clinicals

what is emt b allowed to do during the hospital clinicals.
 
1) Bring in a cake or some food to share on your first day :P

2) Be confident and polite. Introduce yourself to people at the station

3) Get involved. Offer to help with basic stuff like remaking the stretcher, carrying gear and the like

4) Don't get offended if you get an unstable patient and you get brushed aside. The crew is not trying to be rude, they just have alot to think about and do.

5) Feel free to ask a few questions here and there. The type of questions and timing is the key. If one of the crew does something and you are not sure why, later at hospital ask them and they should be happy to explain. The time to ask is not while pt care is being performed.

6) Relax and have fun. You are not expected to do much or demonstrate your skills.

7) As you will be the '3rd person' keep an eye out on scenes for things the attending crew might not see. You will be in a good position to spot any dangers such as a car coming at you guys at an MVA or dangerous bystanders.
 
Be careful bringing food and cake, sometimes it looks as if you are being a butter-up or greasing.

TNP, those are all excellent points but in the US the EMT course requires Brown thinks 12 hours in ED and 12 hours on an ambulance so they don't really do much beyond simple primary survey ... from what Brown has seen.
 
emergancyjunkie said:
what is emt b allowed to do during the hospital clinicals.
Click to expand...

Not much, its more of a chance to observe than actually perform any skills. Keep in mind that you are still a student and hold no certifications, hospitals will be reluctant to allow much patient interaction for legal reasons.

If you are really lucky you might get to assist with compressions if a code comes in. Other than that you are just there to observe.
 
MrBrown said:
Be careful bringing food and cake, sometimes it looks as if you are being a butter-up or greasing.

TNP, those are all excellent points but in the US the EMT course requires Brown thinks 12 hours in ED and 12 hours on an ambulance so they don't really do much beyond simple primary survey ... from what Brown has seen.
Click to expand...

Right, just bring order forms on the first day :)
 
brown I'm actually required to do 40 hours ed and 40 hours ambulance for my class I'm not sure what the requirement for pa is
 
There really isn't much to it. See if the ER tech or whoever you're shadowing needs any help. If there are any trauma calls that come in, see if you can observe their treatment. If you think you need any reinforcement on medical assessments, go around and see if you can do a few. I was required by my class to do at least 5 in the 8 hours I was there. Of course try and do it on stable patients without altered mental status. You don't want to get involved in anything too dangerous when you're not a licensed EMT just yet.

It was interesting to see some patients. I saw one patient who had liver problems and could see first hand what jaundiced looks like. I saw another patient who had chest pain. So when I palpated her pulse, it was actually skipping a beat, which was pretty interesting.

It's basically, you get out of it what you put in.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
emergancyjunkie said:
brown I'm actually required to do 40 hours ed and 40 hours ambulance for my class I'm not sure what the requirement for pa is
Click to expand...

I would like to see this happen everywhere, we did a total of 56 hours. 20 in ER and the rest on the rescue. Not nearly enough time as far as I'm concerned.
 
to be honest I don't think 40 for each is gonna be enough I would like to see at least 60 on the ambulance and 60 in the ed
 
They told us we might be able to schedule extra ride time but that never happened.
 
emergancyjunkie said:
I think it will be because every state will soon have to follow NREMT by law
Click to expand...

I think you may have received a bit of bad information. I work in a state that does not interact with the NREMT in the slightest, and there are no plans afoot to adopt any of the NR's policies or curriculum. Furthermore, the registry has no guidelines for class clinicals. There are some states that require little if any time, but completing a class in those states (I.e. Massachusetts) still gives one the opportunity to sit for the NR test.

Incidentally my class had me in the ER for I think 22 hours, I just acted like an extra ER tech without IV skills. Any skill that we had covered in class we could do in ER or ambulance, so tried to schedule my time for the end of class. After the first hour or so my preceptor set me loose on the floor and I just kinda floated through and asked the staff if they needed anything. A lot if the times I would great the incoming ambulances, get them to a room, lift the patient over, and then put them on the monitor. I think the ED is the best place to learn to draw sheet transfer since there are often extra hands around.

As said above, if you take initiative the staff will be more likely to take you aside and let you do the "cool" stuff.


Sent from my out of area communications device.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
traumaluv2011 said:
Of course try and do it on stable patients without altered mental status. You don't want to get involved in anything too dangerous when you're not a licensed EMT just yet.

It's basically, you get out of it what you put in.
Click to expand...

I think the last part of your statement is very true, but the first part is a direct contradiction. One of the reasons that students are required to have some clinical time is to, you know, see some sick patients and learn how to assess/treat them to their scope. All of your classmates are "stable" patients without ALOC, that's who you learned your assessments and whatnot on. When it comes time to go to the ER or ambulance, you want to be able to help to attend the sickest patients. You are in an environment with much more supervision than usual, so take advantage of the fact that you can make a mistake and it will be instantly caught (hopefully). As a student, your clinical time is the time to take what you learned in the classroom and actually apply it for the first time, don't do yourself a disservice and stay away from sick people. Get right in there and do what you've been taught. Waiting till you are licensed/employed to finally treat sick patients does you, your coworkers, and especially your patients a serious disservice.
 
Chief Complaint said:
Not much, its more of a chance to observe than actually perform any skills. Keep in mind that you are still a student and hold no certifications, hospitals will be reluctant to allow much patient interaction for legal reasons.

If you are really lucky you might get to assist with compressions if a code comes in. Other than that you are just there to observe.
Click to expand...

I don't really agree with that. I dropped an ETT under the supervision of the Attending MD during my intermediate clinicals, helped the tech place and capture 12-leads, administered a breathing treatment under the supervision of an RT, mixed an amiodorone drip under supervision of the NP did way too many IVs on pt's coming into the ED from the waiting room.

It all depends how you present yourself and if the staff is comfortable with you and your competence.
 
NVRob said:
I don't really agree with that. I dropped an ETT under the supervision of the Attending MD during my intermediate clinicals, helped the tech place and capture 12-leads, administered a breathing treatment under the supervision of an RT, mixed an amiodorone drip under supervision of the NP did way too many IVs on pt's coming into the ED from the waiting room.

It all depends how you present yourself and if the staff is comfortable with you and your competence.
Click to expand...

My post was referring to the fact that the OP is going in for his EMT-B clinicals.

At the I and P levels you should absolutely be hands on.
 
Chief Complaint said:
My post was referring to the fact that the OP is going in for his EMT-B clinicals.

At the I and P levels you should absolutely be hands on.
Click to expand...

Same rules apply. If he's competent, professional, polite and eager to learn, there should be no shortage of pertinent things for him to do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top