Paramedics and educators Buck Feris and Steve Cole contributed an excellent article about hyperglycemia in acutely ill patients to the CentreLearn blog. Check it out.

The complexity of the question that led to this article gave me hope that there are paramedics that desire more knowledge, rather than paramedics that decline new knowledge.

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Wearing a Watch

When I wear a watch, which is not very often, I either wear a Timex off the shelf Ironman or a Garmin Forerunner 305 Watch. I run and cycle with the Garmin and value the pacing information. I run foot races with the Timex and record my own mile splits. The difference between the course optimal mile and the GPS mileage is too distracting for me to race with a GPS watch.

Speaking of watches the Tactical Gear Blog is giving away a Suunto Core Watch. Visit the Tactical Gear blog or Facebook page for entry information.

Copy Code 3 Podcast

Buck Feris has released another episode of his Copy Code Three podcast. The episode player is at the bottom of Buck’s post.

Patient Care Report Narrative Tips

I really enjoyed listening to Jamie Davis and Chris Kaiser discuss patient care report narrative writing tips on Episode 269 of the MedicCast.

Fire Boat

Video from EMS Week 2011 of the Green Bay Fire Department fire boat.

Another Bellin 10K 2011 Race Recap
I really enjoy reading race recaps by other runners and cyclists. I always learn something and appreciate the insights of other races. Read Badger Jen’s Bellin race recap.

Another great race report from last weekend is the DC Rainmaker’s report from the Boise 70.3 Ironman.

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In February of 2009 I suggested to Chris Montera that the EMS Garage podcast do a show about education topics. He suggested back that I start an EMS education podcast.

Fast forward … the EMSEduCast – the podcast by and for EMS educators – just posted our 100th episode. Thanks to my wonderful co-hosts Chris Montera, Buck Feris, Rob Theriault, and Bill Toon. And even greater thanks to all of our guests and listeners.

Find the 100th episode and the previous 99 episodes at www.emseducast.com, iTunes, or on the ProMedNetwork.

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Last week we posted the latest Everyday EMS Athletes column with a profile of paramedic Buck Feris. The column’s lead sponsor, Magnum Boots USA, is offering a fantastic set of prizes for each month’s Everyday EMS Athlete column.

To enter the contest, tell us about how you’re changing your diet on the job and at home to help meet your health goals in the comments area of this post.

The prize package includes (scroll down for images):

1. Cardio 4:SYS
2. Cardio Long Sleeve Shirt
3. Cardio Pant

Important Notes:

1. YOU CAN ENTER the contest by submitting a tip in the comments area of this post.

2. THE CONTEST CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT EST ON April 4, 2011.

3. THE CONTEST IS OPEN TO ONLY legal residents of the U.S. One winner will be selected by a Magnum Boots USA staff member from all eligible entries. If the winner’s size is out of stock, Magnum Boots will replace with another style of equal or lesser value.

4. THE PRIZE PACKAGE WILL BE SHIPPED by Magnum Boots USA within 4 to 6 weeks of winner notification.

5. If you are a previous 2010-2011 Everyday EMS Tips contest winner you are welcome to participate, but will not be eligible to win.

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As many of us know, putting your health and fitness first can be a major challenge with the busy schedules we adhere to every day. Between his three jobs as a donor center coordinator, tissue recovery technician and paramedic, Buck Feris recognized this difficulty but decided to take the challenge head on by changing his typical commute to work and modifying his diet. The 40-year-old Dallas, Texas native is fighting to regain a healthy lifestyle one mile and one meal at a time – and it’s making all the difference in his life. See for yourself in this question and answer why Buck Feris is an Everyday EMS Athlete.

Question: You’ve taken action recently to improve your health. Can you tell us what life was like prior to this change?

Just before starting bike riding

Buck Feris: I was the usual fast food eating, sedentary, just-this-side-of-morbidly-obese kind of person who usually works in EMS.  5’ 7”, 265 lbs.  Like so many people in EMS, my body shape started to change quickly soon after choosing that profession.  From the outsider’s perspective it looks like a very active lifestyle.  But anyone in the business knows that there is a lot of sitting, a lot of standing, and a lot of fast food.  The combination does not do a body good.  When I got married I was still trying to fight off the weight gain.  I was active when I was younger.  I played soccer and football.  I used to run three miles a day.  But the EMS lifestyle finally caught up with me when I slowed down as a family man, and I ballooned out to 265 pounds.

