medic1488

Being from the other side of things (The one getting the call for the patient that needs a taxi ride) I find most hospitals will send directly to triage. It amazes me how many patients still believe it gets you in quicker. And there are alot of patients you may never see because they are explained the cost of an ambulance and that they still may go directly to traige. On a side note, most places we go take our word for it and we turnover care to the traige nurse.

And dont forget racemic epi via nebulizer.

We use CPAP prehospitally and have had very good success with it. I would much rather CPAP a patient rather than RSI them and put them on a vent, the only exception being in an acute MI were some research shows that intubation is superior to CPAP for overall mortality. (If you really want I will try to find the references for that because I dont have them off hand)

I absolutely agree with many of your points Happy, and as a senior paramedic where I work and an EMS educator I strive for those things all the time. (especially the better wages part) However, just as there are weak and undertrained EMTs/Paramedics there are also weak and undertrained RN's/LPN's. This is not try to say that all are bad by any means because I have the greatest respect for many of them. I think the point I am trying to make is people who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones. For every story about a rude/ignorant EMS provider that a nurse has, EMS providers have a story about something a rude/ignorant nurse did to them. We need to stop the infighting and both work to elminate the dead wood from both of our professions so that we may progress. (And I will admit there are some very ignorant EMS workers who need to be done away with)

Great, another thread coming down to degrading EMS personel. Just what this site needs.

Just curious from the outside, is it common place to have a neonate and adult code cart in the room (or right outside the door) at deliveries?

Hows this for one. My hospital (work in the field if the name didnt give it away), the hospital's paramedics lines are not changed, but if any other paramedic service brings it in they are changed at 24 hours.

Cats are pretty similar (ours werent very adoptable, the smell of fermaldhyde (sp) was kinda a put off). And digital intubation (like the dogs) is done on humans also. Rare but its in our skill set for airway control in a situation were we cant get into a postion for direct larynscopy and a Blind nasal is contraindicated.

Mannequins are horrible to intubate. In my experience for the great majority of patients, technique is much more important. The mannequin is usually much stiffer, no floppy tongue, and the head seems to come up off the table before anything moves inside the mannequin.

Learn something new everyday. Guess my day can end now. (Boss wont like that very much though because I still have 11 hours left of my shift)

Just because mommatrauma asked: I dont find 11:11 especially insulting. I've also been doing this job for awhile and on forums and in daily life I have encountered more than one RN that thought they were qualified to do my job. From what 11:11 has posted, its sounds like they are qualified. Expierence+training+precepting. I also think 11:11 could have avoided some of the attacks by saying acting as an "ALS" provider. Although its only semantics, its a little more correct. As far as around here, CT does not have a PHRN certification. The local flight program, which runs RN/RT, requires the RN to be a medic and the RT to be at least an EMT. Although I never saw it in writing, I was told this was because there had to a medic/emt on board for them to qualify as an ALS ambulance. If anyone out there familar with the program knows differently, please feel free to correct me. Another topic that seems to be arising in this thread is the training. I fully believe that RN's with critical care/ED expierence should be exempt from aspects of paramedic school; however I also believe a paramedic with expereince should be exempt from some aspects of nursing school.

Whats a Robert-Shaw?

The pre-course exam isnt something to worry to much about doing an excellent job on. It does show you were you need to work on but it is more a tool to judge the amount learned during the course. However, obviously there are some things that if you try to learn in the two days you'll never get in time, so for your personal use the exam should guide you were to study. ACLS is pushing to have there courses become much more user freindly so hopefully you have a good expreience with it.

Per ACLS, no change in current or pad position. Also state that no signifigant energy gets transferred to the fetus.

I have been working similar shifts for about 5-6 years now. I've trying to stay up a little late the night before, and getting up early (which with having a newborn at home is never a problem), trying to grab a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. Also when I have time (back to the newborn thing) I like to do a workout in the afternoon around 4-5, but after my nap. Then lots of healthy snacks and caffeine for the night. Some others I work with also swear by Ambien, but I personally have never had to go that route.