Woohoo!!! EMT-B is complete! We ended the course with a 150 question written exam on Thursday. While the exam wasn’t trivial, preparation paid off. I finished the exam fairly quickly. As Ron was over at the chamber running a treatment, when I finished I took my exam over to ask a couple of questions (burn dressings & sucking chest wounds). Then he asked if I wanted to finish the treatment and he’d go back to class. Somewhere between cool and nerve wracking. He left me alone to treat a patient.
Now that we have the prerequisites done, DMT starts on Monday. IV’s, gas laws, Navy treatment tables, chest tubes—the fun stuff. 😉
Ron shared some great (sometime gory) stories during the EMT program. Benefits of 30+ years as a firefighter/emt in the states. While I doubt I’ll ever ride on an ambulance, the stories about practical application were invaluable.
[Oh, yeah..I did pass the written exam. 😉 ]
TLAs galore (three letter acronyms)!
As stateside EMS systems require an introduction to the National Incident Management System(NIMS) and Incident Command (ICS), we got it, too. Nothing really new here (I’d already taken online courses on both topics), but it was great to hear how the fire services use it in the field.
Then it was on to WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). Nukes, Chemical, Bio and incendiary weapons. What fun! We definitely benefited from Ron’s real-world experience and his networking with other emergency professionals.
These were the last lectures. EMT written exam is all that remains of the EMT program. 🙂
Woohoo! Playing with needles at last!!!
That’s right, IM and Sub-Q injections, drawing up meds and disposing of sharps.
Ok…Robert was having too much fun. 😉
We’ve finished the second week of the EMT program, putting us at about half-way done. Last week we worked on bandaging and splinting. Monday should be head & spine injuries; time to play with c-collars, backboards and other immobilization devices. We’ll also start in with IV/IO therapy and IM injections.
A couple of photos from our bandaging lab:
Friday was an interesting day. We had a non-diving patient in for hyperbaric oxygen treatment. 33 fsw for an hour, breathing pure oxygen. For those of you enriched air divers, yes that is oxygen at a pressure of 2 ATA. As there is a risk of seizures, a tender is in the chamber with the patient. We’ll be treating the same patient again this week.
