Bad or Irritating EMS Memes

nwhitney said:
Self congratulatory/appreciation weeks/months. It really bothers me to have EMS week or Nurses week or any professions week. I don't get it.
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Don't you slam the free food and goodies.
 
46Young said:
How about "BLS before ALS?" This is another annoying axiom.
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Sorry for my ignorance but I don't see what's wrong with this one. Drugs won't do anything if you don't have good compressions on a code, you don't go straight to morphine before you give O2 to an acs patient.
 
Hunter said:
Sorry for my ignorance but I don't see what's wrong with this one. Drugs won't do anything if you don't have good compressions on a code, you don't go straight to morphine before you give O2 to an acs patient.
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You might actually, if their SpO2 is fine.

The problem with BLS before ALS is that it ignores the fact that it is all medicine. It is also a gross over simplification. What makes something BLS instead of ALS?
 
46Young said:
At Bob Page's Slap the Cap lecture yesterday one of his slides shows a tat of an NREMT-P patch on someone's shoulder. We all got a good chuckle out of that. One girl that used to work in one of our ED's had the star of life on her forearm.

I did the EMS t-shirt thing for a little while when I was new, but stopped after a few months after being made fun of. I keep a county fire sticker and my station sticker on my car to help with tickets, but that's about it. I prefer to remain anonymous if something goes down in public.
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I know tons of people with EMS/fire tattoos. Some in visible places. Always makes me wince.

I own 2? EMS shirts. One is the 'special edition' pink breast cancer shirt the local department came up with, and one is from a previous wildland job. I've occasionally seen people wearing PD/RN/MD shirts, but i think they've all been fundraiser or team shirts.
 
Aidey said:
You might actually, if their SpO2 is fine.
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SpO2 might show 100% if a patient is blue, diaphoretic, breaking 30/minutes, ect. I'm gonna give O2 regardless of what the pulse ox says.

Aidey said:
The problem with BLS before ALS is that it ignores the fact that it is all medicine. It is also a gross over simplification. What makes something BLS instead of ALS?
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It's not saying that something is BLS instead of ALS it's pointing out the importance of good BLS skills before you administer als treatment. Like I said earlier, drugs and an iv won't do a thing without good cpr. Your initial assessment is technically a BLS skill, except for a 4/3 and 12 lead all your vital signs are BLS skills. It also means you wanna go from least invasive to most invasive, hate to think you would go straight for a central line just because it's more direct than an IV.
 
Hunter said:
SpO2 might show 100% if a patient is blue, diaphoretic, breaking 30/minutes, ect. I'm gonna give O2 regardless of what the pulse ox says.



It's not saying that something is BLS instead of ALS it's pointing out the importance of good BLS skills before you administer als treatment. Like I said earlier, drugs and an iv won't do a thing without good cpr. Your initial assessment is technically a BLS skill, except for a 4/3 and 12 lead all your vital signs are BLS skills. It also means you wanna go from least invasive to most invasive, hate to think you would go straight for a central line just because it's more direct than an IV.
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My initial assessment is done at an ALS level. I think like an ALS provider not a BLS provider. Sometimes a patient needs an IV and drugs before o2.

It's all medicine. Stop trying to draw a line where there is no line to be drawn.
 
Aidey said:
I know tons of people with EMS/fire tattoos. Some in visible places. Always makes me wince.

I own 2? EMS shirts. One is the 'special edition' pink breast cancer shirt the local department came up with, and one is from a previous wildland job. I've occasionally seen people wearing PD/RN/MD shirts, but i think they've all been fundraiser or team shirts.
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I have a few EMS week t shirts and one t shirt from a hospital. I sometimes wear them on my comfy casual days when I just grab a t-shirt and jeans from my dresser and go.

Not looking to show off my EMSness. I just happen to look fabulous in that shade of blue and they're comfy.
 
Sasha said:
My initial assessment is done at an ALS level. I think like an ALS provider not a BLS provider. Sometimes a patient needs an IV and drugs before o2.

It's all medicine. Stop trying to draw a line where there is no line to be drawn.
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You might think like an ALS provider during your assessment, but the physical assesment itself is a BLS skill, which i try to emphasize with my new cadets and probies.

Just because we have wizzzbangs and humdoodles and pulse oximeters doesnt mean you can ignore the presentation. Look at your patient, they will tell you whats wrong with them

Two phrase cause me to rage:

"...based on mechanism of Injury..."

"First Aider"
 
Physical assessment may be a "BLS" skill but how exactly do you plan to interpret and use the gathered data as a Basic?

More to come...
 
I always took that as instead of jumping right to monitor, iv, drugs, you take time to assess first.
 
Anjel1030 said:
I always took that as instead of jumping right to monitor, iv, drugs, you take time to assess first.
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The problem is one it confines you to a very linear assessment/treatment model. Which is easy to evaluate in class but doesn't resemble the real world. Two, monitors (cardiac, spo2, etco2, glucometer) are a fairly integral part of my assessment.

For instance, I'm not going to waste time "trendelenberging" a severe sepsis patient, I'm going to start appropriate fluid resuscitaton (in fact if they've got an iffy LOC I'm going to sit them up). If a patient has massive facial injuries I'm not going to try a BVM, ect.

Furthermore, finding things like mild hypoxemia, hypoglycemia, STEMI, vtach and many others require "ALS" monitors to find.
 
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abckidsmom said:
We are no longer friends. I am left handed and those pens are a nightmare for lefties.
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Don't hate just because you can't use the holy grail of pens.
 
usalsfyre said:
The problem is one it confines you to a very linear assessment/treatment model. Which is easy to evaluate in class but doesn't resemble the real world. Two, monitors (cardiac, spo2, etco2, glucometer) are a fairly integral part of my assessment.

For instance, I'm not going to waste time "trendelenberging" a severe sepsis patient, I'm going to start appropriate fluid resuscitaton (in fact if they've got an iffy LOC I'm going to sit them up). If a patient has massive facial injuries I'm not going to try a BVM, ect.

Furthermore, finding things like mild hypoxemia, hypoglycemia, STEMI, vtach and many others require "ALS" monitors to find.
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Well when you look at it that way. Lol I never really thought about it. I hear it all the time though.
 
I am a very firm believer in ABC

Ambulate before carry.
 
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