May is here and The Handover Blog Carnival is back. On Thursday, May 27th, I’ll be posting the latest incarnation of The Handover right here at The EMT Spot. I hope you’ll be a part of it.
After a brief hiatus and a change of ownership, The Handover is now under the watchful guidance of two great voices in the EMS blogshphere. Andrew Giebel from the blog From A Probies Eyes and Joel Nield, better known as Rescue Monkey are now the keepers of all things Handover.
So let’s get to it. In true EMT Spot fashion, this month’s Handover is dedicated to those brilliant moments of epiphany that make life grand. We’re going to look at the turning points, the eye openers and the new dawns.
This month’s theme is, ” … And that’s when it all came together.”
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
It doesn’t seem possible, but this is the hundredth post here at The EMT Spot. By clicking backward from here you can browse through 100 of my thoughts, insights, instructions and ramblings about our job and the diverse world that is prehospital emergency medical services.
When I started writing this blog I anticipated some things. I anticipated that there would be some long hours at a computer screen. I knew that there would be productive moments and frustrating cycles of writers block. Momentum comes in waves, that’s just the nature of things. But there are several things I didn’t anticipate.
I didn’t anticipate the connections I would make with other bloggers, podcasters and EMS folks from around the world. I feel so much more connected to EMS than I ever have before. This industry draws in some of the most awesome characters and I’m really enjoying interacting with all of you. I’ve enjoyed your comments, your insights and your personalities.
I didn’t anticipate the ways that this would improve my own understanding of the medicine we practice. I never wanted to portray myself as some sort of EMS guru dispensing wisdom to the masses. I research all the information I post here and one of the biggest motivations when I’m choosing my next topic is that it’s something I want to know more about. I research it. I learn it. I tell you about it. And I am better for the process.
I didn’t anticipate how this blog would change my care. I frequently struggle with my own advice. At two AM it can be hard to let patients define their emergencies. Sometimes I fail to make connections and I’ve even been caught whining from time to time. These standards were my personal standards before I began writing my blog, but now I feel like I have a duty to my readership to practice what I preach. If I don’t live these values in my own care, I have no business writing about them here.
These first 100 posts have been a great experience for me. To everyone who has commented and e-mailed, read the blog and passed on the information to a friend, offered your gratitude, your dissent or your kind editorial advice, I’d just like to say thank you.
In case you haven’t noticed, newspapers in this country and around the globe are in big trouble. The reason has more to do with technology than the economy. Technology has changed the landscape of how people get their information. Writing yesterday’s news on paper and driving it all over town just isn’t that appealing in the age of instant free access.
Along with the advance of wireless instant news has come an ever increasing army of bloggers and web journalists breaking into the self publishing realm. Why go to the newspaper’s lifestyles section and look for a color-commentary story on what it’s like to be a street paramedic when you can Google it and read the words right from the proverbial horse’s mouth?
I read a bunch of these EMS blogs and I’ve come to really like and appreciate many of them. I’d like to pass on a short list of seven of my favorites. These are by no means all of the excellent blogs out there. But these certainly represent a good start.
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
Just like that, May has come and gone. Here at The EMT Spot we had a bunch of good stuff go down. 
Inspired by Mark over at Medic999, I wrote a piece about coping with tragedy in EMS. I also challenged you to stop whining and ask your self the question, “Who’s going to stop me?” After a not-so-brief explanation of nystagmus, we talked about five assessment findings that should concern you and even discussed social networks and beer bongs. And we can’t forget Jimmy Futrelle’s awesome guest post about responding to sexual assault.
Read This Entire Literary Masterpiece…
