The February EMS Roundup

In the coldest February, as in every other month in every other year, the best thing to hold on to in this world is each other.

                    – Linda Ellerbee (American Journalist)

And what better way to bring the EMS world together than the Internet? February was full of news and fun at The Spot. I hid inside from the Colorado cold and wrote about how to set up an IV line firefighter style. I asked you if you knew what was in the last issue of Splatter. (If you subscribed you’d know!) We discussed tips for mastering the head-to-toe assessment and getting people to hang up their cell phones. The premier of The Chronicles of EMS was the coolest thing is the blogging world. And we explored credibility and redundancy before launching into two posts on hypothermia. (Specifically how to assess it and how to treat it.) Then we wrapped up with a few musings about what it means to be passionate and what it’s like to be a firefighter. My fingers bleed for you.

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The November EMS Roundup

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp drizzly November in my soul … then, I account it high time to get me to the sea.”

Herman Melville

When the cold November finds me grim about the mouth I find myself drawn to a warm fireplace and the click of my laptop’s keyboard. Lucky you. In November we kicked off with the idea that details matter. We discussed the importance of determination and I reminded you to ask the patient. I also pointed out ten things you can’t learn about EMS sitting in front of your computer and I made the polite request; don’t be a jerk. Chris Framstead took a walk down memory lane and talked about how things were back in the day. I told you about the ultimate EMS protocol and the controversy over c-spine immobilization. And we even found time to explore podcasting and the sternal rub. (Insert deep breath here.)

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The October EMS Round-Up

“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.”

                – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Our first blizzard of the year just passed through and the first rays of post blizzard sun are shining down upon the front range. October seemed to come and go in a flash here at The Spot and we covered a lot of ground. We started with the normalization of deviance and ended with a look at bad ideas (and why they tend to stick around.) In between we talked about SOAP reporting and being nice. We talked about what makes a good EMT (twice) and thought about what we think about our jobs. Then we addressed atypical chest pain and the meaning of the word pandemic. We even squeezed in some research on cardiac patient care times and Aspirin administration. If you missed any of it, you can still find it all right here.

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The August EMS Roundup

Remember to be gentle with yourselves and others. We are all children of chance and none can say why some fields blossom while others lay brown beneath the August sun. Care for those around you. Their dreams are no less than yours. Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace.           – Kent Nerburn, Author

Let me begin by saying how thankful I am for the amazing harvest that we had at The EMT Spot in August. The site set new records for unique visitors in a day and total visitors for the month. I’m proud of what we created here this month. We started with a simple truth, You Can’t give Away What You Don’t Have and a simple request, Be Remarkable. I shared Six Techniques to Nail The IV Every Time and told the story of a bunch of seniors who Got Nude to Protect Their Local Volunteer Squad.

After that we pushed our understanding of The 1-10 Pain Scale and talked a bit about the gear we carry in What’s In Your Pockets? I asked you to make peace with the idea that much of your medicine is Simply Wrong and gave you some tips to Make Sure Your Hand-Off Report Gets Heard. For my contribution to The Handover Blog Carnival, I discussed My First Cardiac Arrest and then dove into the Use of OPQRST.

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The July EMS Roundup

      “The flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them”                                     

              Thomas Jefferson, Author of The Declaration of Independence

While I would never be so presumptuous as to compare the writings here at The EMT Spot to the profound words authored by Thomas Jefferson, I think we had some fairly good stuff to offer in July.

We started with the idea that life, and work, is primarily about where you chose to focus. Then we described the controversial hand drop test and a few words of wisdom from Chief Mike West. I told you about seven EMS blogs you should read before diving head first into a three part series on head injuries. I rumbled a bit about quality assurance in EMS and settling for “almost good enough” before rounding off the month by answering the question, “What is GHB anyway.”

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The June EMS Roundup

“And what is so rare as a day in June. Then, if ever, come perfect days.”

