Where’s Ambulance Driver next, you ask? Next stop on the summer leg of Ambulance Driver’s 2017 World Tour is the Connecticut EMS Expo at the Mohegan Sun Casino Resort in Uncasville, CT. I’ll be giving a few talks, and signing books from 12:00 -2:00 on Friday, June 2 and Saturday, June 3 at the Code Green Campaign booth in the ...
Read More »Training & Development
Maturing As An EMS Provider
For you EMS types, there’s a new column up on EMS1: Why I Care Less and Less About Following EMS Protocols. Enjoy.
Read More »Calling All Shooters!
So, who’s up for another Shooter Self Care course at the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville? Same story as last year; wound care and first aid targeted to shooters, taught by shooters with EMS and medical expertise. Length about four hours, cost around $100, basically to cover refreshments and the cost of your own personal blowout kit. Date still negotiable, ...
Read More »Hey, All You Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts EMTs!
Emergency Resource Management is conducting its 3rd Annual Winter Seminar on Saturday, December 14 in Portland, CT. I'll be doing EMS Mythbusters and Thoracic Trauma lectures, and Chief Jon Politis will be doing a couple of lectures as well. This is likely your last chance to get CEU credit in 2013, and the seminar has been approved for 7.5 hours ...
Read More »A Ringing Endorsement
When I speak at EMS conferences, I rarely have time to attend any lectures myself. When I do, it’s almost always a speaker I know personally. On the odd occasion I’ll attend a lecture from someone I don’t know, it’s always on a subject that really captures my interest. And luckily, most of the speakers I know and respect have ...
Read More »In Other News: Water Is Wet, Sky Is Blue
Chime in with your comments, but keep them civil or you'll eat Ban Hammer. If the most constructive statement you have to offer is calling someone a hose monkey or a stretcher fetcher, or yet another tired iteration of "private EMS cares more about money than people" or "firefighters are a bunch of testoterone addicts who suck at medical care," find another forum, please.
Read More »Connecticut Bound
Just got dropped at the airport by the EMS Newbie, bound for Cromwell, CT to speak at the Connecticut Emergency Medical Services Conference. This is my third time to speak in Connecticut. They’re a bunch of nice folks up there. Maybe this time I’ll get to meet Peter Canning!
Read More »Nomex Underoos: ON
I always thought EMS had more in common with law enforcement than the fire service.
Read More »If You’re a Connecticut EMT…
… I’ll be speaking at the 15th Annual Connecticut EMS Conference in Cromwell on March 18-19. Look me up, and I’ll sign your book, share an adult beverage, or just swap lies with you while I’m there!
Read More »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.
Read More »For You EMS Types
But in my years as a medic, I've learned a few techniques to minimize the muss and fuss of poking squirming children with sharp objects: First, minimize the lag time between telling the kid about a painful procedure and actually doing it; second, bribery works; and third, use the bevel-down IV technique.
Read More »“Do, or do not. There is no try.”
Yoda’s wisdom is applicable to all endeavors, not just becoming a Jedi Knight. Tonight, a friend was telling me of her struggles with paramedic class. How draining it was, the financial burden, the long drive back and forth to class, how difficult it was for study groups to get together… blah, blah, blah. My response: “Pull up your big girl ...
Read More »For You EMS Types…
… there’s a new clinical tip on EMS1. Enjoy.
Read More »For You EMS Types…
… there’s a little clinical tip on EMS1.com. Enjoy.
Read More »How Do You Do That Airway Voodoo That You Do So Well?
On a side note, the next time a colleague blames his difficulty intubating a patient on that "anterior larynx," check the patient's thyromental distance to see if it truly is anterior. The anterior larynx is one of the biggest "run home to Momma" excuses in paramedicine, right on up there with "looks like atrial fib" and "I was up against a valve."
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