Practical EMS

Don’t make your career your entire personality , extra shifts will affect you over time. Sometimes the extra money is not worth the burnout The culture is shifting from working a ton to a better work life balance Your family will remember that extra shift you worked far longer than your employer Get off on time Control the variables you can control that give you higher chance of getting off on tim...

Batching work applies with nurses too . Do multiples things when you enter the room, so you don’t have to go in and out many times Ben talks about efficiency in the field being important due to the limited time and resources As providers we must get comfortable with saying “I don’t know” In medicine in general we don’t know everything , nor can we diagnose everything . Especially true in emergency...

New panel! Lucas (ER physician), Kendra (Charge RN, NP student), Ben (paramedic and educator) Kendra talks about her advice for new charge RN’s Have some ER experience first . She says it was difficult starting as a charge when she was so new to ER. Have a good set foundation.   You need to be able to have difficult conversations with people in a tactful way to address problems Getting to know the...

Lorihodges.com    (4) Lori Hodges, MA, CCP, PMP | LinkedIn Shaking In The Forest: Finding Light in the Darkness: Hodges, Lori R.: 9798888244005: Amazon.com: Books Debriefing helps to learn from a big crisis and then move on without continuing to judge yourself and your mistakes We all make mistakes , getting stuck in the mindset of constantly reviewing what you could have done differently and dwel...

Lorihodges.com    (4) Lori Hodges, MA, CCP, PMP | LinkedIn Shaking In The Forest: Finding Light in the Darkness: Hodges, Lori R.: 9798888244005: Amazon.com: Books Lori Hodges, is the author of Shaking in the Forest, Finding Light in the Darkness. She is a former paramedic and firefighter in Colorado and currently works as an emergency manager, recently working on hurricane Milton in Florida. She t...

Kelly Grayson is a very experienced paramedic, educator, speaker and author that serves the EMS community.  You can follow him here:  (10) Kelly Grayson (@AmboDriver) / X   (20+) Facebook You can find his books on Amazon Amazon.com: On Scene: More Stories of Life, Death and Everything In Between (A Paramedic's Stories of Life, Death and Everything In Between Book 2) eBook : Grayson, Steven &q...

Kelly Grayson is a very experienced paramedic, educator, speaker and author that serves the EMS community.  You can follow him here:  (10) Kelly Grayson (@AmboDriver) / X   (20+) Facebook You can find his books on Amazon Amazon.com: On Scene: More Stories of Life, Death and Everything In Between (A Paramedic's Stories of Life, Death and Everything In Between Book 2) eBook : Grayson, Steven &q...

Nick talks about a difficult RSI intubation and his struggle to overcome the feeling that he didn’t do his best We talk about how intubation success was such a critical point as a paramedic that everyone would have judged you on in the past We talk about the direct laryngoscopy vs the new video techniques Advice for the newbies:     Brent: You’re going to struggle with burnout. You need to recogni...

Nick talks about a difficult traffic accident and how something that seems like not a big deal but actually affected him – we can’t choose the things that affect us Is there something protective in the fire or law enforcement world that helps with longevity? Is it the wider variety of calls? EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) is a form of psychotherapy that Nick had some great re...

Why did Nick switch to law enforcement? He burned out on medicine What does he miss the most: The team mentality. The fire crews that he grew close to. He felt certain they could handle whatever call came their way We talk about the struggles working a 48-hour shift with a rural fire department but also having to manage the expectation from the private ambulance company that you run calls in a muc...

Mark (paramedic) | Brent (fire officer and EMT) | Nick (former paramedic and current police officer) Mark has worked in urban and very rural 911 ambulances and does part time EMT education now    Community paramedicine is an emerging field and can vary a lot from region to region . Paramedics are flexible providers, so the potential is huge Brent has stuck with firefighting from his early days as...

Nate talks about a motorcycle crash he stopped at on his way home and how he was critical in saving an injured patient and how he became close with the family who still talk to him today. Even though the patient ultimately died, the impact he made on that family was immense.   Patients remember us We need to remember we treat a person not a complaint or a room number The balance is finding the hum...

