# best advice you have ever had or given



## sneauxpod (Nov 17, 2012)

So im a fairly new medic and Im just wondering what advice you could give me that has helped you throughout your careers, it can be anything you, your partner, your sups or even former ems has given you.


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## Milla3P (Nov 17, 2012)

"Sometimes it's a whole lot easier to just take them to the hospital than to take a refusal."


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## STXmedic (Nov 17, 2012)

"Sometimes the search function is your best friend."

http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=31245



You probably wouldn't have found that one with search, though   There's some better threads with advice like that, too...


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## JPINFV (Nov 17, 2012)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHaJegv6Sjs&feature=related[/youtube]


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## sneauxpod (Nov 17, 2012)

PoeticInjustice said:


> "Sometimes the search function is your best friend."
> 
> http://www.emtlife.com/showthread.php?t=31245
> 
> ...



yeah i never would have searched for "how old are you" lol


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## bigbaldguy (Nov 17, 2012)

We talking strictly EMS? 

Always be polite because you never know who's watching. Plus it's really just as easy as being rude and it annoys the truly annoying patients way more.

Listen to your patient.

When you can't think of anything to say don't say anything.

If we're talking just general advice?

Identify the holes in yourself and then figure out what you need to do to start plugging them. They can be emotional holes, educational holes, personality holes whatever. Anything that is holding you back from being happy and physically and mentally healthy is a hole. 

Good luck


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## VFlutter (Nov 17, 2012)

Shoe covers...


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## JPINFV (Nov 17, 2012)

ChaseZ33 said:


> Shoe covers...









OR


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## the_negro_puppy (Nov 17, 2012)

Don't judge the annoying alcoholic bum patient. We are all just a few bad decisions away from being him.

Always be polite. People generally won't care / won't know if you are an incompetent provider, but they will complain if you are rude. If people liek you they won't complain.

If you're not sure whats going on with a patient, thats ok. Get them to hospital or seek further advice. There are many atypical cases out there. I recently went to a 30 year old pt with ALOC initially GCS8. No known cause, all tests in the ED were negative and he is now in ICU awaiting further test.


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## firecoins (Nov 18, 2012)

Don't go into retail was the best advice I got. That person later went into retail and went out of business. 

Was told to avoid supervisors. They have nothing better to do Han find something wrong, anything, and write you up for it. 

My mother tells me I should have gone into acting so. Would have something to fall back on in case EMS doesn't work out.


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## Veneficus (Nov 18, 2012)

"Always ask yourself: How is this going to look on the 6 O'Clock news."

The 2 most important questions to ever ask a patient.

1. "Can you walk?"

2. "Have you tried?"

2 questions I am especially fond of:

"So...Tell me... How did you do that?"

often followed by

"Would you like to revise your statement?"
(AKA do you want to change your BS story?)


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## Handsome Robb (Nov 18, 2012)

Don't be a toolbag....

Be respectful and polite to co-responders as well as your patient. 

Don't chase nurses....yep didn't follow that one and it didn't end well :lol:


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## Summit (Nov 18, 2012)

"We never run. We do the EMT walk."


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## sicsempertyrannis (Nov 18, 2012)

2 words, bevel up.....


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## sneauxpod (Nov 18, 2012)

sicsempertyrannis said:


> 2 words, bevel up.....



I feel like theres a story behind this somehow lol


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## MSDeltaFlt (Nov 18, 2012)

Advice I've been given:

"Mike, if you're hung up on Airway, then you're just hung up on Airway."

"You can't kill a dead man."

"There's a difference between knowing a thing and understanding a thing."

"Think."

"Always act.  Never REact."

Advice I've given:

"If you know why, then what and how will make sense."

"Never say never.  Never say always."

"If they have a radial pulse and are lucid, then they have a perfusing blood pressure."

"If you treat the cause, then you treat the symptom."

"If you can't prove it in black and white right then and there, then treat it."

"Trust your gut."

"Take everything you might need even on those BS calls at least to the 'oh $#@!' distance (the front door) so you do NOT get caught with your pants down."


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## sicsempertyrannis (Nov 18, 2012)

sneauxpod said:


> I feel like theres a story behind this somehow lol



I got suckered into teaching for 2 years. You have no clue how complicated some instructors make the simplest tasks.


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## Shishkabob (Nov 18, 2012)

It's not your emergency.


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## Milla3P (Nov 18, 2012)

Linuss said:


> It's not your emergency.



This.


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## sicsempertyrannis (Nov 18, 2012)

Remember the 5 W's. Who, what, when, where, why.

Who is my patient?
What is really wrong?
When did the problem start?
Where is my back up?
Why can't I drink on the job?


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## Chimpie (Nov 18, 2012)

Breathe.


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## lightsandsirens5 (Nov 18, 2012)

Chimpie said:


> Breathe.



Continuously


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## DrParasite (Nov 18, 2012)

when all else fails, take the patient to the hospital.

when you have no idea what is going on, and have a patient where nothing makes sense, take the patient to the hospital.

if the patient wants to go to the hospital, even if it's for a reason that warrants neither an ambulance or an ER, just take them.  it makes your boss happy, the patient happy, and the billing department happy.

Sometimes it's a whole lot easier to just take them to the hospital than to talk them into a refusal.

you can't get much worse than dead

in 90% of the patients you deal with, your interventions will have no impact on whether or not the patient lives or dies.

don't drop the baby.  if you do drop the baby pick it up.  and fake a seizure.

