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November 30, 2007 @ 9:45 am
I’m almost finished nursing school. Why? Because I couldn’t find a flexible schedule EMS job in my area that would just let me work nights and weekends on a PRN basis. Everything was shift work or didn’t offer any kind of regular shift. I looked at my skills and then looked at what I was getting paid for them and I couldn’t justify staying in that field, at least as a primary job.
It was a no-brainer. I can still operate as a volunteer provider in my community and do what I love but I have to go where I’ll be most appreciated, right? But that’s just me. The rest of the providers will stick around. Then I got this email from a good friend and contributor to the show, Chris Black:
Get ready for a rant! If people like Chris and other experienced providers leave the EMS field for greener pastures simply because the system won’t pay us a living wage, then we are headed back to the days of the scoop and run hearse ambulance. The American health care system is broken and there is a lot of talk about how to fix it. Nowhere in any proposal I’ve seen or heard about, has there been any mention of the abysmal wages paid to our professional rescuers on the street. We need to keep this issue on the table in any public health discussion. Our government has no problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars each year protecting the interests of oil companies — why can’t they take that money and spend it on the health care and services needed here at home! What do you think? Post a comment below — or better yet Head over to forums.mediccast.com and sign up for the new MedicCast forums! Jamie, the Podmedic November 29, 2007 @ 11:27 am
Are you ready to spy for the Department of Homeland Security? Well they think you are. A recent news item I found talks about a new program for training firefighters and EMS providers to look for specific danger items in an effort to head off terrorists in their homes. Isn’t this a betrayal of the trust the public puts in us when they call us to their homes (as well as being a warrantless search). I report on this and other EMS news in the most recent episode of the MedicCast News at the Podcaster News Network. Jamie November 28, 2007 @ 8:15 am
I talked about the handling of patients who have attempted suicide on this week’s show. Here’s an article that adds a risk group to the list. The study cited in this article states that reports on increased mental illness rates for returning Iraq War veterans around 3 to 6 months after their return home. Add this to your history taking when transporting a suicide attempt patient.
Review signs and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I covered this as a Tip of the Week in Episode 83 of the MedicCast. Check out the show and the links in the shownotes for more information. According to this recent study of 88,200 soldiers, these patients may also be at increased risk for alcohol or substance abuse problems and interpersonal conflicts with the people around them. Keep this in mind when dealing with this difficult issue in the field. November 26, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
I have been asked by many listeners to add a forum page to the MedicCast site. The work involved has been prohibitive up to this point — finding the right software, creating a MedicCast template for the site, managing forum spam, and just the work of overseeing the posts themselves in order to provide the quality that I know this community demands — all have kept me from setting up forums to date. Now I have found an option — a social community site that will allow me to manage the forums — look, content, and access — without taking too much time away from those things with which I already am already over-extended. Visit forums.mediccast.com and sign up as a member of the Ning community with the MedicCast network there. You can even add a badge to your own site, MySpace, or Facebook page like the one below. ———————————- ———————————- These forums are yours to use and support. Forums won’t work unless you post to them and reply to other’s questions and comments when you have something to say. You can use them to suggest story and topic ideas for the MedicCast podcast or the MedicCast Live show. You can also share tips and tricks with each other there. Try it out and see for yourself! November 25, 2007 @ 10:05 pm
Welcome to Episode 94
A podcast for EMT’s, Paramedics, and other medical providers of all kinds. —————————- MedicCast Listener Deals at GoDaddy.com –
——————————— Link of the Week: Pediacast interview with vaccine book author ——————————— News: Maryland EMS Doctor Recognized Japanese EMS Triage System Troubles ———————————– Tip/Trick of the Week — Dealing with Suicidal Patients ———————————– Med of the Week — Insulin ———————————– Visit the MedicCast Forums ———————————– Thanks for Supporting the MedicCast! Rate the podcast at iTunes or at EMS Village or Vote at Podcast Alley Visit the MedicCast Store! Get the New MedicCast Newsletter — Sign up now — it’s free! Other Podcasts: MedicCast News, MedicCast Live, and Headliner News Roundup Contact Me! send me a note at podmedic@mac.com ———————————————— Podsafe Holiday Music by Jill Parr from the Podsafe Music Network
————————————– Until next time, Scene safety, BSI! November 24, 2007 @ 9:25 am
How do we make a decisions about that “suspected GI bleed” when we can’t see inside the abdomen? Seimens Medical Solutions has come up with a solution that we may see in the field sometime in the near future. It is a cell phone sized ultrasound device with a flip up screen. You can use it to look for fluid in the abdominal space and help make a decision about transport. The best part is that the pictures are digital so they can be transmitted to the hospital remotely during consult, or uploaded to the hospital upon arrival for comparison with subsequent imaging. This is just one of the devices I see showing up in our units to assist with remote diagnosis with medical control. When will this happen? Well, I see it being forced into play when the emergency room overcrowding problem reaches a critical mass and field triage becomes more about weeding out the real emergencies from the walking wounded. Either way, this may assist us in saving time and money for us, the emergency room and trauma centers, and for the patients. November 23, 2007 @ 8:00 am
You’ve all seen one before in hospitals. It’s that plastic device that has a flexible tube with a piston in a vertical cylinder with marked measurements on the side. The patient exhales first and then SLOWLY inhales, trying to maintain a constant draw on the tube, raising the piston in the cylinder. COPD and Asthma patients know their normal values on this device. When those values start to decrease as they will during an acute episode, then further treatment is indicated. An article over at MedicineNet looks at new guidelines for treating patients with stable COPD how have an acute onset of respiratory distress. One of the guidelines looks at changes in baseline inspirometer values. Familiarize yourself with this test and you may be able to predict in the field what kind of episode you are looking at. November 22, 2007 @ 1:49 pm
A recent study I found at reported on at MedicineNet should convince you that this patient needs to be seen right away. This study was a review of previous study findings to look at commonalities in their findings on TIA and subsequent stroke risks. What these British researchers found was that 1 in 20 people who have suffered TIAs will go on to have a full stroke within the next week! Don’t let these at risk patients slip through the cracks. If you can’t convince them to go with you to the ER at the time of the call, at least get a promise from them that they will call their primary care physician and report the incident right away. The study also shows that people who do seek immediate treatment have an 80% chance of avoiding the follow-up stroke that might ordinarily occur. Jamie Davis, the Podmedic November 21, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
I found an article over at WebMD which offers 10 facts you may not have known about the common cold. They are all pretty interesting and informative and I think might make a good link for you to send out to friends and co-workers to combat common misconceptions that are out there. Here’s a sample fact from the list:
Check out the other facts in this article. Remember people, knowledge is power! Jamie, the Podmedic November 20, 2007 @ 9:00 am
The next time someone tells you that vaccines are part of a government plot — agree with them! Tell them it is a plot — to keep everyone healthy. The CDC has released figures on contagious diseases for which we have vaccines and the changes in the number of occurrences speak for themselves. This is according to a press release I found over at WebMD. Check out the numbers:
These numbers represent the cases in 2006 versus times prior to the use of the respective vaccines for those diseases. It is an impressive report no matter what you think about vaccines and there are a great many of us here today who might have died as children from one of these diseases. Think about it and educate yourselves. If you want more info on vaccines, check out a book recently published called The Vaccine Book.
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