I've been using the King for about 6 months now and have had good luck with it apart from one incident where an 8.0 tube got stuck in the channel. This happened to a few of our medics but the problem was traced to a specific brand of ET tube.
We just started using it in my county, it is first line for septic/neurogenic shock that is refractory to fluids. 8-12 mcg/min titrated to effect and then backed down if BP allows.
When I was doing OR airway time this year we had a kid with a lower GI obstruction, apparently you need to shuck sunflower seeds before you eat them. Anyway, the anesthesiologist handed me a bottle of wintergreen flavoring to put in my mask, the stuff worked great and left me craving some gum.
I am about to finish paramedic school myself, if I were in your spot, I would take the New York tests as well. You never know when your plans will change and its always good to have options.
We carry a Mega Mover it is a tarp looking thing with sturdy handles, they hold around 800 pounds if I remember right. It works pretty great and it is easy to clean. We also have nylon cargo nets and clams.
I worked at Northwest, you will be doing mostly IFT transports. You may get put on the nurse car but even there you will be doing a great deal of driving and little patient care. If you want to see sick patients and get lots of experience quickly, go to Tri Med.
Check out Northwest Ambulance in Marysville, it would be a good place to start and get some experience. Mostly IFT and critical care transports. I enjoyed working there, it was laid back but professional.
AMR and Metro West are the only two I know of in Portland, I don't know much about them other than they do many if not all of the transports for Portland and Tualatin Valley Fire.
The county where I work started using ESO in 2010. There were some teething problems for the first 6 months but after that it has been fine. A BLS report takes me about 15-20 min to complete. Now I'm using FISDAP for paramedic school and I hate it with a passion.
Watching "Rescue 911" on TV in the early 90s got me into the Fire/EMS field and after becoming a firefighter I realized that medicine was (for me anyway) far more challenging and dynamic than putting the wet stuff on the red stuff. I still do love the fire side but I think being a paramedic will...
Is there a sober person that can look after them? That is one of my litmus tests when I decide whether or not to transport. Of course this is after I am sure that there are no other drugs, trauma or anything else that would cause me to take them in. If they are protecting their airway and have a...
My agency has a LP12 on our BLS unit. Our EMTs are trained to set up 12 leads and use it in AED mode on arrests. If the call starts off BLS and gets balanced to a medic response, the arriving medic will usually get handed a 12 lead strip when they walk in.
I came home from a fire conference to find my dorm room filled with bean bag pellets. My coworkers had bought 100 gallons worth and used a leaf blower to distribute them. They opened up every drawer in my dresser, bed and computer desk. Two years later, when I moved out of the station, I was...
When I worked private AMB, we took a patient from a hospital in Seattle to a SNF in Kennewick. This is normally an 8 hour round trip but it was in the middle of winter and on that day, the mountain passes were closed. We had to drive around the mountains through Portland and then up to...