Not aiming my comments directly at Mycrofft, but this type of argument is used by every old guy who doesn't want to change practice.
They are comfortable with what they are doing. They simply don't want to change. They also need the mental security that they were helping in the past and not harming.
These same people who don't realize or admit their treatments were based on some guy they respected comming up with "an idea." They had no scientific evidence supporting them. They performed no studies. Now more than 2 or more decades later many of the studies being done showed they didn't work or harmed.
Still they demand more and more evidence without offering any themselves.
I must respectfully disagree with you.
When you are only taught one thing, and that one thing is consistently taught in classes today, by EMT-Instructors (and paramedics, lawyers, doctors, RTs, etc), and not contraindicated by medical directors everywhere (you know, those doctor peoples), and the state protocols say to give oxygen (which are written or approved by doctors), how can they think anything differently? Not only that, but all that stuff makes up the "standard of care" and if you don't follow it, you will suffer the wrath, regardless of if a negative outcome occurs or not.
we backboard people. why? because the books says so. we NRB everyone. why? because the book tells us to.
a field provider going against standard practice isn't changing anything. in fact, if something happens, and the patient dies, the provider will be hung out to dry because they failed to follow protocol, despite being academically correct. it's just one lone providing doing what he wants.
Changes start at the top: medical directors change policies at the agency level, state protocols change at the state level, and the text book authors change at the education level. than it trickles down to the newbies, who read it when they are in EMT class, the supervisors pass on new protocols to their subordinates, and any one who fails to see that, can look to the state to see what the state protocols say you should be doing.
