Pragmatic Paramedics

Welcome to the first episode of Monday Morning Medic! In this series of episodes, Jason and Aaron, along with special guest Chris Rosa sit down and talk about real life calls and patients that we have had. We discuss treatments and outcomes to help learn from real-world cases.   In our first episode, we sat down and talked about a unique motor vehicle accident involving a motorcycle.  We discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of the call to help our listeners improve their care. If you have a patient that you would like to discuss, let us know! We would love to talk about patients and improving patient care with our listeners. Let us know what you think and if there are any topics that you'd like to discuss. Follow the PragMedics on Instagram and Twitter. You can find Chris on Instagram.

During a recent chat with Doc Godfrey “Cric Em If You Got'em,” we discussed intubations and airway management in the trauma setting. Of course, after recording it we remembered that the NAEMSP published a paper discussing these very topics so we decided to have a guest come on and chat with us about it – Drew Congdon – a critical care paramedic and paramedic instructor out of New Mexico was kind enough to come on and help walk us through the paper. Listen along with us and hear what the NAEMSP thinks and our take on managing a trauma patient’s airways. Link to the NAEMSP Paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10903127.2021.1994069 Follow the PragMedics on Instagram and Twitter   

As we wrap our series, "A Thin Blurred Line," we take a moment to sit down with an investigative journalist who has covered incidents such as the ones in the media - Elijah McClain and Tony Timpa. We discuss both cases with her in this great conversation with someone outside EMS.  Listen in as we talk with Cary about her experiences, what she found during her investigation into these incidents and how they impact EMS. Cary is a reporter for the Marshall Project and has been reporting on public safety for numerous years. You can follow Cary on Twitter Check out the Marshall Project on Twitter and on the Interwebz Follow the PragMedics on Instagram and Twitter 

In this episode we discuss trauma airway management with Doc Godfrey (CricEm if you got ‘em). Doc sits down with us as we look at a paper from The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery which discusses prehospital definitive airway not being associated with improved survival in trauma patients. Trauma airway management is complicated, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be… We talk about how to best utilize your clinical skills and assessment along with BLS and basic airway adjuncts as well as medical direction’s role and the effectiveness of appropriate training. Great chat and as always, we appreciate Doc CricEm (Godfrey) for coming on to talk with us to provide everyone with some quality evidence-based guidelines for airway management. As always, thanks for listening and we hope this series provides just one more tool to help you better yourself and the patients we see daily.  Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. References Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery 89(2S):p S237-S241, August 2020. | DOI: 10.1097/TA.0000000000002722 The American Surgeon 87(1);159-161 January 2020 DOI:10.1177/0003134820945228

As EMS providers we know all too well about violence, trauma, and the associated dangers of the job but we tend to struggle with what to do when we encounter violent scenes that involve our brothers and sisters in law enforcement and the patients we are committed to care for.  However, what happens when the line we need to cross is one of our own? Police use of force has been an ongoing issue in the U.S. for decades but recently the media has started to focus on not only the police officers involved in these violent encounters but also the EMS providers who are dispatched to aid the patient.  There is a thin and very blurred line that we must navigate to be a patient care provider and advocate but also a public safety brother and sister.  Listen in as we talk with providers, reporters, and others who face these difficult situations in the name of community safety, wellbeing, and the job.  In this episode, with The Mando Medic, we discuss his personal experiences with these situations, thoughts on how to decrease negative patient outcomes in these scenarios, and ways to improve EMS and LE cooperation. As always, thanks for listening and we hope this series provides just one more tool to help you better yourself and the patients we see daily.  Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. Give Mando Medic a follow as well!  

As we hop back in the saddle we want to a reaffirm our commitment to this industry through providing you with quality insight and information about clinical practice and evidence based medicine as well current events.  We are you, not experts by any standard and hope that our conversations help improve the quality of EMS in all facets for generations to come.  Thank you for coming back to the show and listening in on these discussions.  Make sure to follow us on IG @pragmed and on your favorite pocatcher! 

In this episode, the PragMedics talk with Dr Timothy Durkin and  discuss Heat Stroke, the signs, symptoms, myths, and of course treatment modalities. The boys and Dr. Durkin look to find practical ways for street level providers to identify and treat heat stroke. Dr Durkin provides the listeners with useful tips and thoughts regarding management of heat stroke and ways for systems to improve their response and treatment of this completely treatable injury. Dr Durkin is a board-certified emergency & sports medicine physician and is Base Medical’s Chief Medical Officer. He has over 2 decades of response, patient care and teaching experience that drive his passion for excellence in Base Medical’s curriculum.  His premedical experiences included service as a camp staffer, SAR responder, urban/rural paramedic, BLS/ACLS/first aid instructor and work on a program management team for DARPA. You can follow him @colorado_rescue_doc on IG! Thanks as always for listening and please check us out on social media as well as Saint Fishers EBM and Trauma Daddy for medical and trauma content. Also checkout BaseCamp https://www.base-medical.com to see what Dr Durkin is up to! Here are some references provided by Dr. Durkin: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322528359_Consensus_Statement-_Prehospital_Care_of_Exertional_Heat_Stroke This is the EHS position paper that was in PHEC in 2018    https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/fulltext/2016/03000/a_tale_of_two_heat_strokes__a_comparative_case.13.aspx This is a paper called a tale of two heat strokes. It describes to service members clinical course after collapsing of heat stroke during the Marine Corps Marathon. One patient received immediate ice water cooling, the other got taken to a hospital. Although both patients survived, difference in outcomes is pretty stark.

In this episode, Jason and Scooby (Aaron was on shift doing real work) sit down with Ryan Kerr to discuss his free online ventilator book, reasons for writing and publishing a free book, and other ventilator thoughts.  Ryan is a current medic/nurse who flies for AirMethods in the Southwest. This is one of our favorite episodes and it is a great conversation that you shouldn't miss!  Please check out Ryan's work at www.rykerrmedical.com and on IG.  He also has published the ventilator resource on Amazon so check him out!  Thanks for listening! As always, we want to thank our supporters: Priority 1 Air Rescue, Red Clover Coffee, SayAgainOver, and finally Pelican, but also and more importantly to our listeners!

In this episode, the PragMedics and Scooby sit down and discuss a proper disaster patient, one with an upper GI bleed (esophageal varices). We discuss a patient from the ICU perspective with lessons learned for paramedics.  These patients are challenging to manage, and it's a great conversation that will help a paramedic manage this type of patient.  Thanks for listening, and be sure to check out our "I had this patient" Facebook group!  As always, we want to thank our supporters: Priority 1 Air Rescue, Red Clover Coffee, Black Wolf Helicopters, SayAgainOver, and finally Pelican, but also and more importantly to our listeners! Check out the First Responders Children's Foundation and Do It For Drew as well and donate to a couple of great causes!

The PragMedics decided to look inward and interview Aaron about a recent austere/disaster response mission he participated. Jason and Scooby talk with Aaron about his recent trip to a developing country in response to a natural disaster.  This episode has bits and pieces from disaster response preparation for paramedics, resource limitations, and better, best, good methods for treating patients post-disaster in austere environments. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode! As always, we want to thank our supporters: Priority 1 Air Rescue, Red Clover Coffee, Black Wolf Helicopters, SayAgainOver, and finally Pelican, but also and more importantly to our listeners! Check out Global Response Management and the First Responders Children's Foundation as well and donate to a couple of great causes!