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    EMT-I or BSN

    Get a CNA and/or Phlebotomy cert. Many hospitals will pay at least part of your education and work with your schedule if you say you "want to be a nurse". There are also plenty of scholarships that can be applied for as a nursing student especially if you are working for a hospital. Unless...
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    Nurses vs EMT/Paramedics in EMS

    Check again. In some states you only need to be an "ambulance driver" here in the U.S. and complete EVOC to be on an ambulance. Do you agree that one should be pushing potentially harmful medications and doing advanced procedures without as much as a decent A&P or Pharmacology course? 3...
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    Lack of Insurance Leaves Calif. EMT With $300,000 Bill

    Yeah, you missed the entire point of the story and the post. The article is about how a catastrophic illness or injury can happened to anyone, in any profession and at any age. It illustrates that you don't have to be the stereotypical uninsured to be caught in a situation where there either...
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    Lack of Insurance Leaves Calif. EMT With $300,000 Bill

    http://www.emsresponder.com/article/article.jsp?id=13001&siteSection=1 This is a sad but all to familiar story. I'm sure some of you may know this young man personally but intimate details are not needed for the purpose of this thread. However, I'm sure we all wish him well. Not everyone...
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    OPA with overdose?

    There is a reason we use Propofol and it is so they do not wake up until we are ready for them to do so. That would be a disaster on some forms of ventilation and during some procedures. That is why Propofol is the drug of choice. For the Valium OD, do you know how much the patient took? You...
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    OPA with overdose?

    If you are using a BVM and have control over the airway, your eyes will be on that patient and you should have suction available. I have seen patients brought in with an OPA and on a NRBM without anybody watching the airway and the mouth full of vomit. If you are using an OPA and/or the BVM, you...
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    OPA with overdose?

    The thing about an OPA, unless you are actively managing that airway, the OPA can become an obstruction. How many times when using a BVM have you had to pause briefly to readjust the OPA? If they throw up with the OPA in place, they have aspirated. The preferred would be to not cause vomiting...
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    Nurses vs EMT/Paramedics in EMS

    Doesn't St. Vincent's HELP flight program have Flight RNs that do scene response? But, your point is taken for Paramedics as in many states their statutes make the "prehospital" part clear and that is why they can not function as "Paramedics" inside the hospital. They must work under another...
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    Non-vent trach transports

    I probably should explain why understanding what "French" is can be important. As I already mentioned: French = Diameter in mm x 3 ETTs and trachs are measured by diameter in mm. 7.0 ETT has a diameter of 7.0 mm. For trachs the sizing can be a little odd but you will find the ID (inner...
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    Non-vent trach transports

    For a little clarification, French refers to the size of the catheter and not necessarily the type of catheter. Some semi-rigid (Coude, bronchitrac) and rigid catheters are also sized by the French (Fr) measurement as well as urinary catheters, feeding tubes, cardiac catheters and chest tubes...
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    Nurses vs EMT/Paramedics in EMS

    This has got to be the funniest thing I have read so far. After just a two year degree they got accepted into med school? Which med school? We can expand the scope of the EMT-B with just 110 hours of training to allow them to start IVs and do ETI in just a few more hours. If they go just...
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    Police Based Paramedics

    Considering the shift in job markets, there are now several entering LE and even health care with Masters degrees. California just had an article where many of their recent recruits were from other professions with advanced degrees and were taking a cut in pay to make a career change. The PDs...
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    ems discounts on food and stuff

    That depends on various contract negotiations. During Nursing and Respiratory Care Weeks, as well as all the other professionals' "week", vendors of all types including drugs and technology, would shower all the hospitals with food and gifts for the employees of that profession. That has been...
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    ems discounts on food and stuff

    Hospitals have to be very careful in this area especially when there are competitive situations. Recent article: Illegal Redirection of Ambulances Investigated in Calif. http://www.emsresponder.com/web/online/Top-EMS-News/Illegal-Redirection-of-Ambulances-Investigated-in-Calif/1$12827...
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    Extracurricular Education

    CEUs are not college credit. They are used for expanding ones knowledge, reviewing and meet licensure renewal requirements. Start taking college courses. Some of the science, math and writing courses will be applicable towards several different degrees as well as beneficial for professional...
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    Extracurricular Education

    If you must read JEMS and EMS Mag, at least pull up the references from other journals to see if you get the same information. Sometimes the authors of these magazines tend to put their own interpretation of the research article and totally miss the point. Here are some other journals you...
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    The effect of ALS before cardiac arrest

    Are you talking ALS or just ACLS? If you are saying ALS has no effect on patients' lives, why bother bringng the patient to the hospital? The ED practices ALS. And, much of what can be done initially in the ED can be done by well educated and trained Paramedic. It is the pre-arrest that the...
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    Nurses vs EMT/Paramedics in EMS

    That's also like the earlier discussion with the Paramedic in the trauma bay. There was no mention of the routine aspects of patient care such as foleys, bathing, bed pans, dressing decubitus ulcers on the elderly and diabetic, patient teaching for self care and all the many things that are part...
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    Nurses vs EMT/Paramedics in EMS

    There have been several agencies that have attempted to do community paramedicine throughout the past 30 years but some of the programs were dropped because the Paramedic didn't like doing something that wasn't an "emergency". If you complain about doing routine calls, IFTs and responding to 911...
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    Nurses vs EMT/Paramedics in EMS

    In my world there are specialists and many different health care professionals who make up a health care system and team. You seem to have a problem seeing the uniqueness of being a Paramedic as well as the limitations. You have failed to read through all the courses that each health care...
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