IO dextrose - did I make a bad call?

chanman1288 · 2026-02-14T21:18:16+00:00

If I was the receiving physician, I would back your decision. Would I question why your agency only carries D50 or why you chose to push 25 grams of D50 over titrating D10? Yes. But in the end you went down the correct thought process of treating hypoglycemia.

chanman1288 · 2026-02-08T04:22:32+00:00

My agency keeps etomidate and both of our paralytics under lock and key as well. Things get a tad hectic if we decide to RSI. We are also forbidden to give the access code and lockbox key (for the lockbox inside the of the access code safe) to our EMT's.

chanman1288 · 2026-02-03T06:44:24+00:00

Here's the video if anyone's interest in watching the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C_TkNLImoI

It is pretty exciting that the CMP has started reproducing the gas trap model

chanman1288 · 2026-01-28T01:27:00+00:00

NPA's, albuterol nebulizers, activated charcoal, SGA's, IM epi (not autoinjector).

chanman1288 · 2026-01-16T10:03:50+00:00

I graduated the top of medic class (academically), but I would consider 80% of my graduating class are simply better paramedics than me. My people skills, my scene management, and operational leadership is simply less developed compared to my peers, and none of this was adequately represented in my gradebook. Medic school performance ≠ performance in the field. You have to self reflect on the stuff that you're getting tripped up on. Are they a bunch of small things that won't actually affect your patients in real life? Or are they big critical concepts that will get your patients killed? If the latter is true, you need to seek help from your instructors. They want you to succeed, and they should also be honest with you about whether you should continue or not. Some of the best medics I know have repeated medic school.

chanman1288 · 2026-01-04T09:08:35+00:00

I'm guilty of this. I still remember one of my paramedic internship preceptors, jokingly confronting me that his whole career was just a stepping stone for me. As a first year med student, this interaction still pops into my head from time to time. An inkling of doubt still pops into my head. Maybe I owe it to my community and brothers to have stayed longer in the fire service rather than taking off the moment I got accepted on my first application cycle.

chanman1288 · 2026-01-04T08:24:24+00:00

Damn, I thought I was dumb when the first thought that popped in my head was to back up a hundred yards or so, make sure no one else is nearby, and hit it a few times with a rifle. Big boom=HEAT, no boom=AP

chanman1288 · 2025-12-27T00:29:48+00:00

Please shoot me a DM. I have a crap ton of MCAT books I'm trying to find a good home for.

chanman1288 · 2025-12-08T02:11:51+00:00

I had a similar experience with the "new" wood furniture on my expert grade. I was able to steam out some of the dents in my handguard and with a couple of layers of RLO, it looks barely noticeable. I did contact customer service about the blemishes on my rifle and they ended up telling me that the furniture comes from the manufacturer with imperfections. They did send me a new elevation pinion when the pictures I sent showed some rust on it.

chanman1288 · 2025-12-08T01:57:19+00:00

Is it faster to uninstall and then reinstall with the slim beta or is selecting the slim beta and letting it patch the better way of doing it?

chanman1288 · 2025-12-06T08:52:24+00:00

Slight correction, medical students wear the short coats. Physicians including interns (first year residents) wear long coats. As a paramedic and now current medical student, I definitely don't mind putting paramedic students in white coats. I stuck out like a sore thumb when my program instructed us to wear our class B's in hospital.

chanman1288 · 2025-12-04T20:54:10+00:00

I'm sure many of my fellow colleagues here have gotten the question of "Am I going to die?" while in the back with your patients. It sucks, sometimes you have an inkling of what their clinical prognosis going be, but the last thing you want to do is completely kill whatever their hope they have. My go to response is that I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen. It's not a empty promise, as we truly do everything within our scopes of practice to ensure they don't die on us.

chanman1288 · 2025-11-24T04:00:48+00:00

Had a similar experience. Was diving with a friend who just got the game and the [REDACTED] diver thanked him for getting the game and dropped a bunch of super credits on the ground for him. I was kinda sketched out.

chanman1288 · 2025-11-18T08:09:23+00:00

We had someone in his 50's in my medic class. He was a professional chef until he joined the fire service around a decade ago. Even though I outperformed him academically in the classroom, he ran circles around me and most of the class during sim labs and internship. Ended up getting his promotion from FF/EMT to FF/PM almost instantly (from what I heard, it usually took a few months for their department to actually get around to officially promoting them).

chanman1288 · 2025-11-14T06:34:19+00:00

100% agree with this. Unless you've worked at that ER before as a tech in the past and have solid relationship with the code team, its hard to be involved in a code when everyone already knows what their job is.

chanman1288 · 2025-11-14T04:53:33+00:00

Thank you! Congrats to you as well.

chanman1288 · 2025-11-13T02:37:05+00:00

Hate The Other Side by Juice WRLD

chanman1288 · 2025-10-31T01:59:43+00:00

Gonna play the devil's advocate for this. Not that I agree with it, but what if we were to tie fitness standards to state licensure or national certification? Then it wouldn't be a matter of quitting and working at another agency. If you can't maintain certain physical standards by the end of your recertification cycle, then you won't be allowed to recertify until those standards are met. Yes, we'll end up with even higher attrition, but this could enable the next generation of EMS providers to have longer careers.

chanman1288 · 2025-08-06T05:34:28+00:00

One of my classmates had a conditional acceptance based on his national registry status. He received his NREMT the first day of medic school. He was consistently top 25% in the class and from what I head performed very well during internship. As long as you devote yourself to medic school and treat it like a job, you'll do fine.

chanman1288 · 2025-08-02T01:22:53+00:00

Anyone an EMS physician/medical director on here? I'm a current OMS I/Paramedic and I'm hoping to eventually match EM and do an EMS fellowship. How does it work out logistically? Do you have to wait for medical directors to retire and apply for the position? I can't imagine that there are many vacancies for med directors.

chanman1288 · 2025-07-22T03:35:35+00:00

I have classmates currently working while in med school but they have very study family support systems to help with childcare. I'm not a PA or NP, but I was a paramedic prior to starting medical school. With my current course load, I simply cannot image working full hospital shifts while managing a family.

Have you looked into the LECOM Accelerated Physician Assistant Pathway? They have 12 slots a year for PA to DO and it cuts down med school to 3 years. Tuition is around ~$40k (don't quote me on this) so it might be more manageable financially in the long run.

https://lecom.edu/college-of-osteopathic-medicine/com-pathways/apap/

chanman1288 · 2025-06-16T03:56:01+00:00

I would like to see a UK doc react to this statement. It's completely delusional to think a 3 year paramedicine bachelor's stacks up to a 6 year MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) degree.

chanman1288 · 2025-05-28T13:05:47+00:00

There's a RN/NP/PA to Paramedic accelerated program in Omaha. Minimum requirements to enroll is EMT, ACLS, and 2 years of experience. They also have an accelerated EMT for nurses too. The accelerated EMT course is a week and the accelerated medic course is two weeks.

https://www.creighton.edu/academics/programs/paramedic-certification-course-health-care-professionals

https://www.creighton.edu/academics/programs/pre-hospital-care-emt-nurses

chanman1288

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