James Russell Lowe, American Poet

Perfect days indeed. Though Colorado was hit with a rash of tornadoes, things were steady in cyberspace. If June is a month for growth we definitely experienced more of that here at The EMT Spot. We set new all time highs for daily traffic and monthly visitors. And just what was everyone here to see?

We started by asking the question, “Is What We Do A Science Or An Art?” followed by a recommendation to try The Face Flick technique to evaluate mental status. I wondered when we make the transition from Get To vs Have To and gave some advice on making Connections with your patients. We boned up on some knowledge points about The Functions of Abdominal Organs, The Duty to Act, and The Good Samaritan Act. I even got in a few rants about DCAPBTLS and The OSP Trooper vs Paramedic Circus.

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The May EMS Roundup

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.

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The April EMS Roundup

In April, the EMT Spot looked at The EMT Code of Ethics, helped folks decide if they were Ready To Go To EMT School and asked working EMTs the question, Are You The Opening Act, Or Are You The Rock Star? As promised we helped Increase Your Pain Vocabulary and gave you a useful Guide To Swine Flu. I also challenged readers to live by Five Rules For One Shift and taught you how to Rapidly Diagnose Pinpoint Pupils. Are you as tired as I am?

Around the blogsphere (I love that word by the way), Kim at Emergiblog hosted The Handover Blog Carnival with a slew of good EMS related content. Yes, I said slew. Do you want to make something of it? Life Under The Lights has an amusing little (OK big) rant about the term “ambulance driver” with Oh No You Didn’t! The Happy Medic has a painful but amusing story about a driver looking to avoid trouble in, for the diabetic and Peter Canning offer some Miscellaneous tidbits from his EMS world.

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The March EMS Roundup

In our second month, The EMT Spot saw our regular readership more than double. This, quite frankly, blows me away and encourages me to make the site as good as it can be. I must admit that it gives me pause when writing my latest additions to know that thousands of people in over 30 countries are going to be reading the site over the next week. For that, I offer you my most sincere thank you.

If you enjoy online social networks, we also now have affiliate group pages for people to connect with us through Facebook, EMS United, and Firefighter Nation.

As promised, this month we looked at Why Head Injuries Fight us, we dove into a universal clinical truth in Skin Doesn’t Lie and narrowed down the reasons Why People Vomit Blood. Our first guest author, Matthew Bergland expressed his feelings on providing care for The Greatest Generation and I talked up the merits of an EMT who took action in One EMT Can Make A Difference.

Around the Blogsphere, The Happy medic has a bevy of good advice (that’s right, I said bevy) from The Handover Blog Carnival as well as an appropriate warning for new medics looking for a job in the fire service. Peter Canning describes an interesting case of pain management in Empty Shoe and Rouge Medic has a rant worthy of consideration regarding medically untrained personnel providing QA and discipline in a an ALS system. Elsewhere, Rescue911Blog asks a good question about Burn Out.

In EMS News, the results of the latest Polyheme trial were released and the hoped for miracle save rates were not demonstrated. A firefighter and a paramedic are out of a job after posting a YouTube video (will this stuff ever end?) Chicago is trying to do something to address the surge in firefighter and paramedic suicides. Research showed that 12 lead ECGs are useful in determining the presence of infarction immediately following ROSC in cardiac arrest. And finally, A Columbus Ohio city level committee addressed the bold question, Are Paramedics Necessary? This one is bound to get interesting.

In our national EMS periodicals, JEMS looked at two often heralded absolutes of medicine, airway control and oxygenation. EMS Magazine offered advice on interacting with patents who are legally armed and the treatment of syncope.

In the podcast realm, everyone’s favorite podcast, The EMS Garage has an excellent conversation about refusing patients with alcohol on board.

So now you’re all caught up for March. In April, The EMT Spot will use the tragic story of Natasha Richardson as a call to examine the nature of head injury presentations. We will also talk about the effects of stress and concern over loosing your job as well as four assessment findings that should always concern you. It’s going to be a good one. Come back soon.

Steve