Tuesday, January 24, 2006

How are you?

Today I started precepting a new medic. Nice guy with some decent BLS experience, but has been out of medic school for 18 months so we are going to start slow. The last guy I precepted was already a practicing medic in another state, so the precepting was more just watching him do calls. This medic is happy to be molded. We spent some time this morning practicing on the intubation manequin.

Not much action today. An old man with a fever, an old woman not taking her meds not acting her usual self and a prisoner who needed an evaluation.

But they were good calls for doing the basics.

1) Looking the first responder in the eye and asking for his report.
2) Introducing yourself to the patient by name and asking for theirs.
3) Looking them in the eye and feeling their forehead.
4) Getting the history (Asking the patient "How are you?")
5) Doing an assessment
6) Taking them to the hospital

***

I worked 16 hours, my preceptee was only with me for the first 12. Ten minutes before I get out, I get a call for chest pain at the Alzheimer's Place. Most of the time I go there, I ask the patients how they are, they say, Fine, how are you? Then the nurse says, but you were having chest pain, and they say, I was? I'm not kidding. Happens all the time. But this time the lady said she had pressure inher chest. She had a pacemaker so the 12 lead didn't tell me anything. IV 02 monitor, ASA and a couple ntg and transport.