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HAHA...if youre like me I ALWAYS open the envelope. Someone would be wasting their breath to tell me not to open it. I have a responsibility to the receiving facility to give them a heads up about what is going on with the patient. It is what is expected of us. ao...emtp

Yes, to expect a nurse in LTC to know all the patients medications is just plain ignorance. I will agree with an earlier post that education about the protocols for resident transports , for ems would be beneficial.

Good work Michelle....it sounds like you were having the shift from hell. Thank you for all you do for humanity. ao emtp

You sound like an awesome nurse. I find all patients fascinating as a paramedic. Whether it be a pneumothorax secondary to a chest to steering wheel collision, right down to replacement of a foley catheter. Something can be learned from every call. And a nurse such as yourself, makes a paramedics job much easier (as I'm sure you know). Getting a good report, necessary paperwork, and knowing the answers to questions makes patient care sooo much more effective. But I DO understand why an LTC nurse doesn't immediately know all the meds and allergies. With that many patients, it is impossible. Thank you for being a good nurse ao...emt-p

6 weeks?????.....where can one get paramedic training in 6 weeks?....where i live, you can't get an emt education in 6 weeks. i don't know where you live, but you are wrong if you think that paramedics go to school for 6 weeks. try 18 mos minimum.

Where I live it is now an associate degree program. So yes...we are educated. EMT curriculum is roughly three semesters.

UGH....here we go again. Not all paramedics and emts are this way. Please don't generalize us like that. Yes we have our share of jerks, but most of us aren't this way. I can assure you. AJO...EMT-P

Hmmm....you have a very interesting perspective about ems. Sure there are a few Bubbas out there in the local firehouses that think that a non-rebreathing mask and rapid transport are the only treatments that a pt with COPD exacerbation or pulmonay edema secondary to CHF require. But, as a paramedic student, I was exposed to nearly ever department in the hospital. In all 500 clinical hours minimum were required to complete the program. I rotated through pathology, lab, or, l and d, er, icu, ccu, pediatric icu, lifeflight, etc... And by saying that paramedics are not required to think proves to me that you don't know the definition of critical thinking. I was taught that protocols are guidelines and that one must use.....critical thinking to decide whether the patient in question will benefit from the treatment guidelines. You display many fallacies of thinking by generalizing paramedics into one category: That we are brainless trained monkeys that have been handed an ET tube and cardiac drugs. Many of my family members are nurses including my mother, whom I have a lot of respect for. I also plan to complete my nursing degree through EC. We aren't just adrenaline junkies. I have spent many hours talking suicidal people into going to the hospital for treatment, delivered babies, fixed grandma milk and cookies after taking her to the hospital for N/V, assisted nurses and techs with code browns (nope, I don't think I'm above treating someone like a human being) and talked to elderly women and men at 2:30 AM, who called an ambulance because she was lonely and having a panic attack. But I have also pulled mangled bodies out of cars, told sons and daughters that mom can't be saved, told mom and dad that their daughter couldn't be saved, as just a typical day in ems. Oh and by the way, as I'm sure you know, rapid sequence intubation is a skill that carries immense responsibility and liability, and many paramedics carry that skill and use it on a regular basis. I pray that my words will somehow change your "critical thinking" skills, about paramedics. The next time you sit through a pals, acls, phtls, btls, nals etc....beware....many of your instructors will probably be paramedics.(many will be future physicians as well) Sincerely, AJO....EMT-P I was taught that the correct spelling is algorithim. Maybe there is more than one spelling.

I am with you 100% on that subject. I am a paramedic contemplating RN school (EC) and my mother is a nurse of 34 years. We have frequent discussions about physicians and nurses undertreating pain, for one reason because they are concerned about "addiction". :angryfire When someone is in a LTC for the rest of their brief life....who cares if they get addicted. Don't deny them comfort in their last days. I recently encountered a resident that was aphasic, with a hip Fx, with arm and leg contractures. She had been given tylenol. When I arrived the patient was crying. No she couldn't talk, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that she is in PAIN!!! So luckily I was able to get an order from the Doc for 5mg MS IM. By the time she was at the hospital she was sleeping. And in much less distress. I won't judge the nurse, because I don't know what the situation was prior to my arrival. But I agree with one of the other posts I've read. Don't apologize to the doctor for bothering them....it is their job to be bothered.

These are some very interesting stories. Out in the field, we still use a lot of the old techniques, such as eyeballing and palpating b/p's. I love the stories about the tourniquets for chf and MI's :rotfl: ....I've heard of the suction cup electrodes, but needles?!?!?!?! Fortunately the trend toward painless treatment seems to be taking hold. And EMS will follow...oh maybe ten years behind nursing.

Yes I agree with that. Very well said. I would also monitor my child to see if this is a continuous thing (in later years).

And to EMS: NEVER bring the baby rattler into the ER in a coffee can alive and open the top allowing the snake to jump out and slither down the hall..while nurses are screaming all over the place... Okay...What were they thinking....I think that it goes back to that sleep deprivation thing. I wouldn't go looking for the snake though.

Hello all!!! I am a paramedic and have been in ems for about 10 years now...and have made a few goofy, but not necessarily harmful mistakes. I will write them off as a result of sleep deprivation. Anyway...I have attempted to intubate someone before with a trach. :stone prior to doing an assessment. Once I figured this out, it then made sense why I couldn't pass the tube. And I set up an albuterol treatment to administer to a man with COPD with a BP of 240/130....I'm so glad that a bell went off prior to doing this. :imbar. I'm sure there are more instances...I'll have to get back on that one.