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    Buying a New Rig - What do you drive?

    Depending on your budget, I sure have loved driving International TerraStars.
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    Unionization in the EMS field.

    Unions are generally good for any place or time when management is potentially abusive. They're especially important in fields with high turnover or a large hiring pool. Without a union, employees have no recourse against the abuses of management, being fired or disciplined arbitrarily, having...
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    Masters degree in EMS: An old idea rehashed

    A master's degree would be a reasonable enough option if only because presently many medic programs are already 2 year degrees culminating in an associate's. One reason that myself and many other people have generally opposed degree requirements is that we already have degrees in other fields...
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    Maryland Private ALS Services

    That's not really true. There is some non-fire EMS. I guess you could consider that "3rd Service" but for example CRS in Hagerstown is a private company, that is, it's not governmental. Additionally, as an update, Butler does run Paramedic and Nursing units, but only has a few out of...
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    Zero to Hero

    I can't speak too much towards what you're looking at in terms of "zero to hero" status - have you used your EMT cert at all? Even as a volunteer? I was accepted into a medic program fresh out of EMT-B, but put it on pause because I wanted to learn more about what things looked like from the...
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    What would happen if the NREMT required a degree?

    This right here is the part I absolutely agree with. The part about not needing to prove you're smart enough to slip an ET or an RSI, because the training and ability to perform those skills is enough to justify performing those skills (as avered by a standardized curriculum and accrediting...
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    What would happen if the NREMT required a degree?

    Fair enough. I don't think those things are too much to ask except that education in general is still difficult for a lot of people. It's still unnecessarily burdensome in my opinion, but yeah, I agree with your assessment regarding the respect it would afford the field. Having a degree would...
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    What would happen if the NREMT required a degree?

    Edit: What you're saying makes good sense. I don't agree, for the reasons I had written already which follow, but I definitely see your point. Having a "BS in Emergency Medicine" or something like that would definitely improve the image of an EMT to the public. I think EMS degrees should...
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    What would happen if the NREMT required a degree?

    You've missed my point here. My point is not that level of training is unimportant, or that a degree is a problem. I have a degree, incidentally. I strongly agree that we need to maintain high standards of training. We need to enforce high levels of competency because lives are at stake. A...
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    What would happen if the NREMT required a degree?

    This would be a great idea if there were ways to get degrees in the US without going through the for-profit education industry. It is a terrible condition our country is in where education requires thousands of dollars at least, often tens of thousands, for even 2 or 4 year degrees. Requiring...
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    First EMS interview

    After gaining my EMT certification from Maryland Fire & Rescue Institute through my volunteer VFD and taking NREMT, I am wanting to continue to move into EMS as a paying field. I recently was extended an interview for a commercial EMS operation near Baltimore. I've never interviewed in the...
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    Maryland Private ALS Services

    Frdude1000 what do you know about ProCare Ambulance? I see them hiring basics out in the metro area but haven't heard if they're any good or not for IFT gigs.
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    Starting EMT-B, thoughts?

    This is the part I'm curious about. It's not necessarily a bad decision, but it's the wrong reason. I wouldn't turn down college education in order to pursue certification, especially when becoming a paramedic is basically an associates degree or equivalent anyways. Having a college education...
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    Krokodil "The drug that eats junkies"

    LACoGurneyjockey has it right on the money. The reason it's so available in Russia and throughout Europe is that it can be made with readily available, over the counter medications like Co-Codamol / Tylenol with Codeine and so on. Much like Sudafed is easily converted into meth, but with a...
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    Maryland Private ALS Services

    In Hagerstown itself there's Community Rescue Service, Inc., which handles 911 for Hagerstown proper and some of the surrounding areas. My understanding, and maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong, is that Washington County does not have a county system like Frederick or Montgomery's DFRS...
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    To O2 or not to O2

    Yeah, this is the way it's written and while I take it to mean "this is how you oxygenate a patient who needs it" that "ALL priority 3 patients. . . " thing with a NC is blatant. I don't agree with it but I'm not the ME. At the end of the day, I don't give a treatment that I don't think is...
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    To O2 or not to O2

    For what it's worth, we also had the instructor doing the "in the field, you probably should not give oxygen to everyone" shtick. So there is an understanding. The entire state of Maryland is not doing it that way, nor would I advocate for doing it that way. I haven't given O2 more than I've...
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    To O2 or not to O2

    In my training with MFRI, it was stressed that every single patient gets O2. All of them. Every patient. From the sick person to the boo-boo finger, we're putting them on O2. For our internship rides, if the lead provider declines O2 we need to document that we "considered" it. The want us...
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    "Nothing prepared me for it..."

    The primer on the cognitive test says as much on the NREMT website. The theory is that if you can answer questions above your scope, you probably know your scope. The thing people don't realize is the questions it does this with aren't questions about reading echos or medic-only drug protocols...
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    Firefighter class

    Sorry about the bad information. I haven't been out Aberdeen way and didn't know, I just was going with the information I'd gotten from my local guys. Thanks for setting me straight.
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