Does anyone else do this?

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I'm new to ems and I noticed something with the crews I run with. When different EMTs and medics are taking notes in the back of the ambulance a lot of them use a tablet but because of how bumpy the roads are around where I run it takes 'em a little longer to write the stuff down neatly. One of the crews I work with however takes a wide piece of scotch tape (like 3 by 8) and sticks it to one of their sleeves or a pant leg and this allows them to write down vitals and interventions and different stuff a lot faster they still keep a lot of their notes on notepads but instead of having to focus a lot on writing little things down in the pad they write it right on the tape a lot faster (cause of the increased stability). I know this probably sounds like a dumb question, and I know its not very important, but does anyone else do this? :ph34r:
 
Seen it a bunch, along with tape on the thigh pantleg. Also seen the glove method, but of course, not recommended.
 
Tape method works for me. Don't write on your hand. When you wipe sweat off of your forehead - your vitals go with it.
 
Eh i always just wrote stuff on my glove - sometimes it looked like i was trying to write a novel when the pt had lots of meds or hx. As for what maxwell said... well, I never wiped my forehead with a gloved hand - thats just no good.
 
EMT007 said:
Eh i always just wrote stuff on my glove - sometimes it looked like i was trying to write a novel when the pt had lots of meds or hx. As for what maxwell said... well, I never wiped my forehead with a gloved hand - thats just no good.
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Contamination is such a bad thing. I write on the glove, the sheet on the cot, sometimes tape, and sometimes I just write it on the actual report so I don't have to rewrite. Another easy item but some services get mad about it use the triage tags. Has all the info you need to get in one handy little spot.
 
So what do you do to dispose of these "notes" you take, since they may contain PHI?
 
Shredder.:wacko:
 
I use the tape on the thigh thing. Works great for me.

Just dont write any personal info on it. 2 inch tape kinda gums up the shredder!
 
My notes never include anything that would identify the pt. Just the numbers like 138/72 or hr 68 so its not a phi issue. The hardest thing about the glove/notepad is when the gloves get icky and you change them... there goes your info.

I keep a small spiral notebook that I write stuff in on scene. I toss the page away in the PHI trash at the ER. I've used the tape, the glove and other stuff, but being more formal about it decreases the likelihood of you having to go fishing through some really icky trash to find it.
 
I'm usually able to jot my notes on paper. I haven't really tried the "tape on the thigh" trick yet.

FWIW: A company called "Paramed" makes a special "Vital Notes" tape. It's 2" cloth tape with printed boxes for Pt. info. I got a free sample and I'm not overly impressed.
 
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I've seen one guy that had a little wrist thing. Like what you see quarterbacks wear during games, with their flip notes and plays in it. Only it was smaller, so it didn't look like an insulated thing. It had a spot for two pens, so he kept a pen light and a BIC in it so he could write his notes on it.

People laughed at him for wearing it, but it actually looked pretty handy.
 
The reason I asked is that we actually designed a street form for data collection on scene, and require that it be turned in with the PCR.
 
I used to write on my gloves until a particularly stressful code where I wrote down ALL the info on my gloves, and then promptly threw them away at the hospital. I walked away, took care of a few things, and then the charge medic asked me for the info and I went "uhhhh...oops". Luckily it was the same hospital I was doing my clinicals at, and I knew where they put the elbow length OB/GYN gloves, so I grabbed some of those and fished out my gloves.

After that I started using tape. I always made sure there are a few rolls of 2 inch cloth tape, or white duct tape around. I stuck it EVERYWHERE in the back of the ambulance. At the end of a call I colleced all my tape and stick it to a piece of scrap paper. When I was done putting in the report the paper went in the shredder.

At my new job I'm not sure if I will stick with that system or not. On my internship I used a small spiral notebook attached to one of those retractable key rings and I might go back to that.
 
On scene I use the back of the glove. During transport I either start writing a PCR or we have little 1/2 sheet things on a clipboard in the back that have all the information laid out in a fancy little graph that we just fill in with any information we want then it goes to the hospital when we get there and it's attached to the patients chart.

Can someone explain to me, I understand it's hard to write on the road and your writing will be sloppy but do you magically hit less bumps writing on a glove or piece of tape rather than a notebook? I don't understand what makes writing on tape or a glove easier when transporting. For those that don't have the paper back there or don't want the paper I understand that's mostly for the OP.
 
The EMR's and EMT's at my service either use the glove method or they get the Student On Board to write down the vitals. Since I am only 1 of 2 Student On Board most of the time it's me writing down the vitals on a note pad.
 
I have little post it note pads I write things down on and post note it to my clipboard.
 
I learned a cool trick from one of my first preceptors. Because we recieve our dispatch info so quickly. I found that I always need paper close at hand.
I now keep 5-10 3x5" note cards in my shirt pocket, with a binder clip and a pen. I can quickly grab it, write, then put it back, even with gloves on, so I dont need to reach into my pants pockets with potentially contaminated gloves. If I get PMH or meds for my partner OS, I can just give him the card after im done.
At the end of the call/day, the cards go into a biohazard bin, where I know they cannot be removed or read (the closest equiv to shredding I can find).
 
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