If my basic HazMat training has taught me nothing else, it's that if you see a glowing green monkey running away from something, follow that monkey!


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## JPINFV (Nov 18, 2012)

DrParasite said:


> If my basic HazMat training has taught me nothing else, it's that if you see a glowing green monkey running away from something, follow that monkey!



Why would you want to follow the contaminated animal? Get away from him too! On a related note, the hospital I'm rotating at just had a MCI drill for a mass organophosphate exposure. I was talking to the surgery intern who got suckered into being the physician overseeing the triage area (I worked with her when I was on my surgery rotation), and I mentioned that they were lucky I wasn't running it. Everyone who wasn't in PPE (she was the only one dressed for the occasion) would have immediately become contaminated and patients.


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## 46Young (Nov 18, 2012)

Don't waste time as a basic - do medic school as sooner rather than later.

Don't waste time going through each cert level - go from EMT-B right to EMT-P.

Don't fall prey to the income from from a second or third part time job in EMS. After a while, your expenses will match your income, so that you have to work those extra hours just to pay all of your bills. Now you're trapped. 

As a corollary to the last point:

Get a degree early on. Many make the mistake of working in EMS, taking extra part time positions, reasoning that they'll go back to school in a few years after they get ahead of some bills, save a few $$$, that sort of thing. Most never go back. The income from the extra hours is enough to sustain them, so the motivation for education is gone. Anything can happen - you can throw out your back, get a disease, get pregnant and have children, then be unable to work full time on shift work (rotating schedule), etc. You need another way to earn income if you can no longer do EMS transport.

Always wear eye protection when intubating.

If bagging, back far away from the pt when they're about to get shocked, so that you don't get sprayed with vomit.

If you can't reach a sharps container, place the sharps on the floor for the time being.

Always use a taped line for conversations with dispatchers and supervisors, not direct connect, so that you have a record of what was said and ordered.

Use the restroom as soon as you think you need to - if you wait, the tones will drop.


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## JPINFV (Nov 18, 2012)

46Young said:


> Use the restroom as soon as you think you need to - if you wait, the tones will drop.




Eat when you can, sleep when you can, pee when you can [I never realized that this one was missing]. Don't run when you can walk. Don't stand when you can sit.


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## DrParasite (Nov 18, 2012)

JPINFV said:


> Why would you want to follow the contaminated animal? Get away from him too!


the reason you follow him because he is probably running away from whatever made him start glowing.  do you really want to be going anywhere near whatever made him start glowing?   if he's running away, than so should you


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## Sublime (Nov 19, 2012)

DrParasite said:


> don't drop the baby.  if you do drop the baby pick it up.  and fake a seizure.



This made me laugh


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## TheLocalMedic (Nov 19, 2012)

"You clearly had no idea what you were doing back there, but at least you looked confident!"


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## Veneficus (Nov 19, 2012)

"Never F*** a nurse you do not plan to marry."

Announced every year to new residents.


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## Summit (Nov 19, 2012)

Veneficus said:


> "Never F*** a nurse you do not plan to marry."
> 
> Announced every year to new residents.



Awesome


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## Luno (Nov 19, 2012)

Never miss an opportunity to shut the F&*K up.


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## TheLocalMedic (Nov 19, 2012)

From an FTO to a new EMT:  

"I have three rules for you.  First, never take off a homeless person's shoes.  Second, when  I want your opinion, I will give it to you." 

"And what's the third rule?"

"That was three rules, we don't count so good here.  You want another rule?  Fine: Don't ask so many questions."


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## mycrofft (Nov 19, 2012)

Received: "Don't go in there".
Given: "Uh, take the BP cuff off the IV arm, the red line is rising..".


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## firecoins (Nov 19, 2012)

Veneficus said:


> "Would you like to revise your statement?"
> (AKA do you want to change your BS story?)


check every out house, penthouse,


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## Tigger (Nov 19, 2012)

Always have a reason for doing something. "Protocol" is not a very good one.

Pillows and holding someones hand can do more than you think. 

If unsure of what to do next, first think "will this make me look like a toolbag?" If yes, do not do that.


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## Veneficus (Nov 19, 2012)

Tigger said:


> Pillows and holding someones hand can do more than you think.



:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Especially if you put the pillow over somebody''s face...


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## Tigger (Nov 19, 2012)

Veneficus said:


> :rofl::rofl::rofl:
> 
> Especially if you put the pillow over somebody''s face...



Hey, in the absence of pain medications I've heard that he euphoria provided by asphyxiation induced hypoxia can take the edge right off of even the most grievous fractures...

I'll be right back with that study.


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## Wheel (Nov 20, 2012)

"The less you speak, the smarter you sound." This is what my grandfather told me when I was a know-it-all teenager. Best advice ever.


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## mycrofft (Nov 20, 2012)

*Reminded of this last weekend*

Thus is both given and taken.

"They're coming! They're coming!"
"Hey. Stop. Are we ready as we can be?"
"Yeah..."
"Are they here yet?".
"Well, no...".
"Then siddown, you're making people nervous".


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## cruiseforever (Nov 23, 2012)

Wheel said:


> "The less you speak, the smarter you sound." This is what my grandfather told me when I was a know-it-all teenager. Best advice ever.



This should be a golden rule when ever you start a new job.  It's hard to over come the first impression.


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## somer37 (Nov 23, 2012)

"You will not rise to the occasion, but rely on what you have practiced"-my teacher Frank Friend-FF/Paramedic MCAEMS


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