Scaramedic

What city in Oklahoma?? Or should I say town.

You need to talk to LasVegas EMT-I she works for Medic West.

I never wear EMS shirts, but one I would wear would be a quote from JPINFV... Paramedics save lives but EMT's save Paramedics manual labor.

I would look up Farmedic programs and talk to their directors. Heres one I found... Cornell Farmedic

My experience with EMT-I's is very limited as only one service I have worked for allowed EMT-Intermediates. However that agency did not pay the Intermediates any more than it did the Basics. Why Not? Because the unit still had to have a Paramedic on board, hence the intermediate was unnecessary in the greater scheme of things. So if you are going to go for an Intermediate level I would check with agencies you are thinking about working for to see if it's worth the time. 95-Henry when you use the phrase "Paragod" on this site your shooting yourself in the foot as far as credibility goes. Just because someone disagrees with a position of yours and is a Medic it does not automatically make them a Paragod. Also if you can do "everything" a Paramedic can do except push drugs, then what good are you? Administration of medications is the cornerstone of ALS, so essentially your a Basic with "skills." Lastly what kind of system allows an Intermediate to be a supervisor over Paramedics? Explain to me how your 180hr course outweighs (in my case) 1800 hours of study at a University level? I can not imagine an Intermediate showing up on scene and second guessing a Paramedic. Sorry but if your system has you supervising Medics, in the words of Dustdevil your system sucks.

Scaramedic is deeply confused. A member with the name emtb4life is asking questions about becoming an EMT-intermediate? :?: :?: :?:

Yesterday I couldn't spell EMT, but today thanks to the Fire department I is one. :roll:

1. Study the protocols for the service you are riding with. That is one thing you will be quizzed on. 2. Present your self as knowledgeable but not arrogant. You will have to prove to the preceptor you have the chops by doing it not saying it. Except for the knowing your protocols thing above, that is saying it. :dontknow: 3, Prepare to stand by your decisions, like you said ride time will shake up your knowledge. The key is to know why you are doing something. Your preceptor will want you to give a strong clinical reason why you chose any intervention. You need to understand the etiology of the problem and how the intervention helped the patient. This also goes back to the protocols. See a trend here? 4. How aggressive should you be? That is a very fine line, under and over aggressive is a major problem for many interns. When you start your ride-alongs there will be a time when you are just watching the crew work, this is a good time to learn from their style. Watching them gives you a starting point on finding your own rhythm and posture on patient care. Once again protocol comes up, protocols are guidelines not cookbooks. Not every patient will need the interventions lined out in the book, this is the time where you have to decide how aggressive to be with each patient. 5. Keep in mind this is the time to learn and it is the time to screw up without major consequence because you have somebody watching over you. Most preceptors will not let endanger a patient, and after wards they will talk to you about what you did wrong. These debriefings are a great learning experience for you. I hope this helps a little. Good luck and enjoy yourself.

Thanks SM, now I have a new word I can use. I love it, bollock!

First off Welcome to the city. I agree try pressing harder but, there's always a but, also try not pressing so hard. Littman's have pressure sensitive diaphragms and sometimes if you press too hard you can lose sensitivity. As far as practice, here's a good idea. Take blood pressures on your wife or girlfriend. Put on the cuff and get ready to pump it up, then ask her about her day or the last time she went shopping. If she is anything like my wife her chatter will equal that of any noisy environment. :wink:

What's a bollock? I have set back and watch this thread play out but now it's time for my .02. James being a former Tulsa area Medic myself I can understand how the whole mob thing played out. I actually believe there was a large crowd on scene, I have seen this numerous times myself in Tulsa. There's something about Oklahoma and mobs, don't believe me look up the Tulsa Race Riots. So I can see a large crowd of riled up rednecks. 300 seems kind of extreme but in the heat and fear of the moment 20 people can look damn intimidating. Having said that your story did contain a lot of errors. Medically you stuck your foot in your mouth with the "Pt. still seizing and complaining she can't breath" comment. Sorry but if you make a comment like that you have to expect people to call you on it. It seems to me you got caught up in the moment, that is simple to do when you first start out on this job. Regardless of being new by entering the scene you endangered your life and that is unacceptable. When you pull up on situation like that your job is to pull back and wait for PD to secure the scene. You and your partners safety trumps patient care on any call. Scene safety and patient care are important issues, when people on this board see that someone is lacking in either they are going to be honest and let that person know. Hurt feelings be damned you need to learn from this thread, here are a few examples of things you should refresh yourself on... 1. Scene safety 2. Etiology of seizures 3. Scene Safety 4. Sign and Symptoms of Seizure 5. Types of seizures. 6. Scene Safety 7. Treatment/care of seizure patients. 8. Scene Safety 9. Indications/dosage/spelling of Xanax 10. Scene Safety Every mistake we make is chance for us to further our education. Please take this opportunity to learn and make yourself a better provider.

