OK, so you decide to finally look up how much continuing education hours you have either accrued or need to successfully re certify your National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) certification using the continuing education option. Being in EMS, one thing we are all good at is waiting until the last minute to check [...]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets forth regulations and standards to ensure workplace safety. As emergency responders we too must follow all these safety standards even though our jobs do contain some very high risks. This article is to help you and your agency provide an understandable outline to set up your own training [...]
Thermal burns occur with alarming frequency. Nearly a half a million americans suffer burn injuries severe enough to require specialized burn care annually. Of those, approximately 3500 adults and children suffer fatal burns, this works out to just under 10 fatalities per day. Add that to the number of individuals who suffer smoke inhalation or [...]
Most healthcare providers, when asked would equate the role of the pancreas with blood sugar regulation. While true, this fact was unknown until the late 19th century. The pancreas’ role in blood sugar regulation was initially discovered by Dr. Oscar Minkowski and Dr Joseph VonMering much by accident. These two researchers were studying the role of [...]
When EMS professionals report to work, it’s no surprise that a lot of our patients are going to be sick. It’s nothing new for us, but this means that we are exposed to sick person after sick person, germ after germ. This can be physically overwhelming for us sometimes. We often work long hours, running [...]
The History of the Modern Pacemaker and Symptomatic Bradycardia The year was 1952 and Paul Zoll introduced the first transcutaneous cardiac pacemaker to treat symptomatic bradycardia. Six years later, the first successful implantation of a pacemaker was performed in Sweden on Arne Larsson by performing a thoracotomy and suturing 2 epicardial electrodes to the heart. [...]
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 [...]
Very few things strike as much fear in most EMS providers more than the critically ill or injured pediatric transport. Some of the forces that instill fear in most EMS providers is the lack of available appropriately sized pediatric equipment, the general lack of familiarity with what would be deemed “normal” vital sign parameters, the [...]
Now days, it seems like everyone has Narcan… EMS, fire, law enforcement, jail and prisons, random business owners, even the general public, everyone has Narcan. There seems to be a shared mindset, that there are no side effects or consequences to giving Narcan. If someone is having an opioid overdose, Narcan might help reverse the effects [...]
Have you ever responded to a patient who was in cardiac arrest? How long did it take you to get to the patient? Right now, the average 911 ambulance response is about 7 minutes. It might take you even longer, 10, 15, even 30 or more minutes to get to your patient depending on where [...]
