bunnos

Sorry Dust, In the past, most training was done via in service short courses. Then came the choice to study the diploma and Btech through a technical university - giving us the choice of which route to follow. The current movement is away from all short courses except the basic life support. Reasons for this are due to higher levels of education and better controls. Things have seemed to relax since 1994, with more people slipping through the system and less money getting to where it should be getting.

Good post Ratel I thought twice about getting involved in this one, as the current situation in South Africa depresses me, however – I feel that I could probably shed some light, having grown up in the South African EMS system. The EMS is split up into the government system and the private system (in which there are two major players). The usual setup is to run an ambulance with one BLS provider and one ILS provider, with the ALS Paramedic alone in a response car – however this does change from area to area. The article posted relates to the government system only and is pretty much spot on. The Northern province is, by area, the largest province, but is nowhere near the largest by population – it is mostly rural. Private ambulance services operate in this area and thus there are ALS paramedics there. In all major provinces, the government ambulances do end up transporting a lot more than one patient at a time – unless they are a priority 1 pt. This is largely due to the huge amount of patients needing assistance coupled with a shortage of paramedics. However, due to poor public education, the EMS is forced to transport patients that have absolutely no medical need for an ambulance. The public call for ambulances to transport them to clinics and hospitals for general appointments. It has gone so far that they have realised if they tell the call taker that they cannot breathe, the ambulance will come sooner. There is a problem trying to retain paramedics in South Africa – especially in the rural areas – things such as poor working conditions and low salaries are major factors here. It is due to all of this that I am in full support of private ambulance services operating in South Africa. On the other hand, this environment is a great place for keen EMT’s and Paramedics to gain a massive amount of experience in very short spaces of time – there are very few other places where paramedics get to put their skills into practice so regularly. I can tell you loads of horror stories, but plenty of good one’s too I hope this provides a better view.

Yup Dust, thats what i was getting at

I dont know about you guys, but generally when i have a final year student working with me - I end up asking all the questions

I agree with most of the above posts. I think that greed is the major player here, unfortunately what he has done tends to give the public the wrong impression about firefighters in general. I also agree that its not cool that he claims to be part of the special forces. The company that I work for is contracted to the military so I get to see how hard these guys train - I would like to see him get through their tests. I think he will get what he deserves - at the end of the day he is a thief.

the tomahawk style sounds like what we call ice picking. eg sitting on the dashboard and intubating from the front. lots of guys forget about bougies etc that can make things easier or even retrograde - but i guess its personal preferences. the trick is to make things as easy as possible - if u can move the patient safely then do it. i beleive "paramedicine " is as hard as you make it.

this was an advert for "dormicum" "SLEEP WITH YOUR PARAMEDIC" - DORMICUM

A co-workers girlfriend called me at 03:00 one morning and told me that he wanted to end it and had his drug bag out. i was off duty but raced over their to find him drawing up all the morphine and midazolam he had. Apparently he had threatened this before but noone would take him seriously. after a big wrestling match i overpowered him and took away his drugs. After 6 months of councilling he is now enjoying life again and is very grateful. what im getting at is dont wait for it to get that far. If he is telling u he wants to do it BELIEVE HIM! Use your channels of communication and get him help.