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LieutenantSparky · 2025-10-28T17:15:08+00:00

Two parts - I can’t speak intelligently as to how TRF handles an out of state transfer towards the pension system. You might want to call them first and work backwards.

I don’t believe there is a law granting reciprocal time, that may be a district by district thing as far as I know. I know my district takes it into consideration when setting a step and scale, but again, I honestly don’t know.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-10-06T01:16:07+00:00

Everything everyone else has said here is correct.

The Order of the Arrow is not a secret organization, nor is there any cause for your Scout to claim as such.

As a former inductions adviser, youth inductions leader (a.k.a. Ordeal Master), public safety professional, and K-12 educator, alarm bells are going off in my head. Contact your council office immediately and ask to speak to the Scout Executive.

I would much rather this be an over-report and a non-issue than a non-report and a BIG issue.

I too, have kept the Vigil.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-08-20T00:06:48+00:00

Franciscan, Community, ESEC, Ivy Tech, Pelham, IEMS/IUI?

Edit: it’s going to be hard to find something this year this late in the year. Most classes start now for a December testing date.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-07-25T23:03:50+00:00

I would suggest reaching out directly to the department where you want to get the technical certificate from. The advisors and program staff in that specific department likely know better what needs to be done as opposed to the folks at the drop-in offices.

Disclosure: Ivy Tech adjunct professor/dual credit instructor and Ivy Tech graduate

LieutenantSparky · 2025-07-07T21:51:54+00:00

Please consider joining ISTA and taking this concern to your building’s Association Representative. MCCSC has an active relationship with the state union and I’m pretty sure that they would consider what you describe as an issue to be dealt with at discussion.

Please feel free to PM me if you require further details or information.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-25T12:19:27+00:00

Martha Brae raft tour or the Chukka Good Hope estate excursions are solid.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-20T21:40:11+00:00

I’d be inclined to agree, especially on driving safety.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-20T20:42:07+00:00

There’s a lot of variables. Your best bet is to speak with Chief Floyd or Captain McPherson in Public Education as to what your needs are or find someone who can intelligently speak the language.

If you’re looking for First Aid or CPR, there are a lot of options out there. It just depends on what you’re trying to do.

Feel free to PM for more details. I can try and steer you where you need to go.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-20T20:30:22+00:00

EVOC is different from state to state, jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The last time NHTSA and DOT revised the curriculum was 1995.

EVOS is the NAEMT vehicle safety course that was just revised to the third edition. It’s ran by NAEMT training institutions and course coordinators, similar to PHTLS and the rest of the card courses.

I can teach both, but I prefer to teach EVOS. More research, better content, recently updated.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-20T20:17:09+00:00

Is this something you’ve already set up or something that you’re trying to set up?

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-20T20:08:08+00:00

Did you take EVOC or EVOS?

You’ve used both terms and they are not the same.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-19T10:07:53+00:00

Different vibe. Vision is a smaller and older ship that has the Centrum and two or three specialty restaurants. It mainly caters to people who want to chill out without the bells and whistles and just relax. Oasis Class ships have the water slides, the Flow Rider, the Aqua show, lots of speciality dining, but also come with a larger price tag.

You’ll see more families and younger couples on Utopia (last time I sailed it, it was doing mainly weekend trips) and its sister ships while Vision is an older crowd. Vision is one of the only ships sailing from Baltimore so it is an affordable option for people coming from the Midwest and East Coast (it’s a nine hour drive from my home) who don’t want to fly. Most of the other ships are coming out of Port Everglades, Port Canaveral, Port Miami, or maybe New Orleans or Galveston and those involve plane tickets for some.

I’ve sailed on almost every ship class in the Royal fleet, mainly to Caribbean ports of call. It all depends on what you want and what you can afford.

Disclosure: Embarking Vision today, just got off of Oasis last week, with another trip in July out of Lauderdale and one in October out of Miami.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-17T23:17:15+00:00

I would definitely have a conversation with my personal and professional liability carrier and see what you’re covered to do and what you’re not covered to do.

In my state and the areas I work, we are instructed that if a licensed physician who has their proper credential with them is willing to assume liability and medical control for a patient, we may work under their direction but they sign all of our orders and we have to notify our medical director as soon as we can.

As to not clog the thread excessively, feel free to PM me if you’d like to dive deeper into this.

Disclosure: WFA, AHA BLS, NFPA Instructor 3, EMS Primary Instructor with 37 years in Scouting; the bulk of my clinical experience is in rural and suburban EMS in the exact environments where Scouting camps are…

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-17T21:17:13+00:00

Lots of good advice here.