Welcome to the city. I noticed your comments on report writing, let me pass on a little story. When I started my ER rotations for Para school I was tagged up with an MD that was an excellent teacher as well as a great Doc. We had a patient who was hooking up his boat and smashed his thumb between the hitch and receiver. The Doc had tasked me with writing the charts for all patients we saw along with all the usual history and exams. For this patient I wrote a two paragraph diatribe explaining the entire story from beginning to end. I was very proud of myself when I handed it to the Doc expecting a glorious review on my charting abilities. He read the chart and then promptly tore in two saying it was too wordy. He grabbed another chart and wrote this "Crush injury left thumb." He then explained that we need to keep the charts simple and straightforward, get to the root of the problem and that's it. Lesson learned. Later after Para school when I applied for a new job I had to meet with the Medical Control Director for the county. Part of his exam was to chart a run as I would in the field. I filled out my fake run sheet and turned it in. Later during the interview portion he pulled out my chart and said it was the best charting by a Paramedic he had seen. I am not passing this story on to brag but to say that the ER Doc was right, always keep it simple and straightforward. Do not over think it and do not put in unnecessary information and you'll do fine.

Title of thread....Unons Now thats irony. :wink:

For those who want more info on pants... Pants From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Pants are clothing for the body above the ankles and below the waist. The term is an abbreviation of pantaloons, a plurale tantum. However, it has two distinct meanings which vary between regions: In most varieties of English, pants refers to a long outer garment worn over the hips and legs, which in British English are called trousers. In this context, "trousers" can either be synonymous with "pants" or have a more formal connotation. Therefore, all trousers are pants, but not vice-versa; jeans are pants but not trousers, while slacks (formal pants) are both. This definition is consistent with other languages such as the Spanish pantalones, which is contrasted with pantalones cortos (shorts, or literally "short pants"). In British English, the term pants refers to undergarments known variously as underwear or underpants. It is a catch-all term that can denote anything from g-strings to boxer shorts, but all have the common feature that they are worn under trousers, skirts or pyjamas. The word "pants" has acquired humorous connotations in the last few decades, largely among younger people. Many stand-up comedians have used the word adjectively as a light pejorative term, especially when substituting other nouns in famous quotes or excerpts with the word "pants". In Japan, the word pantsu (パンツ) is a loanword from the English word "pants" and refers to underpants; however, it is worth noting that in some parts of Northern England the converse is true, i.e. pants refers to trousers. Other uses Also in the UK "pants" can be used as a slang word for something that is below par. In Canadian drug use slang, "pants" can sometimes be a codeword for heroin. Pants is considered by some an inherently funny word, e.g. the Spongebob Squarepants episode about ripped pants. Clarence "Pants" Rowland was a former manager for Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox, guiding them to the 1917 World Series title. To pants someone (used interchangeably with "de-pants") colloquially means to pull a victim's pants down in public Ok so that about covers the pants issue, yes, no?? Peace, Marty :rr:

AK, Be safe. Hey you should get Roy over there and do Road Trip 2007-Afghanistan. Oh man I have a cool idea for T-shirts! Peace, Marty :rr: P.S. Hey can you send me a goat, or maybe a Burka for my wife.

You must be new! Wait let me check, yep new. Peace, Marty :rr:

Another EMS Angel reports for Duty. Peace to our fallen brother and well wishes to his family in their time of loss.

