FEATURED IN PATIENT CARE
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- Boston EMS Aid Subway Crash Victims
- NASCAR Fan Presents with Significant Chest Pain and Numbness
- Book on Talking to Unresponsive Patients Is Convincing
- Young Patient is Unresponsive with a Slow Heart Rate
- The Ins and Outs of Apneic Oxygenation
- Understanding Hyponatremia Key to EMS Providers at the Country’s Largest Bicycle Race
Polarizing Position
Thank you for your article on the Trendelenburg position! ("The Myth of the Trendelenburg Position," jems.com/wesley.) I was given a lip lashing as a nurse for not allowing a patient to be placed in this dangerous position and scolded that my train of thought was unwise. I_m a medic through and through, butprimum est non nocere!
Joe Kubitschek, RN
Colorado Sprints, Colorado
Dr. Wesley_s view on this practice should be stated as an opinion. I transport hypotensive patients very frequently who simply fail an orthostatic test and feel 100% better after Trendelenburg alone. It_s minimally invasive and offers patients symptom relief until definitive care. Of course, this is barring other medical issues, such as fluid in the lungs. Sometimes, the best source of info is obtained from the field in real settings, not the lab. It_s 150 years old because it works!
Rich Walker, Firefighter/Paramedic
Miami
CSI: EMS
This is by far the best article I have read in a long, long time ("Don_t Be a Minimizer," MarchJEMS). Thank you for putting into writing what many of us in QA departments preach every single day.
We in EMS often discount what some of our patients are telling us, and it doesn_t do them (or our careers) any good. It_s so important for those providers who run in a high-volume system, with many patients using EMS and the ED as primary care, to keep the highest index of suspicion possible. We should be a detective on every call; what kind of show wouldCSI: Miami be if Horatio only eyeballed the evidence and didn_t run every test he could? "Ambulance drivers" discount patients_ complaints; let_s be medical professionals and do what this article lays out. This article should be posted on every QA board in every station.
The QA Kid
Do you have an opinion about something you saw inJEMS?
Let us know atjems.editor@elsevier.com
