EMS Week, Here and Everywhere.

So, as many of you know, last week was EMS week. A week for us to let others know what we do, and a week for others to thank the EMS providers for what they do. Also, a lot of facebook status-copying and blogging and tweeting among the community members.

This past week was also my own personal EMS week. I remained on campus for senior week as an on-duty EMT, rocking the 3 days on, 1 day off schedule. I learned that it's totally okay to shower while on duty, and that trying to move from one dorm to another without a car while carrying the jump kit is not a fun thing to do. There was a decent amount of drama in the corps over this week, and for once, it was all boys (men?) at the center of it.

I enjoyed spending the week with the other members of the corps, and shared a 6-person kitchenless suite with my supervisor. I got to spend time with senior class members that I might not see again, and spent a decent amount of time with Matt, who also graduated at the end of the week.

Commencement itself was the big deal for the week--we had 9 EMTs (1 supervisor, 2 provisional primaries, 5 secondaries, and 1 tertiary) scheduled to be at mini-commencements around campus at various times of the day, and then we were all scheduled to convene at the Convocation center for the Main Commencement. It was all planned very well, and looked to be going smoothly until one of the primaries wasn't able to be there. We ended up having two double-secondary crews with the supervisor floating around where needed. Not ideal, but certainly effective. The eight of us made things work.

The whole day was somewhat surreal--I was in a dress uniform that was too big for me, pants that had a glorious amount of pocket space, and had a radio (with an earpiece!) that made me feel way more important than I was. I got to see Paul Simon sing "The Boxer" and give a speech, and I got to see Matt graduate. It was a good thing I was so busy, otherwise I probably would have been a puddle of tears.

Matt's family saw me responding to a call, Matt had to explained the concept of "privileged patient information" to his brother when he started asking me a bunch of questions. Following the whole day, I went back to my room, showered and got into a nice dress, and we out to dinner with his family.

All in all, it was a great week. I responded to two calls in more than 7 days, so while it wasn't a huge experience week, I got to know my fellow corps members better, and had a fun time doing so (awww). I applaud all involved with the commencement detail, and especially our operations officer, Dan. In spite of all of the last-minute problems and radio failures, he made it work.

Happy week after EMS week, everyone!

Saving Lives?

There’s a girl on campus who often asks me if we’ve “saved any lives today” or if I’m “heading off to save lives” when I’m going to shift change. I’ve heard this a few times, but every time she says something, I’m not sure how to respond. Usually she gets “not yet” for an answer, but sometime, when we both have a minute, I’ve got some serious discussing to do.

Truth be told, we don’t save lives all that often. There are a few things we do/use that will immediately do some serious life-saving: any of our drugs, suctioning and maintaining an airway. And, somebody please correct me if I’m wrong, but we don’t do a lot of any of these here at Brandeis. Generally, we make things easier for someone who’s in a not-so-pleasant situation. If you ask me if I’ve ever saved someone’s life, I’ll tell you, “No.” Sometimes we make the call for help if someone’s in need of ‘saving,’ people with more training and more equipment, but that’s a call anyone could make.

I can’t fault her for asking—I do, however, feel like I can fault myself, her other EMT friends, the media’s portrayal of the profession, and the fact that people who speak up against that only do so within the EMS community. When people ask, why not ask, “What does ‘saving a life’ mean to you?” Explain what we do, what we can do, what we can’t, what we have done, and what we’re trained to do but very well might never have the chance to do. If you have a problem with how we’re depicted in Trauma*, or even in Emergency!, don’t just blog about it to those of us that share the sentiment; talk it up with other people.

It’s strange to think that on the same campus as people who call for Tylenol or for cotton stuck in the ear, there are people who think we can do anything. There’s got to be a middle of the road somewhere.


*I watched Trauma, all 18 episodes of it. I enjoyed it. I knew it wasn't accurate. It was good for a laugh and some decent TV dramatics, more MCIs than you can count on one hand, and one highly improbable result of a helicopter crash.

Surprise surprise!

