Don't get me wrong, the book we are using is great [Emergency Care (12th Edition)] but to spend one chapter on pharmacology? Really?
Don't feel like I know anything about the plethora of drugs out there. I mean, we have the ability to administer only very few of them - oxygen, aspirin, oral glucose, charcoal, nitro, epinephrine auto-injector, and rescue inhaler. No one around here carries charcoal anymore and most of the others require us to first contact medical control before using them.
Guess I won't be on too many BLS only runs anyway.
The real goal I have is to be able to assist ALS with medication information on the drugs the patient is already taking. Should I delve into this and study the most commonly used meds? My instinct is to say yes. I just need to find a good list somewhere and start memorizing (and always make sure my iPod apps are updated!)
We talked about respiratory emergencies a bit, but again I feel like I'm just scratching the surface. I want to know WHY pregnant women can get a pulmonary embolism, WHY epiglottitis is so dangerous (and why does it spike in men >40 getting over a cold?). Guess I either need to do a ton of reading, get through my EMT, and go to medic school or just give up now. :)
For now I have to be content as a technician. It's bad enough as an Emergency Medical Responder in EMT class, knowing I can do more but my scope of practice doesn't allow more. When I'm an EMT I think it will be worse. Unless I can be content as an assistant to ALS...
...but I'm never content.
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