Re: Tough times to come

February 9, 2000

In the Blessed Futtrrrrree we'll all be well and taken care of by our

personal robotic diagnostic modules which will be able to run an electrical

field over us and gain an instant image of all our organs, identify problem

areas , unplug the ones that are causing problems and plug in some better

ones. All worn out organs will be replaced as needed and come downloaded with

the updated genetic materials

and behavious/actions expected form the " organism " upon cellular intuoduction

of these materials.

A receptor sites designed to furnish optimal performance of the " organism. "

will be available for work with a geneticisist. Why we save patints on on

an hourly basis, save thousands and thousands of dollars in hospital expenses

to our patients and often medical expenses for other organizations such as

rehap hospitals. We work 3 jobs and go to school and learn as much as we can

so as to emerge as an EMS Professional who will receive a comfortable wage

for some of what we do, like Real Trauma and Real Cardiac Arrests, which

we're extremely good at, and for the rest that we tolerate, not because it's

so interesting but because we as human beings know that we are caring for

" ourselves " in the long run, and so we learn to live with the smells, the

insults from other " professionals " who haven't a clue, who haven't been in

the ditches with us, and who will never be because they've got RN, NP, PA or

MD/DO after their names and don't have to post in Type III units anywhere.

We all know who we are, but we insist upon fighting each other over what are

essentially trivialities. Instead of having a group we could call home

someplace where we could boot scoot, relax, tell war stories and have some

meetings to influence the future of paramedics in the system, we argue over

what kind of providers are best: Type of service, fire/vs/private/vs/3rd

service/vs hospital based. We employ every disruptive type of input to avoid

facing up to the TRUE PROBLEM. We haven't had the professional educations

that Nurses, LVNs, Respiratory Therapy, Radiology, Sonogramy, and other

sub-allied healthy professions have had. That's why we don't git not respect!

Today I looked through the Embalming Textbook and found that I could use 90%

of it in my courses because it describes A & P and the mechinasms of disease

prossess in very down to earth terms that anyboy coud appreciate.

WHY do we as paramedics and EMT-I's fight so hard against learning?

Rather than saying to our communities, " We've got a wonderful thing to bring

you, one that will prolong your lives and those of your children. We have

wonderful equipment and communication resources, state of the art machines to

intervene when you have a cardiac arrest, but we need more training to know

how to deal with the kinds of problems that we're not taught much about that

could help you so much, such as lifestyle assessment and immproval, through

assessments of your life situation and observation of things that could

improve your quality of life, we shut up and let uneducated county

commissioners and clueless council members decise our fate.

When our salaries are voted upon, few if any of us show up. Fewer show up

with planned presentations to present (PowerPoint is SOOO easy), and numbers

you get a good bang for your buck with good EMS.

Elected officials must deal with die-hard facts when making up budgets. How

many of us, whether it's our job or not, play with those die-hard facts and

make ourselves experts on EMS funding issues?

You can run a PEA seconddary to head vs/tree, work the POX values and

balancem them with neurogical responses like posturing and blown pupils. You

can KNOW what's going on with the CHF patient and rapidly intervene to make

him better. But you can't get a county commissioner to understand why you

ought to be paid $50.000 a year plus benefits.

There's only way: That's by getting to know her/hom and talking about our

problmswith whem, and by voting t the polling place. We'renot veryyygood t

that arewe:?

Geen Gandy, JD,,,,,LLLLP

February 10, 2000

In a message dated 2/10/00 12:17:39 PM Central Standard Time,

williamn@... writes:

<< Tough times should always be a time of opportunity to make things

better. The way I understand the NCP is, not that it will make medics

so much smarter, though it will, but to make them more ready to work

alone in the back of a unit by more clinical and field training.

It was scary when went to work as anew paramedic over 20 years ago.

Here I was just out of class, and now medic in charge with very little

experience thrust on an unsuspecting public. Fortunately I made no

critical errors. The NPC will make Paramedics more work ready.

Just my view.

Nacogdoches County EMS>>

Isn't it refreshing to see a positive message on this server!

Thank you, Mr. ,

, BS, LP

TODAY'S THOUGHT:

In golf, as in life, you get what you put into it

February 10, 2000

Wow, I don't see these as tough times, but as exciting times. EMS personnel do have the opportunity to have input and even have some of that input acted upon, if done so in a proper manner.

RE: The New Curriculum

I teach EMS Courses through an independent program sponsored by a Level IV Trauma Center; my ALS classes have 100% pass rate. My instructors all work at a hospital-based MICU level service and act as field preceptors. Above the base curriculum, we include: TCP, foley catheter insertion, NG insertion, IOs, needle chest decompression, needle cricothyrotomy, ext. jugular cannulation, and up-to-date medication administration. My medical director is actively involved in the classroom and clinical teaching areas. The EMT-I program is 220 hours; the paramedic 440. My students are welcomed in areas that include surgical intubations, more IVs than they can stand, NICU rotations, Respiratory Therapy rotations, etc.

So my question on the new curriculum is what (aside from more in-depth A & P and patient assessment) will add to the skills value of graduating medics?

How can I add additional hours (at an increased cost) and sell the idea to "old medics" who see book-smart kids coming out of a program?

(Those of you who know me know that I am "pro-education" just for the sake of knowledge).

RE: Recertification

The current C.E. exam, for QA purposes, data has not been collected and distributed as needed. The proposed pass/fail exam does nothing to ensure competency, but only jeopardizes morale. Email your EMS Regional Administrator or Director of the Bureau of Emergency Management if you feel similar.

RE: Foo

I have no idea who this person is; I like his attention to detail in writing abilities (he actually spell checks and has good grammar skills, something lacking in many posts). He (I'm guessing) shows his ability to write intelligently and make good points. And for his time investment, he is called Chinese Food, et. al. We as medics are not always kind to each other. We are usually cynical and more negative than our lives deserve. When reading posts on the board, I refer to the names to look for credibility. Many names I have come to delete without even reading (and God forbid open attachments). But Foo has posts, along with Gandy, Jarvis, Webb, Bledsoe, et. al., that I read with interest. If you read carefully, you won't have to know someone's C.V. to find them credible.

Susie Jechow, EMT-P (licensed, but who cares)

EMS CIE, et. al.

February 10, 2000

Here......Here....way to go Gene

I have over my 25 years of working in EMS, been with all the different types of

EMS providers there are. From the local funeral home (Meissner-Brown) to the

volunteer/paid FD(Azle). All have strong points and all have weak points that

need to be improved. No one system is perfect model and problem free.

I think through out all of these discussions, which I have enjoyed greatly, we

all tend to agree that starting with a good education for the persons providing

EMS to the public is the next step in our evolution of our chosen profession. If

we do not take this step, no matter if it is the Fire Department or Private EMS

provider, we all may go the way of the dinosaurs, into extinction. So rather

pointing fingers at SSM, which by the way I DO NOT support, or do privates

preschedule calls, we should focus on the short term goals as well as long range

plans for where we want EMS to be in the next 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 years.

If you want to continue making $25,000.00 a year, working 90 hours a week, then

by all means just sit in your unit at post 42 and do as always. But, if you wish

to provider better care to you patients and enrich your life then we must all

grow and learn. Maybe then we can earn respect and compensation we deserve.

I know that with diversity of EMS in Texas that agreeing on a single goal maybe

impossible, but if we do not come to some type of compromise, I fear the status

quo may be the down fall of EMS as we know it.

Bernie Stafford (Working on adding more letters ) EMTP

The opinion expressed are my own.

>>> 2/10/00 4:27:12 AM >>>