“The gentle man and quiet doctor who has struck terror, nonetheless, into the hearts of many a paramedic student who wished not to be asked to interpret a particular EKG strip, sat with me for an hour of reflection on his role in EMS in Colorado.”
All in Articles
“The gentle man and quiet doctor who has struck terror, nonetheless, into the hearts of many a paramedic student who wished not to be asked to interpret a particular EKG strip, sat with me for an hour of reflection on his role in EMS in Colorado.”
“It wasn’t a love of the macabre that nailed the lid on Rance Bennett's interest in hearses. Actually, it was a love for classic cars. It all started in about 1990, he said, while thumbing through a book… While not on everyone's top 10, the book sparked the flame of passion that led Bennett to search for abandoned or forgotten hearses.”
“Using street smarts goes beyond dealing with nasty people, messy situations or chaotic scenes. Indeed, one subtle goal of any comprehensive safety program is to wage "germ warfare" on the many microscopic threats that arise in our hazardous line of work.”
“In the worldwide scramble to respond to the incredible threat of COVID-19, emergency services have risen to the occasion. Of course, we have. We always do.”
“Good scene control is an aspect of prehospital care that is difficult to describe in words. When a scene is well-controlled, things get done seemingly by magic. It is far easier to detect poor scene control, because nothing seems to go right.”
“Have you ever asked a question and then received an answer that made you wonder what the other person heard? The response seemed to have little or nothing to do with the information you were seeking. What in the world was the other person thinking, to give a response so unrelated to what you asked?”
“OLD. An unpopular concept. OLD. A frightening word. OLD. A negative stereotype. OLD . It will never happen to you? If it does not, then you will have met the even worse alternative.”
“Did your mom ever claim to have eyes in the back of her head? I kept my child stumped with that one for years. She was perpetually confounded I could seemingly have my attention elsewhere, yet always catch her when she was up to some mischief or danger.”
“In 1983, former firefighter and paramedic Jeffrey Mitchell, PhD, introduced critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) to the emergency care world… [it] is one of the few things we, who give so much to others, can give ourselves.”
“You breathe in the fresh morning air and listen to the iconic clip-clop as you walk from the stables. You rise into the saddle and gather the reins… Anyone lucky enough to spend time with horses knows the special magic of partnership with a large animal. To ride is the chance to skim the earth at a gallop, or to fly together over a jump.”
“Access to the medical system for the public inebriate often follows the usual pattern for anyone out in public in distress: call an ambulance… A prehospital team soon finds itself en route on a call which has been designated as "man down."
“There's a notion that needs dispelling, because it's disabling for some people, and primarily untrue. That is the idea that "we save lives." Its a seductive, thrilling concept, guaranteed to help raise our collective self-esteem (if only superficially)… It's time to deflate the myth. We have focused for too long on the idea that we save lives and have therefore developed inaccurate perceptions of EMS. It is time to recognize that what we actually do…”
“If it’s a jungle in the executive suite, a wilderness survival course may be just the training you need… At the start of our Colorado Outward Bound School (COBS) corporate course, the instructor had us name the group. Marva McCarty suggested an Indian word for “beautiful land”: Iowa. Our common tie was that all but one of us was a businesswoman…”