EMT-B Ride alongs not going well

[technocardy]

If it takes a little longer, than it takes a little longer. When I first started my EMT practicums in Alberta, I was a massive white cloud that literally covered the entire southern region. It would be dead throughout the area while I was on, and it lasted like this for close to two months. Having only done 2 or 3 "emergent" calls, and about 4 transfers my preceptors, my school, and myself decided they should move me into Calgary to finish the practicums. After moving into the city I averaged 8-10 calls per 12 hour shift.

It's really all the luck of the draw, if your current location isn't working and the possibility exists to move to another station perhaps try that? If not, just keep at er and eventually you'll get your calls in.

 

[SSwain]

Not trying to be a drama queen...4.5 hrs tonight.
Nothing

Of course, they ran non stop from 11:30-3:00 pm.
I show up at 3:30 and the town friggin locks up tight.
On a plus note, my wife and kids showed up and I was able to get them a tour of the station. That was nice....

I simply cannot get a call even if I called it in myself.:mellow:

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. It'll happen eventually.

 

[technocardy]

Not trying to be a drama queen...4.5 hrs tonight.
Nothing

Of course, they ran non stop from 11:30-3:00 pm.
I show up at 3:30 and the town friggin locks up tight.
On a plus note, my wife and kids showed up and I was able to get them a tour of the station. That was nice....

I simply cannot get a call even if I called it in myself.:mellow:

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. It'll happen eventually.

Nah, your not being a drama queen. I was beyond frustrated when I was trying to get my time in lol. And yup, it'll happen eventually.. it has too, right? :blink:

 

[TyBigz]

This has happened to me my last two shifts! My first day I had a 911 and two transfers. I have since earned the name chock block because the past 12 hours i have worked I have done nothing but truck checks, practice EMT skills, and Learn some ALS stuff (being taught how to start a line and intabate a dummy was pretty fun though.) I feel like my third riding is going to take for every to even be cleared for transports, :sad: but i do understand the importance of knowing where everything is on the truck and how to call c-med and such.

 

[Tigger]

This has happened to me my last two shifts! My first day I had a 911 and two transfers. I have since earned the name chock block because the past 12 hours i have worked I have done nothing but truck checks, practice EMT skills, and Learn some ALS stuff (being taught how to start a line and intabate a dummy was pretty fun though.) I feel like my third riding is going to take for every to even be cleared for transports, :sad: but i do understand the importance of knowing where everything is on the truck and how to call c-med and such.

Good on you for learning the C-Med process. Depending on where you work it's not all that often used, but when you need to use it, you need to do it right. Many hospitals have dedicated and recorded phone lines to use, but if you're going to an unfamiliar place C-Med can't be beat. You'll seem a lot more experienced if you know how to do it your first time without asking too. I worked with someone senior to me recently that had never done it and chickened out and made me call it in. Just remember to think about what you're going to say all the way through before you key the mic.

 

[Handsome Robb]

What's C-Med?

 

[Tigger]

What's C-Med?

C-Med is statewide EMS radio network in Massachusetts. Each county has its own C-Med dispatch, and there is also a statewide dispatch. Most of the time it's used for hospital entry notes. Every county has I think six channels, channel four is the hailing channel. You call on channel four, ask for an entry note to a hospital, and then they give you a patch to that hospital on a different channel that is a secure and recorded line. For whatever reason most hospitals do not have the ability to talk straight to the field units, I am unclear on the history here. It's also how we can talk to the docs and is used during MCIs for resource management as well as patches to other agencies.

In Boston you can bring just about anything besides codes, STEMIs, and major traumas without calling in first, but every hospital wants a full report for a hangnail.

 

[rwik123]

C-Med is statewide EMS radio network in Massachusetts. Each county has its own C-Med dispatch, and there is also a statewide dispatch. Most of the time it's used for hospital entry notes. Every county has I think six channels, channel four is the hailing channel. You call on channel four, ask for an entry note to a hospital, and then they give you a patch to that hospital on a different channel that is a secure and recorded line. For whatever reason most hospitals do not have the ability to talk straight to the field units, I am unclear on the history here. It's also how we can talk to the docs and is used during MCIs for resource management as well as patches to other agencies.

In Boston you can bring just about anything besides codes, STEMIs, and major traumas without calling in first, but every hospital wants a full report for a hangnail.

Yea that's a good summary. How does everyone else's radio relation with hospitals work? I'm used to Boston's system, but I'm up in Vermont now. With our local trauma center we hail them (com center) everytime we are toned out on a call and either call or hail them with a radio report/ETA. It struck me as odd at first, thinking a level 1 trauma center should be able to operate without radio reports for each patient.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Yea that's a good summary. How does everyone else's radio relation with hospitals work? I'm used to Boston's system, but I'm up in Vermont now. With our local trauma center we hail them (com center) everytime we are toned out on a call and either call or hail them with a radio report/ETA. It struck me as odd at first, thinking a level 1 trauma center should be able to operate without radio reports for each patient.

