rdelisle

I think another sign of burnout is when you show up on a phsych call and the cops taser you because they think you're crazier than the patient.

Another cool game I sucked at. lol. My 10 y/o daughter kicked my a## and got 680 ft. I think I'll stick to piloting an ambulance.

The goal is to provide health care services to remote and rural communities that may only have a doctor in town once or twice a week or less. A program is up and running in Nova Scotia (input from NS medics?). It is also to free up higher trained resources that are needed more elsewhere. Kevkei, yes I have looked at NS and thank you for the additional links.

Hi all. We are looking at setting up a Community Paramedic program in our region and I am looking for information on similar programs in other areas, such as protocols and procedures. We are looking at doing in-home assesment of CHF, wound care and dressing changes and such. Any info would be helpful. And yes I tried to google the info with no luck.

Dwayne these are a few I could come up with also some come from the EMS Field guide. Heroin = "H", Horse, China white Methadone = Redneck Heroin Cocaine = coke, snow, flake, Bolivian Marching Powder, nose candy Crack Cocaine = crack, rock Methamphetamine = meth, crank, speed, beans GHB = "G", easy lay, liquid X, Blue nitro LSD = acid, purple microdot, sid marajuana = pot, weed, grass, smoke, mary jane oxycodone = oxy,"oc" PCP = angel dust, peace pill, horse tranqulizer, dust good luck.

My first solo call as a PCP was a patient with an allergic reaction to some makeup. To make matters more interesting medical control was still in process, so no meds, just O2 and prayer.

I live and work in a small town so I'm on call 24/7 from home if I know we've got a busy night ahead like the local grad then I take the van home and respond from there, otherwise it sits in the garage and we still manage to beat an 8 minute response time. We have a low call volume so I get paid 40 hrs per week to do house work and play on the PC .

You know it's going down hill when as you approach the scene FD tells you that you won't need any thing, including the stretcher and it's only supposed to be a "Sick Person" call. Also if you respond to an SOB and the patient is coughing up stuff that looks a lot like lung tissue, and everybody is in Hazmat suits.

Dust Are you looking for manual or powered? On our van we carry a V-Vac Res-Q-Vac manual suction unit. It's small with plenty of suction and disposable. We like to use one to suction the contents of a can of "Chunky Stew" as a demonstration, you can empty a large can in about 20 seconds. Also no batteries to die or cords to lose.

Timmy IMHO yes you did the right thing. Epistaxis for long duration or with a history of hypertension is a good indicator of an underlying issue that needs to be checked, not to mention the fact that the bleeding while the patient is sleeping presents a risk of aspiration.

You know you're in EMS too long when the residents of the local care home think of you as family and send you cards on all the holidays, also if when you tell someone your name they don't know you but if you say it's the paramedic they know exactly who you are and where you live. Seriously my wife calls to order pizza and says to deliver it to the paramedic's house otherwise they don't know where to go.

Hi all. Here in Newfoundland average rate for Rural PCP's is $13.00/hr, with hospital based medics making around $18.00. Cost of living is a little lower here but not much.

This has happened to me twice. Get called by the local hospital to respond to the wharf in town for a chest pain aboard a 40' fishing boat. We end up waiting for 45 minutes for the boat to arrive, then crawl into the tiniest cabin I've ever seen to get the Pt. out. At that point we now have to lift them up 6 feet from the deck to the wharf. As a side note I'm 6'5" tall and these cabins are only 5'5" at best, also I get sea sick so not a fun time :oops: . I contacted Coast Guard on one of the calls and they told me they'd be two hours responding :shock: so it was quicker for the Pt. to come to us.

Hammer: Thank you for correcting me on the SSRI issue after further research I found that yes seroquel is an antipsychotic not an SSRI, my info was based on what one of the nurses at the hospital told me. As for the Assisted ventilation's I felt the PT was breathing well enough on their own and not showing signs of hypoxia. In response to your third query I was trained and am currently working in Newfoundland, however I was born and raised in Ontario, and the reason I posted here was to gain new information and knowledge. As an update the Pt was hospitalized on a Monday evening and awake and discharged on the following Wednesday. Kit Kat thank you for posting the info on PCP's and intubations, and thank you to everyone else for the info.

Hi all. Ran a call last night where the Pt. had O/D'd on multiple drugs. Pt. was Unconscious and Unresponsive O/A. O/E pt resp 10 and shallow BP 130/80, O2 Sat's 96%Ra, Pupils 4mm and very sluggish, Pulse 136 and weak. Hx. pt. had swallowed an unknown number of Temazepam, Bromazepam and Seraquil. Pt had also snorted approx. 10 temazepam. TX was NPA, O2@10lpm via NRB, IV. NS. KVO. cardiac monitoring and rapid transport. As a PCP that is the limit of my scope in this type of call. Also had the Pt. secured to a spine board in case of vomiting or waking up combative. I have two questions, what if anything else could I have done, and what is the general outcome of combination Benzo/SSRI ODs?

I wasn't on this one but I was on duty when the call came in. Dispatch received a call from a twenty something year old female for an uncontrolled bleeding call. Upon further questioning from dispatcher the bleeding was said to be coming from her boyfriend's genitals. A unit was dispatched (after a small fight over who would take the call) and on arrival located a twenty something year old male with bleeding from the shaft of his penis. After more questions it was determined that the female had gotten a little exuberant in her lovemaking and tore the males foreskin :shock: . Patient was transported while maintaining pressure on injured part and received an "emergency circumcision" at the hospital. Patient was released the next day.

Hey all. Rumor has it we're switching over to the new standards in October and getting our AEDs re-programed at that time. In anticipation our service purchased the "CPR Anywhere" kits from Laerdal so our people can get a head start on the practice and timings for the new standards.

Unfortunately yes it is the same in my area of Canada, even with provincial health care. We have patients who would rather drive themselves then have to pay a $115.00 ambulance bill. The other problem we have is that some people just don't know the signs and symptoms. To help there, we sent out a brochure outlining the signs and symptoms of stroke and heart attack and what to do in the event that they suspect a heart attack or stroke.

Why is it that when you receive multiple frantic calls for an MVA, when you get to the scene, in the middle of nowhere, all the occupants have run off?