Stay and Play or Load and Go? I had many interesting comments on this issue following a brief discussion of a call in my post on scene management called An Unappreciated Skill. While my style is always evolving, these are my current thoughts on the continual question. *** First off, my goal is to arrive at…
EMT to Medic School
My post on Tuesday generated quite a number of comments centering around the issue of EMTs going right from EMT class to medic school. Here are my thoughts on it: When I started you had to have at least a year of field experience before they would even consider you for admission to medic school….
An Underappreciated Skill
What makes a great EMT or a great paramedic? I’ll start of with some common and easy answers –compassion, impressive medical knowledge, outstanding airway and IV skills, cool head under crisis. I could go on. While this would clearly make a great subject for another post, what I want to talk about today is a…
You Aren’t Talking to Me
There is a scene in Apocalypse Nowwhere the Martin Sheen character shows up at an outpost base that is under fire by enemy forces and has been every night for months. He walks through the chaos looking for someone to report to. He asks a soldier who’s in charge and the flustered man says, “I thought…
Class in America
We went to a doctor’s office for an unknown. The secretary led us to an exam room where a man in his sixties sat in a wheelchair, his chin on his chest,eyes closed, looking very tired. He had a huge distended abdomen and a hint of a yellow tinge to his skin. His wife was…
Letter to a New Preceptee
You are probably excited and apprehensive about starting your preceptorship. I know I was many years ago when it was my turn. I wondered whether I would make it – whether I was cut out for this job, whether I had spent so much time and effort studying only to fail, to have to hang…
EMS Haiku
Eric from the EMS Haiku site has just posted his trip report from the JEMS EMS Today conference. Like his blog, it is a good read. His post gives a good feel for what the conference is like, complete with educational session recaps and photos of interesting products. Add his site to your bookmarks.
A Cigarette
The mental health team meets us outside. “We should wait for the police,” the clinician says. “She’s a big woman. When we went back up there she had a knife near her that wasn’t there the first time we were up with her. She’s very anxious today. When she’s off her meds, she can be…
New Boots
A couple weeks ago I noticed the soles were starting to peel away from my boots. I tried to ignore it at first. I was in denial. I didn’t want to admit that the end was near. I spend some time surfing the internet looking at new boots, thinking I should have some on hand…
The Other Side
I had just left the locker room at the fitness center and was standing at the information desk when a man ran out of the men’s room and said, “Somebody call 911, he’s having a heart attack!” Now I hate these situations. I am in “plainclothes.” I am anonymous, yet I carry a card that…
King Sugar
It’s been my week for diabetics. Actually where I work, as I’ve written before, is a diabetic town. Some towns are trauma towns or heroin towns. I work the streets of a diabetic town. Lots of African-Americans and Jamaican-Americans with diabetes. I’m constantly going into dark cluttered homes or into nursing homes for the unresponsive….
EJ
Unresponsive in the waiting room of a large medical clinic. The woman is a GCS of 3 – no response at all. The staff thought she was sleeping, and then after walking by her multiple times, they finally noticed she was awfully pale and clammy. They checked her sugar. It was ten. I notice what…
A Nap
Got called to a nursing home for an unresponsive, found an obese woman laying across the bed, snoring respirations. Nurse says patient has been nodding off all morning, and won’t respond to her at all. Plus her SAts are low. This is not like her. Deep sternal rub opens her eyes, but then she shuts…
Bloggers and PodCasters
The night before I left Baltimore, I met up with some bloggers and podcasters at a local sportsbar. It was great to put faces with people. The meeting was organized by Eric Augustus of EMS Haiku and Dan White of Paramedic Blog. Dan works for alliance medical and is the man behind the AllMed AVC…
No Problem
We get called for a diabetic and arrive at the nursing home to find one nurse pouring orange juice in the woman’s mouth, while another nurse checks her blood sugar. On the bed table, I see an empty glucagon vial and a syringe. “Her sugar was forty and she was vomiting,” the nurse says. I…
Funk
Back at work. I’ve been trying to put together my conference notes, but for some reason I just feel all EMSed out. It’s odd because usually when I come back from a conference, I’m all psyched up and rearing to go. Today, its been like “What hospital do you want to go to? Okay. We’re…
Hot Dogs
Been slow this week and most of the calls have been for young people with the flu. Yesterday I had a seventeen-year old with fever and diarrhea. He spoke in a death bed whisper. I wanted to say you are not on TV or trying out for a movie role — there is nothing wrong…
JEMS – Bloggers
I understand some EMS bloggers are going to try to get together down at JEMS on Friday night. I am going to try to meet up with them. Blogger Meeting From what I gather, the group could include: EMS HaikuParamedic BlogMad Dog Medic and possibly more. I know Baby Medic will be down there as…
Blogging About EMS
It seems that with increasing frequency I am reading or hearing about someone involved in EMS getting in trouble, and occasionally losing their job over what they have written in their blog or posted on the internet. The link below is the latest story: Warning Issued to Kentucky Paramedic After Web Site Posting When I first considered…
The AutoPulse
A reader asked me to comment on the AutoPulse, the automated CPR device that straps around a patient’s chest and delievers compressions at a consistent rate and depth. Let me start by saying I have never used the device. I have talked to many medics who have and who have been amazed at the machine’s…