Notetaking during a call

[unleashedfury]

I'll give you a real reply on how we work a call.

We run a dual Medic truck and we do 24 hour shifts. The first 12 hours of the shift one Medic rides officer and the other Medic drives. The "Officer" is in charge of the patient interview and he will end up talking to the Doc, writing the report etc. etc. The "driver" Medic is responsible for hunting and gathering. He or she will get info from the fire crew, find meds and also interview any friends or family members, clinic or SNF staff present during the call. By the time the officer has completed patient exam the two will meet to talk over the next move. We do it the same way every run and we are charting on a run sheet on a clipboard. The Medic "driver" is also known as the skills person. Any lines or tubes are done by the driver and then we swap spots half way through the shift. On a CPR or any critical patient that needs ALS care quickly we will hand the clipboard to a firefighter and go to work. Officer does the line, driver gets the tube :beerchug:

Quite efficient.. one great way to utilize a dual medic crew. We generally swap per call. 1st call one rides the other drives. and swap it around for the second call. We also work 24 hour shifts but no assigned partners. My Weekend rotation is always the same partner, but during the week its musical partners.

 

[NomadicMedic]

I'll give you a real reply on how we work a call.

We run a dual Medic truck and we do 24 hour shifts. The first 12 hours of the shift one Medic rides officer and the other Medic drives. The "Officer" is in charge of the patient interview and he will end up talking to the Doc, writing the report etc. etc. The "driver" Medic is responsible for hunting and gathering. He or she will get info from the fire crew, find meds and also interview any friends or family members, clinic or SNF staff present during the call. By the time the officer has completed patient exam the two will meet to talk over the next move. We do it the same way every run and we are charting on a run sheet on a clipboard. The Medic "driver" is also known as the skills person. Any lines or tubes are done by the driver and then we swap spots half way through the shift. On a CPR or any critical patient that needs ALS care quickly we will hand the clipboard to a firefighter and go to work. Officer does the line, driver gets the tube :beerchug:

Very similar to how we work here. We run dual medic on a squad and work 12s. 2 days followed by 2 nights. One guy drives the first day and then we swap. With my normal partner, I always drive 2nd day and 2nd night. We alternate calls. The passenger is usually the first up as the "lead medic". We seldom ride two medics to the hospital.

 

[TransportJockey]

What I use for note taking on calls simply depends upon the type of call and how much I expect to work during that call. Most calls, I'll use a notepad. They're cheap and work well. If I'm going to be busy, then I'll put a 2" x 14" strip of tape on my leg and take notes on that. If that tape gets soiled, so has my uniform.

This. I do actually like the Write in the Rain EMS notepad. But I usually run rural EMS so there's me and my partner and that's it. So extra hands for scribing generally aren't there. And our charting system doesn't lend itself to on scene charting

 

[MonkeyArrow]

I second the Rite in the Rain notepads. However, I generally don't use the EMS version opting for the "tactical" version because of the empty sheets instead of the pre-printed form. I like the ability to write or draw (unusual EKGs; much easier than digging though all the rig's lifepaks looking for one EKG that may or may not still be there) anything I need and have it there if I need to document it in a report later.

 

[LawEMT]

I am late to this party. I have experience in urban, tactical and wilderness. The ability to have notes from my call to place into a PCR later while running back to back calls can be incredibly helpful. Running rite in the rain stuff, utilizing built sheets from my agency and even (back in the day) using the 2 inch tape on my leg. I have also done the treat and don't write notes and hope I remember times of vitals, information provided, allergies, symptoms, medications provided, drip rates doesn't work for me so I found a system that is greatly appreciated to me. I utilize a pilot's kneeboard that I attached a belt clip to. It is a much better system than the 2 inch tape while also providing for gloves storage, extra pens and a sharpie marker that I use for marking meds and IV lines.

 

[Alex112]

Phone, Traumasoft app: EVENT box then sort things out before finalising. Doesnt break GDPR as it's still inside Traumasoft app.

Example:

 

[Aprz]

I just write on a notepad, usually times and quoting the patient.

I replied to this post 11 years ago. My preferred way of documenting calls is typing it directly into the computer as I do it.