Have you ever used your EMT skills when you are off duty?

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MrCurious

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I am curious if any of you EMT's have ever used your EMT skills when you are not at work.

Have you ever used any of the skills you learned in your training to be an EMT when you are not at work?

If so, what skills that you learned in your training to be an EMT did you use when you were not at work?
 
Every day.

Staying calm, critical thinking, and triaging/prioritizing tasks are the most common soft skills.

As far as hard skills, bandaging and splinting are the most commonly used skill as a teacher.

A few times a year I'll do a full medical assessment and initiate care as we wait for EMS. Mostly diabetic emergencies and panic attacks.

One a year or so I'll help with medication administration.

Outside of work I call 911.
 
Pretty much same as MMiz.... the soft skills of staying calm, critical thinking, and triage/prioritizing are used every day and that's not limited to EMS-type situations. As to the other skills, I rarely use those outside of work. Why??

Outside of work, I'll call 911. If I have to intervene, most of the time it's utilizing soft skills to gather info for the responding crew.
 
I glued my kids head back together once.
 
Have swept numerous objects (mostly foods) out of our four kids mouths over the years then smacked them on the backs. Ended buying the Missus a LifeVac for when I’m not home, but yes, if it’s serious enough we’d call 911. Minor burn care is another one in our household.

Plus three on the soft skills. These are fundamental to just lifing though and grow (theoretically) over time. Our son had a febrile seizure once in his sleep. Admittedly, that woke me from a dead sleep and scared the **** out of me.

The “actual skills” themselves are handy for basic first aid around the house with four kids. But nothing that can’t be taught to laypersons.
 
Treated my wife for anaphylaxis once, my daughter for asthma many times, a guy who got hit in the head by a hockey puck, various other stuff. Mostly just suggested people see their doctors or waited with them for EMS.
 
This thread is not about the soft skills. This thread is about the hard skills.

So far, my translation of the answers is no (except for mgr22's post, which is post #7 on this thread).

If someone in your family needed CPR, don't you think you would be more qualified to administer it than some layman?

I am a trucker. I used to have a trucking teammate whose parents were both EMT's. He told me about how one time in his childhood, one of his younger brothers got hypothermia. And he told me his parents knew not to submerge him in hot water to thaw him out because of their EMT skills. I was hoping you people would have some interesting anecdotes like that.
 
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NomadicMedic said:
My kid took a ball to the face in field hockey. Bled like a stuck pig. The best skill I used was navigating the ED and getting my friends to take care of her quickly. Knowing all the ED staff paid off.
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The only use of the acronym ED that I know of is erectile dysfunction LOL. From the context of this conversation, I am sure you are not writing about erectile dysfunction. What does ED stand for? Emergency Doctors?
 
mgr22 said:
Treated my wife for anaphylaxis once, my daughter for asthma many times, a guy who got hit in the head by a hockey puck, various other stuff. Mostly just suggested people see their doctors or waited with them for EMS.
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I don't know what anaphylaxis is except that it is some kind of medical condition. So I will google it.

Anyway, how did you treat your wife for anaphylaxis? What was the treatment?

P.S. Your post is exactly the kind of reply I was hoping for when I created this thread.
 
MrCurious said:
This thread is not about the soft skills. This thread is about the hard skills.

So far, my translation of the answers is no.

If someone in your family needed CPR, don't you think you would be more qualified to administer it than some layman?

I am a trucker. I used to have a trucking teammate whose parents were both EMT's. He told me about how one time in his childhood, one of his younger brothers got hypothermia. And he told me his parents knew not to submerge him in hot water to thaw him out because of their EMT skills. I was hoping you people would have some interesting anecdotes like that.
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Yeah, well, sorry to disappoint you, MrCurious. I guarantee you you're not hearing everything from everyone.
 
Idk why you're fishing for specific answers, especially on an EMS forum where you're getting confused by not knowing some entry level terms like "Emergency Department" or what one of the basic emergencies we're taught to recognize and treat are...

But to be charitable, yes if I was present, and a member of my family needed CPR I would absolutely jump on the chest. I don't think there's anyone here who wouldn't, but that's a pure hypothetical, and not a "what have you done" type as the question asks...

