Tom Reynolds's Blog, page 11

Training (Part One)

Am I a taxi driver with bandages whose job is to get to a location in eight minutes, or am I a well trained, well equipped professional with the ability and knowledge to provide effective medical care in emergency situations?

At the moment I feel like a taxi driver.

Today I am going to tell to you about in service training, and where I see the LAS as failing - tomorrow I'll give my ideas for how we can improve this situation.

Across the NHS workers receive in-service training where they learn...

Paintbrushes

Somewhat of a ramble I'm afraid - my brain is shredded at the moment.

Another TV medical series, another missed opportunity. I'm yet to see the first episode of NBC's 'Trauma', mostly because I'm not American, but I have read some of the responses to the first episode, from the short 'Funniest damned EMS show since Mother, Juggs and Speed. Wait, you mean it's not a comedy?' to the longer review on JEMS

'I also realize that it's 2009, and writers and producers like to inject sex into every...

400 Metres

One of the jobs that we do from our station is inter-hospital transfers, this isn't unusual - most ambulance stations have to do their fair share of them. What is unusual for us (and our sister station) is that we have one of the shortest transfers possible.

The map you can see is our local hospital, at one end of the red line I have expertly drawn is the entrance to the A&E department, at the other end is the 'Gateway surgical centre' (GSC) [PDF]. The GSC is where the planned surgical day...

Ripability

Thanks for all the comments on my last post - all very helpful. Although it seems a bit off that I have to rely on a personal blog to get feedback on a clinical issue, but that's a tale for another day...

Due to me avoiding a et of nightshifts by burning some of my annual leave, I have around two weeks off work. As this is so close to my other holiday I'm running a little short on 'tales from the ambulance', and so I'm afraid that for the next couple of days I'm going to write about whatever i...

Diesel Or I/O?

This is, in part, me telling a story and in part me asking for feedback.

We were away from our usual area when the job came down, by some luck we were on the corner of the road that the call was from, "GP surgery - three month old baby - dehydration". We were so close to the job we reached the surgery before they had finished making the call.

Into the surgery we walked and one of the receptionists led us through to the room where the patient and her parents were.

As I walked into the consulting ...

Above My Clearance Rating

Demonstrations are expected as one of the world's largest arms fairs opens in London's Docklands later.

The biennial Defence Systems and Equipment International is due to take place amid tight security.

Activists from a separate group, Disarm DSEI, will hold another protest and warn they will target the banks and firms which invest in the industry. The group also says it will not co-operate with police ahead of its demonstration.

Yep.

My patch.

Loads of people, some of them perhaps...

No, You Are Going To Hospital

We are called to an eighty year old collapse with a cut hand, and arriving find him and his wife in the kitchen.

What we originally thought was going to be a collapse followed by a cut hand turns out to be the other way around.

He cut his hand, saw the blood and fainted.

He doesn't like blood. Or needles.

His wife is diabetic, when she injects herself he has to look away.

The cut is rather small, I teach my crewmate about the thenar eminence while she dresses it.

The patient doesn't want to go to h...

Watching The Crash

'Cardiac Arrest - Mental Health Unit'

My regular crewmate was sunning herself in France and I had someone working with me who'd only been out of training school for her first practical experience for the last two weeks. I'd already done one job with her and she seemed totally sensible.

"We'd better take all the kit in", I told her while buckling my seatbelt, "this could be anything from a cardiac arrest to a blocked nose".

It is somewhat telling that when we get sent to a mental health unit, no ...