Ask A Medic

Why is it that as soon as I stepped on to the ambulance I have only been getting between 4-6 hours of sleep a night and I am perfectly fine with it? before I would get like 10 hours and still be tired.

 

Cause you're 21.

Also getting too much sleep is just as bad as getting too little. 7-8 is probably your magic number.

 

They moved me to another station and I've only slept all night one night. I want my vacation station back.

 

That sucks. Sorry to hear that.

I'm not going to lie, I don't miss nights. I like my peak car. 0700-1830 Mon-Thur.

 

nice right now I am doing 7h00-19h00 4 on 4 off

 

I work 24/48's so no choice here.

 

Ours is 4 on 3 off since we have the shorter day. It's nice cause it's easy to plan stuff with people with regular jobs. The down side is that everyone else in the world has the same days off I do.

Plus no long change.

Ugh. That's garbage. WBC won't let us do 24/48s anymore.

 

Hypothetical situation:
Person has a leg severed. Does the femoral keep bleeding or will it clamp down on it's own? What can you do till medics arrive?

Another one:
Gunshot wound to chest/lung. Breathing becoming difficult. Potential tension pneumothorax. Again what can you do till medics arrive? Does it matter if it's a pass-through versus inside?

 

Nope, never had x rays on my back.
Thanks for the info

 

Femoral will more than likely keep bleeding. However...all leaks will stop eventually. If it does in this case...it's probably because they've exsanguinated themselves. Put their legs up in what's known as trendeleburg position and attempt to put pressure on the femoral artery where the thigh meets the pelvis.

Tension pneumo? Nothing as a first responder you can do. They need needle decompression with a 10 gauge.

 

just had one of the downfalls of the job happen to me, finally got to order some food, got a call while the cashier was helping someone else. And I was looking forward to that meal too.

 

Bring a lunch. You'll stay thinner and have more money.

 

usually do, but. i havent had a chance to stop at the grocery between a conference on my days off and having to travel almost 2 hours to get to work. hopefully i can stop tonight.

 

Not as bad as ordering your food and paying for it, then getting a call

Went to firehouse subs, ordered a large engineer, fully involved on wheat (my fav ) and got a call.

BUT...the EMS gods were kind and it was a REFUSAL!!!!

It was BS 25 YOM chest pain, and luckily we beat FD, so they weren't there on scene before us trying to scare the pt into going to the ER.

We hauled ass back to firehouse where my sub was waiting.

That was one lucky time....

+1000000000

I try to do this, but not very well lately. I have gained about 10 lbs in the past 2 months or so.

The best thing to do it bring a lot of healthy snacks...ie carrots and other veggies w/ dip, fruits, trail mix, yogurt.

 

For the gsw question can't you apply an occlusive dressing ( or make a makeshift one) to prevent it from getting worse? An the femoral I'd make a makeshift tornequit

 

Make time. It's easy to get complacent in this job and just say "I'll do it next time." You really need to put effort in to stay healthy in this profession. It's a lot of Hurry up and wait, and because we're constantly on the ball waiting for shit to happen we're reluctant to dedicate any time to proper eating or exercise while on call. My biggest complaint with EMS is the amount of fatties who work in it. How can you be a paragon of health and preach good habits when you've given yourself Type II diabetes, smoke and require cholesterol and hypertension meds? It's bullshit.

Only if it's a sucking chest wound. That wasn't stated; however good for you for thinking that route.

 

Yeah I here ya, I am by no means the healthiest guy in the world, but I try to eat healthy when I can. One thing I have a problem with though now is being active enough. The gym I go to is pretty ghetto, actually I think ghettos have better gyms. It's actually a room at the squash club. but thats in one city and right now I travel between 2. Also at the end of my shift I really don't feel like being active. I also notice quite a few overweight nurses too.

 

There sure are. But my schtick is that you need to take that when I can attitude and turn it into an all the time attitude. If you have time to hit the drive through, you got time to hit the grocery store and pick up some veggies, fruit etc. I know a few of our grocery stores here have sandwich places that make all their stuff from items in the store. So you can get a roasted red pepper, artichoke panini with rosemary ham for the same price as you could a big mac with fries.

Or hit up the smaller places that make their stuff fresh that day.

 

thats lucky, round here its just the normal ham and cheese and roast beef sandwiches that I know of, hopefully the locals can point me in a good direction. I usually buy fruits and veggies though on shift.

edit: My big down fall personally is chocolate! and one of the posts I visit most often is in the same building as a convenience store so its pretty tempting.

In other news, only did 1 call today, and this is a place that averages 6-8 calls per truck per day, and its not unheard of of doing 10-11 calls in a day!