Over the last month, I have been trying to follow the Occupy Wall Street movement.  I say “trying” because I have a tough time figuring out what their unified message really is.  Their communication attempts with the public have been highly ineffective and fractured.  No one seems to want to speak for the group, and all that seems to keep coming out is “down with big business!” Ironically, most of what I have read has been via social media through Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.  I must say, I find it rather amusing to see someone send a Tweet out about how bad corporate America is, and on the bottom of the box on Tweetdeck, it reads “Sent via Twitter for iPhone.”  That’s right: this person who is bad mouthing corporate America is paying a monthly bill to it to be able to share their message. Change takes time and efforts.  One Tweet I saw that I found to be particularly interesting was one that read: “I was promised a job, go to college, get a job is the promise, I did my part.”  If a person wants real accomplishment they cannot sit back and expect it to be handed to them on a silver platter.  There is a certain level of personal responsibility that comes along with it and sometimes things take a little more work than expected.  You cannot always expect people to meet you half way.  Sometimes, you need to go a little farther. Much like Occupy Wall Street, EMS 2.0 is a grass roots “bottom up” movement spearheaded by street providers to try and enhance their ability to do their job.  I think that there some important lessons that those of us who are invested in EMS 2.0 can take from what I feel are some glaring failures of the Occupy Wall Street movement: 1.  Have a message — Don’t just blindly demand change.  Know what you are asking for, and have someone who is willing to step forward and speak for the group.  Show your numbers, but have a plan! 2.  Don’t demand change, make it — Far too often, we look at those around us and above us and...

My name is Scott, and I am a PC. I admit it: PCs have been my life and my passion for quite a number of years.  I remember my first one when I was 8 years old.  I still speak DOS fluently, in fact, the computer that I am typing this on right now is a computer that I built myself a little more than two years ago. That said, I am still mourning the death of Steve Jobs today. In addition to my love of PCs, I also have an affinity for gadgets.  Just the other night during some downtime at work, I was replying to tweets on my iPhone while reading a PDF on my iPAD, all while listening to music on my iPOD.  I have them all, and I love them all and a day does not go by where I am not using them.  Steve Jobs revolutionized mobile media for me.  He changed the way I surf the net, he changed how I listened to music, and he changed how I communicated with people. You Android users out there should be counting your blessings as well.  If it was not for the iPhone, do you think the Android would be half as good as it is?  Jobs did not just challenge his own company; he challenged everyone else as well.  He pushed them to make their products better just to stay competitive, and they did the same right back to Jobs and Apple.  Because of that competition, we have what we have today. I found a couple of inspirational quotes from Steve Jobs as I was reading through an article about him on the Huffington Post today that I thought I would share: “That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity.  Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.  But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” — BusinessWeek interview form 1998. I love this quote, and I feel it embodies everything that EMS 2.0 stands for.  Make things simple again and start over.  Don’t over complicate things...

With that headline, one might think this is an article about Calvin Johnson and the resurgence of the Detroit Lions.  I wish that were true! Is anyone else tired of hearing about the Detroit Fire Department? In a recent story reported by the Fox affiliate in Detroit who has been following the department’s struggles rather closely, it was reported that they had not even ordered the promised 20+ ambulances promised to be on the road by January of 2012.  Not even ordered yet?  Come on! While it does not take long to get a truck on the road once it is licensed and put together, the steps leading up to that point can take some time.  Lettering needs to be decided on, equipment needs to be ordered, and the trucks need to be manufactured.  Once again, the Detroit Fire Department has dropped the ball. This brings up the question: when is enough enough?  When is the City of Detroit going to step up, tell the Fire Department they are not cutting it, and start looking elsewhere for EMS coverage?  While that can be a difficult undertaking, especially in a city in the financial dire straits that Detroit is in, it may be a necessary step to provide a better service to the city.  In other settings around the country, cities would be calling for the heads of the administrators of a department that has failed as badly as Detroit Fire has, but it almost seems like their answers of “we’re doing the best that we can” and the promises of improvement are enough to keep the city pacified. Providing EMS service in an urban setting is a difficult undertaking.  Providing quality service is exponentially more difficult, and yes, there is a difference.  Volumes tend to be higher, and acuity is lower.  Sometimes convincing municipalities that maybe an entire fleet of paramedic level ambulances is not the answer to the problem is difficult.  Detroit is in the perfect situation to bring someone in who can say “trust us, let us run the service.  The calls will be done, and people will be taken care of.”  Who knows, it could be the perfect blank canvas to...

Being a paramedic student is difficult.  When you start, you never know what to expect.  Different paramedic preceptors have different attitudes, work ethics, and paces.  While a student might not match up perfectly with their preceptor, they must be ready to take as much as they can from their shift. First of all, a student should walk in the door ready to learn.  One of my favorite questions to ask a student is “why are you here?”  In a way, I am setting them up.  I’m hoping that I don’t hear what I don’t want to which is “I just need hours” or “I’m just looking for a tube or electricity.”  No one is welcome on my truck if they intend on sitting back and twiddling their thumbs for twelve hours.  Paramedic school does not teach a person everything, and there is always plenty more to learn. Make sure your preceptor understands your comfort and experience level, because they are two totally different things.  A friend told me the other day about a student he recently had on his truck.  They were rushed out the door on their first call, and when they finally got to the hospital and turned over their patient, he asked the student how much experience he had.  The reply he got was “actually, that was my first time in the back of an ambulance.” Shocking answer, huh?  In my area we are seeing students getting on trucks with less and less experience that does not mean that they’re not capable though.  One must keep in mind, however, that as a student with less experience, there is more to learn, and the journey to being a well-rounded provider might be a longer one.  For the student described above, on his or her first shift out, I’d be more concerned about their ability to take a blood pressure in a moving ambulance, or bandage up a laceration than I would be about how well they could establish an IV or read a 12-Lead EKG.  Student time is a great opportunity to learn how to walk before you’re required to run.  It is best though that you know how to crawl first....

Here is a video from The MedicCast.  As part of my podcasting in Las Vegas, the hosts were able to select what I thought was an innovative product on the show floor.  My choice was this new line of laryngoscope handles and blades made by a company called IntuBrite.  Here, Natalie Quebodeaux, Chris Montera and I speak with Todd McKinney, president of...