NCEMSF conference report!

This past weekend was the National Collegiate EMS Foundation Conference in Philadelphia, PA. BEMCo sent 13 delegates, and before I get into the real description of everything--we had a wonderful time. We left on Friday morning, picked up one of our people in NY and checked out his firehouse, got stuck in GW bridge traffic, and arrived two hours late (around 6).

Six of us competed in the EMS skills competition--a medical, a trauma, and a "team building" exercise. Team building was essentially "the floor is lava" but with a patient. Medical was a stroke that they tried to trick you into giving glucose, and I didn't do trauma, but I think it was a leg injury. Following this, we had a group dinner and then came back to make our group banner and socialize.

Saturday: thoroughly in convention mode. 5 hours of sleep is not a problem for me!
7:30: get up
8: go eat breakfast!
8:30: open panel--I skipped and went back to the room to meet the others.
9:30: Panel on acute spinal injury. Did you know they if the phrenic nerve in the diaphragm is still intact in tetraplegics, it can be artificially stimulated, and these people can be weaned off their ventilators?
10:40: Panel on capnography. Everything about it is cool.
11:45: Roundtable with other Masschusetts groups. We are doing very well. =)
12:30: Lunch. Cheesesteak from a street cart!
1:30: STEMI lab--looking at EKG strips and IDing a STEMI.
2:40: Ultrasound lab--we looked at the abdominal aorta, the neck and arm veins, and did a FAST bleeding examination.
3:45: snack!
5: Went to 15 minutes of a poorly done lecture on bariatrics, then 15 minutes of a lecture on nonlethal force, and then 20 minutes of an awesome talk about high altitude medicine. Treatment for most HA problems: descend.
6: Big lecture on blunt trauma, mostly with MVCs. Very interesting, very glad I wear a seatbelt properly.
7: Awards ceremony: BEMCo was awarded the Striving for Excellence award, along with some other schools.
8: Try to find a place that will seat 13 for dinner on a Saturday with no reservation. Finally find Lee How Fook in Chinatown, thanks to Hannah, and have delicious food.
9:30: Back to the hotel--casino night, and socializing in our rooms.

Sunday: Wake up for breakfast, drink way too much coffee.
8:30: talk on "what's the worst that could happen" or "when good calls go bad" and "what would you do." Interesting things to think about in the med/legal/ethical route.
9:30: back to the room, we are leaving at 10.
10:40: Actually leave the room.
11:15: actually leave the hotel.
DRIVE HOME. Stop for food, drive more, get home, go back in service. Take a shift because the tertiary didn't show.

Amazing, informational, fun, geeky weekend. Thinking about applying to give a talk at next year's convention!