqs for entering the Nursing program I am hoping to enter. Not to mention the furtherance of understanding the disease, trauma, care and healing process that is part of the program.

I like my Turkeys Wild, just like my women. :wink:

Whiskey Better!!!

It's kind of an extension of the trauma/MAST/permissive hypertension thing.

If this thread turns into a MAST pants debate I am coming to Iraq to for vengeance. :evil:

9 Chuck Norris references in one post, is that a record?

NY Times Article

Ouch!!

Someone wants to speak to you...

It has some defense mechanisms but much these mechanism fail pretty quickly after the body starts shunting blood to the core. After the body reaches a certain temp it vasoconstricts peripheral vessels to protect the brain and internal organs. Actually you do things like shivering to stimulate heat in the muscles and increase cardiac output and respiratory rate. After that the body starts it final defense, shunting blood to the core. Once the blood flow is decrease and eventually stopped is when you get frostbite.

My little theory is that the damage from the venom to the tissues causes it to be more susceptible to cold injury.

Personal Equipment:

Reputation: I tend to pick equipment I have heard good things about. Like why I bought a Littman, I had heard good things from Docs when I was doing Paramedic school rounds.

Ease: How easy is it to get. I just recently bought another pair of boots. I searched the net to find good prices, but in the end I went to local sporting goods store and bought them. It was just easier to try them on and buy them here then order on line.

Price: I am willing to pay more for equipment I know will last.

Company Equipment.

When I used to buy company equipment my priorities included:

Local capability for service and repair: It's great to buy a product cheap, but it's a real pain in the ass if you have to ship it for service and repair.

Ease of use and training: Buying a new product with a high learning curve can be a real problem when your training a large group.

State and local regs: Some equipment must be verified for use by your regulatory agencies. For example a suction unit must reach a certain mm/Hg before it is allowed to go on the streets.

Extendibility/Available upgrades: Can the equipment be upgraded for changing treatment modalities or technology. A prime example of this is the new AHA algorithms and old AED's that cannot be reprogrammed. Also included is this is price of upgrades, does a new module cost more than the piece of equipment itself?

As much as this pains me to say, sigh, I agree with Dwayne.

I was a Football player, when I was in pee-wee football I broke my ankle, bad. So when I played in high school I spent a lot of time after games and practice with ice on my ankle. Lots of time with both real ice and ice packs, and never did I suffer any form of frostbite. Also we are talking about around the ankle, a very thin area of skin.

So I wonder if the issue with frostbite is less with the cold then the necrotic factors of snake bites. Here come the stats...

99% of snake bites in the U.S. are caused by the Crotalidae (pit viper) family of snakes [sup:596694db22](1)[/sup:596694db22]. These include rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and copperheads. Most pit vipers have a hemotoxic venom, i.e it attacks the blood and tissue.

The venom consists of proteins, polypeptides, and enzymes that cause necrosis and hemolysis. Most crotalid venoms damage capillary endothelial cells, resulting in third spacing of plasma and extravasation of erythrocytes.

[sub:596694db22] (1) Venomous Snakebites in the United States: Management Review and Update

GREGORY JUCKETT, M.D., M.P.H., and JOHN G. HANCOX, M.D.

West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia[/sub:596694db22]

In other words the tissue itself is being damaged at the cellular level, especially the capillaries which one of their functions is to circulate warm blood the through the tissues. This of course happens through vasodilation which causes the flushing effect (redness) when say your hands get cold. Now if one considers that a basic heating pad can cause burns on a patient with decreased blood flow, corpses as well. Then it is not a big jump to see that decreased blood flow could lead to the opposite condition with snake bites and ice packs.

So in my opinion is not entirely true to say the ice is responsible for tissue damage. Rather it is the effects of the venom that leads to tissue damage, that makes the tissues more susceptible to frostbite. My argument doesn't nullify the fact that you should not use ice. I am merely trying to understand and explain why ice can cause frostbite in snake bites.

(...Snakes on a Ferry? :angel4: )

I'm on the phone with Samuel L Jackson now. Awesome idea!!!!

I agree if I had a patient break bilateral cuffs I would be bailing out the back to change my shorts and let PD handle it.

My brother (Deputy Sheriff) had a cuffed suspect go ballistic on them, they pepper sprayed him, he went further nuts and actually broke the cuffs. Took multiple Deputies and ASP's to get him down. My brother said it was like the pepper spray just pissed him off more. :shock:

And for the IDIOT that says the statement about not rat'n our your fellow worker.

We require at least 100 posts before you are allowed to call people idiots on this board. What do you think this is Firehouse.com?

Sarcastic answer:

[spoil:d2a1cb7d33]The first two and the last person (fictional character) don't exist. Therefore it would be the RN[/spoil:d2a1cb7d33]

Serious answer:

[spoil:d2a1cb7d33]If they're all off duty, as in the first example, then the answer is still who ever shows up on the ambulance since none of them have an unrestricted license to practice medicine[/spoil:d2a1cb7d33]

So I am assuming you caught the Chasing Amy reference?

No Lone trust me, Washington, Oregon have no venomous snakes West of the Cascades. Never have, never will.

Here's a quote from Washington Fish & Wildlife...

The Western rattlesnake (Croatus viridis, Fig. 4) is common in much of eastern Washington. It is distinguished by its broad, triangular head that is much wider than its neck, the diamond-shaped pattern along the middle of its back, and the rattles on the tip of its tail. Overall color patterns differ with habitat, ranging from olive to brown to gray. Black and white crossbars may occur on the tail. Western rattlesnakes measure 18 inches to 4 feet at maturity. Although many people talk of seeing “timber rattlers,” “diamondbacks,” and “sidewinders,” none of these occur in Washington.

and a snazzy little map.

Something to do with too much rain and not enough heat in summer they have never thrived West of the Cascades.

So forget Ventmedic with his exaggerations and embellished tales. An off duty associate degreed RN, licensed Paramedic, and degreed RT all roll up on a scene, who is the highest level of provider?

I thought Vent was a girl?

How about this: Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, an RN and Johnny From "Emergency" roll up on a scene. who has the highest authority?