I expected to be the tertiary today, but when the secondary failed to show up and the one who had been on duty needed to leave, I signed in for her. The tertiary is now on his second shift in a row, and I'm taking my first secondary shift! The bag's not that different, just slightly harder to carry, but lighter, somehow. Meetings and class tonight, more updates to come if anything happens.

Well, this is a first for many things. My first secondary call (I really like this whole "chat with the patient, get their info" thing) (also, I may have had it recorded with me as the tertiary, no big deal, but I did write up the call since I stole the shift from another dude). But, more interestingly, this was the first time I've had a really appreciative patient. Not that it's ever what I expect, but when the pt just seems so thankful for the little things, it's nice.

Not entirely jobless!

I still have about a week until I have my interview with presently-unnamed ambulance company (not sure about revealing names on here, we'll wait and see). But as the title states, I'm not entirely jobless at the moment!

After the BU EMT class here finished, I emailed the program director to see how I could go about becoming a paid instructor. I didn't expect it to happen for a while, since I only started assisting this semester. An email from one of the instructors reaffirmed my assumptions. However, I also received an email from the head director, asking when I could come in to sign papers. I made an appointment, went in, and asked what I needed to sign.

"Employment papers!"

I worked their extrication/practical exam prep day on Saturday, and look forward to doing this for the rest of the summer and next year when they're at Brandeis again and even during the fall, if I can get to BU. I'm excited--my summer of EMS is coming together.

Good news so far!

So, I've had a good week recently, and quite of bit of it is EMS-related.

1. I've been promoted to secondary in my EMS organization! Starting in May, I'll be taking down patient information and using the stair chair. I'm also excited to get a second uniform shirt, so I won't have to wash the one that I have all the time.

2. I have a job interview with a local ambulance company in a week! They didn't immediately say no to the idea of me working full time in the summer and per-diem in the school year, so that's a good sign. If anyone has tips on interviewing with ambulance companies, let me know, please.

3. This has nothing to do with EMS, but I was accepted to the performance track of the music major--I'll be giving one recital a year for the next two years. I'm excited.

4. I'm considering going to PA or nursing school after I get my bachelor's degree. I had been planning to go into counseling or clinical psych for a while, but having done some counseling, the passive approach to problem solving just wasn't sitting well with me. I'm not pre-med now, so I'd need to take a few years to get my bio/chem/anatomy/physiology requirements done, but I'm prepared to do that. If anyone has experience as a Physician's Assistant or as an RN and are willing to chat about it, please comment or send me an email (msh2012@brandeis.edu)

That's where I stand right now. Things are changing but I feel good about them.

A Day in the Life: Take Two

1640: Paul asked me if I would help put the bags back in the truck, since we take them all out when we go out of service.

1644: We cannot find the keys. They are in Dispatch. Paul goes to start the car.

1700: The truck will not start. I stay in the office and sign in and chat with Charlie while Paul, Dan, and the supervisor try to fix it.

1720: The truck works! Something is wrong with the supervisor vehicle, though.

1730: Back in room. Waiting for Matt to call me back about dinner.

1800: Matt should be here soon. Reading a book for class.

1810: Call Matt to see where he is. He tells me that he's leaving now. He's rather slow at getting places.

1830: Went with Matt to Usdan, got burritos.

1854: in the C-store. Pager goes off. I mistake it for the bad music, then, realization dawns, and I go off. Crew splits to a second call. Mine is for a wrist injury, and it looks pretty bad. We treat and the pt is transported. Back to the office for write-up. Paul insists that the truck not starting earlier was a bad omen, and that we're in for a long night.

1959: Back in my room, I receive an e-mail stating that I have exceeded 15 GB of bandwidth. It's ridiculous, because there's no way that it actually happened. All I've done today was stream an episode of Trauma. Maybe the people in charge realize that it's terrible and are determined to keep me from watching it in the future. Highly doubt it, and will continue to watch Trauma in secret.

2133: Still reading "Stone Butch Blues" for class. Thinking of heading down to see how Matt's doing soon.

2150: In Matt's room. I do some readings, he playing video games. We watch "Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers" and I relive my childhood. He's been sick, so we cuddle for a while (mostly upon my request).

0030: We go to Einstein's for food. Mango bar!

