How much medical training do you have?

Basic Wilderness First Aid. I took the course through the American Safety & Health Institute.

Luckily for me I took the course and learned a lot. I broke my wrist four weeks ago when I fell off a ladder. I had a SAM splint and triangle bandages of which I used by myself to splint and put in a sling to drive myselft to the ER.
 
KenM K... you're right about the wages. Most of the services here pay what you stated. There are a few that pay very well, but they are very hard to get into(trust me, I've tried). Been with this current service for 6 years and I'm barely over $11. They do however pay in full my medical/dental/eye benefits which are pritty good. Along with my back issues this is another reason to leave the job. Hard with a young family.
 
I got yer basic CPR/First aid cert. But a good deal of practice using it when I used to guide. Most important skill is being able to assess the situation and keep a cool head. I know a lot of people that might have a lot of knowledge but they lose it under pressure.

I'm also highly skilled in the application of Superglue and duct tape.
 
Ive got basic first aid and CPR. And the Bronze Medallion which is a lifeguard style first aid which handles water injuries.
 
I am an RN/EMT and a Bls instructor, I am getting some more instructor Certs Soon as well as some other Training.

By th way I am pretty sure you don't need a medical director to maintain an EMT Cert you just need to take continuing education classes and re Certs every three years. Whose licence you are under is kind of a grey area,

I would Really recommend joining a volunteer FD or EMS department, since the best training in the field is experience. Learning how to stay calm and do what needs to be done in the middle of piles of ass blood and guts Can not be acquired in any training manual or classroom
 
alco141 said:
i have been surgeon for 28 years, there are no procedures that i have not done and taught, i have taught atls, acls, taught residents in multiple specialties. i have done prehospital care, disaster planning on a local and regional level, i have extensive experience in trauma care, neuro, prenetrating, blunt types. the limitations i have are related to the availability of equipment to work with.

alex
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I see...my response was because the intial post came of as a bit cocky and know-it-all to me. I just hold the view, that no matter the field or your experience, you can always stand to learn more. No offense or anything was intended...

PeACE
Dougo
 
dougo83 said:
I see...my response was because the intial post came of as a bit cocky and know-it-all to me. I just hold the view, that no matter the field or your experience, you can always stand to learn more. No offense or anything was intended...

PeACE
Dougo
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no offense taken, there are a whole bunch of people here than know more than i do about survival skills and primitive living, edible plants, trapping, hunting, shooting, knifemaking, leather working, and on and on, i learn from them every time i read this forum. that is what makes these forums so valuable, you get to talk to so many folks with so many different experiences.

alex
 
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I am a flight paramedic. I teach PHTLS, AMLS, ACLS, PALS, CPR and EMT classes. I won't go too much into the rescue training, but if there is a wilderness, a cliff, water, or a vehicle involved, I have a pretty good idea about how to get you out.

You are right about most MDs, and their ability to effectively work in an emergency situation. I've had the displeasure of having to manage their egos and lack of emergency skills while trying to manage a critical patient on several occasions. They are typically as worthless as tits on a boar hog. On a recent domestic vacation flight, the flight attendant requested medical personnel to assist one of the passengers who was experiencing a medical emergency. A surgeon and myself went to help. It became apparent to me that the passenger needed airway management, so I sent the doc to get an "airway kit" if there was one on the plane. Several min. later, super doc shows up with an O2 cylinder- that's it. No mask, no nose hose, there wasn't even a regulator on the cylinder. Sweet, I thought- if this guy quits breathing, I'll just hit him over the head with this cylinder! Thanks for the help doc! Many ER docs, and on occasion other docs, are an exception to that rule.

That brings to light another important point. Even with a bunch of knowledge and training, I am pretty ineffective without an ambulance or airplane (my own!) full of equipment. Sure, I can keep my cool, preform effective CPR for a while, and bandaid some scrapes, but to preform to my abilities, I need a bunch of equipment.
 
