Many EMS professionals are using social media – on and off the job. Do you use social media? What kind of guidance do you get from your employer about social media use on and off the job. General Everyday EMS Tips for using social media are:

1. Use social media to support your personal and organization mission.

2. Don’t be stupid.

Simple enough. But a policy is still important about the use and creation of social media on the job. Human resources consultant, Roberta Jackson, discusses the importance of a social media policy with Greg Friese.

Listen to Greg Friese and Roberta discuss:
1. Do’s and Don’ts for social media policies.
2. Contents of social media policy.
3. Reasons to use social media for an organization.
4. Integration of social media policies into employee manuals and trainings.
5. Using social media for employee recruitment.

Roberta Jackson is the Founder and President of Navigations for Leadership, LTD. Roberta is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources, (SPHR) and a certified Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) as awarded by the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI). Roberta provides consulting services to EMS agencies, as well as other businesses and industries throughout the United States and internationally. Roberta previously was the VP of HR for one of the largest private EMS services in the northeast.

After listening add your thoughts about Social Media Policies in the comments area. Also what questions do you have for a follow-up interview with Roberta?

If you would like a private webinar or in-person training program or consultation about social media policy for emergency response agencies contact us.

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Today is World Stroke Day. The purpose of this day is “to communicate a unified message to the world: stroke is a preventable and treatable catastrophe, and together we can fight this growing epidemic.” Learn more about World Stroke Day from the World Stroke Organization.

All EMS Professionals should know the signs and symptoms of a stroke, how to assess a stroke using a prehospital stroke assessment scale, and the most appropriate destination for stroke patients in their service area. Follow these Everyday EMS Tips to learn more about Stroke.

1. Visit RapidCE.com to take a continuing education lesson on stroke assessment and treatment. 1.0 CECBEMS approved CE available for ALS and BLS providers.

2. Listen to an Everyday EMS Tips interview with Dr. Joseph Clark, a neuroscientist at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Clark is a former EMT that researches medical devices for prehospital stroke detection.

3. Join the MedicCast extra. There you will find numerous articles, podcasts, and other resources about stroke and other medical emergencies.

4. View additional resources on StrokeS from the CDC.

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Paramedic, Disaster Response Volunteer, and EMS Educator Sam Bradley discusses her contributions to the book,To the Rescue: Stories from Healthcare Workers at the Scenes of Disasters, with Greg Friese of EverydayEMSTips.com. Listen to Sam in this audio interview discuss her involvement with a California Disaster Medical Assistant Team (DMAT), her units response to New York City after the September 11th terrorist attacks, and the cathartic experience of sharing her stories in this book and other writing projects. Sam shares a favorite story from the book.

Sam concludes the interview with advice for EMS professionals that are aspiring authors. Learn more about Sam and connect with her at her blog.

Have you read this book? What did you think? Are you working on your own EMS memoirs? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments area.

Read related posts and tips:

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One of the biggest challenges EMS professionals and our colleagues in 911 telecommunications face is continuing to ask questions in the face of an improbably story. Take a few minutes and listen to the 911 call from the parents of balloon bay. The dispatcher did a fantastic job of continuing to ask questions that were logical, useful, and without doubt or suspicion.

More on the 911 call from Dispatch Magazine Online.

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Paramedic Kelly Grayson discusses his book, En Route: A Paramedic’s Stories of Life, Death, and Everything in Between, with Greg Friese of EverydayEMSTips.com. Listen to Kelly in this audio interview with the EMS author, blogger, and educator explain his reasons for writing the book and how it was written. Kelly also shares one of his favorite stories from the book and describes his writing style.

Kelly concludes the interview with tips for other paramedics that are aspiring writers. You can find more about Kelly and read his blog A Day in the Life of an Ambulance Driver.

Have you read this book? What did you think? Are you working on your own EMS memoirs? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments area.

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Dr. Joseph F. Clark worked as an EMT-Basic in and around New York city in the early 1980s to help pay his college and graduate school tuition. The patients he encountered, as well as the frustrations he experienced caring for patients guided him towards a career as a medical researcher.

In his new book, My Ambulance Education: Life and Death on the Streets of the City, Dr. Clark weaves together a story of his EMT experiences and his ongoing career as a Professor of Neurology at the University of Cincinnati researching the causes and treatments of stroke. In his interview with Greg Friese of EverydayEMSTips.com Dr. Clark discusses why he wrote the book, recalls a memorable patient named Fritz, and outlines his ongoing research efforts that are aimed at assisting EMS professionals in identifying the severity of a traumatic brain injury and determining if the patient has had an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Dr. Clark concluded the interview by encouraging EMS professionals to play an active role in medical research that is conducted prehospital.

Links mentioned in show:

My Ambulance Education: Life and Death on the Streets of the City(Amazon link)
JosephFClark.com (bio, blog, and more)
Cincinnati Stroke Scale

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Buck Feris, a paramedic and EMS educator, discusses the role of vasopressin in cardiac arrest resuscitation. For a long time epinephrine has been the fist line medication for Vfib/Vtach. Buck is hearing that vasopressin might fully replace epi in upcoming ACLS guidelines. Listen and find out why. Do you agree with Buck? Respond to Buck in the comments area.

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As with any medication and procedure follow your local protocols and stay within the scope of practice that you are licensed and authorized to use.

Do you want to learn more about cardiac arrest resusctiation and improving survival? I highly recommend the book Resuscitate!: How Your Community Can Improve Survival from Sudden Cardiac Arrest . The author comprehensively lays out what we know about sudden cardiac arrest and what communities need to do in the short term and the long term to improve survival.

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Buck Feris, a paramedic and EMS educator, and Greg Friese discuss communicating with patients and their family when the patient has a poorly managed chronic health condition like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, or COPD. Often times EMS providers see patients at their worst. We may be able to fix or resolve the acute problem, but then return the patient and their family to the ongoing conflict about managing the chronic problem.

Listen in as Buck and I talk through this complex issue. Also share your comments with us because we plan to come back to this problem again soon.

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Do you want to learn more diabetes, asthma, obesity, and heart disease? After registering as a new user at RapidCE.com browse for the courses on these and many other topics. An ALS and BLS version are available for 1.0 hours of CECBEMS approved continuing education credit.

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Buck Feris, a paramedic and EMS educator, shares his tip for using capnography during nasal intubation. Buck describes initiating inline capnography before inserting the ET tube. As the tube nears the trachea a wave form will develop showing proximity to the exhaled CO2 from the trachea. Buck also reminds listeners of the best time to advance the ET Tube.

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As with any procedure follow your local protocols and stay within the scope of practice that you are licensed and authorized to use.

Do you want to learn more about capnography? After registering as a new user at RapidCE.com browse for the course on Capnography. An ALS and BLS version are available for 1.0 hours of CECBEMS approved continuing education credit.

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Buck Feris describes how to use Capnography to determine the need for intubating a COPD patient in this Everyday EMS Tips interview with Greg Friese. Buck explains how the capnography reading is an objective measure of whether you should intubate the patient. The tip involves assessing a conscious patient’s exhalation with a end tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2) sampling device.

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Do you want to learn more about capnography? After registering as a new user at RapidCE.com browse for the course on Capnography. An ALS and BLS version are available for 1.0 hours of CECBEMS approved continuing education credit.

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