Q: What motivated you to get in shape and make a lifestyle change?

BF: I do a lot of things to support my family, and currently work three jobs. As you can imagine, there is not a lot of time for exercise.  My wife was discussing this with me one day while I was rooting around in the garage looking for something.  To be honest, I was annoyed by the conversation and I was a bit short with her saying, “Just when in the hell am I going to have time to exercise?  All I have time to do is go to work.”

Just as I said that I was looking at a bicycle in my garage that was gathering dust.  We had purchased it because I was taking classes at the local university, and parking there was awful.  I purchased the bike to get to class, but to be honest I never rode it to school once.  But there it was, and I was staring at it thinking, “If all I have the time to do is go to work…” So I announced that from then on I would ride my bike to work.  My wife rolled her eyes and said, “We’ll see how long this lasts…”  That was about 7 months ago and I have lost about 60 pounds.

Q: How difficult was it to change your habits, both with diet and exercise?

BF: That’s the interesting thing about the bike.  It wasn’t that hard to change the habits.  So many times I had tried to lose weight by

Buck with his Bike

joining a health club.  But it takes forever to drive to the club, wait for your turn at one of the various hamster wheel machines, exercise, take a shower, drive back home…it is utterly boring and time consuming.

When I ride my bike to work, I am doing something that I would have already been doing.  It just takes me a little longer.  For instance, it used to take me 10 minutes or so to drive to my organ procurement job.  On a bike it takes me about 20 minutes.  So riding to work and back gets me 40 minutes of cardiovascular exercise each day.  But I would have spent 20 minutes driving anyway, so I have really only lost 20 minutes of my day.  Who couldn’t give up 20 minutes of their day to get 40 minutes of exercise?  When you put it like that, I really have no excuse not to do it.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?

BF: One day I was going out with the tissue team to do a post mortem recovery on a donor.  The patient was extremely obese and when I made my first incision I didn’t even get through the fat layer.  In fact, it took me a while to dissect through the fatty layer to get to what I wished to expose.  I took a moment, stepped back from the table, and realized that this patient was not much larger than I was.  So many of our donors die due to obesity, heart disease, and adult onset diabetes.  I was staring at the deceased result of bad lifestyle choices.  That’s when it hit me.  I said, “That’s it.  I’m getting healthy.  I’m not going out like this.”  I had already started riding my bike to work, but that’s when I really started to tweak my diet and get serious about a lifestyle change.

And now that I have made these choices and changes, an underlying truth has started to emerge: most of my patients make themselves sick.  I see them in organ and tissue donation.  I see them on the ambulance.  I see them in the grocery store.  There they are, obese Americans with disease processes that are fuelled by their own sedentary lifestyle and diet choices.  If you are morbidly obese, and your shopping cart is filled with Mountain Dew, fruit juice, cookies and other deserts… whose fault is that?  I go to the department store and see that they have stocked up on motorized carts for their patrons.  Who uses them?  Obese people.  Has it really gotten to that point?  People are so sedentary and obese that we have to provide motorized vehicles to allow them to shop?  I ride my bike to the same store and run circles around them.

Q: What are your three stick-with-it secrets?

1. Be realistic. I see so many middle-aged, overweight professionals look at something like the P90X workout.  They think to themselves, “I’m going to get back in shape.  I’m going to get some protein supplements.  I’m going to be extreme!”  All of these people are still fat and I have lost 60 pounds just riding my bike to work.  Just let that sink in a minute.
2. Do not eat until you are full.  This was the hardest lesson to learn.  For some odd reason the nervous system signals from your stomach are on about a 20 minute delay. If you eat until you’re full you have over stuffed yourself.  Get a plate.  Fill that plate with a reasonable portion of healthy food.  Eat it and walk away. Twenty minutes later you will realize that you have eaten enough food.
3. Don’t make it too complicated. Us ‘transportation’ bike riders really dislike the ‘spandex’ bike riders. You don’t need to buy $200 worth of spandex, clip on mirrors, and a $1,000 bike to get some exercise.  Don’t worry about how high your heart rate is, or how many calories you’ve burned.  Just get to your destination and eat good food.  The rest will happen by itself.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

