Training Meetings - November

Hey everyone, because of conference and Thanksgiving we are only going to have one training meeting this month and it will be tomorrow night at the Old Court House in Castle Dale. Thursday, Nov 20th, Old Court House in CD, 1800.
If you attended conference please bring an item or two to discuss with the group. Maybe it is a new concept or a new twist on an old idea or just a great way to remember an old idea. Maybe it is just something interesting you'd like to share. This is what conference is all about; learning something yourself and sharing it with the EMT's who were not able to attend so please participate!

Also, we will be running a code. I know some of you "old timers" think this is redundant but even though there are those who really could do a code in their sleep,we have new people coming on board and there are even some older EMT's who just aren't sure about the next step or the right drug or what to do next. So, we are going to run codes till we feel good about taking the lead and directing our crew to do them.

Atropine is available as soon as we are confidant about its administration.

Love you all,

It's been a long time!

It has been a long time but the basic class has come to an end now. I will have news here on the blog about their successful testing experience! They have been a really great, sharp, and hilarious group to work with. You know how I love to teach but I am exhausted!I'm sure if they are hired to our service they will be an asset to each of us and I know you will welcome them aboard.

On to more news.

By now, each of you have received the notification that we are going to be able to go to conferences with the help of the county once again. Please get your applications on line but instead of sending them in, drop them off to Jim or to the Sheriff's office. The supervisors will be making the decision as to who goes on the fall one and who waits for the spring conference. So, maybe you should let them know now about your preferences. With this learning experience again made available to us I hope we will each take the experience seriously, attend the classes, bring back knowledge and skills to share and BOND with our fellow EMTs.

We will go back to doing CME hours/training on Thursdays at your individual services as we were doing before.Thank you for your patience while this class proceeded. Thanks to those who took advantage of joining our class. And, also thanks to Pete, Stacy and Don Marelli for instructing when we needed them so badly.

We are still waiting for a good night to get together with Dr. O. Dickman. I will post as soon as we have a date! Try to come and welcome him aboard our service.

Eyes on the new contest!

New Medical Control Doctor

Hey everyone! We have a brand new Medical Control Doctor at the helm! Dr. Otto Dickman has agreed to come play with us! Though we got very close to Dr. Engar and are sorry to see him go, we are excited to get to know Dr. Dickman. He will be meeting with us soon so stay tuned; you don't want to miss that meeting. If you get a chance, let him know we are glad to have him aboard.

New Basic Class!

Finally, we have the ok to begin our Basic EMT class!
It will start July 29th, 5:30pm, at the CD Old Court House.
Please spread the word. We look forward to working with these new people. If you'd like to help with class or need CME hours, please join us!

Contest Winner - Mick Robinson!

WoW! Mick must have his computer at his bedside. He emailed the answer to the contest just a couple of hours after I posted it!

ABNORMAL VS for a child 2-4yrs old:
Pulse rate <60 or >140 and Respiration rate <24 or >40

We had lots more entry's this time so this is going to get harder! Thanks for all your participation!
Sue

New Utah Pediatric Protocol!

In November of 2007 the Utah EMS for Children began working on new Off-line Medical Direction Protocol guidelines for our state. In March of this year they published these Guidelines online. Our Medical Director, Dr. Engar, is excited to see the Emery County EMT's become familiar with them, train with them, and put them to use in treating our most precious patients. As you enter their website there are eight areas of interest. Click on the icon and a presentation begins covering that subject. Each module takes about 30-60 minutes to complete. At the end of the presentation there is a quiz. When you have completed the quiz, print it out and get it to me. The state is awarding CME hours for every module completed. Nice easy way to get our pediatric CMEs! CAUTION: Not all of the modules are complete so they can't all be accessed yet. The assessment one is there and others will be there soon. Visit often and see what they offer for us!

One more thing. The website Utah Tele Health has listed is broken so use the one on the bottom left of our blog and it will connect you!

Commission Meeting - July 07, 09

The Commissioners held a meeting to discuss the ambulance yesterday, the 7th of July. I'm sorry I didn't notify you that it was scheduled but they held it with only 24hrs notice and I was in Provo when I found out! They asked Jim and I to present our ideas for a list of commitments we would like to accomplish in the next year. We had been working on it but had to scramble to put it together in a form that could be presented in a public meeting. So, sorry if you had wanted to be there but didn't know about it. I don't always find out about these meetings in time to get the word out so if you are interested log into the Emery County website under "Links of Interest" on the sidebar and look up the commissioner's meeting schedule. I have to stress that even though many points were presented, such as a raise for on call pay to $1.00 an hour now and to $2.00 in the near future, the plan has not been approved by the commissioners so it isn't set in cement yet. As always, if you have suggestions I'd like to hear them. This is a living, working, evolving document so there is plenty of room for change and growth. Your input is welcomed! Also, we presented a tentative training/seminar calendar which will be posted soon.

Once again, a clarification. There still seems to be ideas flying that Conferences have been cancelled forever and ever. County reimbursement has been cancelled for THIS YEAR ONLY. It was decided that with so many of our services running with limited crews, it would be impossible to have even half our EMT's go to conference and leave our areas without coverage. That is the main reason it was decided to not send EMT's this year.Budget/Grant cuts were the other concideration. We believe we can bring some seminars to our area, offer high quality programs to our EMT's and still take care of the citizens of Emery County. This will be reevaluated on a regular basis and we may or may not be able to send EMT's to conferences in the future. Let's hope the money flows freely again soon and we can entice tons of new EMT's to join our ranks!

There were also remarks from the floor. Valerie Newland expressed some concerns of the Green River EMT's and held the commissioners "feet to the fire" looking for improvements in our wages. The commissioners agreed to have a response in two or three weeks after they had a chance to discuss the matter.
I understand another public meeting is scheduled for next week but I'm not sure what they are discussing. Please keep going to the county website and attend these meetings if you can.

Our own Les Thompson

Les has suffered some medical difficulties and has undergone surgery to resolve problems with his heart. I know you will include Les in your good thoughts and prayers.Our very best.

And, the winner is!...

Deana Ceal! Deana correctly answered the contest question. The SA node (60-100bpm), The AV node (40-60 bpm) and the Bundle Branches and Purkinje fibers (20-40 bpm)
Way to go Deana!

CONTEST

Take a look at the side bar and read about our new EMS Contest! Participate! Win! Good luck!

COUNTY COMMISSION MEETING

Our County Commissioners gathered this week and invited Dr. Travis Engar to attend and address the public meeting. Dr. Engar presented some positive advancements he believes the ambulance service has made in the past few months and several other reasons for wanting the service to continue under the direction of the Commissioners and Director Jim Gordon. Though Sheriff Guymon was not present, the sentiment was presented by some of the Commissioners that perhaps the Ambulance service would run more smoothly if the deputies could drive the ambulances under the Sheriff's direction. Dr. Engar's main focus seemed to be that the service is now a more medically oriented organization with medically informed and interested people at the helm. He also pointed out that with little exception all the other counties in the state are structured in this way and have found it a successful way to organize. There were some fairly animated comments from the commissioners, and the floor as well, with a variety of concerns expressed. The meeting ended with Dr. Engar urging the Commissioners to take his advice as Medical Director and allow the Ambulance system to continue as it is and give it a chance to develop.

We should hear after the Commission meeting next week what they have decided.

Welcome!...again!

This "welcome" was originally (see the bottom of the page) piloted only to a few; the association presidency,Dr. Engar, etc. to get it up and started and to make sure there weren't any major flaws. We think it is now ready to go out to the entire county of EMT's. It was created with each one of you in mind. It is our hope this will be one more tool to help us excel in our efforts to become proficient in our craft and to solidify us as one crew. If you have suggestions to make this a more usable blog, please let us know. You are terrific!

Megacodes and EKG recognition

I've found some fun sites with great helps on "youtube" for doing a MEGACODE and also for brushing up on heart rhythms. I wish I could get them to post on the link list but I just can't get them to go. HELP? So, I emailed them to you. If you like them save them to your favorites for future reference.

The first one is a Utah paramedic, Jason Wasson, who does a great job on a megacode. I loved it! Gotta adopt the "Wipe it, pinch it, poke it, push it" line for our training! There are also several on EKG's. One simple video is entitled ACLS EKG Recognition. It isn't very high tech, simply a monitor with different heart rhythms going across the screen. It gives you several seconds to identify the rhythm and then flashes the correct answer on the screen (which of course you will all get right!) Take a look and let me know what you think.

EMS Conference April 3rd

With all the economy woes CME hours may be a little more difficult to come by. We are going to try to have several mini-conferences or workshops here in Emery County but I'd also like to keep you aware of other conferences as they become available.
Very short notice but it has come to my attention that Utah Valley Regional Medical Center will be holding the following conference:

FRIDAY, APRIL 3
Cost: 35.00
Contact information : Call 801 357 7735
Schedule 7:30 am Breakfast till 3:00 pm
Address: Provo City Library at Academy Square
550 North University Avenue
Provo, UT
Speakers: Craig Cook - Trauma Medical Director
Linda Larsen and Dan Camp - San Juan bus accident
Adam Phillips - PA-C Trauma Case Studies
Jefforey R. Thorpe - MD - Trauma and Pregnancy
Dr. Keith Hooker - Lifetime Achievement Award Presentation
Robert F. Jex - Utah BEMS
Bill Alward - MD - X-Rayted Stories from the ICU
Douglas Murdock - MD - Pre-hospital triage
Stein Rosqvist - Sole survivor of Life Flight crew involved in helicopter
crash.

Anyone hearing of other conferences or with suggestions of speakers, presentations, etc you may want to invite here please post a note!

Radios and Pagers

All OLD pagers and radios need to be turned back to Jim. Pagers which are not the Motorola Minitor IV's and any radio older than the newer Kenwood TK-2180 radios need to be dropped off at your garage this week so they can be picked up.
Also, the county is trying to update inventory records of all equipment. So...we need to email Jim with the County and serial numbers (look under the battery on radios)on our present pagers and radios.

Welcome!

This is a blog created just for the Emery County EMT's. By checking here regularly you can see any items on the calendar, add comments of your own, ask questions, and check out the latest news. It is our hope the blog will help us communicate more easily with one another and share our concerns and dreams. Remember this is a blog in its infancy so your ideas for improvement will be appreciated!