Focus On: The Great Paramedic Intubation Debate

So if you're studying to become a Paramedic, it's very likely that you've heard about the great debate whether we as a Profession should Intubate patients anymore. The following is a whistle stop tour of how all of this came about and some of the issues around it.

Read on to find out more...

Diary: Weeks 14,15 & 16 - Back to Uni

So Instead of writing week by week of my return to Uni, I appreciate it's probably less interesting to read than zipping around on Blue Lights so I thought that I'd condense my first three weeks into one post instead.

Coming back to Uni after Christmas and the excitement of Placement was harder than I'd thought. Initially I found myself lacking that get up and go with my home studies after lectures each day. Before placement I'd happily sit for a few hours when I got back to my room and study things around what I'd learnt or read ahead on things I was going to learn but now I was having to force myself to do the same. After a few days I gave myself a kick up the back-side and just remembered how bad I wanted this and how hard I'd worked to get here and I was fine again.

Seeing all of my colleagues again has been great, everyone has their own war stories to share from Placement and hearing about their experiences helps my own learning too.

Read on to find out what I've been learning about since I got back!

Diary: Week 11

So the second week of my Hospital placement has been and gone. Week 2 went pretty much as week 1 did really, lots of fundamental care with some lovely patients. I'm writing this a week late due to starting my Ambulance shifts pretty much as soon as I finished my second week in the Hospital so expect two updates quite close together.

Read on to see what else I got upto.

Diary: Week 10

Week 10 brought my first week of Placement. Switching from predictable days in University to back to back 12 hour shifts was 'interesting' - especially when my housemates insisted in screaming the house down when they came back drunk at 2am in the middle of those shifts... twice. So for anyone reading who is due to start Uni - try and get housed with other Health Care Students!

Read on to find out how I got on...

Diary: Week 8

Week 8 flew by and I found it really enjoyable. Moving and Handling came to an end with a more practical application of skills orientated session, so getting people out of beds and chairs in a hurry (ie about to perform chest compressions on them because they were in Cardiac Arrest) and out of tight areas like toilet cubicles

Read on to find out what else I've been upto this week including attending Court!

Memorising the Glasgow Coma Scale

So this one is for my fellow Student Paramedics out there.

I remember being introduced to the Glasgow Coma Scale years ago by the Army and was told I would have to memorise it. At first I had a little laminated card I made with it on that was with my Aide Memoire that I'd made and carried around to remember those obscure things you don't use very often.

However as always, it catches up with you and on one particular course there was a chance that it would come up on an exam so I had to memorise it. I tried loads of different ways of doing it but stumbled across this blog post on a US EMTs site that actually made it pretty manageable - have a read through the main article and check out some of the comments at the bottom for other ideas on memorising this particular beast.

Hope this helps someone!

The EMT Spot - Memorising GCS

Great ECG Resource: Acadoodle

Just a quick one for those Student Paramedics out there that happen across this blog, I thought I'd point you towards this site 'Acadoodle' if you haven't seen it already. It's got some great videos on there for ECG Interpretation and for the fundamental Physiology for the elctroconductivity of the heart, very easy to understand if you're struggling to get it to sink in from text books you may be reading - link is below!!

http://www.acadoodle.com/

Diary: Week 5 & 6

It's been a busy two weeks so I missed last weeks update.

So, as alluded to I've been very busy, if you regularly read this you'll see I had my first OSCE a week ago and on the build up to it my nerves got the better of me. Despite practicing day and night for Adult and Child BLS/AED (not lay-person BLS, it's the Healthcare Professional one which includes BVM, Suction and Airway Adjuncts), on the day my brain went to mush, the morning of the OSCE I did another practice run through of both OSCEs I'd need to complete and I was making mistakes that I'd never made before. Suffice to say walking into the room with that mannequin staring up at the ceiling, the anxiety was crushing, read on to find out what happened next...

Diary: Week 4

Well Week 4 has been and gone, they seem to be going by alot quicker now I've settled into a routine.

In Uni this week has been all about more A&P (shock!), History of the Paramedic Profession, 4 & 12 Lead ECGs and Infection Control. Read on to find out more!

Diary: Week 3

Well week 3 came and went rather quickly. I've spent a large part of my week preparing for my BLS OSCE which is coming along well I feel - I'm rehearsing adult and pediatric BLS with AED before bed every night (which the person who lives under me must love listening too...). Even this early on in the course this is a pass or fail exam, a failure will get you a resit, a second failure will see you removed from the course - this may seem a little harsh but if you can't grab the basics at this early stage then it unfortunately looks like the profession may not be for you! Read on for what else I've been upto...

The Health Care Professions Council... And You!

Well it's that time of year where those aspiring Paramedics out there start to look at preparing your Personal Statements and battling through UCAS to get your University applications in.

