Chris07
Competent in Incompetence
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I had the opportunity to take a PHTLS course recently and found it to be very enlightening...and fun! Since I work mostly BLS IFTs, major trauma situations were not really a strong suit for me and I found the course more challenging than initially expected. Several seasoned medics said they found the course a little more challenging than they expected!
During the course introduction, the principal instructor asked the class which was harder, trauma or medical? There seemed to be an almost immediate consensus among the class that medical was much harder most of the time. Then the instructor said something interesting: "Although trauma calls are thought to be easier, EMS sucks at trauma."
I can defend that medicals are more taxing in that they require more detective work. Even experienced EM Physicians dread acute abdominal pain cases due to their difficulty in diagnosing. At the same time, I can say that trauma is much more difficult. Trauma typically involves less detective work and more mechanical work, but does that make it easier? Is full blown chest pain harder than extracting a 240lb male with a broken hip from his '86 Yugo?
What are your thought? In general, is trauma easier than medical? If it is, then why is EMS (as a whole) not good at it?
During the course introduction, the principal instructor asked the class which was harder, trauma or medical? There seemed to be an almost immediate consensus among the class that medical was much harder most of the time. Then the instructor said something interesting: "Although trauma calls are thought to be easier, EMS sucks at trauma."
I can defend that medicals are more taxing in that they require more detective work. Even experienced EM Physicians dread acute abdominal pain cases due to their difficulty in diagnosing. At the same time, I can say that trauma is much more difficult. Trauma typically involves less detective work and more mechanical work, but does that make it easier? Is full blown chest pain harder than extracting a 240lb male with a broken hip from his '86 Yugo?
What are your thought? In general, is trauma easier than medical? If it is, then why is EMS (as a whole) not good at it?
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