Effacement

The company I work for has serious misjudgment issues with publishing of the "sale" catalogues. The prices are great, but the choice of product depicted is in question.

Example - how many times have YOU, gentle reader, ever checked for effacement on an obstetric patient? Crowning, okay. Bleeding, okay. Prolapse, of course. Breech, yes. But effacement?

The catalogue has a half page dedicated to effacement trainers - with pictures to boot. And the grand irony is, they never inquire of the EMS staff whether or not an item should be advertised. Maybe we have a glut of effacement training mannequins and we all will be required to sell one before we can go home for the weekend. I am having a hoot talking with my customers about it.

Ah well, I guess that is why I am not in charge!! No vision. Who knows, with scope of practice this too may be a assessment paramedics will need to learn.

Thankfully, and wonderfully, I was able to catch up with my customer in the effected New Orleans region and his station is up and running, limited though it is. The parish has been decimated. My heart goes out to him, his family, and the communities effected. I was a bit surprised by the wash of emotion I felt when I heard his voice on the end of the phone. I really love my EMS customers, they are all in all a great group. But that shouldn't be surprising.

I am frustrated with the slow progress I am making in my career goals and feel a change will be necessary soon. Do I go full time in EMS or stay part time? Effectively can I achieve my end goals staying part time? I feel the answer is no, in my heart, but convincing my head is another matter altogether.

I wish I had started this journey sooner.

Hurricane Season

I have a bunch of customers in Louisiana and Mississippi who I think of on a daily basis. Along with my paramedic career pursuit, I sell EMS supplies. A lot of my customers were in New Orleans for an EMS trade show. Some I have spoken to, some I have not been able to contact.

I want to cut and run - join one of the many opportunities out there now to dispatch into an area and help. Then again, I need to focus on my goals and also the needs and requirements of me here at home base.

Co-Vendors who were there have perilous stories of escape. A lot of people seemed to be on the "last flight out of there". I would have been happy to be on the first flight out of there, and proud to tell the tale. I have never understood the requirement to make a fabulous story all the more daring.

The stories we see on a daily basis seem to create enough tale telling opportunity, no exaggeration required.