Basic Paramedic Practice - Essay Example

"Basic Paramedic Practice" is a great example of a paper on the health system. On October 10, 2011 session, the most interesting things that I read for this session were the multiple casualties incident categories, the different emergency control agencies, and the role of paramedics as a clinician or commander. I found multiple casualties incident categories interesting because it would help us in the future when dealing with patients, especially in terms of triage, treatment, and transportation.; the different emergency control agencies for collaboration with most helpful agencies depending on the situation; and the role of paramedics as clinician or commander because it would help a future paramedic to understand what role he/she might take in the future.

            There are three main things that I learned in this session: (1) command control and coordination operates vertically because doing so would control and coordinate agencies’ action in unity; (2) the first crew will be the one responsible for starting the “standby major incident” because it will initiate pre-established sets of actions; and (3) multiple casualties incidents follow flow charts in order to facilitate a smooth flow of medical interventions.

            I found the paramedics color-coding gold, silver, and bronze new because I thought that the triage system only has green, yellow, red, and black tag categories. As a result of this topic, I have changed my mind about direct involvement in patient care because I learned that as a commander, you should avoid direct involvement in inpatient care.

            As I’ve said earlier, I might be able to use the multiple casualties’ incident categories in the future because paramedics will probably encounter a lot of triage sieves. Therefore, I would like to study in more detail the Ambulance Plan because I believe that doing so would save more lives in the future. I like how comprehensive the topic was because it has broadened my knowledge about emergency care.

            Meanwhile, October 17, 2011, also provided three interesting things that I read including the relationship of space and time to trauma, the human tolerance of deceleration, and the different changes in paramedics practice. I found the relationship of time and space to trauma interesting because understanding these concepts would actually determine the severity of trauma and damage; likewise, the same reason applies to human deceleration. It was also interesting to know the different changes in paramedics care because it would provide us with updated practice inpatient care.

            There are three main things that I learned from this session. I learned that the mental image of the case differs from reality because each patient's case is unique. This is what I learned from the example of a man who fell from a horse. I also learned that when in an accident, a paramedic should examine closely because there are things in the investigation that are often neglected such as the meter reading of speed and velocity of a car. In addition, I also learned that black cars pose more severe damage because slides showed a 288 kph average rate of deceleration.

            Previously, I thought that timely care would save more lives but I learned that it isn’t because according to Dr. John Armstrong, “for want of timely care, millions have died from medicable wounds” (Miscellaneous, 2011, n.p.).

            I found carrying of cameras by SA Ambulance new because I thought that it is only the duty of the investigating team; the bringing of legs together during a pelvic injury new because I often see emergency response teams not addressing the leg position, and paramedics are different from retrieval team because I am formerly thought that they are the same.

            I would like to study in more detail the difference in the deceleration of black and blue cars because I would like to do research on it in the future.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. An event that involves fewer than 100 victims is called?
2. Mass-client incident
3. Mass-casualty incident
4. Multiple-casualty incident
5. Multiple client incident

Answer: (c). The multiple-client incident involves fewer than 10 casualties; multiple casualties involve fewer than 100; and mass-casualty involves more than 100 victims (Schilling et al., 2005, 34).

2. Who is the person-in-charge of the overall incident?
3. Incident clinician
4. Incident commander
5. State duty manager
6. Team leader

Answer: (b). An incident commander is the person-in-charge of the over-all incident, assesses the incident, establishes strategic objectives and priorities, and develops a plan to manage the incident (Caroline, 2008, 47.5).

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