Posted: 12/22/2002 11:04:35 PM EDT
| Just wondering how many fellow EMTs are floatin around here. |
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Police officer/ Paramedic quietshoez Don't sell yourself short as a basic EMT I was one for about 3 years before becoming a medic and now I'm just a EMT with a few more skills. Saw this on a shirt somewhere "Paramedics may save lives, But EMT's save Paramedics" I know my emt partners have saved me from some stupid mistakes before. |
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quietshoez, I'm a basic as well. I'm employed by a local agency. My philosophy on being a basic is pretty simple. True: the Paramedic is THE authority in the rig and most of the time on scene. True: they have a greater working knowledge of medicine. However... without us driving the entire rig including the Medic is just a glorified first aid station at the local mini-mall [:D] Paramedics save patients. EMT-Bs save Paramedics. [USA] |
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Quoted: Question for you medics out there, what was the hardest part of going through medic school? How long was it? Any advice for a Basic who is counting the days down to the end of his one year? No single aspect of the course is too difficult, it's simply the pace and sheer volume that can be wearing. ECG interpretation is daunting at first, until things fall into place. If you want to get a head start, consider laying your hands on the pharmacology cirriculim for YOUR COURSE, and starting to memorize indications, contraindications, side effects, dosages, etc. Different programs do things differently, so stick with material for your course. Also be up on basic math. There's some simple algabra involved in dosage calculations, basic "solve for X" stuff. If you are in a Nat Reg. state, I suggest getting the Mosby's text. Most of the Nat Reg questions seemed to come straight from there. My course consisted of 650 hours of mixed classroom and clinical for phase I, and 385 hours of ride time with a preceptor for phase II. I got it all in six and a half months, which felt like a break neck speed. You're gonna love jumping from basic to medic. It's great having the tools do do the job. I spent several yeats and an EMT-I before getting the glitter patch, and wouldn't dream of going back. Seizures without valium? A little old lady hip fracture without morphine? Pulseless non-breathers without amioderone and vasopressen? No pacing? You're gonna love your new bag of tricks. Good luck. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Question for you medics out there, what was the hardest part of going through medic school? How long was it? Any advice for a Basic who is counting the days down to the end of his one year? No single aspect of the course is too difficult, it's simply the pace and sheer volume that can be wearing. ECG interpretation is daunting at first, until things fall into place. If you want to get a head start, consider laying your hands on the pharmacology cirriculim for YOUR COURSE, and starting to memorize indications, contraindications, side effects, dosages, etc. Different programs do things differently, so stick with material for your course. Also be up on basic math. There's some simple algabra involved in dosage calculations, basic "solve for X" stuff. If you are in a Nat Reg. state, I suggest getting the Mosby's text. Most of the Nat Reg questions seemed to come straight from there. My course consisted of 650 hours of mixed classroom and clinical for phase I, and 385 hours of ride time with a preceptor for phase II. I got it all in six and a half months, which felt like a break neck speed. You're gonna love jumping from basic to medic. It's great having the tools do do the job. I spent several yeats and an EMT-I before getting the glitter patch, and wouldn't dream of going back. Seizures without valium? A little old lady hip fracture without morphine? Pulseless non-breathers without amioderone and vasopressen? No pacing? You're gonna love your new bag of tricks. Good luck. That is exactly what I was going to tell ya,...tommytrauma beat me to it. Every paramedic program has its own little set of "protocols" for drug dosages, ect.....and then,...every EMS provider you might work for will have [b]its[/b] own set of protocols. (and they will almost certainly have some minor differences) So, study the drugs for the program you plan on attending. And plan on doing everything the LONG way for class, (even though the "3 AM" rule comes into effect for many things in the field.) Whenever you do "megacodes"...remember this line: [b]"Scene Safety, and Universal Precautions"[/b]...and always remember "BLS before ALS". |
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Some of you guys are claiming "-Tactical". Did you learn anything medically (not tactics) in "-Tactical" school that would have changed any treatment you would have normally done at the -B, -I or -P levels? I don't care if they taught you any weapons stuff or how to move as part of an entry team, etc., just about any additional treatment protocols. |
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Quoted: Some of you guys are claiming "-Tactical". Did you learn anything medically (not tactics) in "-Tactical" school that would have changed any treatment you would have normally done at the -B, -I or -P levels? I don't care if they taught you any weapons stuff or how to move as part of an entry team, etc., just about any additional treatment protocols. As far as patient care, tac medic was a good look at things such as "medicine over the barrier", ie walking someone through assessment and treatment via phone in a barracade situation, and long distance triage via scope. The best training though was team maintaince. The team medic is responsible for the teams well-being. Dry socks? Hot food available for long term situations? Are team members rotating through rehab if possible? Do they have enough water? Are they DRINKING enough water? We also covered some athletic trainer type things like assessing a knee injury to decide if the member could still function, wrapping an ankle to allow a team member with an ankle injury to carry on, etc. The team medic is also often the one responsible for pre-planning for medical needs, coordinating with non-tac EMS, etc. My course was a very intense one week at Camp Ripley, MN, and was well worth the time. |
