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Final Words from the I/C News Editor...
From the Summer 2009 Journal of Maine EMS

Change is hard, even positive change. It’s especially hard when it involves giving up something you love. I’ve been through many changes over the years, changes which got me into EMS, and which are now moving me out of it. I've just accepted a promotion at my (non-EMS-related) company, and it’s going to involve working a lot more hours. I’ve come to realize that it’s time for me to move on, to make space in my life for new things, new challenges. But to make space, I have to give up some things that have been part of who I’ve been for more than 20 years. That’s hard. This time of change has caused me to look back over my time in EMS, and I’d like to share some thoughts with you here, one last time.

Each of us has our story about what initially got us into EMS. In my case I was working at a “minor emergency room” at a small community hospital, where we didn’t see much more than the most minor injuries. One day as I was driving home a non-helmeted motorcyclist sped by me on a narrow curvy road. It made me wonder what I would do if the driver were to crash and I were to be the first person on the scene. That thought lingered in my mind for weeks, and caused me to contact my town’s volunteer EMS service and sign up for an EMT course. Every one of you reading this knows how that changes your life!

Not long after I became an EMT, I taught my first-ever class at my hospital. I really enjoyed putting that class together, but nothing surprised me more than how much I enjoyed actually teaching it. As someone who had always shied away from public speaking, this was a huge change! After teaching a handful of other classes to different audiences, I took an IC class. I liked doing EMS, but I loved teaching. I loved the “aha” moments when students would grasp a difficult concept. I loved watching the most unwilling refresher student become an eager learner. I loved the planning, I loved the execution, I loved everything about it.

It was while I was teaching one of my early licensure classes that a student told me that his crewmates questioned what business I had teaching classes — I was after all, they told my student, “just a Basic.” As this wasn’t the first time I’d heard the “just a Basic” criticism, I realized that I couldn’t change that perception. I could, however, change my reality, and that’s when I made the decision to take a paramedic class. I wasn’t so much driven to be a paramedic as I was to be a better, more credible teacher by having an advanced license. And while I knew I would learn a lot more about medicine, I was surprised by how the actual process of being a student again, having to do the homework, take the tests, have my practical skills evaluated by someone with a checklist, also had a great impact on my teaching. I shared some of my experiences as a student in the I/C News as I was going through the course, and suggested that every instructor needs to be a student again every so often, to remind himself or herself of what it’s like being on the other side of the desk.

The paramedic experience led also to a change in my nursing life. I left the “minor emergency room” to work in one of Maine’s three trauma centers, and I learned and learned and learned some more. And then, many years later, I left the trauma center to go work at a company called Health Dialog, where I’ve been working as a nurse “health coach” for the past three years, providing telephone triage and teaching our members about their chronic health conditions. This, of course, was yet another huge change as I moved further away from EMS and EMS teaching. So the minor emergency room led me to EMS, which led me into teaching, which led me to paramedic school, which led me to the trauma center, which led me to Health Dialog, and which is ultimately leading me now back out of EMS.

I will miss a lot of things about EMS, but probably nothing more than the people. I’ve met some of the most amazing, selfless, committed people while I’ve been involved in EMS. And I will definitely miss the teaching. There will be no more “aha” moments from students to inspire me; I will have to come up with my own “aha” moments.

And I will, perhaps most of all, miss being responsible for the Maine EMS I/C News. I started the newsletter back at the end of 1995 — nearly 14 years ago! It’s been great fun and great frustration all rolled into one! As this issue of the Journal goes to press, I am working to find a new editor, someone who will take over and perhaps even take the newsletter to a new level.

Change is hard, but I’m hoping the changes in my life, as well as the changes in the I/C News, will be positive ones. I hope you will all stay in touch. Send me an e-mail occasionally just to say hi and tell me what you’re up to.

See earlier "What's News" articles items. (For everything from April 2009 and before.)

• A Collection of Published Articles

General Articles:

Twelve Tips for Twelve Leads (April/May/June, 2005; re-published July 2008)
Maine Spine Assessment Comparison between 1994 and 2002 Protocols (April/May/June, 2003)
Is That Your Final Answer? When No Doesn't Mean No (October/November/December, 2002)
IO: A Procedure Review (April/May/June 2002)

Documentation Series:

Part 4: Documentation: The Finishing Touches (July/August/September, 2004)
Part 3: The A&P of SOAP (April/May/June, 2004)
Part 2: Objectively Speaking (January/February/March, 2004)
Part 1: Simply Subjective (October/November/December, 2003)

Mike's Training Moments
Mike Azevedo, Jr., EMT-B

The Ambulance Driver (I/C News section of the July 2009 JoMEMS) New August 2009!
When One Life Ends: Death and EMS (I/C News section of the April, 2009 JoMEMS)
Teaching Pediatrics (I/C News section of the January, 2009 JoMEMS)
Planning a Training Session (I/C News section of the October, 2008 JoMEMS)
Learning Styles (I/C News section of the July, 2008 JoMEMS)

John Bastin, PA-C
First Responder Weapons of Mass Destruction Training (Fall, 2004)
WMD Resources on the Web (Winter, 2003)