With that in mind I thought I'd dedicate a little bit of cyber-space to the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC), why? Well you'll need to learn about them at some point and in all of my Interviews last year I was asked how the HCPC relates to the Paramedic, if you're really clever you'll also look at the HCPC Paramedic Standards of Proficiency and the Student Ethics guide and try to use those key values and standards and reflect on them in your Personal Statement, so read on...

Diary: Week 2

The first 'proper' week of my Course this week - and don't I know it.

We've been bombarded with Anatomy and Physiology, professionalism, and Basic Life Support for both Children and Adults this

Diary: Week 1

Well it came around quick, the first week of Uni has been and gone.

What can you expect? Well that will vary from Uni to Uni as you'd expect but a common theme throughout will be death by PowerPoint, various inductions and health and safety briefings - but also an overview of the course.

Combat Medical Technicians

So I came across a very good article this morning where a CMT (Combat Medical Technician) has answered some questions and provided photos of the typical amount of equipment both personal and medical by a Dismounted Patrol Medic on Operations (Afghanistan in this case).

It's worth a read I believe for Student Paramedics or infact Registered Paramedics that stumble across this, from experience I can tell you that disciplining yourself to take only the essentials and in the right quantity is difficult - it's very easy to load up on all the Med Kit you've ever been given so you can deal with even the most inconceivable incidents and injuries, but you realise quickly you've got to carry all of this stuff and be able to move and fight with it for hours or even days at a time - that's when the difficult decisions come in and you really have to work off of the most likely casualty scenarios and equip yourself accordingly.

Anyway! Here's the Article:

Typical Equipment Carried by British Combat Medic on Ops

I hope someone finds it an interesting read! With regards to this  Blog, I'll be starting Uni in September and at that point there will be an atleast once per week update from myself about what I've been upto so that prospective Student Paramedics can read about the journey they will take too!

RESOURCE: Atrial Fibrillation + Flutter

So amongst my own musings and original content on this blog I like to try and post bits and bobs I come across online that current students might find useful - This time it's an excellent video revision of recognising Atrial Fibrillation and Flutters on an ECG and also the Anatomy & Physiology behind it:



Original source: Acadoodle

DIARY: The road so far

It's been twelve months now, twelve months since my Fianceé convinced me (and it took alot of convincing...) that despite what I thought, I could make it into University even with my rough road with Education in life so far. I was convinced that me and Education were never meant to be - if you told the 16, 18, even 25 year old me that I would one day study at University I would have laughed and walked away! However with a shove from my better half I enrolled on a College Access course with a view of taking my Medical Career to the next level and making the jump from Combat Medic to a fully qualified State Registered Paramedic.

RESOURCE: Easy 4 H's & T's revision (ACLS)

Hello Readers,

Pretty good video below on the 4 H's and T's otherwise known as the reversible causes of a Cardiac Arrest. Pretty good for revision, whilst there's plenty of material out there for ACLS - I think this is one of the better revision videos going.




Hope this helps!

One to Watch: Junior Paramedics

Just a quick one really for prospective Student Paramedics out there, it's worth a watch of BBCs latest documentary "Junior Paramedics" JUNIOR PARAMEDICS EP 1 - all the episodes are on iPlayer at the moment but if you're reading this a few months from now and this link no longer works then just search the program title in YouTube and catch them there.

The series provides a decent look at what to expect on your first ever placement, it's a little cheesy and it doesn't really show you much of the Uni side of the course but nevertheless it's not a bad insight really!

My Personal Statement

I mentioned in a previous post (PERSONAL STATEMENT TIPS) that I'd put a copy of my own Personal Statement up that successfully got me several offers for University Paramedic Courses. Interestingly I haven't looked at this for a few months, re-reading it now there's small refinements I'd make to it - which goes to show you really need to write this up a good few weeks/months before you intend to submit it so you can proof read it again and again!

REMEMBER: DO NOT JUST COPY AND PASTE THIS AND USE IT AS YOUR OWN - ALL PERSONAL STATEMENTS GO THROUGH A PLAGIARISM TEST, IF IT'S FOUND TO BE TOO SIMILAR TO AN EXISTING STATEMENT YOU WILL GET REJECTED!! - Friendly warning!

My Golden Rules for Success

I've wrote quite a few lengthy articles about specific things you can do to prepare yourself to be successful at getting onto a Paramedic course at Uni - I thought I'd now summarise quickly some key thoughts on what really helped me at the Personal Statement stage and then Interviews.

1. The Health Care Professions Council (HCPC)
L/H - 1000051CStandards_of_Proficiency_Paramedics.pdf - This is your bible for the next few years. If you read through this it states exactly what is expected in a Paramedics Professional Conduct and the Qualities of a Paramedic - you can put money on your University of choice using alot of these standards as the framework for their marking criteria at Interview - During Application and Interview stages you need to demonstrate you live up to these qualities, think of examples - lots of examples that show how you do. Also make sure you can state the role of the HCPC in the Governance of Paramedic Practice - you will get asked this at Interview I promise.