BF: The bike did it for me.  But it may not do it for you.  But I urge everyone to find your bike.  It needs to be something realistic, affordable, and sustainable.  I see older ladies doing that power walk thing through the mall.  That works for them.  They can do it in all weather.  It’s a way for them to see all their cronies a couple of times a week.  And afterwards they can sit and have a couple cups of coffee together.  Brilliant.  It’s effortless and that keeps them coming back.  Maybe you love bird watching.  So you get yourself a pair of binoculars and get yourself out of bed to hike around in the forest 3 times a week.  Whatever it takes.  If you love going to the health club and you are motivated to do it, then great.  For the rest of us, we are going to need to find something that isn’t so boring and doesn’t require a monthly payment.

Alexis Nascimento is the public relations and social media manager at Magnum Boots USA. With fitness always being an important component of her life outside of work, Alexis trains in a local bootcamp program that focuses on endurance, strength training and a healthy diet.  You can connect with her via Twitter at @alexisnasc or @MagnumBootsUSA.

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Last night I was recognized as one of ten innovators in EMS for 2010 by JEMS Magazine and Physio-Control. I am proud and humbled for “recognition for innovative thinking in EMS.”

I was nominated for the award for the EMSEduCast podcast – the only podcast by and for EMS educators. We have recorded more than 90 episodes with many more to come. Each week the podcast highlights EMS education topics for our listeners from around the world.

Thanks!

As with any award my success is in a great part due to many wonderful people who have helped with the podcast.

To John Bignell and Jamie Davis – thanks for being the original EMS podcasters. Your shows have always highlighted the best in EMS and you are both so willing to share your time and knowledge to help others learn to podcast.

To Chris Montera – thanks for humoring my idea to launch an EMSEduCast and your ongoing support of the show. Congratulations to Chris for also being recognized as an EMS innovator for his work establishing Colorado’s first Community Paramedic program.

To Buck Feris – thanks for agreeing to co-host a new podcast with someone you had never met face to face. I couldn’t have started the show without your technical savvy and willingness to explore EMS education topics in-depth.

To Rob Theriault – thanks for balancing our hosting team and always connecting the topic to the needs and interests of our international listeners.

To Bill Toon – thanks for your early support of the podcast and then smoothly transitioning from engaged listener to knowledgeable co-host.

To our many guests – thanks for sharing your time and knowledge with our audience. Together we bring information, resources, and inspiration to our audience.

To our listeners – thanks for continuing to tune-in every week and sharing every episode with your colleagues.

To JEMS and Physio-Control – thanks for recognizing and celebrating innovation and EMS. The other nine recipients have accomplished amazing things for our profession. I am humbled to be included in such esteemed company.

To Amanda – thanks for humoring my podcasting hobby and letting me escape just after dinner every Wednesday night to go podcast with my podcasting buddies. Your support and love means everything to me.

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In just a year the EMS Boot Camp project has built an archive library of over 22 hours of recorded EMT and Paramedic continuing education webinars. The multimedia CE lessons cover many important aspects of EMS. Each EMS Boot Camp webinar includes:

• Recorded video and audio of the session that you can watch anytime online right from your computer.
• Download MP3 of the audio that you can listen to via your IPod or other MP3 player or even burn to a disc.
• Transcripts of the session that may include question and answer sessions, chat logs or exclusive resources discussed during the live session.
• Printable handout and or outline of the session that you can present to your training officer or Medical Director for CE credit.
• Written transcripts of selected sessions.
• Plus a printable Certificate of Completion for each session.

