Lungfixer

As for as pay, its not about equity...its about supply and demand. There is (and has been for many years) a huge nursing shortage in the US. Most EMS companies operate on a shoestring budget, whereas hospitals (especially multi-facility health care corporations) have deep pockets and can supplement operating costs with donated funds. Just because RN's get paid a significantly higher salary than EMT-P's doesn't make them more valuable to the medical community...just in higher demand. There is NOTHING fair or equitable about the medical field. Its not fair that non-practicing physicians who testify for malpractice attorneys get paid MORE than they would for practicing medicine. Hell...its REALLY not fair that some closet sex-fiend gets paid OVER $100 MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR for hitting a little white ball across a grass covered field into a slightly larger hole...yet for roughly .045% of that we save lives, during which we sometimes risk our own lives in dangerous situations, and are exposed to every virus, bacteria and bodily secretion known to man. Yeah...that's equity for ya. But like my old man always told me..."You want fair, it comes in October" (he was referring the the State Fair, of course).

I'm not sure if "IronJohn" addressed WHY he was inquiring (I wasn't about to read ALL 13 pages of this thread), but I seriously doubt he was considering changing careers from RN to Paramedic for "career advancement" or was ignorant enough to think there would be a pay scale increase. I am an RRT that obtained my Paramedic certification through a "bridge" program SPECIFICALLY as a requirement for my position with a children's hospital transport team. I'm not certain of the exact reason my dept requires the "Paramedic" cert...but I know that we all MUST have a city ambulance permit to operate, and you need at least an EMT-B to apply for the city permit. Experience-wise, I do not think I am ANYWHERE NEAR the level of a Paramedic that has spent his career working in the EMS field (especially when it comes to adult trauma), but we ARE required to pass the same NREMT-P exam as the Paramedic that went through a two-year program. The bridge program was NOT designed to teach a lay-person to be a full-blown Paramedic in two-weeks, it was designed to teach an EMS approach to medical professionals who have already learned the foundations of health science (human anatomy/physiology, chemistry, biology, pharmacology, etc, etc), and prepare them to take the registry exam...and obviously it must accomplish that, because my one-semester program (along with my 20+ years in hospital medicine) was sufficient enough to earn me "NREMT-P"!!

Yeah...remove vernix first!!

Children's Los Angeles NICU was evaluating one while I was there...I believe it was manufactured by Radiometer America (the same company that made most every T-CO2 monitor I've ever used). But, like you, I have yet to work in a NICU that utilizes them. P.S. Is this website based outside of U.S.?

You're correct, Steve...in fact, you'll never measure "pulse oximetry" on the chest or thigh. However, unlike transcutaneous monitors, pulse oximeters measure the amount of oxygen "saturated" hemoglobin (using UV light and "Beer's" law of absorption) and the calculation is reported as a percentage ( % ). Transcutaneous monitors use the same polarographic electrodes found in blood gas analyzers (Clark electrode for O2, Severinghaus electrode for CO2) and provide a direct measurement of the oxygen that diffuses to the skin surface from the dermal capillary bed beneath. PtcO2 stands for "transcutaneous oxygen tension" (partial pressure of oxygen reported in mmHg or "torr")...the lower case "tc" being the "transcutaneous" portion (duh, I know). If the monitor in the question were measuring carbon dioxide (which it can), it would have read "PtcCO2". Blah, blah, blah...sorry. I was just trying to clear up any confusion about the measurement being reported in torr. P.S. I went ahead and sat for the exam WITHOUT ever knowing the answer to my question. Low and behold, there wasn't even a referrence to TGA in any of the 140 questions!! I'm still curious to know why TGA was the answer (other than the fact that none of the other answers made sense)...but either way, I'm now "RRT-NPS, NREMT-P"...and $500 richer for adding another set of initials (that no one really gives a rats-ass about) to my uniform!! Next up...C-NPT exam.

