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  1. audreyj

    Good place to buy EMS gear?

    It's really hard to suggest pants b/c everyone has their preferences and what someone else may like, you may not. I personally like having cargo type pockets but I know a lot of other people don't. As for boots, I love my easy off station boots by thorougood (sp?). I got them for about $40...
  2. audreyj

    Ideal Drug Box

    We have to transport them unless they show signs of being down for a long time. We can only call a death in the field if rigor mortis has set in, gross dependent levidity, decapitation, mummification or putrefication. If one of those is not present we must work the code and transport them...
  3. audreyj

    Ladies, PLEASE help. [Canada]

    I'm in the states so it'll be a little different. I'll be graduating my paramedic class June 1st, our paramedic is the equivalent to your ACP. I feel that as a woman, I have to work a little harder to prove myself while men on the job just walk right on and it's assumed they know everything...
  4. audreyj

    Ideal Drug Box

    Where I live our transport times are crazy short, about 15 mins tops. Most of these drugs that are listed would have very little benefit to us. Our average door to balloon time for cardiac pts is 60 mins, the record being 27. In the case of cardiac arrest IF we get a pulse and favorable...
  5. audreyj

    saline-lok opinion

    I agree that you have to know why you're doing it before you're doing it. And that starts with why you use alcohol, iodine, or clorihexidine, before doing any form of venipuncture. Just saying, "I rub with alcohol because that's how I always do it", isn't good enough, you need to know the...
  6. audreyj

    Spring-loaded IV caths... WHY!?!?!

    I'm not a huge fan of those either. I prefer the ones that come with the little metal nub over the needle. I don't mind them I just don't have much experience with them. I actually really prefer the style that is pretty much a saline lock all in one. No holding pressure after you remove the...
  7. audreyj

    What was your most SPECTACULAR (or scarey) equipment failure yet?

    I was walking into a pts house, had the cardiac monitor and the BLS bag, walked through the grass and it was wet because it was very lightly sprinkling outside, take about 5 steps into the pts house and the minute I get off the rug I slipped on the floor catching the monitor with my right shin...
  8. audreyj

    Medic Students!!!

    We just started intubation. I have my lab day tomorrow when I get to tube a dummy :D Finished up the chapters on pulmonology now we get to move onto med math and pharmacology. I'm happy to be finally getting some more advanced skills
  9. audreyj

    EMT-B to EMT-P... A Bad Idea?

    I do agree that there needs to be more pre-reqs to a paramedic program. I have college level A&P and microbiology and chemistry in high school. I can't imagine taking the paramedic program without the A&P, there is just SO much to learn and so little time afforded by a lot of programs. When I...
  10. audreyj

    Paramedic Book

    We use a Brady book, it's a 5 volume series with workbooks and it's by Bledsoe, Cherry and Porter. I've noticed that they have some chapters they could easily break down in to smaller chapters, Vol 2 ch 2 and Vol 1 ch 8 come to mind for any who has these books.
  11. audreyj

    EMS and meal "breaks"

    That's no good! I know some people carry snacks on the rig but not a lot of people do, probably a wise idea to do so. It never fails, the time you say eat or quiet or variations of those words, you're gonna get a call.
  12. audreyj

    EMS and meal "breaks"

    I thought you would all get a kick out of this arguement I had with my husband last nite. He was telling me all about his CDL and log book requirements, I didn't really care but played the good wife and listened. Then he started spewing on and on about how if we're entitled to meal breaks...
  13. audreyj

    Duty to act?

    I'm in IL and we were told by our EMS coordinator that once we are licensed as paramedics our EMT-B licenses become void, we're still allowed to do both BLS and ALS calls however we cannot be employed as an EMT-B. The EMS coordinator of your resource hospital should be able to answer your...
  14. audreyj

    Medic Students!!!

    Hey all! I fall into the student ranks, I started medic school Aug 10 and will finish Jun 1, 2010. Had my first clinical on 9/3 and will continue to do clinicals during the class. We're in class MW 6-10 and only have about 4 or 5 days off during the entire program. We start IV next month and...
  15. audreyj

    Left Nare NPA Insertion

    We were taught the right or the largest, the reason we were given for using the right was that the it is often the largest but you can definitely use the left. Insertion was no different than the right. Measure the bevel to the pinky finger nail, measure length from the nostril to the tip of...
  16. audreyj

    About EMT intermediate

    We have intermediates here in the rural areas, which is pretty much every thing outside Chicago and the surrounding metropolitan area. EMT-Is are very rare where I'm at, it's all or nothing, Chicago Fire Dept. *might* take an intermediate, not totally sure on that (they were the only ones...
  17. audreyj

    EMT-Basic-hirable from the get-go or need more schooling...???

    I'm in the Chicago area and our municipalities hire you either as a FF/EMT-B with a promise to become a paramedic in X amt of time, typically a year. The same is true for the reverse in my experience. Best bets are to find a volunteer dept. and finish your schooling then test into a paid...
  18. audreyj

    Scenario posed to me by ICU nurse

    My first thought was an abd. aortic injury that caused his death when released from the seat belt. If there was a C1-C2 fx that very well could've caused death when released as well, maybe it was a combination of the two. Would be very interesting to see the coroner's report.
  19. audreyj

    why are ems people so strange?

    Here in IL we don't have to do anything if we're off duty. If there is no police or fire on scene we're encouraged to call 911 but we're not really obligated to do anything else. Our EMS coordinator said that having a jump bag, having all the stickers on your car, wearing hats/tshirts, etc...
  20. audreyj

    EMS Pants

    I have proppers and the only downside is they're teflon coated and hot as snot in the summer. Mine are dark navy and could really pass for black.
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