Recent content by paccookie

I agree with what the others have said. Flight medicine is considered to be the pinnacle of the career of many medics and nurses. You don't reach that just after graduation no matter how smart and motivated you are. Get some good experience dealing with scene calls, high acuity transfers, and...

Read the book. Memorize the practical check off. Listen in class for specifics. I like to take notes. Other than that, the class wasn't hard.

I've precepted a few Lenoir students in the ER and the quality varies. I had one guy tell me up front that he's only there because he has to get his paramedic for a promotion at the fire dept. I've also had a few there were outstanding and knew their stuff. Basically, if you are capable of...

My point was to transfer to the closest appropriate facility rather than just the closest facility.

The call came in about a minute after it happened as there was another person in the dune buggy and at least two bystanders. Response time for EMS was 4 minutes. Pd was on scene doing CPR withing 5 minutes of the initial call to 911.

And that's exactly why I prefer to transport straight to a facility that can skip the unnecessary stabilize for transport to the appropriate facility step. I've seen this hospital do this sort of thing more than once and it could be avoided with properly written protocols. Not just for peds pts...

Agreed. However the trauma center has the ability to harvest organs and the local hospital does too but very rarely ever does harvest organs. A trauma team would've been in place upon arrival and the parents would've had that option if anything was viable. Turns out this pt had an...

Your pt is a 16 y/o female who was ejected from a dune buggy. The dune buggy also landed on her, although you cannot tell exactly how. No seat belts were worn. Unknown speed. Vehicle went off the pavement and rolled into a ditch. Your pt was initially found prone in the ditch and rolled over by...

I rarely work with the same EMT twice in a month. It's always an EMT as my service runs medic/EMT on all trucks. I have my favorites and those are the ones who are eager to learn, kind and compassionate to the patients and generally fun to be around. I don't expect entertainment, just half...

What was the title of the book you read?

Are you talking about something like this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grady_straps

I will agree with you that nursing requires a different way of thinking. Learning nursing diagnoses has been the most difficult aspect of nursing school for me thus far. I will also agree that anyone pursuing an RN title should have to take certain college level courses. That said, the...

Actually, you are wrong about this. It varies from school to school how the classes are broken down or structured, but the basic curriculum is standardized nationally. Your school may have used "one mega class" but not all of them do that. This is the curriculum for the paramedic program I...

My mom is a paramedic and was a volunteer firefighter when I was little. I grew up reading her textbooks and grossing out my friends with the gory pictures. LOL I was going to go to nursing school and was working on the core classes when my brother decided he wanted to go to EMT school. He...

I also read and sometimes post at allnurses and it seems like every thread about RN to medic turns into a bashing session. I honestly don't understand why either side thinks they can just jump over and do the job of the other without a serious learning curve. Most of those who express the...