Practical EMS
My mission is to use the stories we all have in emergency medicine to encourage and uplift you where you are. EMT, Paramedic, nurse, PA, NP or physician. Emergency medicine is a very difficult specialty with unique challenges, and it calls us all to be better than the average person in order to stay healthy for our patients, our families and own mental wellness. I want to connect with EMS crews, fire crews, ER RN's, ER techs and new ER advanced practice providers to better understand their current struggles. I also want to bridge the gap between prehospital medicine and the emergency department and to encourage those seeking to become an advanced practice provider. Disclaimer: All Practical EMS content is opinion only. It is unaffiliated with any company or organization and does not represent any company or organization that Aaron currently works for or has worked for in the past. No content should be taken as medical advice.
Episodes
Our system has made access to EMS trained medical directors much easier, which is a huge benefit to the crews
The EMS fellowship for MD’s tends to attract those that are interested in helping EMS because they are passionate about it and not in it for the money
We are always trying to give EMS the amount of time they deserve when giving reports from the ER side
Kash talks about his technique in getting a good report from EMS on the hig...
New panel: Fire officer/paramedic John, fire paramedic Jason, retired fire paramedic Terry and EMS medical director Kash
How to determine capacity and how this differs from competency
This becomes critical when doing refusals – when the patient decides not to be transported – a very high liability part of EMS
This is different than AAOX4
Capacity is very situational and specific, competency is determined by a judge
We determine capacit...
The difficult admissions are the generally weak, unable to walk with no acute findings. They typically do not uncover any acute findings while in the hospital
In the ED, we can probably do a better job of involving some of our resources like social work to really give the patient and their family a better understanding of what admission will and won’t accomplish for them
Part of the America culture does put us in unique situations as...
EM and IM physicians don’t get a great insight into each other’s careers in medical school or in residency
Do hospitalists like doing consults as opposed to just taking admission requests?
Sean says, yes, because it gives us an opportunity to solve problems together. They want to be consulted as much as possible
Admissions would be greatly decreased if there was more robust outpatient follow up ability but various factors make this d...
New panel with Adam and Sean. Emergency and IM medicine physicians
There is a study from 2023 called Battles to Burnout. Studying the role of inter-physician conflict in burnout. Primarily the conflict between emergency physicians and internal medicine physicians. A better relationship leads to less burnout
Sean moved from primary care to hospitalist medicine when COVID was at its peak
Adam, EM physician, returns to the show
Sean enjo...
A difficult aspect of the job is the poor understanding of the public of what we do in EMS, and the poor understanding that our non-EMS friends and family have of what we do
Those of us in EMS can understand each other better, we have seen the same tragedy and struggled with the same difficulties that are so hard to articulate
What does retirement look like from a career paramedic in EMS?
Casey struggles with this, it’s hard to think ...
I tell those EMT’s that want to go to PA school or further education to just skip paramedic school. Go to paramedic school if you want to be a paramedic
“I’m not doing it for the pay, I’m doing it because I love it.”
Being a paramedic puts you in a unique position to save someone’s life in the span of 5 minutes
Eddie took calls personally. He gave every call his everything
Sometimes the patients survive despite all the odds being again...
We talk about the immense responsibility and stress of being a paramedic and the stress difference I’ve noticed moving to ER PA
Casey talks about RSI and how it still causes his palms to sweat
We should have a healthy respect for high level skills
As paramedics we can tend to focus too much on a complicated task and neglect the overall picture of what is happening with the patient, a good partner can really help avoid this
It can be re...
Best online EKG course you can finish in less than 4 hours:
Practical EKG Interpretation - Practical EMS
4 Category 1 CME credits - Fundamentals through advanced interpretation
Welcome our new panel Eddie and Casey, two very experienced paramedics
27 and 48 years in the field
Casey talks about AI potential in the field and a study he was involved in. Will AI help us or improve patient care? Will humans be needed at all?
Can AI repli...
