Welcome to 2011. Sounds pretty cool doesn’t it. These are my three hopes for Every Paramedic in 2011.

1. Competency based continuing education that honors your time, experience, and knowledge. Many of you might just now be realizing that you have less than 90 days to meet the NREMT refresher and continuing education requirements (if you re-register this year.) The other half of you have 455 days.

My hope is that continuing education uses cumulative data from your patient care reports to identify strengths and gaps. If you regularly correctly and treat STEMI maybe your con ed time can focus on other topics. Or you could take advanced training on STEMI mimics.

If you miss an assessment or make a treatment error; feedback could direct you to the appropriate continuing education based on your needs. When I visit the doctor I don’t get the same prescription as every other person in the waiting room. I get a care plan based on my specific needs.

2. Social Media Presence that demonstrates your passion and professionalism for something. It doesn’t necessarily need to be EMS, but when your co-workers, employers, friends and family search for you, my hope is they find an online presence that is positive, confident, and respectful.

If you haven’t started yet there are so many good examples to choose from. Start by visiting and participating the blogs by EMS professionals at EMSBlogs.com or FireEMSBlogs.com.

If you already have a presence, do a vanity search – Google your name. What comes up? Does it reflect your professionalism and knowledge. It is easy to intentionally “Google” yourself up. Start participating in Blog conversations by posting comments. Ask to join as a guest on one of the many EMS podcasts. Write your own blog posts.

3. Connect to the information and people of EMS2.0 with a smartphone. There is an amazing community of EMS professionals around the world that connect with each other, on and off duty; primarily through their web enabled iPhones, Android phones, Windows phones, and Blackberry phones.

I was asked to write this post by a paramedic in the United Kingdom. The day I wrote this post I sent birthday wishes to a paramedic in California. Answered a question for a paramedic in Kentucky. Had my own question answered by another paramedic in New York. All of us are connected through social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and more – that we regularly access through our smartphones.

Smartphones also give paramedics amazing access to information. EMS specific apps help paramedics study, access references, complete calculations, track patient interventions, and communicate with colleagues near and far.

What are your hopes for every paramedic in 2011?

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I have been to a lot of airports this year – too many airports. If you are traveling this Thanksgiving holiday you might find these tips useful.

1. Remain Calm. If your flight is delayed, the plane is waiting for maintenance at the gate, the line at security is long, or a child is crying; keep your cool. No matter what; remain calm. The best service is always delivered to the travelers that are calm and patient. Yelling or berating a powerless gate agent or TSA agent will not get you to your destination any faster. Accept that you have limited control and go with the flow.

2. Three items for every flight. The three things that I use on every flight are a pair of foam ear plugs, a water bottle, and a notepad and pen. I usually bring a used and empty water or sports drink bottle through security. A filled water or juice bottle is a problem. An empty bottle is not a problem. Just in case it is confiscated by a TSA agent I am OK since it is a disposable and already used bottle. Foam ear plugs are mandatory for any jet propeller flight and on jet service are the perfect “I am concentrating” signal to the chatty passenger in the middle seat.

3. Download the TripIt app now and add your travel plans. I use the free version of TripIt to organize all my flight, ground transport, lodging, and meeting plans. With TripIt my confirmation numbers and contact phone numbers are all in one place on my Smartphone and not in a variety of email messages.

Bonus Tip: when you need to recharge your phone or laptop in the airport look for outlets in these places:

• Departure gates that are empty or out of service
• On the back side or difficult to see side of columns
• Behind garbage and recycling containers
• Under metal plates in the carpet

Read a comprehensive list of travel tips from frequent traveler Chris Brogan.

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Do you use an Android powered smartphone?

If yes, browse right now to www.DroidMedic.com and check out the great resources, how-tos, and app reviews to make your Android powered phone the ultimate EMS assistant.

If you become a DroidMedic.com subscriber you will receive a free ebook.

