Timmy

In Victoria, Australia the Ambulance Service and Fire Service use EAS paging.

We use infostream Xstream pagers. They have three folders an emergency folder, non emergency folder and administration folder.

I think the Ambulance Service has 5000 employees and the Fire Service has around 50,000 volunteers and 6,000 paid staff. I know the Fire Service has issued around 30,000 pagers based on your involvement. They can send admin messages to the 30,000 pagers all at once and emergency calls to different fire departments all at once.

In my area if we have a grass and scrub fire on a ‘hot response day’ meaning the fire weather conditions are extreme they automatically page 6 stations in the local area which will turn out 7 tankers all at once and send a page to around 50 volunteers (not all will turn up). In the recent black Saturday fires the comms center was receiving about 800 calls for help every hour, obviously it’s impossible to send this much help especially when your running out of appliances and the paging system did have a backlog of one hour but there’s not much you can do in this situation.

Hi

If he did what they initially requested things may have ended on a sweeter note.

In Australia we use EAS paging, everyone who volunteers gets a pager. This pager has 3 folder:

Folder one – Is the Emergency folder were all the emergency calls come to, the pager tone is really loud.

Folder two - is the none emergency folder were the non emergency calls come to or further information after an emergency call has been sent.

Only the state communications and dispatch centre can send messages to these folders.

Folder three – is the administration folder were a anyone with access to the communications page on the members website. My service has around 40,000 EAS pagers and you can send a message to every paper at once.

Of course my volunteer service is government ran and we have 60,000 volunteers.

I have no problem with 16 and 17 year old responding to a fire, as long as they have appropriate training, good supervision and they’ve proven themselves competent both theoretically and practically. I do disagree with kids riding on an ambulance. If I call for an emergency ambulance I’d like to think two paramedics with at least 3 years education and training are coming to my aid. Just maybe having an EMT and god knows who else driving to roll to the hospital doesn’t do it for me.

I do find the above article a little unprofessional and laid back, I’d like to think they’d promote there program as challenging and educational instead of everyone can come join in, ‘we’ve had 40 kids though so far’.

I know back in the day when I joined the fire service as a 16 year old my basic training included map reading, fire behavior, scene control, entrapment, suppression techniques, communications, basic fire investigation, pump operation, team work, first aid and so on. The initial course ran over about 50 hours practical and theoretical and we’d often head down to the station after school to practice, they gave us quiet a substantial amount of homework to complete and we have a lot of text books and training DVDs. Once you get your basic qualification you were allowed on some calls under strict supervision from a senior firefighter. After one your of active service, you’ve proven your self to be willing to learn and eager they’d let you go on rescue courses, hazmat training, specialist structure courses and so on.

There are written instructions in regards to what happens with the girl during a seizure from the Nero Doc and a psychologist which the parents bring with them, one of these is not to call an ambulance unless the girl has sustained an injury or is not breathing.

The seizures are intermittent, maybe last for 3 minutes then slight break before she goes into another one.

The idea of sending her back to school is based on “normalization” and “routine” that the psych team have implemented in consultation with her medical team.

Hello,

"Seizures started E/C appendix post 7 months with some sort of complication peri surgery."

Just a quick question. What dose 'E/C' mean?

Is 'peri surgery'? Endoscopic surgery?

Difficult situation for EMS. Did the nurse have any patient records from the consulted hospital that may help illuminate the situation?

Cheers,

D

E/C means removal of and per surgery meaning sometime during the surgery they experinenced a complication.

Your at a local high school, everyone knows your involved with the local hospital/EMS and your asked to look in on a girl who the school RN is looking after.

You have a 17 year old female who is having intermittent, spontaneous, tonic clonic seizures. The girl has a history of these seizures, the school RN states these seizures are psychosocial and no epileptic in nature, they think certain stresses may be the trigger (lol).

Seizures started E/C appendix post 7 months with some sort of complication peri surgery. The RN informs you that an ambulance is not to be called on the parents orders, as this issue has been raised before. You call the family who advice you also not to call an ambulance. The girl is under the care of a consulting neruo doctor in a major paediatric hospital and has instructed the family not to call an ambulance, just to take the girl home and rest. The patient is not on any medication or current treatment as the seizures are not epileptic and there unsure of the cause.

The girl has around 9 seizures a day, on this particular day she has a seizure, stops then goes back into one, this continues for about an hour. The parents arrive at the school, thank you very much for your assistance and carry her (still having a seizure) to the car. The girl returns to school the next day only to face the same problem. This situation is a daily/normal occurrence.