Whatever your beliefs regarding God or lack of a God as you work in emergency medicine, I hope this episode will uplift and encourage you
Laurie likes to reflect on the one patient she was there to help during the day. Or the one patient she was there to interact with
It is important to reflect on your highs, your lows and even things that made you laugh
Where is that line of caring for people and balancing your own family and priorit...
Whatever your beliefs regarding God or lack of a God as you work in emergency medicine, I hope this episode will uplift and encourage you
Daniel talks about how the most anxious person in the room gets the most attention, but we should strive to be the non-anxious presence in the room. The non-anxious presence rebukes and resets the system
Daniel talks about how the people of God should strive to be like Jesus on the boat when he sle...
Whatever your beliefs regarding God or lack of a God as you work in emergency medicine, I hope this episode will uplift and encourage you
New panel! Welcome Pastor Daniel Grothe, ER Physician Eric and ER PA Laurie
Daniel talks about the life of a pastor, which isn’t exactly as we all might assume. He talks about being a brand new, young pastor and how he responded to the home after the suicide of a 16-year-old boy
One of his first cal...
Kevin Hazzard
Author of A Thousand Naked Strangers and American Sirens (you can find these on Amazon or wherever books are sold). You can find Kevin Hazzard at KevinHazzard.com
Kevin talks about the story Jesus told of the good Samaritan as really the first example of EMS. Jesus tells this story in response to a lawyer asking him how to obtain eternal life. A man was attacked on the road and left for dead. Many people that society p...
Kevin Hazzard
Author of A Thousand Naked Strangers and American Sirens (you can find these on Amazon or wherever books are sold). You can find Kevin Hazzard at KevinHazzard.com
What does Kevin miss about EMS?
He misses the partnerships and the chaos you went through together.
The memories he has are both good and bad from his time in EMS, the failures and the mistakes but also the victories
We get into Kevin’s newest book American Sire...
Kevin Hazzard
Author of A Thousand Naked Strangers and American Sirens (you can find these on Amazon or wherever books are sold). You can find Kevin Hazzard at KevinHazzard.com
We talk about the difference of caring for someone dying in their home vs the hospital bed
There is something more intimate about dealing with death in a home, where the person had lived
In a lot of way this is harder to deal with in a patient’s home than my ro...
Kevin Hazzard
Author of A Thousand Naked Strangers and American Sirens (you can find these on Amazon or wherever books are sold). You can find Kevin Hazzard at KevinHazzard.com
Paramedic from 2004-2013 for Grady hospital in Atlanta
He talks about the self-doubt he had in the writing process and how he wasn’t sure anyone would relate to his stories
However, the specific details he describes are super relatable for those of us with expe...
Don’t make your career your entire personality, extra shifts will affect you over time. Sometimes the extra money is not worth the burnout
The culture is shifting from working a ton to a better work life balance
Your family will remember that extra shift you worked far longer than your employer
Get off on time
Control the variables you can control that give you higher chance of getting off on time
Leave work at work
Burnout can be short ...
Batching work applies with nurses too. Do multiples things when you enter the room, so you don’t have to go in and out many times
Ben talks about efficiency in the field being important due to the limited time and resources
As providers we must get comfortable with saying “I don’t know”
In medicine in general we don’t know everything, nor can we diagnose everything. Especially true in emergency medicine
Chest pain is a great example. W...
New panel! Lucas (ER physician), Kendra (Charge RN, NP student), Ben (paramedic and educator)
Kendra talks about her advice for new charge RN’s
Have some ER experience first. She says it was difficult starting as a charge when she was so new to ER. Have a good set foundation.
You need to be able to have difficult conversations with people in a tactful way to address problems
Getting to know the providers on a more personal level also ...
Lorihodges.com
(4) Lori Hodges, MA, CCP, PMP | LinkedIn
Debriefing helps to learn from a big crisis and then move on without continuing to judge yourself and your mistakes
We all make mistakes, getting stuck in the mindset of constantly reviewing what you could have done differently and dwelling on it is not helpful long term and c...
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