10 minutes of free time and I type this...

I’m waiting on a student for a meeting and will try to write as much as I can until she gets here (if I start doing any “real” work she’ll appear immediately…).

Medic class is going OK. We had a cardiac quiz on Monday which caught some people asleep at the wheel (7 out of 19 of us failed it). I made a couple of idiotic mistakes (there were 25 questions so each mistake was painful) and just didn’t know the answer to one question (they said to pharmacology on the quiz, but there was, and it was for a drug paramedics can push but we can’t…) and snagged an 88 (the oppsessive in me can’t take the <90 ). Given the 7 failures, I need to be less worried about my 88 and more concerned with thanking my lucky stars. Last night was our first night for an ACLS course which is outsourced to different instructors. Topics included mega codes, dropping tubes, rhythm recognition and pharmacology. Overall a fun night, but we went from 1830 to 2220, making it a long day.

A student I have known for four years (she was a student in a first-year seminar I taught) just found out she got into a Ph.D. program in which she was really interested. She is someone who does not look as good on paper as she really is, making crafting her letter a real challenge. I am very pleased she got in as she’ll do very well and will enjoy it (these are not always correlated).

My EMS agency has a “points” program where each call or shift you take is rewarded with “points” which can be redeemed for EMS gear and clothing. I put “points” in quotes as, in the end, the math isn’t so hard: You get a $0.50 credit for each call, standby, training or shift you complete. It was a busy year for us, and I went on almost 25% of the calls we ran last year! Between calls, shifts, etc., I have about $240 to spend on EMS gear. I like shopping when it won’t cost me cash out of pocket (clearly, it DID cost me…).


Student is here – got to jet…

DJ