i am an rt studying to take my nps (neonatal-pediatric specialist) exam, and i'm confused about a cardiac defect question i got wrong on a "mock" examination. this will be my "achilles heel" on the exam because the nicu i work in does not provide care for neonates with cardiac defects (we turf to children's hospital because our hospital has no pediatric cardiology team on staff). anyway, here is the question (correct answer in red): a ptco2 monitor placed on the right thorax of a 2-day-old neonate is reading 80 torr. a second ptco2 monitor placed on the left thigh is reading 50 torr. this would most likely be the result of a. transposition of the great vessels b. ventricular septal defect c. atrial septal defect d. congenital diaphragmatic hernia i automatically rulled-out "a" (the correct answer) because, according to all the literature i've read, a tga will always present with reverse differential cyanosis...which on page 40 of the textbook "pediatric cardiac intensive care" by anthony c. chang is defined as "cyanosis of the upper extremities associated with normal saturation of the lower extremities" this, i assume, is why tga is the only defect where the post-ductal (lower limb) spo2 reading will be higher than the pre-ductal (right hand). if i'm understanding the "reverse" part of the differential cyanosis correctly, the lower extremities would be higher in o2 content than the upper...whether you're using spo2 monitors or ptco2 monitors shouldn't matter. yet the above scenario gives a thigh (lower limb) reading that is lower than the upper reading. i understand with any cyanotic chd they'll be de-oxygenated blood being sent to the body...but its the whole reverse differential cyanosis-thing (which is specific to transposition) that is confusing me. normally i would just commit this answer to memory and move on, but there were two errors on the answer key to the pre-test in this review course...so i just want to make sure the answer they provided really is correct. if anyone here can clarifiy this for me, it would be greatly appreciated.

i forgot to include this in my previous post above if you ever want to know if a particular school's credits will transfer to a community college or major university, ask if they are "regionally" accredited. the major difference between apollo's "national" accreditation with abhes (accrediting bureau of health education schools) and a school with regional accreditation (i.e. community colleges and major universities) is that nationally accredited schools will almost always accept credits from regionally accredited institutions...but regionally accredited schools will almost never accept credits from nationally accredited schools without regional accreditation (or a articulation aggrement)!! most colleges and major universities have both accreditations, but apollo does not! the major benefit of a national accreditation is that students that are eligible for financial aid can apply for all of the same federal grants and loans that they would qualify for if they applied to any major university.

There is an old saying..."You get what you pay for.", but when it comes to Apollo College that saying does NOT apply. I attended the Respiratory Therapy program in 1989 (back when Marge Carlson owned the school), and even then the tuition was almost $9,000 (I could have completed the program at Gateway Community for 1/3 the cost...how little did I know). Our instructor was HEINOUS...she was dumb as a box of rocks, and unable to correctly pronounce 80% of the medical terminology in the course ("Tacky-peen-ya", "Corta-cost-eroids"...I $hit you not!!). Fortunately we had an LVN who was taking the program to correct her on some of them!! Unfortunately, by the time I learned what a mistake I had made, it was too late to receive a refund. I was told at the time I enrolled that Apollo was "accredited", and the credits were transferable to other colleges. I completed the program and graduated with an AAS-RT degree, which has served me fine for the NBRC (national registry) boards and state license. However, when I attempted to transfer to a university to work toward a Bachelor's degree I discovered my Apollo diploma is not worth the paper it's printed on. I was flat-out LIED TO!! Even community colleges refuse to recognize the credits. Apollo College is the equivalent of vocational training (again, for 1/3 the cost I could have obtained a "real" degree from Gateway). I have no knowledge of an agreement between Apollo and ASU (or any other school), but I moved out of Arizona years ago, and just recently I attempted to enroll in a AAS-to-Paramedic, one-semester bridge program at a public two-year college (a requirement for my new position as a Flight Transport Therapist). The school would not recognize ANY of the Apollo credits. Now to meet the requirements of my new position I must take the Basic EMS course, followed by the full Paramedic program...my "one semester" turned into FOUR!! Thanks-a-fu*king-lot, Marge. I called Apollo a few days ago and asked an admission representative if their credits "transfer to a community college or university"...after several deceptive attempts to turn the focus back on what Apollo will accept, she finally answered..."Well, it remains the discretion of the receiving institution whether they'll accept them or not". So basically, call every other school in the entire nation and see if you can find one that accepts Apollo credits. If ANYONE here is considering Apollo College, do so as your LAST resort!! Just my 2-cents, for what its worth.