EMS-Cat

My rule of thumb is 'if you think it might be a concern [based on MOI, scene situation, gut feeling, etc] then collar them'. What might happen if you do it and it turns out not needed? Probably not a lot. What might happen if it was needed and you didn't do it? Could be a lot of bad for a long time for the poor guy. I always lean toward the side of caution. I'd want someone to take that attitude with me and mine.

And here's the URL to leave an email. Olympus Email Center

Welcome to the prevailing attitude here: "If you ain't a paramedic, you ain't nothin'." [Notice I said 'paramedic' because, so far as a lot of the world is concerned, if you provide front line - first responder care, you are a medic. ] And wait, it gets even better. The EMT-Ps start lashing at each other because one person's number of classroom hours - clinical hours - the way they hold their mouths when they tube -isn't the same as someone elses so it's not as good as their program, credential, what-have-you. I happen to be an EMT-B right now. Pretty much any time I've answered a question or made a statement as an EMT-B, I've been told I shouldn't be doing it, I don't have enough training, I'm putting the patient at risk by just breathing the same air. Doesn't make a squat of difference if I've got a Med Director who's approved my protocols, whose name and license I am practicing under, I just 'shouldn't be doing that'. It gets more than a bit after a while. And the fun thing is, no one [well, next to no one] ever asks if you have more training than the initials you currently list. They see you only as an EMT-B and that's it. Even if you do managed to establish a bit of 'street cred', the next poor slob who happens to mess up [and there will always be the bottom of the pile in both professions: EMT-B and EMT-P] will being everyone back down to the lowest common denominator in their eyes again. So now I pretty much just lurk here, read a couple of post and answer next to none because a person can only be professionally slammed and insulted so many times before they simply leave the fray, remembering that this forum is really a pretty small pond in the vast world of EMS care and, in the end, isn't worth the aggravation at the end of the day. You will not change the minds of anyone here about the usefulness of the EMT-B as a BLS provider. You will not change anyone's mind about the efficacy of EMT-B's having a pharmacology they can provide as a first responder before ALS shows up. You simply won't change anyone who is totally set in their 'My way is the one and only true and right way to do things' head set. You will get knocked about, slammed and professionally ground into the dirt. And that's sad, because I thought we were all here to share information and to help save lives. EMS-Cat LPN/RN, RRT/CRTT, OST, EMT-B [WA], NREMT-B US Army [ret] E-8/MSG, 91C50Z

My general hospital unit deployed to the Gulf in 90/91 [Gulf Classic]. We had the unit's official motto: "Comfort and Aid" Then our deployment motto: "Best health care under the sun." And the unofficial one that was printed on t-shirts in Arabic: "What time does the next plane leave?" And then there was the post-a-note I had on my billets door: "I've been all I can be. Can I go home now?" The head shed was *not* a happy camper with that, but my 'kids' thought it was a cool thing that 'Sergent Mom' had a sense of humor.

I'm finding that hard to believe myself. Are you sure it's your county and not just the program you're in? We had to do a min. of 10 hours with a min of 10 patient contacts in my course and that didn't count ride-alongs with the FD we were affiliated with. How can you possibly know if this is what you want to do, and what you can do, without actually trying to do it? Sounds totally screwy to me.

Don't know that I can find my patch, but I've got one of the old 'charter member' pins around here somewhere.

Congratulations! Let us know how things go.

The most common usage I've seen for bgl over the years has been for blood glucose. I know about blood gas labs because in a couple of departments where I worked, the RTs did the ABG's and we had to qualify and keep to standard. However, it's not really accurate to say there's only one and true definition behind an acronym. A quick Google brought up the following for BGL [this is by no means extensive - I stopped checking after 55 hits]: site one site two site three site four site five site six For medical acronyms alone, we have: Blood Glucose Level Bartholin's Gland Blood Garlic Level {Medical Physiology } Blood Gas Laboratories But, we also have: Blue Grass Tours, Inc. (Blue Grass Lines) Bulgarian Lev (former currency code; now BGN) Budget and General Ledger Bomb Laser Guided BlueGene/L, {an IBM computer, currently the world's fastest} Banque Générale du Luxembourg Now, I'm not saying the ones from the last group are things we're likely to find in our everyday medical charting, but they are example of how versatile three little letters can be. In the FWIW Dept: Often times there can be mx [multiple] deff [definitions] for a spec [specific] abbrv [abbreviation]. Some are common to a field and others more individual and some simply take on a life of their own. I cite, for example: DOE: We usually see it as 'dyspnic on exertion' but I've also seen 'died on elevator' after a somewhat traumatic but strange code where, in the middle of transporting the patient from the ER to CCU, the back two wheels of the bed fell off and dropped down the elevator shaft. The patient was non-revivable and pronounced on the elevator. TLC: Depending on your medical perspective, this can be 'Tender Loving Care' or, if you're an RT, it's Total Lung Capacity'. But for those days when you really want to just chuck it all out the back door, it could mean 'Tough luck, Charlie'. SOB: Obviously there are two minds as to the use of this abbreviation. However, if you combine them, [sOBx2], you now have not only a clinical observation but you can warn everyone who sees the patient after you that things might be a bit … fractious. Than there are the variants: DOA-SS: We're all aware of the use of DOA [Dead On Arrival], but this variant was created for the kind soul who drove his car to the hospital parking lot between the ER and the Funeral Home which shared the same parking area and proceeded to 'EOG' [Eat Own Gun]. Sometimes 'Necessity is the Mother of Invention'. And sometime She's simply a Mother.

