Rare Conditions and/or illnesses

[p3medic]

Been lurking, i'm off my meds, so i'll be around for a bit

[ericenglund]

Why do you want to know more about disease processes that you will never likely have to deal with?

Uncommon presentations of common disease is more likely than a common presentation of an uncommon disease.

Focus on the things you are likely to see. Learn how to manage the basics to the point of automaticity, then concern yourself with the unusual. Pick up any medical text and you will find that they spend most of their ink talking about the things that are most likely to present themselves. There is a good reason for this.

I have a huge urge to tell you to shut up, so I'm going to. He said he had a curiousity for rare/interesting illnesses, and I don't see anything wrong with this. Not to mention WHY DO YOU CARE why he wants to know? Get off your damn pedestal and SHUT UP.

/soapbox

[chbare]

Off Topic Warning!

Ericenglund, AZCEP gave solid advice. As a new provider, it is critical to master the fundamentals of the most commonly encountered disease processes. This will lay a solid foundation for the new provider. In addition, most of the rare conditions are often managed using the same or similar modalities as their more mundane counterparts in the pre-hospital environment. Mastery of the fundamentals can only help as a provider. No, I am not telling anybody to quit learning or not to seek out additional knowledge.

Take care,

chbare.

[ericenglund]

Off Topic Warning!

Ericenglund, AZCEP gave solid advice. As a new provider, it is critical to master the fundamentals of the most commonly encountered disease processes. This will lay a solid foundation for the new provider. In addition, most of the rare conditions are often managed using the same or similar modalities as their more mundane counterparts in the pre-hospital environment. Mastery of the fundamentals can only help as a provider. No, I am not telling anybody to quit learning or not to seek out additional knowledge.

Take care,

chbare.

I'm well aware of the fact that rare conditions are less common than common ones. That is why they are considered "rare" and "common". However, I don't think it's required to question why someone asks a question, especially in such a condescending way. He wanted to know because he wanted to know. Done deal. If you have a problem with it, go read something else.

[paramedicmike]

If you have a problem with it, go read something else.

Seems that could apply to you, too, mate. Might want to heed your own advice.

-be safe

[ericenglund]

Seems that could apply to you, too, mate. Might want to heed your own advice.

-be safe

Well if you want to play 3rd grade games I could say the same thing back to you, but whatever. I give up on this thread.

[AZCEP]

I have a huge urge to tell you to shut up, so I'm going to. He said he had a curiousity for rare/interesting illnesses, and I don't see anything wrong with this. Not to mention WHY DO YOU CARE why he wants to know? Get off your damn pedestal and SHUT UP.

/soapbox

And I have a huge urge to tell you something that I'm not willing to sully the forum with, so I won't.

His curiosity is all well and good, but the fact remains the new provider should focus on the things they will likely see, not some remarkable disease process that they never will. He mentioned he was a new provider, and instead of directing him to information that will only clutter his thought process, I suggested he make an effort to determine the situations he is more likely to find himself in.

REAL professional of you to suggest he waste his time.

[EMT City Administrator]

Back on topic please...

[Dustdevil]

I think it is interesting that, when he asks about "rare conditions," we automatically skip to those conditions from the very back of the internal medicine book that we can hardly spell, much less describe. Zebras live much closer to us than we think!

I would say that a good half of the things we learn about in EMT and medic school are extremely rare. Not "rare" in how often they occur, but rare in how often we actually deal with them in EMS. I doubt that I would run out of fingers if I counted the number of times I did bandaging and splinting on a patient in my first couple of years of practice. Traction splints? Ha! Anybody who took that hard of a hit was on the road quickly, without time for a traction splint. How about anything to do with obstetrics? Sure, women are delivering every minute of the day, but we rarely see them. Most of them know when it is time to get their arses to the hospital ahead of time. Delivery in itself is rare enough, much less things like cord prolapse, uterine prolapse, and limb presentation. Organophosphate poisoning? Puhleeze. Choking on food? Never seen a single one in well over thirty years of practice. And how about people who are revived by cardiopulmonary resuscitation? Now THERE is a rare condition if I ever saw one.

So, if you think about it, some of the more rare conditions are the ones we actually spend the most time training for. Yes, I know there is a good reason for that, but that is my point. I think what AZCEP was trying to say was that zebras live right here amongst us. We don't have to go searching for them in Africa. Worry about the ones that are our neighbours first.

[JakeEMTP]

Wow man, that's deep. 8)