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never had any "tacticle medic training" unless you count the army. I did get a "Street Smart" course. It included looking for cover mike |
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Quoted: Quoted: Some of you guys are claiming "-Tactical". Did you learn anything medically (not tactics) in "-Tactical" school that would have changed any treatment you would have normally done at the -B, -I or -P levels? I don't care if they taught you any weapons stuff or how to move as part of an entry team, etc., just about any additional treatment protocols. As far as patient care, tac medic was a good look at things such as "medicine over the barrier", ie walking someone through assessment and treatment via phone in a barracade situation, and long distance triage via scope. The best training though was team maintaince. The team medic is responsible for the teams well-being. Dry socks? Hot food available for long term situations? Are team members rotating through rehab if possible? Do they have enough water? Are they DRINKING enough water? We also covered some athletic trainer type things like assessing a knee injury to decide if the member could still function, wrapping an ankle to allow a team member with an ankle injury to carry on, etc. The team medic is also often the one responsible for pre-planning for medical needs, coordinating with non-tac EMS, etc. My course was a very intense one week at Camp Ripley, MN, and was well worth the time. In addition to the primary care aspects that tommytrauma mentioned, The CONTOMS program provided excellent instruction in sensory deprived/sensory overload patient assessment. Also the program does introduce some treatment methods and equipment that are specific for the high threat environment. |
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In addition to the primary care aspects that tommytrauma mentioned, The CONTOMS program provided excellent instruction in sensory deprived/sensory overload patient assessment. Also the program does introduce some treatment methods and equipment that are specific for the high threat environment. OK, so we've got athletic trainer stuff, EMS pre-planning, remote medicine, and assessment/treatment under SHTF conditions. Useful skills, but it doesn't sound like 40+ hours worth of material to me. Our squad looked seriously at the CONTOMS brochure and ultimately didn't think very much of it. It seems the best reason to go is to give the team(s) you support a warm fuzzy. We had a few guys looking to do it, and the local SWAT team made the same assessment, i.e. nobody went to the course. They are not planning for any firefights lasting more than a minute, beat themselves up on staying healthy while waiting for their magic minute, we already knew how to treat them after the scene was secure, and if things did drag on, the blue canaries would drag the wounded over to us. Finally, it's easier to teach "ditch medicine" to the SWAT guys than it is to teach entry methods to and equip an EMT, and if they could use an extra person, it was going to be another shooter. So what were we missing? |
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Quoted: In addition to the primary care aspects that tommytrauma mentioned, The CONTOMS program provided excellent instruction in sensory deprived/sensory overload patient assessment. Also the program does introduce some treatment methods and equipment that are specific for the high threat environment. OK, so we've got athletic trainer stuff, EMS pre-planning, remote medicine, and assessment/treatment under SHTF conditions. Useful skills, but it doesn't sound like 40+ hours worth of material to me. Our squad looked seriously at the CONTOMS brochure and ultimately didn't think very much of it. It seems the best reason to go is to give the team(s) you support a warm fuzzy. We had a few guys looking to do it, and the local SWAT team made the same assessment, i.e. nobody went to the course. They are not planning for any firefights lasting more than a minute, beat themselves up on staying healthy while waiting for their magic minute, we already knew how to treat them after the scene was secure, and if things did drag on, the blue canaries would drag the wounded over to us. Finally, it's easier to teach "ditch medicine" to the SWAT guys than it is to teach entry methods to and equip an EMT, and if they could use an extra person, it was going to be another shooter. So what were we missing? Maybe the idea that things might not go as planned? Personally, I think that having an experienced paramedic rather than a first aid trained cop in the inner perimiter is a good thing. The idea that non-tactical EMS training will cover a team situation is as true and as untrue as the idea that a RN is ready for the pre-hospital environment without an EMT course. If your team is absolutely sure that they will never, ever be used for any type of extended op (you guys go dynamic immediatly on all baracade situations?) or non urban deployment, you're probably set. And yes, you can teach a cop to put the white stuff on the red stuff, and that will serve your needs as long as the patient can always be immediatly removed to the outer perimiter or beyond. That, however, is a best case senerio rather than a worst case. If you don't have a team medic, who is responsible for rehab, foodstuffs, water, etc? The team leader? If you're running as a EMT-basic, your team would probably be pretty much just as well served by a first responder cop, but if you're deciding weather to offer your team reliable access to paramedic level care, you might want to rethink your outlook. |