You cant get any vitals apart from the patient is maintaining some sort of airway and has a pulse...

Apart from the obvious fact of why they keep sending her back to school, what can you do? Just follow the advice of the people in the know?

Just one example of many regarding today’s society

UTI?

Having just experienced all this first hand I may be able to offer some assistance.

-Non perishable food.

-Personal medications.

-Toiletries.

-Torch with batteries.

-Portable radio with batteries.

-Bottles of water.

As for your medical kit, not an essential part but I guess dressings to stop any major bleeding, band aids and saline. I think everything else can wait until ems arrive.

This should be enough to keep you smelling good, feed, hydrated and up to speed with what ever event is unfolding.

It also depends on what situation your faced with? Flood, fires, storms ect?

I do apologise if I have been short with any of you over the past few days, were burnt out and tired down here.

Were going into the forth week of the fires and insanity. People say life goes on, I know it will but it's hard to see, the fires are still burning and as I speak another is building. Just as you think things are contained another flares up and it all starts again. You try to get on with life but your constantly requested to attended again and again. We've burnt out the interstate and international resources so it's back up to the local guys until further help arrives.

Over the past weeks I've seen and dealt with things I never wish to deal with again so long as I live. So many people have died, so many property's destroyed,so many lives completely shattered and at the drop of a hat it can all happen again. At first your running on adrenaline, then the desire to go back and help but when they ask you again and again to come back your running on nothing, there's no emotion left. I have no desire to go back but every time they ring or email you there scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

I've taken time off school to attend, it has effected my motivation to do my best and I have no desire to study. Even know your away from the major fires and 'resting' you still have to attend local jobs and everyone is in the same boat, tired, emotional and burnt out. When your not doing anything related to the fires your getting the vehicles serviced, working, helping others cope with problems, trying to study, doing admin, attending training, trying to get on with life as per normal and hoping like hell you will wake up and it was all a dream. We all need to rest but we have no time, we've all been going at 100miles an hour for weeks yet it hasnt slowed down. Why wont this craziness stop!

I agree, this is sloppy firefighting! When we attended structure fires its part of the team leaders reasonability to ensure everyone has vacated the building. If it’s safe to go in a provide search and rescue then we do so. If not and were forced to do an external attack we make contact with the owner and ensure the building has been vacated or any information on people who may still be in the building is followed up on.

Basically:

House Fire > no residence home > Search and Rescue > Phone call to owner of property to gain information regarding anything we need to know.

I’ve got the same man ayyyyyyy! Wana see?

First, slow down and think before you write or talk. This will help with you dyslexia. Approaching the situation with a clear head, being calm and think about what your doing will help before you proceed to make an action.

Practice makes perfect, get someone to write you a case study and practice writing patient care reports then have them correct it, re write it again making sure you emphasis on the parts you missed then start over. When you’ve finished be sure to re read over the form and fill in any missed parts.

Similarly with map reading, get someone to pick you a location and find it, practice over the radio if it helps. Write down the directions if you have time, like map your way.

I think IFP means non emergency? I say have a run with these guys, get your skills up to date in a semi non acute manner then move onto emergency ambulance.

Good Luck, I’m sure you will do fine.

lol you cant be serious... If you turn to Chapter 2 of your Mosbey Paramedic Text I'm sure you'll find a little page that will explain your little delamere.

I've had quiet a few Private Messages in regards to people wanting to donate.

The Red Cross is handling donations:

[web:5909eb317b]http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm[/web:5909eb317b]

I'm sure they'd love to hear from you! So many people have lost everything.

I have just returned from being deployed as an EMS volunteer to the savage bushfire emergency which evolved on Saturday morning raging across the state of Victoria, Australia. Currently over 120 people have tragically lost there lives in the roaring blaze and at least 900 houses have been burnt over the past 48 hours. They expect that over 200 more bodies will be found as emergency crews go into rural towns that they were not able to access, towns have been burnt off the map in a matter of minutes.

Saturday I was on standby at a massive water sking race, the temperature was 103F (39C) and the winds were strong. We were keep extremely busy with dehydrated drunks, every emergency resource was stretched then the fires broke out and we had to start sending crews. Phones networks were down, power was flicking on and off, the whole thing was just insane. The state fire service responded to over 500 calls within 12 hours.

Saturday night my crew was sent down to a fire staging area/medical evacuation site were over 50 medical related volunteers congregated, we heard news that over 1000 people were injured in a little rural town and were blocked off from the rest of the world but would be bus'ed into our area as soon as it was safe to do so.

