Stumbled across this . . . .

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16032608

Well-trained urban paramedics diagnose STEMI as accurately as physicians.


Which, of course, is refreshing to read after being exposed to the "memorize the what and forget the why" attitude exhibited by many paramedics  (http://slevit1.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-paramedic-to-doctor.html)

"Never forget the 343" (9/11)

As 9/11 rears its head tomorrow as the 11th anniversary, there will be a lot of talk about never forgetting the 343. 

Well, please allow me to alter that number:

343 members of the NYFD (341 FFs, 2 paramedics, and a chaplain)

23 members of the NYPD

37 law enforcement officers of the Port Authority

8 private service EMTs and Paramedics

55 military personnel serving at the Pentagon

And a poor bomb-sniffing dog named Sirius.

My point is, there were almost 3000 victims of the attacks, not to mention families and loved ones, and far more than 343 of them were serving in one form or another. Lots of people "ran in while others ran out", including civilians.  When we think about the men and women whose lives have been lost in the war (ostensibly) begun by the attack, the number jumps even higher.  

So honor the 343, but when you say "never forget", please never forget the others, either.

And to all of you who serve in any way, or who hold someone who serves dear, thank you.

Edit:  Emergency medical service personnel who are non-fire-based often feel like the red-headed stepchildren of emergency services.  We/they are often ignored, ridiculed, criticized, or forgotten all together.  Yet their ranks include some of the brightest and best out there.  I'm sure this applies to law enforcement officers of non-city departments, as well (such as the port authority).  Regardless, I wouldn't want someone forgetting my colleague who died trying to save a life simply because he wasn't on NYFD, let alone if that person were family.  

Spin and media coverage does not a hero make.

Misconceptions and Surprises

There are some drawbacks to being a "nontraditional" medical student.  It's a different perspective, and it's still surprising how different it is from expectations.

I knew medical school would be hard.  Really, I believed them when they told me. 

(Okay, if we're being completely honest, I did think all of my years as a medic would make it alittle easier.  A smidgen.  At least.)

I knew I'd have to sacrifice stuff and I figured it was good I was single.

What I didn't realize is how much I'd be sacrificing.  As I sit in a quiet study room and fall peeks its gorgeous head into the world, I'm yearning to be outside in nature, hiking, biking . . . doing anything, really.  But I have a test tomorrow.  So I won't be making money and bringing home a paycheck (I miss those).  Or hiking or biking today (Sigh).  Or doing anything else I got used to doing.  Manymost of my classmates have been in school non-stop since they were 5.  They don't really know anything else other than a life that revolves around school and studying.  They don't know what they're missing.  Or maybe they're not missing it because their lives haven't grown yet to be non-academically focused.  

But I know.  And I miss it.

The other misconception I had was how much drive I would have to learn the non-clinical material.  The first two terms of class work are strictly basic sciences.  My particular college has opted for an integrative approach, where classes feed off each other and clinical correlates are presented as often as possible, but at the end of the day, biochemistry is still biochemistry, and microbiology is still microbiology.  And I still have to engage in rote memorization of concepts I'll not be asked to recall past the next exam.  The futility of that leaches me of my drive to study.  Put anything clinical into the picture, and my interest is piqued. 

I suppose that's another drawback to the been-there-done-that life of a critical care paramedic.  The hands-on skills and the basic clinical knowledge is old hat to me.  And outside of surgery and some smaller procedures (arterial line placement, chest tube placement, etc.), there aren't that many physical skills I haven't done yet.

One last thing that I wasn't expecting:  how much of a workout my brain is getting.  I literally feel physically exhausted at the end of a long day studying.  We're all smart people -- we couldn't have made it this far otherwise -- but for many of us, this is the first time in our lives serious studying has been required.

Serious studying.

I still love medical school.  And I still hate rote memorization