“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon”
- Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
Could it possibly be 2011 already? Late December has transitioned into early January and, with the new year at hand, we pause of a look back at the month that was. Here at The Spot we talked a bit about what we need most and the three collision rule. Then we reviewed the new Magnum Elite Force boot and considered how good we sometimes are at jumping to no. After that we laid down what it takes to master the bio-phone report and finished up with an answer to the question, “What is sepsis anyway?“
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The breezes taste of apple peel. The air is full of smells to feel – Ripe fruit, old footballs, burning brush, new books, erasers, chalk and stuff.
Like Plates washed clean with suds, the days are polished with a morning haze.
- John Updike, September
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I haven’t yet tasted apple peel on the breeze across the Colorado front range, but fall has definitely come to The EMT Spot. The October chill has arrived and my Bi-annual tropical vacation is calling once again. September was consumed with silent remembrances of 9/11 and furious preparations for EMS Expo. With that grand event behind us, I look forward to cultivating the new partnerships created under the Dallas sun and posting some great content. Now, we’ll continue our tradition of beginning by looking back at the month that was.
We started off with a discussion about moving past medical mistakes and a guest post by Sally Davidson about coping with victims emotions. It’s always nice to get an outside perspective; thanks Sally. Then I stirred a bit of controversy by asking if you’d saved any lives today before asking you to meet me at EMS Expo. To finish it all off I told you the ten things I was most looking forward to at the event.
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“In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them.”
-Aldo Leopold
So many anniversaries. So many happenings in the EMS world. Regardless of how many of them you attempted to heed, you were bound to miss a few. Here’s to the stuff you may have inadvertently ignored.
I started the month with a webinar on how to pass the national registry cognitive exam and quickly moved on to the name the chronicles contest and part three of the very popular ultimate guide to EMT vital signs. I asked you two telling questions with “Where do you put the fear?” and “Are you an EMS nonconformist?” before asking you to consider what will happen on the day that your career clock strikes midnight. Then we talked about what really motivates us and wrapped up with ten reasons why I work in EMS.
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April is a promise that May is bound to keep.
- Hal Borland
I can’t make any promises about May, but I can venture a guess that the world of EMS will be every bit as interesting as it was in April here at The Spot. I started by telling you about the hydrogen peroxide, blood stain trick and then moved on to a few thoughts about assessment and scope of practice. Then we spent a few suspenseful days on the EMT liability pop quiz followed up with some thoughts on failure and a request to tell The Discovery Channel about The Chronicles of EMS. I ended off with a little observation about bringing yourself to work and that brings us here. *Deep breath.*
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Slayer of the winter, art thou here again? O welcome, thou that bring’st the summer nigh! The bitter wind makes not the victory vain. Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky.
– William Morris
Thou that bring’st the fertilizer and lawn care nigh! Spring is indeed welcome here at The EMT Spot and with the snow blower tucked away it’s time to review the month that was.
We started off the month with a bunch of questions. What does it mean to be safe at home, to walk or not to walk and five hard questions about EMS 2.0. Then I told you all about L.C.E.S. for EMT’s, trust as a currency and what it means to have a deep and abiding respect. I Asked you if you’d ever posted a comment, (If you haven’t, there’s still time.) Then told you about ACE Inhibitors and tore apart the meanings of two phrases, “I’m only an EMT Basic.” and “It’s not my emergency.” Then we wrapped up with the illusion of control and the helmet / c-spine issue.
Now it’s time to hit the surf. But not before we look at some other folks blogs too. There’s so much good writing out there in the EMS blog world, it’s hard to keep up with it all.
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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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“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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“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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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 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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