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Are you really part of EMS???


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doesn't give you enough of a basic or applied medical education to understand what's going on. Can you truly understand why cyanide, for example, is bad if you don't understand biochemistry? Same question regarding the much more likely CO poisoning. Can you truly understand how cardiac medication works without physiology and neurobiology?
While I'm a proponent of further education, as I read the thread I keep getting the repeated thought: Can you truly understand what's going on without being a medical doctor?
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While I'm a proponent of further education, as I read the thread I keep getting the repeated thought: Can you truly understand what's going on without being a medical doctor?

Not really. But then many doctors while they have a degree and a license, have no clue either.

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For good reason doctors train longer than basics do. They do everything basics can and then 1000+ times more.

If your solution to making EMS more professional is to make everyone take more schooling then I think it will backfire. If everyone went to school two years to just start in EMS, and everyone comes out as a paramedic, then the system would fail. Sure they would have the education, but they would lack good experience. Clinicals can be great places for experience, but not enough. Because everything in EMS goes back to the basics, we need to have a strong understanding of it. When you are new to EMS and take that first EMT-Basic course you are overwhelmed with information. The course needs to teach the fundamentals and then let the graduate get out and experience the whole deal. They have to start out small then grow. Without that initial experience when they become Advanced Learned Technicians, they will be lousy. When basics are first starting out riding they are taking in a lot of information. Not only are they worried about their patient care skills, now they have to worry about how to drive an ambulance, where to find everything in the ambulance, how to call for backup, how to deal with other personnel (fire, police), how to deal with certain patients, and how the whole system works.

If people came out as medics with lots of education and we got rid of basics (just because they are not as advanced as the medic) then we would really be kicking ourselves. The technician would have to have extended On The Job Training (covering at least a year) just to be comfortable with their skill. Also we would have to worry about losing a lot of people working EMS. We always need people and losing basics would hurt us. I am confident the loss would be due to increased demand on education and time. As advanced technicians it is our job to be a team player. When we find any technician who is not knowledgeable in an area, it is our job to help that person. That concept will only help EMS. To get these "wacker" basics fired up it might take a guiding hand from someone who sees the whole picture.

S - Worst. Post. Ever.

O - Fourteen year old Echo has a better grasp of EMS and educational reality than you. Neither Canada, nor Holland, nor any of the other countries that have degreed entry requirements for EMS have collapsed. In fact, the US is the only country I know of with organised EMS that is collapsing.

A - Total cluelessness.

P - 1. Education, and lots of it.

2. Maturity.

3. Copious amounts of lurking.

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Dust I believe you under treated this patient. I believe the standard practice for this situation also includes a firm kick in the ass.

Did you BSI and Scene Safe first?

Shoot... I do that and still get clawed by a paitent...

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Ok, its true. They really aren't emergency technicians. I work fora transfer crew but we ride code 3. So I know its not a 911 service but its work.

Good of you to admit it. No shame in any job well done.

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