Please don't forget the classic c/o: JDFR <Just Don't Feel Right> and the ped equivalent JAR <Just Ain't Right>. :wink: {Currently dealing with my cat and his 'DAR' phase. <Don't Act Right>}

One option [and I'm not sure how viable] - check with your local Red Cross. I know my chapter provides EMT's for a lot of the local high school/college and special Olympics events. They may have some ideas how you could accomplish what you've got in mind on your campus. Good luck! It sounds like a very 'win-win' situation for both you, the other EMT's and the students. Keep us informed on hos it's going, please?

Wa. State licenses at FR, EMT-B, EMT-I and EMT-P level. It does not recognize NREMT in place of a state license, as I understand it. I believe an except is made on a federal reservation [military base, etc] as they don't always fall under state regulation.

A nice collection of articles in general. Nat'l Association of EMS Physicians - Position Papers

O-kay... A few years ago my husband related a dream where myself and two of my female friends were shooting up a Walgreens using Mary-Kay pink Uzis. Not sure why Walgreens and sure as heck don't understand the pink, but I admire his taste in firearms. So did the other two gals when they heard about it. Me? It's heights. But only in certain situations. I can rock climb fine, but it's the coming back down, having to look to see where my foot goes that's rough. I used to rappel. A lot. Or jumping. Out of the plane is fine, it's that last 50 feet when the grounds coming up fast. Or leaning over a balcony in a big theater. So long as it a long way down, it doesn't bother me. But if I can *see* bottom, then it gets to me.

The real basics: things like equipment and kit checks, restocking when done, etc. There are few things that can cause more terror than grabbing for something in a crunch and finding it it was used / dirtied / broken and now you don't have what you need. I've been burned that way in hospital based medicine a time or two and actually managed to get quite a few folks mad at me because I'd double check things coming on shift. If I took over the heart room, I'd double check supplies before accepting the turnover of the case and patient. It was to no ones benefit if I had to keep running out to get stuff when I was the only anesthesia assistant in the room. Better I do it before the other shift left. I always checked the crash cart to see when it was last stocked and was it still locked, if the defib had been checked and was working, stuff like that. It's a routine that will only take a few minutes of you day, but can save a lot of heart ache. And if I used something, I replaced it before I went off shift. That's only common professional courtesy.

"Wish Bone"? Not going there...

Apparently I'm immortal because the Internet says I haven't died. Yet.

Ah nude? Yes. Public? Yes. Arrested? Nope, ran too fast. But anyone who wants to skinny dip in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington State on New Year's Eve better be able to run fast. Let's see... the person below me has lost track of what day of the week it is more than once.

You betch'um! And oshimi! I draw the line and anything that's served with more eyes then the creature originally started out with however. Let's see... The person below me admits to dancing disco.