Sunday I headed up to a little town up in the mountains, we were the crew responsible for two evacuation centres and one fire staging area. I've never been involved in anything like this before. Hundreds of people with only the clothes on there back, they'd lost everything. I had people coming up to me asking if I had seen there kids/family members/friends because they fear that they had perished in the fire, some people had lost there family and homes, what do you say to these people?

You feel so in adqued, wishing you could do more for them. We let the kids play in the ambulance and I gave them pupil torches to play with. I tried to hold back tears as people cried on my shoulder after witnessing everything they own and even watching family members go up in flames, but it became to overwhelming. A lot of people still have no idea if there house is standing and are not allowed to go back until the fire has passed and police victim identification have looked around.

We had 2 EMS volunteers looking after the evac centres and staging areas and a paramedic team responding to anything out of the town. The evac centres only had myself and another volunteer, 2 registration volunteers and a hand full of catering volunteers to look after about 400, scared,tired people who lost everything. I had no idea what was going on around the front line, no information what so ever and people were asking questions that I had not idea about. You feel so helpless.

We really didn't have many clinical issues, a few minor injuries and a lot of people who left there house and forgot there medication, we also had to help organise fluids for a dialysis patient.

On the up side, so many people have donated things, even simple things like blankets, toothbrushes, old clothes, pet food ect. So many people offer to help in any way they can. When I got home it was so hard to comprehend what happened, the whole thing unfolded so fast and hit so fast, no one had time to do anything but run.

Investigations are under way into a fire bug who may have started some of the fires, words cant describe the angry I feel towards these people, they have killed so many and completely ruined so many lives. What makes some one start a fire on such a high risk say? It makes me sick!

I don't have a specific study habit, I just do what I do and pray to god I pass. I generally spend hours on end wading through all the useless information trying to depict what I need to know. I don't take notes in class because the teachers just read off a powerpoint and were provided with the exact copy at the end of each class. In the lead up to an exam I will read the chapter, write my own notes then do all the chapter questions and review questions, they generally base parts of there exam from the chapter review questions.

Because my nursing training is a pilot program there pretty all over the shop when it comes to our education and because of the nursing shortage we just get who ever feels like teaching us to deliver the lecture. If I wasn't for doing shifts in the hospital and being constantly exposed to different clinical situations, being thrown in the deep end and treating patients on my own and having good support from the nursing staff then I don't know were I'd be. I do a lot of my own reading and research, I work 40 hours a week in the hospital and 8 hours in class.

I will always take notes on my patients, I carry a note pad in my nursing hip pouch and write down everything about them i.e. What there presenting with, medications, treatment ect then go home a read into everything. I find that reality based learning is so good for me because I can come back the next day and apply that theoretical to a real situation.

Were under a lot of pressure to work overtime because of the nursing shortage, some weeks after working 40 plus hours in the hospital you really dont feel like studying. I would have to say the only time I would study for class is maybe 2 weeks before an exam, the rest of the time I throw my class notes aside to concentrate on learning about the patients that are under my care.

To be truthful I really haven't learnt a great deal in class, some of my lecturers have no idea and if you ask a question that hasn't been covered in the powerpoint they have no idea. How I miss paramedic school!

I have a sneaking suspicion there may be a similar thread regarding this topic.

AK likes to drive around in the Batman Car with a Cape and Tight Underwear.

I'd be a little freaked out if my folks asked me...

The fire doors at my hospital are swinging doors with a mechanical arm thing that close after 5 seconds after the alarm sounds. They close pretty slowly so even if you were standing in the way it couldn’t hurt you. You can open them with your scan card on your ID badge or there is a button near the door you can push for a quick release. I don’t like the whole roller shutter coming down from the roof idea.

I’ve done hundreds of motorsport standbys (motocross, freestyle, monster trucks, street racing, burnouts, dune buggies, supercross, super cars, speedway, sprintcars, crusty demonds, quarter mile, trail bikes ect ect) The only incident I’ve had involving an injured spectator was at a sprintcar speedway event a lady was struck in the head with a clay ball from the track. Sometimes at street racing and burnouts you’d have an asthma attack or two from the tire smoke.

Generally motorsport is really safe for spectators, occasionally you’ll have a freak accident but again it doesn’t happen very often. Just one of those things I guess.

No, I mean how your paramedics can’t perform certain interventions or give medications without consultation. Most times our paramedics don’t even give a heads up before they rock up at the ED doors.