I think the difference in opinion is related to where the posters practice. It seems to me that those of us who work in large urban areas have a different outlook than those who work in rural areas. Let me lay this out for you. Urban EMS-Tend to have more runs per shift, my record is 19 runs and 23 patients transported in a 16 hour shift. The calls also tend to be all over the map as far as type of calls. First call could be a simple NH chest pain, but the next call could be a nice hike up four flights of stairs of a nice new apartment building or a ratty old flop house. You can go from a simple MVA to dangerous scene in a project with multiple gunshot patients. The key to the urban EMS calls are diversity, no one type of run is more common than any other. Also urban EMS tends to work with Urban Fire Departments and the role of each agency is known and well planned. So urban EMS workers tend to carry as little equipment as necessary to do the job. With FD working with us we have multiple personnel on scene, each person carrying the equipment they need for their part of the job. In an MVA fire takes care of extrication issues, EMS takes care of the patient. Rural EMS-Tend to be a bunch of backwoods hillbillies with only four teeth. :evil4: Just kidding. Rural EMS tends to have fewer resources at hand; therefore EMS personnel have to multi-task. With less population they tend to run less calls but those calls can be more serious secondary to response and transport times. With this lack of resources and longer call times they feel the need for more equipment tan those of us in the cities. Hence the "Randy Rescue" syndrome seen so many times in rural EMS. Many times the equipment carried is needed in farm and timber land America. Call volume also affects what they carry, when running one or two calls a day it’s easy to carry 20lbs of equipment on your belt. Unlike their city cousins they do not have to carry equipment up six flights of stairs on a regular basis. When it comes to MVA's many times they are dual role both Fire and EMS. Lets be honest this whole debate is based on equipment needed in an MVA, window punches anyone? In conclusion many of the feelings expressed can be traced back to where the posters work. But, having made the above arguments I must add that experience dictates what we carry also. The older more experienced providers who have ran thousands of calls a year for 10 years is different than those who are just getting into the job and have only ran a hundred calls in their career. A word to the youngsters, listen to the Rids, Dust and Ruffs of the world, they have been there & done that before you were even born. Peace, Marty :bigsmurf: P.S. Ahem... :jerk:

What's a blood pressure? Peace, Marty :evil4:

Yeah I've heard. So glad I'm not there right now.

That's interesting, now I know why EMS crews in Salem S.C. call fire trucks the 'idiotmobile'. Peace, Marty :joker:

There's always Quik Trip food on damn near every post KE5EHI, mmmm good cooking. :roll: I agree you would have to check company and state policies regarding meals for EMS workers. EMS sometimes falls in a special category in some states. Peace, Marty :joker:

A couple of things.. #1. Put all of your private assets in someone else's name, it will save them from the inevitable lawsuit your going to face with that attitude. #2. If a knife never enters your brain for self defense then why do you carry it? You carry a knife as part of a tough guy/girl attitude, and like I said before it's a bigger threat to you or your patients then it is to an attacker. Don't give me the "I cut seat belts with it" line either, it's wreckless and dangerous to have an open blade in a dynamic and confined space. #3. Buying lots of cool gadgets is not a sign of enthusiasm, it's a sign of ignorance. The company you work for should provide everything you need to do your job, if they don't your working for a bad company. So if you work for a good company and they don't provide you with the latest whacker gear it's probably cause you don't need it. I carry my own ears and flashlight cause I prefer them over the company issued ones. Everything else I rely on the company to provide, that's their job not mine. #4. You cannot carry all the crap you want, in fact most agencies have rules on what you can carry. Especially when it comes to privately purchased medical equipment. If you want to run out and buy the latest fiber-optic laser powered laryngoscope with dual exhausts go for it, but most agencies are not going to allow you to use it. Also if you think you are climbing on my unit with a Rambo survival knife think again. You can leave in it your POV or you can leave, and I will have the company backing me up on that. Right now your a Basic so maybe you do not understand an important fact yet, the Paramedic is responsible for what happens on that unit. If I have a whacker partner and he slashes a patient trying to cut a seat belt with a knife my ass is on the line as much as his. That's the reason I will not work with knife carrying partners. Don't like it? Too bad. Peace, Marty :wink: P.S. To the original poster, sorry we got off topic. If you want to find EMT pants I suggest you click on some of the adds on the front page of this site. They have good prices and it helps support EMT City.

Help me here NREMT-Basic are you saying that its OK to carry knives and weapons? Any type of weapon should be forbidden for a Medic to carry, it is dangerous for us and our patients. When you carry a weapon, even a knife, you up the ante to anyone who is going to attack you. The whole escalation of force thing is not an equation I want to be part of. Let the Police carry the weapons they have the training & authority to do so. As far as gizmo's, just exactly does the average Basic need to carry nowadays? The term whacker is synonymous with someone who carries equipment he really doesn't need but looked really cool in the Galls catalog. Hemostats, Ring-cutters, Paratrooper folding knives are all equipment not necessary in day to day EMS. When I work in the field I carry a penlight and pen in my shirt pocket & pager, cellphone and Stinger flashlight on my belt. I also carry a set of ears around my neck. This is the equipment I will use on every shift, I see no reason to carry all the accessories so popular amongst the whacker set. Why do I have these opinions? Experience. I have learned that having too much crap hanging off my belt or in my cargo pants is bulky, noisy and generally a pain in the ass. Rid is giving the posters the benefit of his experience I suggest you listen and learn rather than trying to stir up fights. Peace, Marty :joker: