Recent content by DavidM

A little late to the party but, my second job is as a wilderness trip leader taking teens out on 3-7 week expeditions. We carry epi, bendryl, and prednisone for anaphylaxis. We follow WMA's field protocols (available at: https://www.wildmed.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/wma-field-protocols.pdf...

Both companies are reputable. You already pointed out the major difference R/M had the city's 911 contract while Twin Cities only had 2 of the suburbs. I can only speak for r/m but they run ALS trucks and BLS trucks in a super busy system. The pay sucks but there are tons of calls and the...

I use NPAs pretty frequently. I go for them first over OPAs because in my experience they are super quick to place and hard to dislodge accidentally. In fact if I'm worried about the airway I'll just pop 2 in. They're great pre ETT as well because they won't get in the way and will keep the...

I guess my question would be what is the Police's protocol immediately after a shooting like that? It seemed like it was clear that they had secured the scene after 2 or 3 minutes but they didn't make any effort to begin treatment of the patient prior to EMS arrival. I'm not saying it...

I work one county over in the Mid-state region but some of the guys I work with also work in Syracuse. I don't know specifically who's hiring right now but the best bet is just to apply everywhere even if they say they aren't currently hiring. One of my partners works at TLC and has always...

We work through one central "EMS Resource" which is a service provided to the entire county. Resource is a person in an office in the ED of one of the hospitals we transport to. They take all incoming patient reports to any area hospitals for all local agencies. If its a BLS call they just...

My Agency covers a large multi-town contiguous area adjacent to a medium-sized city and a small city. We're 1st in for m/a on the small city and 2rd in for m/a on the large city. There isn't a specific policy written its left up to the shift supervisor. But generally if we're called to...

I'm a 20 year old college student and EMT-B. This summer I was hoping to leave the mind-dulling world of retail and actually work in EMS. At that point I'll have over a year of full-time (40-55 hours a week & 15-20 calls a week) volunteer ambulance experience from the agency near my school...

We're allowed to do as we please in quarters. We have individual bunk rooms so each person gets their own bed, TV, and a closed door if they want it. We're not supposed to sleep on the couches in front of the TV but it still happens. I generally try to get to sleep by midnight but if I'm up...

My service is country based and covers a large territory with a number of different towns. Based on the town we are dispatched to I can usually get the first turn or two out of the station. This gives my partner enough time to look it up in the map book or plug it into their phone/gps. I can...

Sitting on the coast in CT, we just brought crews in to staff all 3 units 24/7 until after this passes. Mandatory evacuations are already in effect for most of the town. I spent my afternoon filling sandbags and deploying generators to get the shelter ready. The public schools just closed until...

I know from working with them that in New Hampshire the Game Wardens are lead on most SAR stuff although there are a large number of volunteer local agencies that also respond because F&G doesn't have enough resources on its own. I believe that is also how it is in Maine.

I don't know if this is what you are looking for but the guys at Doctors without Borders operate vitually unsupported and are forced to deal with all kinds of crazy scenarios. I watched the documentary Living with Emergency recently. At one point a doctor is in a mud hut pushing a knotted...

I've heard good things about them as well. For expensive bags I really like Conterra. For my wilderness work I've got one of their modular kits and its awesome. I was able to arrange it exactly how I need it and can adjust if its not working. I also have a couple buddies working SAR that use...

As a current college student who is involved both in my college's EMS service as well as the local service I can say that setting up a college service is A LOT of work and may not be that effective. Its costs a ton of money and will require working through a ton of red tape between your health...