When will we see secondary Ebola transmissions in Dallas?

[AnnaLisa]

Re: When will we see secondary Ebola transmissions in Dallas?

I have been both an RN and a rural first responder, just about finished my EMT when life took me in a different direction. They are TWO different skill sets. People also call nursing assistants nurses. I think it is a lack of knowledge of what types of medical people there are and what they actually do. Every one on the ambulances I worked on was an EMT or licensed or registered nurse or both. It was not uncommon to meet an ambulance on the way to the hospital at times to pick up an additional HCW to have a legal crew....we just didn't have enough volunteers some days.

 

[Lizw]

Re: When will we see secondary Ebola transmissions in Dallas?

Here, we're about 45-60 miniutes from the nearest hospital (longer when roads are snow/ice covered). Sometimes it's difficult to get the 3 persons to roll the ambulance, so there are delays. Certain conditions require that a senior EMT be onboard which can further delay the run. Then add the factor of senior EMTs retiring! Anyone traveling to rural areas should never assume they'll get a prompt highly trained ambulance crew.

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Yeah, you operate in worse conditions than I've had to deal with, though I have driven in a blinding snowstorm more than once, and been in the back trying to handle treatment many more times in horrible weather. Not fun. I've been away from it for a while because of health reasons, but here, at least, we had one person assigned to roll the ambulance and the others would respond directly to the location. So it wasn't necessary to wait for everyone to get to the station. Same for trauma calls where a paramedic or an EMT-A would be required--the most highly certified person went directly to the location. Obviously protocols are different in different areas, but that's what worked here.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: When will we see secondary Ebola transmissions in Dallas?

Yeah, you operate in worse conditions than I've had to deal with, though I have driven in a blinding snowstorm more than once, and been in the back trying to handle treatment many more times in horrible weather. Not fun. I've been away from it for a while because of health reasons, but here, at least, we had one person assigned to roll the ambulance and the others would respond directly to the location. So it wasn't necessary to wait for everyone to get to the station. Same for trauma calls where a paramedic or an EMT-A would be required--the most highly certified person went directly to the location. Obviously protocols are different in different areas, but that's what worked here.

Same here - EMTs can respond to scene, but the ambulance can run to the hospital without sufficient personnel (some of which will be picked up along the way).

I presume that urban EMTs also shuffle personnel to keep areas staffed, which would hopefully not introduce variable training levels.

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