48 Listener Questions

(39:57) School is over and Ron has taken his EMT-I exam…but does not yet know the results. And so we devote an entire episode to listener questions!

And don’t forget to write your entry into the…
EMS Newbie EMSWorld Essay Contest

Links to the other Podcast in which Ron is appearing:

In the Rabbit Hole (Urban Survival Podcast):

Listener Questions


I’m curious to see how you to react to religion. I, myself, am an atheist so I’m not exactly sure how to feel when someone asks you to pray with them. Also, how do you feel exposed to different religions that determine treatments – for example Jehovah’s Witness’ and blood transfusions.


I was reading the Western Australia Ambulance Services’ Medical Director presented a study on pre-hospital use of adrenalin in cardiac arrest – the PACA trial. It showed that while adrenaline is useful in ROSC it showed no significant difference in 28 day outcome. Wat are your thoughts on adrenalin?


Why don’t cops ever get any credit for their contribution to EMS?


Do Ron or Kelly have a certain structure or mnemonic when you are giving a handover to the nurse or doc at the EED?


1) Why do you believe acid/base balance to be an important topic?

2) Talking about International EMS and looking beyond your own horizon – I’m currently touring the UK and North America and what an eye opener it is to experience different systems.

EMS Freak:

First, would you say that having moderate asthma that is well controlled with medication and moderate scoliosis be a problem working as a paramedic?

Just Some Kid:

You often say, when discussing spinal motion restriction, to place the board higher than the patient. Would you still do this with a very tall person?


Given where you two are in classes and careers, if you could go back and tell yourself one tip, trick, or lesson, to help yourself before starting your EMT-B course…what would it be?

Kenneth Reed:

I ran into my old partner the other day and he related to me a call that he had. The patient had an obvious ankle fracture and the patient was wearing over the ankle style work boots. My former partner elected to leave the boot in place and use a pillow splint to immobilize the ankle. When the BLS truck arrived on scene (they) proceeded to undo the pillow splint and remove the boot without giving the patient any pain medication first…and used an air splint…My question to Kelly is, have you ever had this problem before and what would be the reason for removing the boot if it was helping to maintain immobilization?


1) Besides a pelvic fracture, when would you use a scoop stretcher instead of a stair chair?

2) Any tips on patient assessment (in testing situations)?

3) From an EMT-B standpoint, what makes a good handoff report?

4) What are your opinions on the status of EMS in the United States today and in your views, where does it need to go?

11 thoughts on “48 Listener Questions”

  1. Ron, just a heads up, but you might have a problem with this podcast. When I go to play it, in place of the time played, it shows “file not found.”
    Anybody else having this problem?

  2. Great question about book removal. I agree. The boot needs to come off because you need to check PMS (I call it CSM  – circulation, sensation, and movement) and you need to visualize the injury. This question comes up a lot when I teach wilderness first aid. In a backcountry situation where are improvising a splint the boot might become part of the splint. Put it back on if it helps stabilize. Keep it off if it doesn’t help. 

  3. I don’t know which is more amazing, the fact that I was
    mentioned or the fact that Kelly pronounced my last name right!

    As far as EMS and medical school, I’m kinda of split with my feelings on it. I
    can say, without qualification that getting the certification and never working
    as an EMT or paramedic is worthless. Similarly, no one running medical school
    interviews are impressed with 100 hours or 1000 hours of training, and while I
    can’t 100% speak towards paramedic training (I was an EMT), the difficulty of
    EMT training doesn’t hold a candle to medical school and I highly doubt
    paramedic training is much different. Not that it matters as most interviewers
    aren’t emergency physicians anyways, if a physician to begin with (it’s common
    for the non-clinical basic science professors to be the interviewer), and thus probably
    won’t know the difference between the two anyways.

    Regardless, the primary factor for admissions is going to be your MCAT and GPA.
    Do not compromise those for EMS as no amount of clinical experience will make
    up for low scores and you can’t impress anyone in an interview you didn’t get
    (and with 4000+ applicants per school for less than a thousand interview spots,
    interviews can be hard to come by). Additionally, no one is going to want to
    hear war stories. Sure, EMS will come up (so did both my undergrad and grad
    school research projects, and my hospital volunteering, and a few other things)
    because it’s on the application, but my personal advice would be to discuss
    what you’ve seen in regards to health care. Working for an IFT company, I
    talked a bit about (the sad state of) elder care more than any specific case.

    Finally, a few “must reads” from the pre-hospital section of Student
    Doctor Network (great resource outside of the wasteland known as

    Best of luck with medical school applications!

Comments are closed.