www.EMS1.com
EMS1 Top Ten
January 2011
The EMS1 Top Ten List


Top 10 EMS New Year's Resolutions
By Kelly Grayson, EMS1.com Columnist

Wow, 2011 already? I mean, I only just started writing 2010 on all my checks! And as everybody knows, January also brings New Year's resolutions, those impossible and naïve goals we set for ourselves each turn of the calendar, goals usually abandoned well before it's time to fill out our income tax returns. Last year, I managed to keep only one resolution. I vowed to get in shape, and I did. Hey, round is a shape!

Still others, like attending a procrastinators' support group, I haven't gotten around to doing. But I can't take all the blame for that one. They still haven't scheduled their first meeting.

So, rather than the usual prosaic New Year's resolutions, I decided to come up with some EMS-specific resolutions that all of us could try adopting:


I resolve to remove all the stickers of agencies I used to belong to from my car, so that cops will stop asking me if I drive the Hardee's 911 car in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series when they pull me over. The ticket is bad enough without the sarcasm from my brothers in blue.

I resolve to stop using alphabet soup after my last name. Because, you know, writing, "Kelly Grayson, AAS, NREMT-P, CCEMT-P, ACLS RF, PALS RF, BLS TCF, EMS I/C, Farmedic I, NREMT QA, BEMS QIM, AMLS I, GEMS I, PEPP I, PHTLS I, NRP, HMFIC, BMOC, AEIOU and sometimes Y, recipient of Mrs. Sanders' 3rd grade gold star award for an especially spiffy crayon drawing of a duck, author, columnist, raconteur, studmuffin," tends to make a fellow look a bit pompous and insecure. Even if it is true.

I resolve that, when assessing my patient's mental status, I will actually know the correct date before asking the patient. Nothing sucks worse than having your patient demonstrate that they're more oriented than you are.
I resolve that the next time I have a four-hour transport of a sedated and mechanically ventilated patient, and the nurse offers to put in a Foley prior to transport, I will graciously accept her offer. In fact, make that one for the patient, and one for me.
I resolve to never again clip the remote controlled "fart noise generator" to my partner's gear belt before we get to the triage station with the hot new nurse. No matter how funny it is.

Read Grayson's top 5 New Year's resolutions at EMS1.com.

EMS1
ParamedicTV.com
If you are no longer interested in receiving EMS1.com eNews, please click on the Unsubscribe link below or call 1-866-431-5367.

Do not reply to this email. © Praetorian Group

200 Green Street, Ste 200
San Francisco, CA 94111
EMSConnect.com
Paramedic.com
EMSGrantsHelp.com
View this newsletter online Print and share Join us on LinkedIn Become our Facebook fan