We call report in for every pt we transport. Pretty basic, just a quick summary. We have a Level II TC, along with 3 other hospitals, 4 if you count the VA. One is pretty basic, they do have an ICU albeit a small one. The other will take anything but trauma (if it meets TC criteria), sick peds or OB and the last takes anything except trauma (if it meets TC criteria) and sick peds.

Unit number
Pt age/sex
ETA
C/C, MOI (if applicable)
Vitals (if abnormal)
Interventions
Any changes en route

If it's a pt with no interventions in place it's just:
Unit number
Age/Sex, MOI (if applicable)
C/C
Changes in route

Every now and again with a critical pt the partner who is driving will call in with the basics ie. "Medic 5 inbound emergent, x minute ETA, with a xx yo M/F pt, C/C or MOI, pt coded in route, ALS measures in progress." If the driver knows more they can give that info.

 

[SSwain]

Going back at it again tonight.
I was cleared to work 3:00 until 10:00 pm.
Hopefully, 7 hrs will be enough to get something....anything.
I'll be at a different station for the next 5 Friday nights. This one gets called for almost everything that happens on the Interstate.


My instructor was laughing at me in class the other night. He said when/if I go for my Paramedic needed contacts, I should just live at the station all semester.

 

[Handsome Robb]

I'll be at a different station for the next 5 Friday nights.

Why didn't you try this sooner?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

 

[SSwain]

Why didn't you try this sooner?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results.

Not my decision as to where I am assigned. Paramedic Lt. sets us up. He can accomodate requests, but as a Basic, I get whatever is left over.
New hires get top billing (there are 6 new hires since Jan) Medic Students get next, IV-Techs after that, and finally ....me.

Typically, the station I had been riding with gets the majority of calls. Mostly transports from the 9 assisted living centers on their side of town. That station was convienient for me as well...it was less than 6 blocks from my house.
The station I will be with now is at the opposite side of town. But it is less than a mile from where I work. So right after I finish my regular job, I haul over there and start my future job.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Not my decision as to where I am assigned. Paramedic Lt. sets us up. He can accomodate requests, but as a Basic, I get whatever is left over.
New hires get top billing (there are 6 new hires since Jan) Medic Students get next, IV-Techs after that, and finally ....me.

Typically, the station I had been riding with gets the majority of calls. Mostly transports from the 9 assisted living centers on their side of town. That station was convienient for me as well...it was less than 6 blocks from my house.
The station I will be with now is at the opposite side of town. But it is less than a mile from where I work. So right after I finish my regular job, I haul over there and start my future job.

Gotcha.

Well I hope you get some calls! You can have some of mine if you like. I have a basic student on the unit with me tomorrow though, so you can't have his.

The offer still stands if you want to fly out to Reno and ride with me, although that'd be a brutal trip for a ride along haha. Plus we don't make our students go home after 10 pm. They work full 12s or 16s with us.

 

[SSwain]

Gotcha.

Well I hope you get some calls! You can have some of mine if you like. I have a basic student on the unit with me tomorrow though, so you can't have his.

The offer still stands if you want to fly out to Reno and ride with me, although that'd be a brutal trip for a ride along haha. Plus we don't make our students go home after 10 pm. They work full 12s or 16s with us.

If it's close to graduation time and I still need contacts, I might take you up on that offer.

 

[Tigger]

Gotcha.

The offer still stands if you want to fly out to Reno and ride with me, although that'd be a brutal trip for a ride along haha. Plus we don't make our students go home after 10 pm. They work full 12s or 16s with us.

I always thought this was a better idea than sending people home at a set time. EMS can be a huge change for people when it comes to shift times, might as well show it to them there. Even when I was riding with Fire who ran 24s, I just slept on they're couch and watched their flatscreen ^_^.

Trying to do a 1500 to 500 before going to my "regular" college class was a poor idea though. Professor thought I was lying about why I kept falling asleep in class. "No no really, I did get pooped on twice in the last 12 hours."

 

[SSwain]

Well the snow is still flying, the roads are ice covered, slippery and horrible, winds are causing near white-out conditions....Not to wish for someone elses misfortune, but it looks like tonight might be my night.
Plus we have the annual sturgeon spearing season opening tomorrow. Lots of people out on the ice getting their shacks set....but the ice conditions are extremely dicey. Dept of Natural Resources is advising to travel at your own risk if going out onto the ice....
Maybe a ice break thru/water rescue tonight as well?

 

[SSwain]

SCORE!
2 contacts tonight...drug overdose and a dislocated hip.

1 more contact to go.

 

[SSwain]

I finally got it!
Last night was my last scheduled ride. (100+ hrs total)
I thought I was going to get screwed out of anything last night.
Mitt Romney was in town and the station I was riding with was taken out of service and dedicated to covering his visit.
Luckily, he was here for just a couple hours while he made a visit to a local well known eatery.
As the night was winding down and getting closer to my end time...tones went off with 20 minutes left of me being there.

25 yo F abdominal pains. The lead paramedic allowed me to run the full assessment, hook up the lifepack, and run radio report to ED. (He only stepped in a couple times to ask a few questions himself.)
This was the most hands on action I have had during a run so far.

All the classroom training and practice are no where near the adreneline rush as a real life scenario.