A young doctor I know, who used to be a street paramedic, says the reason paramedics have standing orders is because no two doctors can agree on anything so they let the medics decide based on written guidelines. Otherwise there would be chaos. Where I work I transport patients to any of eight hospitals, but…
Month: August 2008
Solo Again
Yesterday my preceptee didn’t come to work. He told me he might not come in. That was okay because he is pretty much done. We’re just waiting for the hospital coordinator (who officially cuts him loose) to come back from vacation and sign the paperwork. The truth is it was great being the medic again….
My ETA/ The Triage Zone
You call in for orders and medical control asks “What’s your ETA?” That’s an interesting question. There are several answers. I am fifteen minutes from the hospital grounds. I am eighteen minutes from my back door opening. I am twenty minutes from arriving at the triage desk. I am anywhere from twenty-five to fifty minutes…
Summer Report
I apologize for no posts for a week. It’s summertime after all. I have been busy playing with my seven-month-old baby girl, staying up watching the Olympics, while channel-surfing to the Red Sox games (including their epic 19-17 win over the Rangers), and celebrating my fiftieth birthday by running my first triathlon of the year…
Drips, Slow Pushes
I was watching my preceptee give Zofran the other day and I thought that he gave it a little too fast. I didn’t have the stop watch on him, but I was looking for maybe 30 seconds to a minute for the small 4 mg in 2cc injection, and what I saw was about ten…
Family
Sometimes it takes back-to-back calls to help you understand lessons you might not otherwise have thought about. There are family members on scene of most of all calls and they often ask if they can ride along with us. In most cases, we are not traveling to the hospital lights and sirens so we might…