Off duty, in terms of hard skills, I think the closest I've done is when a guy in front of me in line at the DMV had a seizure, I help lay him down, keep him from smacking his head (and thus injuring himself further) and keeping the security guard from wanting to shove something in the Patients mouth "to keep him from swallowing his tongue" and just helped keep everyone calm until local EMS arrived a few minutes later.

Beyond that, I've called 911 on my cell phone a few times for emergencies I've come across. Only one of them had an injury I could have treated (bleeding) with BLS skills... but you know, in the ~12 years I've been an EMT, I'm not carrying around bandages as Every Day Carry (EDC) for what's literally happened once in a decade, so...

Now maybe if I had kids and was taking them to sports or camps where such injuries are more likely, I might carry something around to those things, otherwise I'm in a suburban area where Fire and/or EMS can be on scene within 5 min of me calling on my cell phone, so that's the only "tool" I routinely carry (beyond a pocket knife, which is occasionally useful in the opening cardboard delivery boxes, or those annoying sealed plastic pouches from the store)
 
MrCurious said:
If someone in your family needed CPR, don't you think you would be more qualified to administer it than some layman?
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No. I can instruct just about any layperson to press 1.5-2” in depth while humming “Staying Alive” or similar to a 100-120 beat/ minute cadence. And I am not, nor have I ever been a CPR instructor. I would argue, that this is the easy part.

Your thread is chocked full of seasoned providers who’ve learned how soft skills tie into hard ones, so yes, it is absolutely about the two intertwining. I’m willing to bet your co-workers parents would have agreed.

Relying solely on a skill without instincts or experience can be catastrophic. So again, they’re absolutely applicable to one another.
 
It took me a long time to realize the soft skills were the more valuable ones in every day life and emergencies. Physical skills are essentially worthless if you don't know when and why to use them, or if you can't keep your composure and think clearly during the event.
 
MrCurious said:
If someone in your family needed CPR, don't you think you would be more qualified to administer it than some layman?
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ummmm.. sure... but CPR is CPR, and if you are going CPR on a family member, it's a really bad day
MrCurious said:
I am a trucker. I used to have a trucking teammate whose parents were both EMT's. He told me about how one time in his childhood, one of his younger brothers got hypothermia. And he told me his parents knew not to submerge him in hot water to thaw him out because of their EMT skills. I was hoping you people would have some interesting anecdotes like that.
Click to expand...
I mean... yeah... my EMS training has helped me not do certain things....

Let's see.... I have not stick anything in my son's mouth when he started seizing... I also took off his clothes and took the blanket off him because his fever spiked....

When my son fell out of his high chair when my wife was feeding him, I didn't panic, I didn't call 911, but I did calm down my wife... she was more of a wreck than he was.

When my son fell down the stairs, I picked him up, made sure he wasn't dying or had anything broken, and walked him back up the stairs.

When my son was sounding croupy, I listened with my stethoscope, and told my wife we need to take him to the ER....

Honestly, the most I use my knowledge off duty is advising others on what's an emergency, and what's not. Calming people down. directing them to call 911. Telling them to make an appointment with their doctor.

I've stopped at more than my share of MVCs to help out (usually if the car is upside down or if it looks like a pin), but the majority of the time the best thing I do in those cases is call 911, advise how many injuries, and if it's a basic MVA, or a confirmed pin. a basic MVA gets an engine and an ambulance, while a pin will get 1 engine, 1 ladder, 1 rescue, 2 ambulances, and 1 or 2 chiefs. I might do a basic assessment, and once the AHJ arrives, I tell them what I saw, and continue on my day.

MrCurious said:
The only use of the acronym ED that I know of is erectile dysfunction LOL. From the context of this conversation, I am sure you are not writing about erectile dysfunction. What does ED stand for? Emergency Doctors?
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Emergency Department?
 
MrCurious said:
I am curious if any of you EMT's have ever used your EMT skills when you are not at work.

Have you ever used any of the skills you learned in your training to be an EMT when you are not at work?

If so, what skills that you learned in your training to be an EMT did you use when you were not at work?
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You are clearly not an EMS provider.

We use the basic first aid skills all the time.

Have you used your truck driving skills when you were off duty?
 
NomadicMedic said:
You are clearly not an EMS provider.

We use the basic first aid skills all the time.

Have you used your truck driving skills when you were off duty?
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I back into most parking spaces! Does that count?
 
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