The paradigm around rapid sequence intubation is evolving and becoming much safer with more education and procedures.  Sometimes in emergency medicine slow is better. We need to stay mindful and calm in chaos and this requires us to detach and be above the fray and walk slowly instead of run . This will actually increase effectiveness and efficiency.  Nate recounts his EMT rides with myself and a...

EMS varies significantly from state to state so you get a wide range in the abilities of EMT’s and paramedics nation wide Case reviews are moving to an educational rather than a punitive model   There is no true national standard for EMT’s and paramedic’s which further complicates things The regions that EMS is practiced in vary a ton as well. Skills may need to be performed much more frequently i...

Meet our new panel Kash (EM physician) Casey (Paramedic) Nate (EMT) Why emergency medicine? Kash: Likes to see results in the short term rather than manage long-term problems. Decided on EM and even an EMS fellowship before starting med school after getting his EMT Aaron: When in PA school you really need to be at least considering primary care but I decided it was not for me. A day in primary car...

Matt talks about our reliance on technology and how sometimes it is nice to remember that to assess a patient it is actually really simple without using technology Andrew: I am mostly paid to not get tricked into missing something big. Standards in medical education changing when there is emphasis on getting people through programs Keep holding high standards for your students Advice for the newbi...

Imminent baby delivery stories  Burnout tips: avoid the overtime . Sometimes the extra money is not worth the additional life stress. Make sure you get off on time and make that transition to home life. Andrew uses audio books so he has something to look forward to while driving to and from shift. Patients are often not even the source of our stress , it’s operational difficulties, interpersonal d...

The team mentality at all levels in the ED is key to a harmonious, efficient and effective environment In EMS, this can be difficult on a given scene when you may not know the other responders all that well and it can be easy to get offended when no offense was meant Developing a thick skin is important in emergency medicine. You can’t allow negative emotions of others to affect you all day long....

Meet our new panel Matt (EMT) Julie (RN) Sarah (paramedic) Schasny (paramedic) Andrew (EM physician) Advice for the newbies: Don’t panic, it is not your emergency Find the balance of detachment while still making sure the patient feels cared for and understood Part of avoiding burnout is taking some time to access the human side of youself in caring for a patient while also not taking the emotiona...

Keep asking “why” do get to a full understanding of what is going on As providers we do want questions asked of us if someone is not sure about something we ordered Tracey has found techniques to avoid burnout despite 24 years in emergency medicine, she says it is very individualized how you overcome burnout Belligerent patients do cause burnout and the job to be very difficult in general Taking i...

We talk about EKG interpretation   Adam talks about the power of teaching Ongoing learning is key to performing well in emergency medicine and medicine in general We discuss confidence in emergency medicine and The Dunning-Kruger effect: People with limited competence tend towards an overestimation of their abilities   It is very dangerous at the top of this curve before you recognize your limits...

Stress exposure in school is very helpful for real life practice A good analogy for lay people: EMT is like CNA, AEMT is LPN, paramedic is RN. This helps people understand the progression of levels of care better Paramedics need to be learning provider type assessments on rotation not nursing assessments Kim talks about the zero to hero debate: Experience matters not just in emergency medicine. Th...

We meet our new panelists Kate (EMT) Kim (Paramedic and educator) Tracey (Former paramedic and current PA)  Adam (Former paramedic and current EM physician)   Kate talks about how the public doesn’t know the difference between EMT’s and paramedics Tracey talks about a humbling experience in her early career where she did not know where her equipment was in the ambulance Kim talks about changes in...

Be willing to speak up . Sometimes you might be the only person to notice something important.  We need resiliency in this field. We are all still learning, so stand up and advocate for your patient. Regardless of your level of care , you need to advocate for your patient.  The hierarchy is largely in your mind . Don't be afraid to approach someone with a perceived higher status than your own...

Nate (EMT) shares his story and the issues he has been dealing with. Nate overdosed on medication and ended up in inpatient psych care which helped him immensely.  He still feels grief from time to time but does have happiness more now.   Nate wants people to know that these struggles are real and you are not alone . Don’t be afraid to talk about it. Seek counseling and therapy.  The field we work...