Grand Rounds from the EMS Blogosphere: October 2010

Here on Grand Rounds from the EMS Blogosphere you will get updates from many of the popular EMS blogs on the Web. If you're unfamiliar with what's out there, look no further. Here we will summarize some of the most popular blogs and their topics. Enjoy.

Change of Venue

If you happen to read my blog Paramedicine 101 then you may have noticed that it has found a new home. I have partnered with EMS Blogs, which now hosts the Rogue Medic blog and Too Old To Work Too Young To Retire. Even though the home and web address has changed, my blog still has all the same posts and will continue to provide up-to-date prehospital education. Recently 510 Medic provided a couple of guest posts on the differential diagnosis of abdominal pain. Make sure you stop by the new site to leave your comments.

Education Advocates

EMS Educast is not a blog but a podcast by EMS educators for EMS educators. It is worth mentioning here because of its creators and hosts. Greg Friese, author of Everyday EMS Tips, is the creator and lead host of EMS Educast. Greg is a paramedic, author and instructor. He recently spoke at the National Association of EMS Educator's symposium in Chicago. Rob Theriault is also an author and a Canadian coordinator and professor of Primary and Advance Care Paramedic programs in Ontario. Bill Toon has worked as an editor, program director and battalion chief. Together, along with other EMS educators, this impressive panel of EMS leaders provides a podcast driven at improving prehospital education. I would recommend anyone interested in EMS education listen to their show.

New Girl on the Block

Well, maybe the blog isn't that new, but I have just come across Baseline Vitals for the first time. Carissa O'Brien, the author, has been paid for her writing talent since the age of fourteen. That's right--FOURTEEN! She states that she is combining her experience with communication and social media with her love of emergency medicine. It seems like she is doing a good job, and her blog is definitely worth your time. In an old post from last year she provides her thoughts and predictions about the healthcare bill and the potential effects it may have on EMS. This has been a controversial topic and there are quite a few different opinions regarding what "socialized" or "universal" healthcare could mean to prehospital medicine. Carissa has an interesting take.

A Doc on the Road

BasicsDoc is a blog started by RapidResponseDoc, a physician out of the UK. He is what they call a BASICS Doctor, as the name of the blog implies. These doctors work side by side with other prehospital care providers in a very progressive EMS system. In his August post Sudden death x 2, he describes two very different calls that both ended similarly. The post describes scenes that are all too familiar for most emergency medical providers. To be more specific, the calls that involve a dying patient and the family they are leaving behind. While the experience you gain in this job has a way of chilling your blood, we are all still human. It is this humanity that we must draw from when seeking empathy to share with our patient's family members. Holding a hand, offering a glass of water and providing comfort are all essential prehospital modalities that are often forgotten within the paramedicine curriculum.

Tip of the Month

My tip this month for anyone who plans on writing any kind of blog is to head over to Star of Life Law and read the post titled Righthaven Lawsuits. This blog is written by an attorney from South Carolina who also happens to be a firefighter-paramedic. In the Righthaven post, he talks about recent lawsuits that have taken place regarding suing websites that host forums for permitting the redistribution of published work. This basically means that one of the forum members happened to copy and paste something onto their site, which was actually published with rights protected by a business. Read the post to learn more about the cases and to gain knowledge on how to avoid a similar problem when blogging.

Adam Thompson, EMT-P, is a paramedic with Lee County EMS in southwest Florida and an EMS educator with Edison State College. Read his blog at Paramedicine101.blogspot.com, or contact him at Paramedicine101@gmail.com.