Daryl Boucher, MS, RN, EMT-P
Learning Opportunities for Students: NMCC’s Community Leadership Program Provides Great Learning Opportunities for Students (I/C News section of the July 2009 JoMEMS) New August 2009!
Systematic Program Evaluation For EMS Education Programs (I/C News section of the October, 2008 JoMEMS)
Jumping through Hoops -- Immunization and Other Pre-Matriculation Mandates For EMS and Allied Health Students (October, 2007)
Use of Dimensional Analysis to Reduce Medication Errors in EMS (June, 2007)
Help! I've Been Asked to be a Peer Reviewer (Spring, 2006)
Research Review: Conducting Research -- Helpful Tips (Winter, 2005)
Why Did You Do That? Evidence Based Research as Part of Teaching (Fall, 2004)
Using Case Studies to Teach EMS (Part III) (Spring, 2004)
Using Case Studies to Teach EMS (Part II) (Winter, 2004)
Using Case Studies to Teach EMS (Part I) (Fall, 2003)

Mike Carroll, EMT-P
HIPAA and the EMS Instructor (Winter, 2005)

Joanne LeBrun, EMT, MSEd
The Games People Play (Winter, 2003)

Dan Limmer, EMT-P, I/C
Teaching Affective Concepts In the EMS Classroom (Winter, 2006)

Dan Palladino, CCEMT-P
What is NAEMSE? (Winter, 2004)

• MEMS Continuing Education

• Maine EMS and its Regions

Maine EMS Exam Committee minutes

• Maine EMSer's Pages

Sean Hall

Clarence Spady

Dan Limmer's home page
Dan Limmer's blog

• Other Maine Sites

• Maine Hospitals

• Maine's EMS Services

If your service has a site, please e-mail me and I will update this list to include it.

• Maine's Educational Institutions
  which haveEMS Programs

• EMS Instructor Resources

Also available from NHTSA:
2002 Supplemental Airway Modules for EMT-Basic
1995 Emergency Vehicle Operators Course (Ambulance) Instructor's Guide
1996 EMD Instructors Guide
2002 EMS Educator Guidelines

Teaching Resources for Instructors in Prehospital Pediatrics
TRIPP ALS
TRIPP BLS

Other
Less Stress Instructional Services
Quia (make your own online classroom-type activities)
EMS Educational Resources page
Trainers of Emergency Medical Services
Learner Associates

American Heart Association Instructor Information page

Presentations available online:
EMS Professions PowerPoint Presentations This amazing site has PowerPoint presentations for every topic in the paramedic curriculum. You have to see it to believe it! And the site says they're there for you to use for your studies and classes.

Guidelines to Effective Graphics

• EMS/Nursing/
  Medical Publishers, Clearinghouses, and On-line publications

AAOS Paramedic anatomy and physiology review

• General Emergency Medicine and EMS Resources

• Articles/Specific Resources

Miscellaneous
AEDs May Negatively Impact Outcomes
Auscultation Assistant
Bystander CPR Still Matters
EMS Agenda for the Future (Be patient, the link takes forever to open.)
EMS is Hyperventilating Resuscitation Patients
EMS Researchers Call for Action
First Aid for Soldiers (1/25/06 Available in PDF format)
Institute for Safe Medication Practices, ISMP
HIV/AIDS, STDs and TB information from the CDC
How to Use a Stethoscope; and The State of the Stethoscope
Latex Allergy Links - EMS
Jeff Mann's Emergency Medicine Guidemaps
National EMS Scope of Practice
On the Road to Successful IV Starts (no longer available free online)
Researchers Show Arm Position Matters when Measuring Blood Pressures
Rural/Frontier EMS Agenda for the Future
RSI in the Prehospital environment
Selective Spinal Immobilization
Telemetry Certification Online
The Value of Bystander CPR
Transport of Stroke Patients May Become More Specialized

• On-line Continuing Education
  Credit Resources

EMS:
EMCert (EMS, sign up for periods of 1 or 2 years, with options ranging from 4 CEUs to an unlimited number during your desired time frame)
LearnATest (programs for those reviewing for licensure testing)
Wild Iris Medical Education (courses ranging from $6-36, and 1-11 contact hours)

Nursing:
E-learners (nursing)
NetCE (nursing, courses from $0-39, 1-15 hours' credit each)
NursingSpectrum (pay as you go, or sign up for unlimited hours)
RN.com (nursing, offers at least one free CEH program each month)
Wild Iris Medical Education (nursing, $10-65 per course)

Both:
EMInet/Healthstream (EMS, nursing; doesn't separate out EMS into ALS or BLS courses)
MEDCEU (seems to have both, but I haven't figured out yet how they're divided)

• Nursing Links

• Physician Links

• Domestic Violence Links

• On-line Medical Texts and
  Resources

• National Organizations

• State EMS agencies

• Bioterrorism, Disaster Planning,
  and other Related Sites

• Hospital Uniform Shopping

• EMS Products

• EMS/Medical/
  Nursing Blogs

E-mail me if you find any others!

• Just for Fun