Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Week 1 Done, and walking in my apartment door at midnight

Completing tonight's lecture marks 1 week and 1 day of Paramedic class over. Tonight was the first night where we stayed almost all four hours and got out at 10:15 PM. Previously we've been released between 8:30 and 9:00 PM.

We only covered Medical-Legal issues tonight and while the review was useful, it seemed really repetitive from EMT-Basic class. Though this time, instead of the instructor throwing out scenarios that we, the students, might encounter in the field, we instead asked the instructor if the actions we took while encountering those scenarios were legal. A few highlights from tonight's discussion:

"I'm a volunteer and we took a patient to the hospital on our rig. The ER was packed and we were waiting forever in triage. Since I had to get to my real job, I hopped a ride with another truck from my agency and left my partner at the hospital with the patient. Is that abandonment?"

"Our medical control physician works 8AM-4PM, so we don't have online medical direction outside those hours. Can I administer a med that usually requires online control and let the doc know the next day?"

"We got in a fight with the police, and after they Tazed my patient, they refused to allow us to take her to the hospital. The police threatened to arrest us. Do we have liability if the police take her away and she has a heart attack?"

"Can parents consent for their children over the phone? How do we get them to sign the form?"

"I can't believe how hard it is to RMA someone in New York, back in Jersey if the patient can move the pen, he can RMA. Is that cool?"

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Road of 1000 Miles Begins with the First... Day

The first day of Paramedic school is over. Things were pretty low key. We talked about course policies and procedures, expectations... and the insane amount of work: clinical and didactic coming up in the next year. I can't say I didn't expect it though.

We had today off in memory of 9/11 (this class takes place in Manhattan after all), and Day 2 starts at 7PM Wednesday!

Can't wait to actually start learning stuff!

If case you're wondering, you can see exactly which program I'm a part of here.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The Long Road Ahead...

Good Lord! PARAMEDIC School starts this Monday!!!! Whoa! Aaahh! Help!