D25 said:
You are right about most MDs, and their ability to effectively work in an emergency situation. I've had the displeasure of having to manage their egos and lack of emergency skills while trying to manage a critical patient on several occasions. They are typically as worthless as tits on a boar hog. On a recent domestic vacation flight, the flight attendant requested medical personnel to assist one of the passengers who was experiencing a medical emergency. A surgeon and myself went to help. It became apparent to me that the passenger needed airway management, so I sent the doc to get an "airway kit" if there was one on the plane. Several min. later, super doc shows up with an O2 cylinder- that's it. No mask, no nose hose, there wasn't even a regulator on the cylinder. Sweet, I thought- if this guy quits breathing, I'll just hit him over the head with this cylinder! Thanks for the help doc! Many ER docs, and on occasion other docs, are an exception to that rule.
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Here is something I wrote about one experience that I have had with other medical professionals that I have written several years ago for another forum. One of the first things you learn to ask if someone comes over and tries to help and says he is a doctor is: "What kind of doctor". An obstetrician can be pretty useless unless you are delivering a baby. A podiatrist is probably not going to be much help under any condition. Nurses unless they are ER nurses or trauma nurses are probably not going to be much use either. Especially if they are doctor office nurses. Since they possess higher medical license than me I just tell them that if they assist they will be required to take medical control of the scene which means they will have to ride to the hospital and turn over patient info and what they ordered for the patient to the ER doc. That usually is enough to make them leave. If that doesn't work I can call my med control and see what they say. Now one of my stories.

Just about anyone that does emergency medicine will tell you that nothing scares them more than kid calls. I am no different. I have been on kid calls that have terrified me. I am not a fan of “there I was” war stories but I will relate this one (I have many) about an MD. I was first on the scene of a child (3 year old girl) called in as a child choking call. I arrive at a Dunkin Donuts and see a man on the floor cradling a little girl who is just about unresponsive. I asked what happened and the man tells me he thinks his daughter was choking. She obviously wasn’t choking anymore and I can see she is breathing and doesn’t sound like she has any airway obstruction so I start to do my survey on her to find out what is going on. At the same time I start talking to the father and discover he is a Boston Pediatrician. The first thing that went through my mind was thank God, we are saved. What more could I ask for? You see, we practice working on kids but the truth of the matter is that kids just don’t really get sick that often, but when they do it is usually bad. So here I am getting my stethoscope out to check this little girl’s lung sounds and finding that this is a Boston pediatrician and I am thinking at any moment he is going to jump into action and start helping me figure out what is wrong with his daughter. It never happened. My belief is that his daughter wasn’t choking but had just had a seizure that she was coming out of. It was later confirmed by his wife that she thought that the child may have had seizures before but the doctor didn’t think that was what it was.


Let me make it clear I have tremendous respect for MD’s. I don’t care if they are obstetricians or oncologists or family docs. I have tremendous respect for them all. But, emergency medicine is a specialty also. EMT’s and paramedics train continuously for many hours and refresher courses year after year and have to recertify every two or three years over and over again. My department (like most) trains a minimum of 3 hours every week in addition to making calls at all hours of the night. I will also tell you that I didn't really consider myself to truly be competent until I did it daily for over a year. That also doesn't mean that I don't still critique myself after every call and I am not always satisfied with my performance. That is why I try to stress that not only taking the course but if you can spend the time, volunteer at your local fire or ambulance service. They will pay for your training and you will also get valuable experience. What better deal can you get than that.

KR
 
I didn't read all the replies so I don't know if this was mentioned. I was in SAR and we learned Outdoor Emergency Care. It was good training and it's purpose was to get the patient out to the Paramedics so they could transport them to the hospital.

OEC is taught through the National Ski Patrol and here is their webpage

Chad
 
kr1 said:
Let me make it clear I have tremendous respect for MD’s. I don’t care if they are obstetricians or oncologists or family docs. I have tremendous respect for them all. But, emergency medicine is a specialty also. EMT’s and paramedics train continuously for many hours and refresher courses year after year and have to recertify every two or three years over and over again. My department (like most) trains a minimum of 3 hours every week in addition to making calls at all hours of the night. I will also tell you that I didn't really consider myself to truly be competent until I did it daily for over a year. That also doesn't mean that I don't still critique myself after every call and I am not always satisfied with my performance. That is why I try to stress that not only taking the course but if you can spend the time, volunteer at your local fire or ambulance service. They will pay for your training and you will also get valuable experience. What better deal can you get than that.

KR
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Amen, brother. I probably came across too negative towards MDs. I have had a small handful of experiences where I believe the MD was detrimental to patient care, and a vast majority where they were inconsiquental. It just rubs me the wrong way when someone thinks that their higher level of medical expertise gives them insight to the non-medical aspects of my job. For example, I don't think that vehicle extrication or ICS is taught in medical school.