My personal spine board horror story which actually has very little to do with the fact I was on the board, but what happened when I got to the ER. Fairly aggressive full speed rear-end coll. P/U truck vs our 3/4 camper van. Hit hard enough to pop the refer out of it's frame and launch a 40 qt Gott cooler the length of the van [my lower back had an imprint of 'ott' for a week], broke my captain's chair free of it's frame and shoved it under the dash. We slid across two lanes of traffic and hit a guard rail at a 45 degree angle. Would have been a *lot* worse if husband hadn't been a really good driver and shed impact speed like crazy before we hit. Documented LOC, the whole bit. The EMS team on arrival did everything right and I deff. warranted a collar and backboard out of the deal. Then problem was out county protocols, at that time, set transport to the nearest facility ER. Said nearest ER was one that pretty much no one would take a dead cat to at that time - it's cleaned up a bit since then because it no longer has any delusions about being a real hospital and understands it's pretty much a basic gen med/surg/day surg stop-over. Got to the ER, was checked in by an RN, had vitals taken and then left alone in a room with no view of the nurse's desk and, here's a biggie, no buzzer, call bell, nothing, for over 20 minutes [remember the whole c-collar, secured to a back board thing]. After about half an hour a PA comes in. [Here I state I have nothing against PA - I good one is a dream come true. A bad one is BAD]. He pretty much says nothing, reads the chart, and then his physical is comprised of removing the c-collar, shoving a hand behind my neck and asking if that hurt, shoving another under my lower back, asking the same and then removing the straps and tape and rolling me off the board and onto the gurney. Did anyone notice absolutely no x-rays or labs or anything between admit and removal from the board? I certainly did. I was then discharged home with a bottle of Percodan. Right ... On followup with my real doc the next day, I demonstrated some pretty aggressive back muscle strain and a moderate whiplash with hyper extension/flexion of the neck on x-ray. Husband, who wasn't even seen by the ER PA, showed a hairline crack of the vertebral body on C-4 from a flying object in the vehicle. FWIW: The lawsuit took a couple of years to settle, the guy who hit us had no insurance [in a mandatory insurance state, btw], his daughter, who was in the back seat at the time, was admitted for observation for abd pain [he failed to tell anyone she was in the truck at the time - the State Patrolman saw he when he check out the truck sitting there holding her belly] and the hospital got off scott free by showing they had beefed up ER policies since then and had fired the PA and his supervising doc lost privileges there. And a fun time was hand by none.

AH! You caught me all right! :wink: Let's see... the person below me can fix anything with a paper clip, a shoelace and a roll of dict tape.

The thread on the cell phone brought this situation to mind. And since we as a career field live with electronics in our back pocket, I was wonder who of you out there might have a pager story to share. Here's one of mine. I was working with a guy on evening shift at a major military hospital back in the mid 70's who'd had just one too many pages that evening. Being the shift super, It fell upon me to explain to the AOD [Admin Officer on Duty] and the SNCOD [senior NCO on Duty] why we needed a replacement pager issued. The 'official story' was it 'fell in' when he leaned over to ... ah ... flush. The real story is simply this: the old fashioned boxy Motorola pagers simply won't make it through that bend in the bottom of the toilet bowl. No way I was going to fink on him when I'd been contemplating the whole idea myself - he just beat me to it. Back then we had two [count them, only 2] RT's on evening shift for a whole 750+ [give or take 200 beds depending on what was going on at the time] military medical center with 6 acute ICU beds, 8 step-down, the same with CCU, a 24/7 OR/RR, a NICU and a very active ER. Occ. we'd get 91V [military designation for an RT] rotating in from the field units for hospital time, but you couldn't count on it. Hectic was our middle name. If we got swamped than the floor staff got the basic care dumped on them [sVN, trach care, etc], but life, she's like that. And let's not even go into what would happen if one of the two of us got sick. Six day weeks were not uncommon the first year I was there. Civil service wasn't sure what an RT even was [we were 'medical machine technicians' back then] and the Army had just created the 91V MOS around 1975 when I came in Reserves. To say we were spread thin is an understatement. It's gotten much, *much* better now.

I first took my EMT back in 1973, got my state license and my Nat'l registry and kept it active for probably 12 years along with the other things medical I was doing at the time. I've recently retook the class and relicensed/ reregistered. I'm planning/hoping to go on to EMT-P in the next couple of years. I turned 54 the 10th of this month. As long as you can mentally and physically do the job for the people you work/volunteer for/with, I say 'Go For It!'. Maturity brings it's own benefits to this field.

I remember the days when you had to take a test and pay to get your CB license. You were issued a physical license and a call sign pretty much like any other radio operator and station and restricted to a specific collection of frequencies and transmit power. Many, many years ago. {KQK-4314 - operating under the handle of 'The Calico Cat' and I wish I could remember the call sign from my old HAM novice code only license from 1968, but I can't right now...}

Sorry, my name is not 'Pat' or 'Sam'. Let's see... 'The person below me has been dealing with their secret chocolate addiction for years'.

Sorry - wrong gender. The person below me likes Thai food.