I have a love/hate relationship with our friend the 12-lead EKG. I tend to obtain a lot of them in the course of my field care, and I’m a regular reader/lurker over at the Prehospital 12-lead EKG blog that our friends Chris and Tom et al write in their spare time. I love them because […]

It’s interesting how personal experiences and professional biases can affect a clinician’s personal style of providing patient care. I’d wager that it happens to us all in some subtle and some not-so-subtle ways. One of the things I’ve noticed about my own style of personal practice is that I’m very sensitive to screening for and […]

I’d like to talk about our culture as a profession and the soul of EMS. A while ago, I wrote a post entitled An EMS Rant: Don’t Believe this Picture which ended up being one of my most popular posts ever. In the first day it was up it garnered over 11,000 readers and has done much […]

For you EMS Types out there, there’s a new “Case of the Month” up on the JEMS website, as well as in print in this month’s issue. It deals with head injuries mixed with other stuff. You might recognize the author. Oh, and if you find a printed copy, mail it to me, and enclose […]

In case you haven’t heard, the United States is running short of slightly salty water. Specifically we’re having an unprecedented shortage of 0.9% normal saline solution, the kind that is used as the most common intravenous fluid in every form of healthcare that puts needles into people’s veins. I don’t really know the reasons why […]

Buried down deep in the 450 or some odd blog posts I have on this site, you’ll find a few that cover how to write an EMS narrative report. It’s a skill that each and every EMT and Paramedic has to practice and perfect over the course of their careers lest they find themselves without […]

So I saw this picture on Facebook today (Warning: There are some mild swear words in this picture you’re already seeing so I’m warning you that this warning is moot) Don’t believe this picture. I’ve read somewhere that people will believe anything they read from a picture with words on it they see on the […]

Bear with me for a minute here folks. This is long, but important. I’d like to talk for a bit about the EMS 2.0 movement and US healthcare reform, a subject that I haven’t brought up for a while but that is still very important. EMS 2.0 hasn’t slowed down, and you may recognize a […]

Want to remember a quick and easy trick for remembering the Glasgow Coma Scale? My Extra Value Meal costs $4.56 – Eyes: 1-4 – Verbal 1-5 – Motor 1-6 You can always remember the top numbers of the scale by using this mnemonic, whether or not you actually remember the details of the numbers in […]

When Paramedic Christopher Downdike responded to a seemingly routine ambulance call the other afternoon, he never expected he would be coming face to face with a national movement made up of people who say they’re fighting for the health of their children and for their rights as parents to choose the medical care they feel […]