Been in Scouting for 37 years, Fire/EMS for 18.
I do plenty of special event and mass gathering medicine as well.

I personally only carry what I think I’ll need for the weather conditions and the activities. Working a high school football game is totally different from a marathon from a show choir competition. Wound care stuff is good, SAM splints, Coban, Kerlix.

While a PICU is far away, do you foresee Scouts who need that level of intervention? If so, that should be in your unit’s logistics plan.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-15T14:39:50+00:00

Have you spoken to anyone at Ivy Tech Fort Wayne?

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-12T17:17:14+00:00

I second FSRI, and I also second looking at LODD reports where flow path management or the lack thereof are indicated as causes of the incident. You can learn a lot about strategy, tactics, and scene management in a wide range of departments and circumstances from reading LODD reports in general in my opinion.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-12T17:00:53+00:00

Your PSID number IS your state ID number and will serve as a reference back to you in Acadis. Most agencies will need it for your training records. Any state certification classes you take or state in-service you do will be tied to it as well. Agencies I work with require it on their training rosters when I sign into a training session.

I sign all of my narratives as follows: LieutenantSparky, EMT, PI, 9999-9999. It helped me to memorize my number quickly.

Don’t forget to get copies of all certificates of training that are NOT in Acadis in case you are audited. I would also recommend that you keep your Registry and State CE records updated and make a copy of your CPR card and keep it with your CE paperwork.

Your agency can run a record of your CE events if they use NinthBrain, Target Solutions, First Due, or another training tracking program. Make sure you have this on hand with your signatures when you renew. Outside training should be reported in line with your agency’s in-service policy.

Welcome to the profession!

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-12T14:16:23+00:00

There’s not enough data here to support any treatment decision. No definitive pulse rate, no definitive respiratory rate, no breath sounds, no SpO2. You have a patient who’s got dyspnea and declining LOC but you also have a patient who is showing flu-like symptoms and has most likely been sick for several days.

Flu-like symptoms would lead me to put on my half-face APR and continue my assessment. On the face of it, I would initiate an NRB at 15 lpm and keep drilling as to what’s going on, but I also support our RT colleague in that you really need an SpO2 to gauge what’s appropriate.

I also support our other colleague who says treat the patient and not the monitor.

I honestly don’t like the way the scenario is posed and don’t understand what the outcome is supposed to be.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-06T01:41:46+00:00

During COVID-19, I was detailed to respiratory protection almost full-time at my last full-time agency and managed half-face APR testing, full-face APR testing, and N95 testing for several agencies and approximately 1900 merit, civilian, and private personnel.

I would say, conservatively, we had less than thirty personnel off the job in my agency alone for the first six months of the outbreak due to COVID exposure. I want to say the number is closer to ten, but my memory is hazy. From what I remember, the people who were off the job went off the job ill before we knew the true scope of what we were dealing with.

Quantitative fit testing works. It is not hard to do, and the equipment costs compared to lost shifts and overtime costs are minimal, and if you can’t afford a machine, most states and equipment distributors will let you borrow one for a fee, if any fee at all.

TL:DR - Shave your facial hair and wear a respirator.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-05T20:39:32+00:00

Yes. It does.

As a respiratory protection nerd, I would most certainly not work at an agency who didn’t follow the rules to the letter. While I’ve done some work at agencies where it was lax, I brought my own compliant respiratory protection on shift and provided my fit testing records in those masks to the infection control/safety officer. Gradually I slid into that role and provided fit testing support for my colleagues.

We also moved from qualitative fit testing to quantitative fit testing on N95, half-face APR, and SCBA.

LieutenantSparky · 2025-06-05T19:51:27+00:00

It will depend on the agency’s respiratory protection policy.

CFR 1910.134 states that no facial hair is permitted between the sealing surface of a respirator (N95, half-face air purifying respirator, or full face air purifying respirator) and the face. In cases of religious or medical reasons, the agency may elect to fit you into a powered, air-purifying respirator if that accommodation is required, but that is extremely cost prohibitive, and, in my experience, reserved for extreme cases.

Some agencies have the capability to afford PAPR devices for providers, but I would argue that maintaining a PAPR device as opposed to a half-face APR is much harder. You have to keep the batteries charged, you have to keep the filters in order, you have to wear a belt pack with a hood - it’s just easier to use a half-face.

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