I received a letter from a paramedic who wishes to remain anonymous for reasons of keeping his or her employment status. They also want to speak freely because what he/she says in the letter may unfortunately be controversial in the current political and media climate. I’m going to post the letter mostly using that person’s […]

Welcome. You might be wondering why you’re here, who I am, and how long you’ll be here. In fact, I’m sure you have many questions. Some of them I can answer, some of them I can’t, and some of them are questions we both have. I do know that we’ll most probably be together for […]

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 […]

Ambulance 34, Ambulance 34. 452 Smithfield Street for the 34 year old male with chest pain and difficulty breathing. Delta-Level response. Medic 72 will be your backup. Time out 14:35 Ambulance 34, a BLS level ambulance responds from their designated system-status management post to the residential neighborhood where the call came from. Upon their arrival […]

Push Hard. Push Fast. Don’t Stop. By now, every single healthcare person out there should know that in order to improve a victim of cardiac arrest’s chances of meaningful survival, chest compressions are where it’s at. Blood needs to keep circulating in order to keep a person’s heart and brain alive and functioning. High quality […]

It’s a little known fact that I can speak a little Spanish. I’m not very good at it, and I have a lot of trouble conjugating verbs into the past and future tenses, but I can carry on a fairly relevant conversation with most Spanish speaking individuals when the need arises. It always throws people […]

If you’ve ever stopped to actually think about it, you might notice that EMS is full of things we do simply because they seemed like a good idea at the time. We have providers who blast pure oxygen in the faces of patients where it will not do any good and probably causes harm, have […]

My Boy Scout first-aid merit badge was a big achievement in my formative years. Little did I know that decades later as a professional paramedic I would get to consistently re-live the experience.

BLS vs. ALS? ALS providers behaving badly? BLS providers protecting their egos at the expense of patient care? It happens. We’re exploring it.