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Tommy: no, of course we don't have instant dynamic entry. While everyone's sitting on their asses, the team leader is in charge of rotating people out for rest, and "regular" cops bring up food and water to the perimeter. Paramedic ambulance on standby, although we regularly lose the medic during long standby's as they go on other calls, leaving us at EMT-I level during those times. If they're planning to do entry, they try to make sure a 'medic is there, but of course not all entries are planned (BTW, radio opsec is typically poor, anyone can figure out when entry is imminent). The cops rely on us, the standby ambulance, to coordinate delivery of food and water, and we in turn rely on a the station to fetch it to us for distribution. If anyone needs rehab, or to be checked over, they are rotated out and they make there own way over to the ambulance, outside the perimeter. In bad weather we "gently" remind them of the necessity for rehab. All of this is coordinated using the classic incident command process. We don't do anything but (sub)urban op's. While it is certainly possible that wounded could be trapped inside the perimeter, this situation has been judged by the powers that be to be more easily/safely resolved by having police personnel moving the wounded to outside the perimeter. If they can't get someone to them to drag them out, how are they going to get someone to them to treat on the spot? Besides, in the worst case, they probably see it as an excuse to go dynamic anyway [:)] |
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Quoted: Good luck, it's a very challenging career, but very rewarding. Shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions during your class. Thanks. It's not going to be a career change, just something to have/use on top of my LEO. And, I've always been into medicine and should have followed my heart at 18 and gone into medicine. Oh well, live and learn. |
| Shrike9, good luck on the test next week. If you passed the state test in class easily, the National Exam is a breaze. It's been a while, but I remember it focusing a lot on numbers. Avg heart/resp rates, normal BP's and such. It was the practical exam that really wore me down. Took a full day to get the entire class through. Practice is the best part of getting through that. Most students that fail a section, fail the airway section. I don't know if it's because of a critical or just too many points though. Good luck! Let me know how it turned out. Are you going to work for AMR after? |
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Thanks medicmandan, got a overall 90% on the 3 state exams & our class average is running right around 88% Not looking foreward to the test as we are slated to start at 1400 and go till aprox 2100. AMR does not have any openings right now so who knows what I'll end up doing. CPD has a full time dispatcher position open so might put in for that. The base also has 3 dispatcher positions and 3-4 civillian FF positions comming open in the next month or 2. |
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Quoted: Police officer/ Paramedic quietshoez Don't sell yourself short as a basic EMT I was one for about 3 years before becoming a medic and now I'm just a EMT with a few more skills. Saw this on a shirt somewhere "Paramedics may save lives, But EMT's save Paramedics" I know my emt partners have saved me from some stupid mistakes before. This is true. The opposite is also true. Good ALS, is good BLS. Ultimately it's a team thing. Getting to that point in a partnership, be it LE, Paramedicine, or on a company level in FF, where you work together perfectly, and almost know what the other person is thinking, ROCKS!! Here's one for all us "EMpTy's" out there: What do you call a bunch of Paramedics in a basement? [;D] |
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I hope you guys and gals don't object to a word or two from an old timer but way back when there were a couple of basic rules which I feel are still applicable today: If you do a good job of watching out for your own butt, you'll do a good job of taking care of your patient. Use your head, then use your back. Bit different in those days, extrication experts were 2 guys with their wreckers who were good and saved many a person's life with their skills. Then the saw appeared on the scene, then porta powers, then Hurst tools and the improvements have continued. Neck collars were rolls of 6 inch cast wrapping, bit crude but it works, tears before you choke anyone. A stair chair was a kitchen or dining room chair. Many other improvisations were used. Of course being the little guy, I always got volunteered to crawl in and fix them up and then get them out. I started working the ambulance at 14, driving one at 16, (family business) and did so off and on for another 15-20 yrs or so. Just the other day I came across the old NREMT card, and although I don't remember the date on it, the number was 1004. Those were the days of Caddies and station wagons and transfers from the local hospital to the better care hospitals 30 miles away at 90 to 130 mph. because there was no other way. Good luck to you and hopefully the pay will come up to meet the responsibility levels. Let me say it was a relief for us to pass the service on to the hospital and help it to gel into 1 of the top rural systems in the Country. But it was difficult at first to hear the sound of that siren going down the street at midnight, and then turn over and go back to sleep. |