1020: Leave Matt's. He's not feeling well at all, and didn't go to work today. =( I stop by the man in charge of the internet here, and he told me that he'll look into why I exceeded bandwidth. Back in my room, I have a hard time getting any wireless. I had a dream last night that I was transported to my home in an ambulance, standing. It was more of an RV than an ambulance.

1200: Went to class.

1318: Back in room, have a smoothie. Bringing lunch down to Matt before my next class. He's still sleeping =/

1700: Back in the office. Hand off to Mike, hang out for a few minutes, decide to go to Stats even though it's boring. Had Chamber Choir in the hot recital hall (it's 87 out and I'm in long pants) and in Theory we listened to atonal music. I don't get it. Not a bad shift, but I feel like such a whacker for craving more. Experience can't come fast enough.

Back to High School: EMS Style

1 April, 2010. 1432.

I’m applying to Paramedic school!

Happy April, everyone. Yesterday, I did something kind of fantastic. I talked to a few classrooms of high schoolers about EMS. When I was in high school myself, I took the sports medicine class because I needed another gym credit and didn’t want to play dodgeball for another half-year. In the class, we learned basic anatomy, cranial nerves, GCS, basic treatment of minor injuries (RICES, etc), CPR, splinting, and about electrical stimulation therapy and massage therapy. We also watched a lot of Man vs. Wild and Survivorman and videos of people getting injured on YouTube. While we had a lot of fun, we actually did work—I recall writing a paper about bleeding disorders and sports and reviewing an article about hypothermia as a treatment for spinal injuries.

When I was in EMT school, I found that knowing basic anatomy was really helpful in the first few lessons—I didn’t need to focus on memorizing which was way prone and which was supine and what the anatomical position looked like. I emailed the teacher, Mr. Scott, over the summer to thank him, while I was still training.

The other day, maybe two weeks ago, I had the idea to ask if he would be interested in having me come to talk to his classes about EMS. He thought it was a great idea, I made a powerpoint, prepared a presentation, got props from Dan, and went to the High School yesterday.

For 7:30 and 9:50 in the morning, the students paid attention. The second class even asked me questions—some were about how we don’t transport, many were along the lines of “what’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen?” but it showed that they were paying attention. My wonderful brother and sister, Matt and Rae, went to my presentation, which made me really happy.

I explained how I got into EMS, explained our scope of practice and listed some key BLS skills, talked about the training process, levels of certification and ALS/BLS differences, where EMTs work, and what meds we can give. I talked about BEMCo as well, since that’s where my experience is—how we operate, roles of each member of the crew, showed the inside of the truck and the inside of my jump kit, and then walked through a mock call. The call was for difficulty breathing with urticaria and angioedema. I walked them through the process of responding to a call, importance of BSI, the initial assessment, administration of an Epi-pen, SAMPLE history, vitals, physical assessment, and transfer of care to medics. I felt it was comprehensive but not too detailed. I had a lot of fun writing the presentation, and I realized as I was writing it that I didn’t need to make presentation notes for me to look on with—I knew what I wanted to say for each slide, and there was no way I was reading off of the slides. For props, I had a copy of one of our run sheets, vomit bag, gloves, CPR shield and mask, my scope, and my watch (I realize my watch is not a prop, but I made the point that much of patient assessment can be done by listening to the patient, touching the patient, and getting some basic vitals.)

My presentation lasted about an hour, which was perfect, as it left 5 minutes for questions, which was just enough time to keep them interested. If I could have done anything differently, I would have taken a moment to stress that it is not all lights and sirens, that it’s not all about being the hero—I talked about working transfer, but I wish I had emphasized that even if we’re not doing intense treatment with CPR or Epi-pens or using the LSB, we’re still helping someone to feel better.

I really like teaching—it’s a challenge and it reminds me of what I know. I wasn’t asked any technical questions, but I felt that any question that a student could ask me, I would be able to answer. That’s a good feeling. When the teacher asked at the end of my presentation what I want to do when I graduate, though—I have no idea. I didn’t plan on falling in love with EMS.

If anyone wants to see the powerpoint I made and used, let me know and I can send it your way.