mycrofft
Still crazy but elsewhere
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Trivia: originally "stewardesses" as they were called had to be "trained nurses".
Anyone have additional reading/sources on these flight EMK kits? Seems interesting. Would like to hear if there's any med control involved back on the ground.
Do you want to know specifically what is in the kit?
AtlasFlyer
Did they allow ND's to open it? (Naturopathic Doctor)
Nope [not at the time]. MD or DO only, SPECIFICALLY.
I'm glad Mr. BaldGuy ) ) has said that the rules have relaxed a bit on that. It seemed to me to be a bit hyper-militant to refuse access to the kit to someone like you say, with solid experience who could really help someone who needed it. Perhaps it was an insurance/liability issue on the part of the carrier, but I'm glad the rules have relaxed.
Not only were we told that we were under NO circumstance to give the EMK to anyone other than an MD or DO we would be fired, NO EXCUSES, if we violated this. The EMK was locked, so the kit was inaccessible without a F/A accessing it.
We were also told in new-hire school that if we (as F/As) were also EMTs or nurses or whatnot that we WERE NOT allowed to operate outside of the scope of what we were taught in new-hire medical training. The company could not protect us legality-wise if we did something outside the scope of the company's training. We had an RN in my new-hire class in 1995 and she was shocked to hear she was specifically forbidden from acting in anyway further than basic CPR/first aid.
I'm VERY GLAD to hear these militant policies are changing! It was particularly ironic as the very first stewardesses in America were required to be RNs... the RN requirement wasn't dropped til WWII as nurses were direly needed for the war effort.
Cool that the rules have relaxed. I know a guy who is a "Trauma Nurse Practitioner" and has the Masters Degree in Nursing and some specialty board certification as such. He runs an ER solo very often and runs codes on a daily basis. It would be just weird for him to not be allowed access to the kit.
I was not that far away, from the event, but I was not working it. Chances are I know a few of the people that did respond to it, just because I do work in the area. From what I understand of the event, and the response, the first aid team had their hands full. It also sounds like there was a more than adequate response to the incident, which was largely driven by inclement weather that was less than expected. While the weather situation was probably less than expected, I would very much suspect that they will be more prepared for such a turn of events in the future.Everyone there was basically up to speed, there was a lot of cooperation, while we were working under adverse conditions yielding numerous hypothermic-only patients, with the help of local fire dept and the third party private transport crew, things worked out ok. I started to tick off my cohorts but they seemed to appreciate me more later, when I dialed back and let them do their thing as well. If we had a do-over on that, I'd want the same folks.
I often feel I am working far below my capacity and it is utterly maddening.
Minor Correction: "Says the guy whose avatar is Morgan Freeman, playing God..."Says the guy who's avatar is God.
Yeah. I wasn't aware that they existed.