It sucks that you have to answer to RNs. We don't in Oregon- as both require AAS degrees.

And an entire alphabet of certifications don't mean squat if you don't have the experience to translate what you learned in the book into good patient care. So get out there and volunteer!
 
D25 said:
Amen, brother. I probably came across too negative towards MDs. I have had a small handful of experiences where I believe the MD was detrimental to patient care, and a vast majority where they were inconsiquental. It just rubs me the wrong way when someone thinks that their higher level of medical expertise gives them insight to the non-medical aspects of my job. For example, I don't think that vehicle extrication or ICS is taught in medical school.

It sucks that you have to answer to RNs. We don't in Oregon- as both require AAS degrees.

And an entire alphabet of certifications don't mean squat if you don't have the experience to translate what you learned in the book into good patient care. So get out there and volunteer!
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No, not at all. I know what you are talking about.

As far as ICS and vehicle extrication, it took me a week just to learn where all the crap was on the ambulance. :D I know any "visitors" aren't going to know. Of course they still move equipment around periodically, I swear its just to screw with me. :o

KR
 
How much medical training do you have?

EMT; Haz Mat and Fire training.

I've always been on the industrial squads just for self preservation, I figure I have a better chance of survivin' most catastrophes if at the least I'm trained to deal with it.

On one of my last jobs I did the Haz Mat; Chem. Safety and Basic First Aid trainin' for the company.
 
My medical training so far is 3 years of medical school (I'll get my MD next year), plus a lot of those different safety certifications that we're required to have for all of the rotations that we're on. Since it's really not fair to compare my training with most I will put in my two cents on some of the things mentioned about docs so far:

1. Not all doctors are created equal! Some doctors barely pass medical school and some ace every test that comes along so I think you really have to place judgement on individual doctors themselves and not the entire medical community.

2. That being said most doctors will admit when they are beyond their skill level and all doctors are definitely at different skill levels. When going through rotations, residencies, etc. your knowledge is primarily based on what kind of things of you see and everyone sees a number of different things so it's hard to say what a doctor may or may not be capable of at a certain point in their career. Also never evaluate an MD's work on how well they treat their family.... most docs are just like the normal person and freak out when something bad happens to someone close that they love. Research has shown that only a small percentage of people in general can think straight in that situation.

3. It's true that certain specialties are not going to be as good as others in emergency settings but I would venture to say that most good MDs are going to know what to do in an emergency setting. Even specialists at one point in their career had to go through all of the different basic medical rotations and a good MD will remember that training. Of course this also depends on the actual doctor's personality. Just because you have MD behind your name doesn't mean that you act well under pressure in emergency situations; every MD still has their own set of personality characteristics.

4. Lastly, medicine is a team effort now because of the complexity. That's the reason why we have EMT's, nurses, MAs, docs, etc. In emergency situations all of the above should really be able to get somebody stabilized in an emergency situation, but it really depends on their own personal training and backround. For instance I would much rather have an ER nurse helping me with 20 yrs. of experience than an EMT that's just out of school, etc. But in the end know matter how well the person is stabilized in a bad injury the person will still eventually die if the underlying matter is not treated, and that is where an MD's training is far superior...in the long run.
 
Nothing formal, but my mother's been a nurse for longer than I've been breathing on my own. Whether I've wanted to or not, I've learned things. I can treat most minor injuries (cuts, scrapes, ad sprains, etc) and I'm almost sure I could deliver a baby if I had to. I'm working on learning how to sucher.
 
Wilderness First Responder
Red Cross Lifeguard
NREMT-B w/IV and EKG certs
(all presently expired, :o)


Note to Self: Save a space in the lifeboat for alco141.
:thumbup:
 
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I'm an Army veteran so I've received the Basic Training stuff, and my last unit was a med battalion (101st, and the Gulf War) where I picked up some neato training....and where I met my wife who was a Combat Medic at the time...she taught me lots of things. ;)

And now I'm currently a radiographer (aka Radiologic Technologist, aka "X-ray tech") and I work in a rather large emergency department.
I see lots of trauma, have actually performed CPR for real more than once, and occassionally do vena-punctures (for contrast studies).

Still, I hope I never have to put my humble (and minor) knowledge or skills to the test in the wilderness.
 
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