EMS Topics

I Love Edison Medicine

Makes me feel all… paramedical, and stuff. Conversation with the patient after I lit him up like a Christmas tree: Patient: "So I was pretty sick, huh?" AD: "Still are pretty sick." Patient: "I didn't want my wife to call y'all, but I'm kinda glad she did anyway. If she hadn't called 911, I'd have…" AD: "… stubborned yourself to ...

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Almost Heaven, West Virginia

Woke up this morning to this view from my room at the lodge: Yeah, I'll take that over a view of the Las Vegas strip or Baltimore's inner harbor any day. Gave three talks today, with three more tomorrow and two on Saturday. I'm beat, but that's probably because, in direct violation of EMS New Year's Resolution #3, I was ...

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The Borg: Remorselessly Resuscitating More People Than Ever

Just got the word from Headquarters Hive that, through the efforts of my fellow drones and I, our cardiac arrest resuscitation rate for 2011 was 27.48%. For the third quarter of 2011, our resuscitation rate was 34.78%. In 2005, when we started tracking it, our resuscitation rate was only 8.2%. Of course, that's only for witnessed VF arrest, but those ...

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Spinal Immobilization: You Make The Call

Now, an 80+ minute trip strapped to a spine board isn't the cruelest thing I can think of doing to this man, but the other two possibilities involve nipple clamps and a live ferret. He weighs less than his age, and his chart already includes orders for a Fentanyl patch PRN and gel seat pads for his wheelchair. I don't like the idea of boarding him if I can help it. But we're not talking about what I would do. What would you do?

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For You EMS Types…

… there's a new Clinical Tip on EMS1.com. You old hands have probably used this trick a few times, but I'll bet most of the newbies have never heard of it. I know my partners usually look at me like I've grown a second head whenever I have them help me do it…

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Blogger Save!

“So there we were, a crowd of anxious onlookers gathered around, me and my trusty sidekick kneeling next to a sweet little grandma in the throes of VF, and us without an AED or even a CPR pocket mask. And right then, I turned to my compadre and said, “Partner, this is the kind of call where legends are made…” ...

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On Teaching, Mentoring and Stewardship

When a preceptor passes on that "practical experience and training,'' there are volumes of tradition, science, art, wisdom and bullshit encompassed in those four little words. The good preceptor passes on the collective wisdom - and sometimes, inadvertently, the bullshit - of our profession to the next generation, and I mean all of it; what EMS was, what EMS is, and what EMS should be. I'd say "what EMS will be," but so much of that depends upon how well that preceptor does his job.

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For You EMS Types…

… there’s a new clinical tip for you on EMS1. If you’ve ever documented AAOx4 on a patient care report or refusal, and felt safe doing it, here’s why you shouldn’t.

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What Comes First, the Nitro or the IV?

In comments to my last EMS Newbie post, reader 40Lizard commented on the discussion Ron Davis and I had on this episode of Confessions of an EMS Newbie: Funny you should mention starting an IV before giving NTG- we’ve been having that discussion in class this week- and the general consensus is that unless we are SuperMedic and can have ...

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