Recent content by Amber Lance

First and only call yesterday... 6-hour transport through southern AZ. (6 hours there, 6 hours back.) Air conditioning broke 90 minutes into the trip. Rage ensued.

Unfortunately LSB is still in the NREMT skill list so we had to be taught (and tested on) standing takedowns and full immobilization in AEMT class even though it is almost completely absent from local protocols in NM. :mad: Does anyone know if it might be taken out of NREMT anytime soon? That...

Had a patient in a clinical rotation who was 93 with altered mental status who had fallen from a standing height and hit her head. We didn't know her medical history so we weren't sure if she had dementia or something else was going on (ICP, etc). She had no CMS deficits. She had a rigid...

Haha I haven't heard about that but I have a feeling there's a story there...Thanks! I'm not looking for a huge number of shifts and they're looking for EMT-I's right now (I'm a soon-to-be intermediate), so hopefully it'll work out.

Yeah that makes sense. Incidentally I'm applying at Cross right now! Trying to augment the despair that is Superior with some 911 work.

Huh. Maybe there are regional variations in NM? When I moved here I remember using the word wacker a few times and they didn't know what I was talking about. I always thought "joey" was kind of a strange word for it. Made me think of kangaroos.

Here in NM people seem to say "joey" instead of wacker.

You might be a woman in EMS if your uniform pants (made for men) never fit right, causing you to never feel quite safe bending over, no matter how tight your belt is or how hard you worked at hiking them up beforehand. EDIT: And this has caused you to casually start up a conversation in the...

I suppose it's not so much a question of what else could we have done (because, as basics, there's not much). I mean, we should have gotten a better assessment, but I don't know that it would have changed our handling of the situation much. At this point, it's an effort to understand what may...

Pt complains of severe stomach pain, and also says "everything hurts." She called 911 herself and is unable to give any other information as she is becoming increasingly drowsy. She loses consciousness and is unresponsive to verbal and painful stimuli (sternum rub). She spontaneously regains...

Why ALS?

Call for a 22 y/o female c/o vomiting. Arrive to find pt sitting on couch, unable to sit still, with a bucket containing about 1/2 Liter of vomited stomach fluid (bile, etc. - no food). Pt states she had one beer and one shot the night before on an empty stomach and has not been able to stop...

Thanks folks! A lot of useful information here. Now, I just have to summon the courage to get started! :unsure:

Thank you everyone for responding. I took your advice and clarified the protocols as well as the supervisor's instructions. It does seem they are in conflict; however after reading your responses and talking it over with co-workers I agree that it is best to follow the protocols if that...

An issue has come up where I work in which the supervisor issued a verbal directive that goes directly against our county's protocols. He hasn't put it in our service's protocols to my knowledge. I don't want to say what the specific issue is, but it does involve a potentially life-saving...