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A big thanks to my friends at EMS Manager and Fire Manager for their continued support of EverydayEMSTips.com. Their sponsorship helps support the maintenance and improvements of this blog. Check out a free demo of their online scheduling program now. (advertising guidelines)

4 Quick Announcements

1. This week I am at the National Association of EMS Educators Symposium. On Thursday I am co-presenting with Kyle Bates. Our session is about effective PowerPoint design. Connect with Kyle at KyleDavidBates.com. Listen to a special NAEMSE pre-show podcast from the EMSEduCast podcast.

2. EverydayEMSTips.com is now using a Mobile plug-in so when viewed from a mobile device like an Android, iPhone, or Blackberry you will just see the site content – post title and post content with links to related posts. I would welcome your suggestions for improvements to how the mobile version is delivered.

3. MedicalAuthorChat.com is up and running. The Medical Author Chat podcast, a feature of EverydayEMSTips.com, is now a member of the EMSBlogs.com network. Make sure you check out and subscribe to all of the great blogs at the EMSBlogs.com network like the EMS Office Hours, Social Medic, and Rogue Medic.

4. The next session of the EMS Bootcamp is scheduled for September 27. Learn how to enroll for a fantastic continuing education program on cardiac patient assessment.

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I was watching a presentation about EMS response to MCIs by Steve Kanarian on EMSBootCamp.com the other night and another viewer asked about the availability of the Emergency Response Guidebook as a smartphone app. I asked my Twitter followers and learned that there is an ERG app for the iPhone, Blackberry, and Droid. This is what we found together.

iPhone Emergency Response Guidebook by Gary Huntress

Blackberry Emergency Response Guidebook by Frank Hodum

Droid Emergency Response Guide by Agilus

No screenshot available

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KevinMD.com posted a list of 10 free iPhone apps for Physicians. Scanning the list I think many of these would be useful for paramedics. The apps on the list that are probably the most useful to Paramedics include:

1. Medscape

2. Epocrates - I use the Blackberry version of this app

3. MedCalc

4. Medical Radio

See the full list and read a little about each iPhone app at KevinMD.com.

Do you use any of these apps? Share the apps you like in the comments area. Remember EverydayEMSTips.com welcomes reviews of iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and Palm apps for EMTs and Paramedics. Send me your review ideas or written reviews for publication here.

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One of our goals at Everyday EMS Tips is to become the best location for EMS professionals to learn out about the best apps for Smartphones (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry). If you are using an app that you think is essential for EMS students or EMS professionals email me a review and I will share it with Everyday EMS Tips readers.

Use a structure like this for your review:

Paragraph 1: Introduce the app – name, function, and features

Paragraph 2: talk about what you like about the app

Paragraph 3: describe features that would make the app more useful to you

Paragraph 4: tell readers where to find the app – include hyperlinks

Paragraph 5: write a few sentences about yourself and the work you do

Note on screenshots: the ideal is to send me links to locations where images are already posted.

Submit an app review now

If you want your smartphone app for EMS professionals reviewed by one of app review team members check out the guidelines here. We post press releases on Saturday if you would like to submit a press release email it to Greg Friese

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This is a guest post by Steve Lercari BA/BS, EMT-P. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Spanish Speaking Patients in the South Bronx

Depending on where you work, language barriers may not be much of an issue for you. This is not the case for me as my primary employment finds me based in the South Bronx, NY. The area is predominately native Spanish-speakers who are usually only first or second generation in this country. Given that the patient Bell-Curve is statistically skewed to the right which makes sense since the older you get, the greater your chances for a decreased-immune system, chronic conditions, etc. Follow the above information and you begin to realize that the older the patient is from within this population, the less chance there is that they will have any ability to communicate in anything but their native language.

I have been counting my blessings over the last year that I was “forced” to take a language in school. Luckily for me it was 8 years of Spanish, albeit 8 years of Spanish I hadn’t used during the following decade. Since having started working in this area my Spanish has returned to college proficiency and I tend to shock even my coworkers, most of who could not fathom that this Irish-Italian from the suburbs was all of a sudden able to engage in fluent general discussion, complete with the proper accent.

