Assessment and Scope of Practice

It’s never comfortable to be placed under a microscope. Especially when the dude looking through the microscope is The Rogue Medic, Tim Noonan. Tim’s a great dude, but he’s not the guy you want picking through your knowledge sock drawer. He’s thorough, he’s smart and he’s willing to analyze the details long after you and I have gone to bed. If you don’t already read Tim’s blog you should. He’s a fantastic EMS blogger. That being said, I wasn’t terribly excited when he posted a comment on my post “I’m Only An EMT Basic” announcing that his comments on the piece could be found over at Rogue Medic headquarters. For the record, my piece received nothing but kind handling by Tim. The question he chose to focus his lens on? Are lung sounds a part of the EMT scope of practice? The question is harder to answer than you might think. In fact, just deciding what “scope of practice” means for an EMT is surprisingly difficult. If you doubt me, take a look through the NHTSA National Scope of Practice Model. It spends page after page trying to get to the bottom of that very question. The answer involves chart and graphs that look like this.  —–> Add to that the fact that there is no single reference for an EMT’s scope. Each individual state has to figure it out for themselves. And when they’re done, your medical director can adapt it even further. So when it comes to the question of lung sounds, the answer t...
Source: The EMT Spot - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs