As you all know, I got started in EMS at a very young age. The area of New Jersey that I grew up in is rich with a long, distinguished history of Volunteer EMS and Fire personnel. I remember being in my EMT class at the age of 16. It was taught in a large auditorium filled with about 75 people. Every Tuesday and Thursday night, we’d sit there enjoying lectures, or break up into groups and run skills stations, with the ultimate goal of adding all of us to the long, distiguished list of graduates of Community Medical Center’s EMT program. That was where I met a man by the name of “Big John” Glowacki. He was a man whose reputation as a gruff, hard nosed, demanding yet professional person preceded him. John was an EMT Instructor, one of our dispatchers, and Life Member and Captain of the East Dover Volunteer First Aid Squad. It was impressive that had accomplished all of this by the age of 30. When I turned 18, John approached me and asked me if I would be interested in riding with him on his Tuesday Day Duty Crew on his squad. I wasn’t a member, but a lot of us who rode days down in Dover Twp (now known as Toms River) worked together to do what we could to get as many trucks on the road as possible. At some point during my career down there, I rode on a rig from five of the six Township departments. For the next three summers, and starting in the afternoons when I was in high school, I would come home, call John, and let him know I was in service. During that time, I learned a lot from him, not only from a patient care stand point, but also from an attitude and professionalism stand point. John wasn’t as mean as some people made him out to be. Sure, he was demanding and authoritative sometimes, but there are few people who I have encountered in my career who were more dedicated to the field. I never saw John lose his cool on a call. He was always so calm,...

For the month of July, I was selected to host The Handover, an EMS Blog Carnival. The topic I chose to tackle? The Crisis Patient. Not a day goes by where I don’t have to deal with a psych crisis patient. They’re out there, we all run into them, and the training that we get to be able to deal with them is minimal. Focus moves towards ACS patients, strokes, respiratory patients, or trauma scenarios. While treatment of these patients is usually rather involved, it takes the focus away from our less acute crisis patients, which are viewed as more routine, and easy to care for. They are, however, far from either of those descriptions. Take a read through the blogs below. Chances are you’ll see a situation that you’ve been through in the past. The Insomniac Medic shares the story about an encounter with a patient where a special bond was created, and because of it he was able to get his crisis patient the help that he very much needed. The Happy Medic dug into the archives for his contribution to this month’s Handover. He’s asked by the Police Department to help remove someone that many of us have encountered: a horder. Physically, she’s fine. Mentally, she’s competent, but sometimes we are forced to make decisions in the best interest of our patients. Our friend over at Paramedic Pulp Fiction takes the time to talk to his already restrained crisis patient, and takes the easier, less forceful way out. Taking this approach not only made his job easier, but could potentially make things easier on the next crew that encounters this guy. Often times, its important that the provider takes control when dealing with a crisis patient. Over at Street Watch, we get to hear a story from 2006 about a rather large crisis patient with the potential to escalate a situation to a physical level. He remains in complete control of his scene and his patient, but he gives her the chance to feel like she’s in control with a few simple actions: letting her have a cigarette and giving her simple choices about how care is provided to her. Our...

With all of the writing I’ve done today, this week should be a pretty busy week atEMSin the New Decade.I’m waiting on submissions for my topic for The Handover, the topic of which can be read here.Also, I’ve got a two part post almost completed about the Massachusetts EMT Recertification scandal that is currently taking place.I thought though, on this Sunday, which is supposed to be a day of rest, that I would start things off on a lighter note. Jeramedic called me out in one of his blog posts.The question was, “What reading material do you keep next to the toilet?”I don’t know exactly how this thread started, but from what I’ve researched, it seems that all of it goes back to TheHappyMedic.Thanks, Justin! So when I “sat down” before, I took inventory of my library that would most certainly be flagged in an episode of Seinfeld.Here’s what I found JEMS — If you work in this field, chances are you have at least one copy lying around the bathroom somewhere.My current selection is the 2010 200 City Survey edition.There are some great articles in that one.I highly recommend it. PC Gamer — There are a few month’s worth of this magazine hanging out in the rack.Its my guilty pleasure, and my hobby when I don’t really feel like heading out to face the world.That’s right, folks.MedicSBK is a gamer! Cowboy in the City — This is a book aboutEMSin the area where I practice.The writing style is. . . unique to say the least.I’m not sure about the overall message of it, but I’ll usually read a page or two here and there. The trusty iPhone! — When all else fails, chances are my iPhone is nearby.Not only does this give me plenty of websites to tackle, but I will admit there has been the occasional Tweet (or as I believe its called Shweet) that goes out, but you’ll never know which ones those are! Muahahahahahaha! So there you have it!Plenty of reading material to keep me occupied.Seeing as how everyone who I would call out on this one has already written some great articles about this same topic, I guess I...

Before I host my edition of The Handover next month, I felt the need to contribute first. Tactical Pants wants to know what we do with our Downtime. You know, Downtime. Those precious few hours (minutes?) we have between each call. In the last 16 years that I’ve been involved in EMS, I’ve used my downtime in a variety of ways. It seems only fitting though that as I sit here writing this blog, I am enjoying some much needed “away time” which is a little different from downtime.Currently, I am sitting on an enclosed porch, full of burgers cooked up on the grill and fresh Jersey White Corn with a nice cool breeze blowing through the window.Boy, times are good right now. If it was six years ago, I’d probably be sitting in an ambulance parked on a street corner waiting for my next call, or more commonly, flying across the city lights and sirens to the next “emergency.”Personally though, I like tonight’s events much more. But I digress. Where were we? Oh yes… Downtime! When I was a volunteer EMT inOcean County,NJone of my more common crew chiefs and I would sit at the station passing the daily crossword puzzle back and forth.It was a great way to kill time and keep our minds sharp.There always seemed like there was lots of work to do during our downtime back then.We had trucks to check, paperwork to enter into our computer system, and supply orders to be tallied and submitted, but we always found time for our Crosswords. Thanks, Joey. When I moved on to Urban EMS, it was time for me to learn about mobile posting. We had a unique group working weekend overnights though. Our trucks would move around the city like a wagon train from common post to common post.We always had toys to keep ourselves occupied: Frisbees, hacky sacks, footballs, and even headrolls that we could play dodgeball with.On one particular night, I remember sitting out in lawn chairs in the darkest spot that we could find trying to get enough time away from the excitement of the city to watch a 3am meteor shower.I miss those days sometimes.It...

As I sit here in my Expedition typing away on my Netbook, I am reminded by the night’s weather of how much I love the City during the summer.13 years ago when I leftNew Jerseyas a naive 19 year old EMT, I figured I was on a “four and out” plan.I would get my EMS Management Degree, get my Paramedic Certification, and bail on out of here and back to my comfort zone: theJerseyShore. Once I graduated College in 2001, I had about 8 months experience as a Paramedic here in the city, and it had gotten its claws into me.At that point in my career, I saw no other option for me than to be an Urban Paramedic, running all of the 911’s I could.In a week at work here, I was personally doing as many 911 responses as my Volunteer Service that I got my start with back in 1993 would do in a month, and I was loving every minute of it. UrbanEMSis definitely unique.Your transport times are commonly shorter, and while per capita, your high acuity patients might be a fewer in number than suburban and rural systems, you still see your share of critically sick and injured people.I’m not just talking about the shootings and stabbings, trust me they’re there, but I’m also talking about the STEMIs, strokes, and generalized respiratory and cardiac patients. Commonly in this busy system, except for a few patient complaints that would also trigger the request for fire to respond, you were on your own with just your partner.On my shift though, we all looked out for each other. We were definitely one big family.If you were going into a bad neighborhood, chances are, someone else would “float” your way for no other reason than to just watch your back.They’d set up your gear, help you stairchair a patient, or just simply make sure that people respect your personal space. This October will mark my 10th anniversary as a Paramedic.Its funny, but I can still remember heading in for my first shift after getting cleared and sitting in the parking lot of my college dorm dry heaving because I was so nervous.(I swear it...

Up until about five months ago, I found myself in a real down period in my career. I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go, or where I wanted to end up. All I knew was I needed to freshen things up a little bit. Then, one afternoon, I got that call with the offer to do some time in Alameda County. As I had previously mentioned here, it was a great experience, and that is where I learned about Chronicles of EMS. In the months since, I’ve imersed myself in the Chronicles, and I’ve begun exploring the Social Media aspect of the choice I made for my career: Emergency Medical Services. This has included reading up on some great blogs, spending quite a bit of time making friends on Twitter, and most importantly, my discovery of the EMS 2.0 movement. Recently, I got thinking, what can I do to support and spread the word? For me, it has started with the word of mouth. I’ve told some of my colleagues where I work about it, and steered as many people as I can in that direction. I’ve cornered Paramedic and EMT Instructors at my place of employment, and made efforts to contact my old college professors, all in an attempt to let them know about this great thing I’ve found, in hopes that they will share it with their students. Last week, another idea came to mind. I was trying to think of a way to bring the EMS 2.0 agenda to those around me, and hopefully spark some questions and interest in this new movement that I was becoming so proud of. I loved the t-shirts, but I wanted something I could wear to work, since that’s where I spend my time with the people who this should matter to most, and that’s when it hit me: a pin. The idea I came up with is simple, really. The half blue and half red Star of Life signifies the first obstacle that EMS 2.0 must overcome: the unification of EMS. Maybe if I’m lucky, two people will come up to me and ask “hey, what’s that pin about?” And they will...