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My experience has been: Vinyl gloves are garbage, and should be left to grade school food service folks. They breach far to easily, tend to stick to your hands and not fit your hands properly as a result. When you have that vinyl webbing between your fingers, its an invitation for a ripped...

Oh...Im sorry. Where did I refer to you as a paramedic? If I misquoted your licensure or certification I apologize. The reference was intended, as I believe is perfectly clear, that paramedics are still emergency medical TECHNICIANS.

And once again, why do paramedics continue to fight what they are? E-M-T. I also reiterate that the terms "medic" and "paramedic" are not interchangeable nor are the various individuals to who these terms apply all at the same skill, education or training level. A Medic is a military medical...

Read the previous post I wrote in response to Rangat. It answers your questions. And when your talking about a mass exposure to a chemical agent, the term to remember is austere care. Its fast, its ugly but it works. It has been proven to work. And the atropine to which you refer is often the...

Speak for yourself. Im on a disaster response team and basics are trained to give atropine for nerve gas exposure plus about 100 other things that ambulance basics dont do. And yes, we can provide airways. Im going to get flamed but its called a Combi-tube and when you have 600 patients on a...

We do have glucometers, its just that a lot of areas dont let EMT-Bs use them. We have them on my service, in fact I carry one on my belt and use it all the time. Im not sure what you mean by "the odd cellulitis" though....

I think its time to go back to school. Simple altered mental status is not a contra-indication for glucose. Check your Brady's. Contras for oral glucose are: loss of consciousness/responsiveness and inability to swallow. The only time that being altered might be a contra for oral glucose is if...

I think this notion also comes from alot of the same folks that assume that all EMT-Bs want to be paramedics. Its like saying all nurses really want to be doctors or all dentists are really frustrated maxillo-facial surgeons. Do I want to eventually become a paramedic. Sure. But maybe 4 or 5...

Here in Illinois we would get spanked big time for not transporting a post-ictal delirium tremens patient. By our protocol's definitions, they are not A/O and hence are transported, even if against their wishes and with the help of LE. There is a patient in our area he who is picked up at least...

The way I was taught, a psych patient doesnt get a GCS unless they are the way they are due to substance use or abuse or attempted suicide in a way that would affect mental status. I sometimes do first aide for a semi-pro baseball team and guys that get beaned with a fastball get a GCS...

One good thing about Tru-Specs is that you can get an XL-Short without getting a pair of pants that are crawling up your back side. I got this size because I have to blouse them into my boots and anything else leaves me with a huge wad of extra material to deal with.

The Army's official list of MOS designations designates a 68W as a Combat Medic and a 68W1 as a Special Operations Combat Medic. I didn't see healthcare specialist listed. Another good reason why "medic" and "paramedic" aren't interchangeable. A 68W (68W=Combat Medic) according to the Army...

R/r- When I did wilderness first responder for a SAR team in New Mexico, the instructor gave us the following statistics: Cardiac arrest survival with no interventions: 0% Cardiac arrest survival with CPR only: between 3% and 7% Cardiac arrest survival with CPR and AED: between 10% and...

I know this is an old thread, but I was re-reading and found what you have said here to be quite confusing. First you say that PCT has been removed from CPR and ACLS curriculum. Then you say a person better have ACLS if they are going to do it. Which is it? Im confused. What good would it do for...

No, I dont think your missing some unimpeachable study that shows that patients are more likely to arrive at hospital "alive and viable" more often or with greater consistency simply because there is an ALS provider on board. Ive dont literature searches in JEMS, the Journal of the American...

I dont think I would feel too bad about getting played if she managed 18 visits to the same ED before they called her on it. Obviously you had no way of knowing that you were getting scammed if you hadnt run on this patient before. Sounds like you did a thorough workup...as a Basic the only...

Other than in the military, Ive never heard a basic being called a medic. I also agree that a "medic" and a "paramedic" are not the same thing. As for public deception, talk to the agencies and operations managers. We have several services in my hometown that have an agency patch on one sleeve...

EMTRyan- You're right. I took an infectious disease module class before EMT school or I never would have heard about it either until about 8 months ago when I transferred a patient with it. I have to say my first encounter with it (elderly male, multiple open and active infection sites, both...

I agree. There seems to be a trend in paramedic thinking that says "EMTs are minimally trained, so let's eliminate them." Would these same paramedics say "that arm is bleeding, let's cut it off?" As Ive said, I would like to see the amount of training for all levels of EMS providers...

I guess I really come down somewhere in the middle of this argument. Do I think I and my fellow Basics are ambulance drivers? No. Do I think we could and should know more and be trained in greater detail and for a longer period of time? Yes. I'd like to see the NREMT set the standard at 500...