tristan.obrien@verizon.net'

About Tristan O'Brien

Tristan’s involvement with EMS and the fire service began at 16 years old as a volunteer but soon became a full-time career. He has spent 19 years in EMS and 20 years in the fire service. After high school, Tristan joined the US Navy and served as a corpsman assigned to the Marine Corps which deployed twice including to Afghanistan. Currently, he is in the Pocono Mountain region of Pennsylvania working in a Life Flight program. Tristan likes to keep busy and maintains multiple part-time jobs with other flight services and a fire department, but still finds time to teach for DistanceCME.

The Bridge from Military Medic to Paramedicine

As time passes some things get worse and some things get better. With the transition from active-duty military service to a civilian career many times service members are starting over, which as many know is a daunting task. I got off active duty in 2014 and at that time I saw no clear path to utilizing [...]

Burnt But Not Crispy

So I’m not going to lie, every time I look at an EMS conference and see a topic like managing burn-out or managing EMS providers mental health there’s still part of me that scoffs; not again, another hour of people telling me to take care of myself, another story that’s just not me or how I [...]

When, Where and why to call a helicopter

It’s 3 am on a dark winding stretch of road a father, husband, son is driving home from work to rejoin his family after a long nightshift. His eyes begin to tire as his trunk slowly drifts off the road. The tones drop as you rub your eyes wishing for just a few more hours of [...]

Rockstar Cardiology, Things You Should Know

If you want to be a good paramedic you need to be able to effectively and accurately read a 12-lead. If you want to be a great paramedic you have to be able to interpret 12-leads. What does that mean, it means more than just identifying the standard ST elevated myocardial infraction (STEMI). With that in [...]