The educators and their titles in the EMS Boot Camp archives include:

Steve Whitehead:

• The Art of Patient Rapport
• Conquering The National Registry Cognitive Exam
• Conquering The National Registry Skills Stations

Buck Feris:

• Medical Math in 3D
• Uncovering the Autonomic Nervous System

Lisa Hollett:

• Child Abuse Recognition in EMS
• Critter Catching 101 – OB Emergencies
• Trauma for Tw0 – Trauma in Pregnancy

Joseph F. Clark:

• A Google Search is Not Research

Plus there are sessions from Greg Friese, Jim Hoffman and Jamie Davis:

• Conquering Medical Control
• Pediatric Assessment Essentials and Case Studies
• IV Complications in EMS
• MCI Response for EMS
• Diabetic Patients – What Your Instructor Left Out
• EMS Exam Boot Camp
• EMS Training Preparation
• EMS Career Development

For unique and useful EMS training you can start using right now visit EMSBootCamp.com for complete details on each session.

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” Medical Math – Get it Right Every Time “

This session on Medical Math, i.e. Drug Calculations by Paramedic Educator Buck Feris is available in the EMSBootCamp.com Premium Session archives. Buck has years of experience helping students who struggle with drug calculations. Several years ago he did some research on the origins of the drug calculation formula and found that it was based on a very simple concept in chemistry called “dimensional analysis.” By teaching the mechanics of dimensional analysis to students Buck has been able to teach them to go beyond the simple memorization of a formula.

More Everyday EMS Tips posts about Medical Math.

Feedback from students that have already taken EMS Boot Camp Medical Math:

It will help me tremendously in figuring dosages on the fly. I also precept Paramedic students and do study sessions for them. This is great information to help them grasp drug calculations.

I really enjoyed the presentation. I found it very relative to our everyday job and very informative.

I am a paramedic student and currently an EMT I. It will help me remember a lot easier method than the methods I was told of before.

It was a good presentation and the speaker was really down to earth and the way he explained it all was very helpful. Very good and easy to understand.

It made common sense, it was like being in a real classroom.

Excellent!!! Great session. I’ll be back for more.

Great. Very calm and relaxed.

Medical Math Content

Some of they key elements of this session are:

• Helping to finally end the struggle with drug calculations
• How knowing one simple concept will vastly improve your drug calculation skills
• The true mechanics behind drug calculations
• Discovering “dimensional analysis” and how it simplifies medical math
• Modifying one easy formula that will fit all your medical math needs
• Going beyond basic memorization to concrete understanding

If you are a student who is struggling with this subject, or a practicing paramedic who wishes to finally master medical math, this is a course you won’t want to miss.

This EMS Boot Camp session give you the tools and confidence you need to make drug calculations when seconds count.

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2009 was a big year for EMS podcasting. I thoroughly enjoyed my involvement as a co-host of the EMSEduCast, regular contributor to the EMS Garage, and guest appearances on the MedicCast and EMS Professional podcasts. I also launched a new podcast, Medical Author Chat.

For me I try to keep the technical aspects of podcasting as simple as possible and mostly focus on content creation.

The EMSEduCast is recorded using a Skype Conference call that Buck Feris has routed with Virtual Audio Cables into the free program Audacity. I am not sure how he makes the connections but if enough of us ask maybe he will write a how-to post for his terrific blog – Gomerville.com.

Episode 26 of the EMSEduCast – everything you ever wanted to know about podcasting – digs deep into the technical how-to of podcasting with Buck, Jamie Davis, and Jim Hoffman leading the conversation.

Jamie Davis also wrote two guest columns for the Everyday EMS Tips column at EMS1.com on podcasting. Read the articles and then click on Jamie’s link for a video tip on starting a podcast. Columns by Jamie:

• 10 Tips to Start Your Own Podcast
• More on Podcasting from the Podmedic

Medical Author Chat is recorded with my Google Voice number. Once the guest and I are ready to record I activate the recording. As soon as the call is over I can download the recording or simply embed the recording into a blog post or page. It is really simple. The quality is lower and it sounds like a phone call, but the simplicity cannot be matched.

My primary recording microphone is the Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 Headset. (Amazon affiliate link)

Other podcasting tools I have used:

• Blog Talk Radio -  a web-based recording service with an embeddable player
• CallBurner – a Skype plug-in for recording Skype calls

What software and hardware do you use for podcasting? What questions fo you have about podcasting? If I can’t answer them I will put them to Buck and Jamie.

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