EMS Myth: We Can Accidentally “Kidnap” People
You’ve heard the claim before. A well meaning partner or supervisor may have warned you. Or perhaps a field instructor or even an EMT instructor made the dubious claim. It sounded something like this, “We need to be careful about taking people to the hospital against their will. If they have the right to refuse care then we are kidnapping them.
These little bits of instruction are often well intentioned. And it remains true that people who have the right to refuse our care should be allowed to make decisions on their own. But I want to make it clear that, while the idea of accidentally kidnapping someone sounds dram...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
Aphasia: 10 Things You Should Know
Aphasia is a catch-all word that describes difficulty in speaking. Aphasia can range from mild difficulty in finding and expressing words or completing sentences to a complete inability to speak.. It is a significant finding in a physical assessment. The patient who presents with a new onset of aphasia has a concerning medical issue. Here are ten things to keep in mind the next time you encounter a patient who is having difficulty speaking.
1) Aphasia can be both receptive or expressive. If someone is having difficulty speaking they are said to be experiencing expressive aphasia. Receptive aphasia is a difficulty in und...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
Mass Casualty Incident Reality
I’ve been to a few mass casualty incidents over the years. They have ranged in severity and acuity from a large group of bored teenagers with chemical eye irritation to an active shooter in a crowded school. One lesson I’ve learned is that the real events never look or feel anything like the mock training scenarios that we often create for training purposes. Real disasters tend to present challenges that we just can’t account for in mock scenarios.
This makes the lessons learned at real MCI scenes incredibly valuable.
Recently, I was able to listen to Dr. Jonathan Apfelbaum MD, one of our local ER physicians, t...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
Clean Your Stuff
Alan starts each shift with a ritual of cleaning. I should be clear that I don’t use the word ritual as ainside the ambulance by xiaozhuli flickr literary device. Alan’s morning ambulance cleaning is as systematic and well thought out as any religious ceremony. Over the course of a few months of working together I learned the routine well.
Checking through my medical kit I’d observe him start at the back doors of the rig, spraying and wiping the outside door handles and then opening the doors and wiping the insides. Then he would climb inside wiping handles, pram rails and anything people might habitually grab for...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
How to Become a Firefighter (An Unconventional Step-By-Step Guide)
Each cycle of our EMT class here at South Metro, I tend to have the firefighter by oberazzi via flickrsame conversation. It usually happens sometime toward the end of the second week, but sometimes sooner. It is almost always after class. It begins with one of my students approaching me while I’m gathering my things and putting my laptop away.
The conversation begins like this, “So…I’m taking the EMT class because I’d really like a job in the fire service. What other things should I be doing besides becoming an EMT? How should I prepare for the testing process?” Once the question has been asked, the group of...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
4 Things You Can Tell The Police Without Violating HIPAA
HIPAA Rules. Is there anything in medicine that is more commonly misunderstood?Aurora truck by sRose17 via flickr
I was recently involved in a pretty tense scene where several drunk friends tried to assist in the resuscitation of their drunk, half drowned buddy. By the time we were done, there were multiple patients, multiple TASER deployments and several of our local law enforcement officers requesting written statements from all crew members involved. While we sat around the E.R. break room, filling out forms in triplicate, the predictable HIPAA question was asked.
What can we say in this statement? Can I just writ...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
What is Sepsis Anyway?
Don’t feel bad if you don’t have a really good answer. Most of us don’t. Before I started researching the question two years ago, I didn’t have much of an answer either. People get sick. Some get better. Some get worse. If they get really sick they transition into septic shock. End of story.
As an EMS educator, I didn’t go into too much more detail than that, so my own lack of knowledge was carried forward by my EMT students and the cycle continued. Sure, I could turn around and blame my instructor, but here’s a better idea, let’s end the cycle right now.
Here is your one stop shopping guide to the path...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
Basic Functions of Abdominal Organs
Most EMT level providers are square on the primary function of the stomach. We can name several things our liver is doing for us and we get the whole kidney concept as well. But when we start drifting beyond the basics, the conversation can turn fuzzy.
OK … It’s been a little while since I studied this. What was the spleen doing again? Something about the immune system right? Oh, the Pancreas that produces Insulin doesn’t it? Or was that the gallbladder?
Fear not. I put together a handy reference for you. Here’s a list of all those abdominal organs for your review. Now you can sort your large...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 7, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
Understanding The SAMPLE History
The SAMPLE history usually comes up in the first few weeks of EMT class. It’s such a widely accepted standard that it appears in the National Registry medical and trauma skills station as well as the EMT National Standard Curriculum. As far as subjective patient history’s go…SAMPLE is the gold standard.
Like anything else in medicine, widespread utilization also comes with widespread misunderstanding. The SAMPLE history is an educational gold standard for a reason. It’s a very effective tool for remembering the major components of a medical history. It’s also often misused and highly inadequate when taug...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 2, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
101 Things We Should Teach Every New EMT
1) You aren’t required to know everything.
2) You are required to know the foundational knowledge and skills of your job. No excuses.
3) Always be nice. It’s a force multiplier.
4) There is no greater act of trust than being handed a sick child.
5) Earn that trust.
6) Don’t ever lie to your patient. If something is awkward to say, learn to say it without lying.
7) Read Thom Dick’s, People Care. Then read it again.
8) You can fake competence with the public, but not with your coworkers.
9) Own your mistakes. We all make them, but only the best of us own them.
10) Only when you’ve learned...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 2, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
Test For Unconsciousness: The Face Flick
Sometimes, when we get on that outer boundary of established medical practices we start running in to controversy. As an author, and a bit of a non-conformist, I love controversy. One area that falls in the gray realm of medical assessment is testing for unconsciousness. This is a concept familiar to all who work in emergency services and rarely considered by the lay public. I’ll explain.
When we encounter a person who is not responding to us there are several possibilities.
They may be unconsciousThey may be semi-consciousThe person may be sleepingThey may be fully conscious and feigning unconsciousness (for vario...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 2, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
What Is The Duty To Act?
This week I’d like to explore two related topics that tend to create a bunch of confusion – the duty to act and the good Samaritan law. If you want to see a room full of EMTs argue with each other, ask a question like, “So, when does an EMT have a legal duty to act?” or “To whom does the good sam law really apply?” These are subjects where myth and confusion are more common than fact so lets jump in to these two, often confusing, legal tenants.
Today we’ll look at the duty to act and on Thursday we’ll dive in to the good samaritan law.
On duty or off duty, paid or vo...
Source: The EMT Spot - November 2, 2022 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Steve Whitehead Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs
