As I wrote yesterday, our medical director gave a lecture on trauma at the EMT class at EAS last night. It was a good talk; he expanded on a lot of topics and I found it very informative.
The subject of expanding our scope of practice, even going to a paramedic level (gasp!) was discussed ( brought up by me and a couple of other ALS EMTs in attendence). His take on things is that we really don't need to go there at this point, but he sounds like he would be very willing to entertain ideas if he can be convinced of their value to the patients. Paraphrasing, his words were: "Paramedics? Convince me." So, I guess that's a bit clearer, at least in my mind, where he stands.
I'm not sure if I'm 100% on board with the idea of going medic anyway. I mean as it stands, the training is lengthy, expensive, and intensive. A degree in nursing can be earned with less time and expense. And the financial payback is considerably better, at least in the present health-care climate.
I am going to do a bit of research on pre-hospital pain management and bring it to his attention though. Convince him? I'll try, at least a little at a time.
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training paramedics to better improve the breathing of people rushed to the hospital in respiratory distress saves lives, a Canadian study shows.
"It's estimated that of all the ambulance transports in North America, about 20 percent have shortness of breath caused by lots of different conditions," explained Dr. Ian G. Stiell, chair of the department of emergency medicine at the University of Ottawa. "In the United States, perhaps two million people a year are taken to the hospital for trouble breathing."
Helping those people breathe by giving a drug, implanting a tube or another method reduced the death rate by 30 percent in the two-phase trial of more than 8,100 patients, which was reported in the May 25 New England Journal of Medicine.
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