Spanish Speaking Paramedic

This last part was also where my trouble begins. Like my peers, most of my patients do not expect me to engage them in Spanish when I arrive and there is always a sign of relief on their faces when I do. I like to think I can hold my own through most of the basic demographics, history taking and presenting problems. However I become increasingly lost when specific details leading up to their complaint begin emerging and I start losing my ability to get “the gist” of my question across when I have to start discussing specific issues. In my mind two things are now occurring; the first is that they are slowly losing the initial high elation they had when we communicated and thus there is a slow breakdown in the patient-provider relationship, and the second is that I am now missing potentially vital but seemingly insignificant pieces of information. The latter is a big problem for me since I am a firm believer in what an instructor once told me… “85% of your diagnosis comes from the patient history”. It would be easy to fall into the trap of pushing the blame off on the patient for not learning English like I hear so often on the streets, but I cannot fathom finding it acceptable to lose a patient because I may have missed the one or two words they said (or didn’t say because I couldn’t ask) that may have led to that extra thought in my differential diagnosis that may have saved a life.

BEIKS Paramedic’s English-Spanish Voice Translator has been an amazing addition to my daily equipment and finds itself being used as often as the scope & cuff. The dictionary data is sorted in two ways. You can either search through an alphabetical listing of 800+ words, phrases, and sentences until you find what you want (good for studying by the way), or you can enter a filter word to narrow your search. For instance, I can enter the word ‘hospital’ and be directed to the actual word, but on that list is also: Do you want to go to the hospital?, Have you ever been in the hospital?, etc.

Additionally, the sentences are all designed to elicit a simple yes or no response because there is no point asking the question if you still can’t understand the answer. I’ve found that the added bonus is the trust level that you can elevate the patient-provider relationship to; both the patient and their families appreciate that you are going way past their expectations of what a person will do to help them, and the mental note that gets filed that even when you aren’t communicating with them, they can rest assured that you are going to do everything you can do to help.

I obviously love this product and have nothing but positive things to say about it but who am I to be believed when we haven’t even met. Luckily Beiks is offering a free trial program so you can “try before you buy.” At $24.99 for this program, it is not something that most people are going to add in their “just in case/Buff” folder. However if any part of my story resembles a part of your normal day, you may want to give this product a shot. My one caveat is that this product will work great (to the limitation of your phone speakers) in most patient interview scenarios, but if you can’t hear your own phone ring when you have the radio blasting, don’t expect this product to meet the needs of a medic hanging upside down off the roof of a car waiting for the extrication evolution to begin.

Learn more about BEIKS Paramedic’s English-Spanish Voice Translator for BlackBerry from www.beiks.com

Let me know how your experiences go. Safe Travels

Steve Lercari BA/BS, EMT-P, has worked in the EMS field for the past 11 years, 8 of those as a paramedic. For the last year he has been stationed in the South Bronx, NY and also works as a FF/Medic for a Fire District on Long Island. Additionally, he is a skills instructor and guest lecturer at several EMT Schools in Queens, and a Authorized Trainer for the Center for Domestic Preparedness. His interests in EMS include specialized operations/technical rescue for which he is a Certified Rescue Swimmer and trained in Confined Space Rescue

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Everyday EMS Tips readers looking for a shift calendar application for your Blackberry check out BBShiftCal from Gasda Software. The software description states, “The Blackberry Shift Calendar is a simple monthly view of a Firefighters platoon style shift calendar. You will find the layout very similar to the paper calendar’s you are already used to. You can advance through the months, even show shifts years from now. No more waiting for next years calendar to be printed when your trying to schedule the vacations in the beginning of the year.”

Between now and November 26, 2009 Gasda Software is giving all BBShiftCal sales proceeds to the Chronicles of EMS pilot episode filming, editing, and production.

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Everyday EMS Tips reader Richard Hemby has compiled a list of Blackberry applications for the medical field. Do you use any of these Apps? I use ePocrates – most often during training sessions to quickly access information about a drug.

The Blackberry Apps I use most often are:

1. UberTwitter – a Blackberry Twitter client
2. Google Calendar
3. Google Voice

Which apps are essential to you as an EMS professional?

Richard thanks for the article link. Remember send your tips, ideas, and suggestions to greg dot friese at everydayemstips dot com

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